Scheduling Shenanigans

"Yeah, keep smiling, Baalke - I'm gonna kick
Lil' Jed's ass for agreeing to this schedule."

As a follow-up to my last post, check out what SFGate's Eric Branch wrote about the Niners' December schedule, specifically when the Steelers (another team granted "most favored" status by the league offices) roll into town in a few weeks:

"After traveling three time zones to play on Thanksgiving, however, San Francisco's remaining schedule presents some similar challenges.

"The Steelers, for example, will have 10 days to ready for their Monday night meeting in San Francisco after they host the Browns on Dec. 8. After playing the Steelers, the 49ers will have four days to prepare for a Christmas Eve visit to Seattle, where the up-and-down Seahawks beat the Ravens two weeks ago."

Yep, that sounds fair.

Season OVER

Brothers don't shake hands, brothers hug!

Actually, no - it's far from over. But judging by the overreaction from last night's loss to the Ravens, you'd think the 9-2 Niners are in a complete freefall. Their offense stinks. Their defense can't get off the field and make plays when it counts. The 49ers are pretenders.

Not exactly.

The much-hyped battle between the Brothers Harbaugh went down pretty much as expected. Teams don't travel across the entire country for a Thursday game and beat a quality opponent with only a couple of days to prepare. The NFL isn't built that way. In fact, no team had been forced to travel through three time zones for a Thursday game in at least 30 years. And make no mistake - if the situation was reversed, the Ravens would have been soundly beaten in Candlestick Park. It's NFL 101.

Bottom line: the Niners were mostly awful on offense (they were completely unprepared for the Ravens' blitz packages), and this was only a so-so performance by the defense. Yet, the game was tied heading into the 4th quarter, despite the Niners leaving 10 points off the board in the first half due to a questionable penalty and a bad decision to chuck the ball into the endzone that resulted in an interception.

The 49ers will live to fight another day, and they'll most likely learn from this experience and be a better team because of it.

But let's get back to this whole Thursday night thing for a moment. Quite simply, the 49ers were used by the league. There is no way that game is scheduled for national TV on Thanksgiving night if anybody with a last name other than Harbaugh was coaching either of these two teams. The league wanted to sensationalize the two brothers squaring off against each other and get as many eyeballs as possible to watch during the time slot that's usually reserved for tryptophan-induced food comas.

When the schedule was created, I doubt anybody in the league offices figured the 49ers to be anything but sacrificial lambs - they were going to lose against the Ravens no matter where or when they played them. Why not march them out to slaughter and make a big story out of it? But a funny thing happened between April and September: the 49ers got good. Real good. Suddenly, a throw-away, guaranteed defeat had playoff implications for both teams as the one-loss 49ers were chasing the undefeated Packers for home-field advantage in the postseason.

The league shortchanged the 49ers by forcing them into an unprecedented road trip that resulted in a competitive disadvantage against a quality opponent. It's doubtful the 49ers of the DeBartolo years would have graciously agreed to a Thursday-nighter across the country. They would have known the game would basically be a forfeit under these circumstances, and they would have demanded a change in the proposed schedule. Let's hope the next time something similar occurs and the league offices want to flex their muscles, Lil' Jed and co. are willing to fight back.

This isn't just sour grapes the day following a tough loss. I've always believed that the Thanksgiving games create an unfair advantage for the host teams, specifically the Cowboys and Lions every year (even though the Lions have been too awful for it to matter during most of the last four decades). I was digging through my archives and found the following paragraph I wrote prior to Thanksgiving in 2003 - oddly enough, the Dolphins faced the Cowboys in Dallas that season as well. I'll wrap up this post with my words of wisdom from eight years ago:

"...this game gives an unfair advantage to both of these teams every year.  The Cowboys and Lions get to stay home and play a game on three days’ rest.  Their opponents have to travel while barely having enough time to pack for the road trip.  Case in point: the Dolphins battled the Redskins this past Sunday night on ESPN.  It was nearly midnight when the contest ended.  Meanwhile, the Cowboys were relaxing at home and getting a good night’s sleep.  Less than 72 hours later, the Dolphins will board a plane (during the worst travel week of the year, no less) while Dallas goes through their final game preparations at team headquarters.  It doesn’t take a genius to see that when the teams take the field on Thursday afternoon, Dallas will be much more rested and refreshed than Miami.  Finally, it should be noted that the Cowboys and Lions always have a 10-day break before their next game while their opponents will be facing them on seven (or even six) days’ rest.  Fair?  Hardly."

Niners-Giants Postmortem

Alex Smith silenced many of his critics with his
performance against the Giants.

Another great win for Harbaugh's crew yesterday...

This may have been Alex Smith's finest moment as a professional quarterback. For several years, observers have pointed to the '06 Thursday night victory in Seattle as the benchmark for Smith's potential. As the 2011 season has unfolded, we've seen Smith air it out several times (most notably against the Eagles), but each of those occurences were due to necessity (i.e. trailing by 20 points in Philadelphia) and not design. Yesterday, for the first time in his career, the focus of the offensive gameplan was put on Smith's shoulders - and he delivered. I never thought I'd say this, but is it too early to consider a contract extension for #11?

Alex wasn't the only Smith who had a monster game - Justin Smith added another chapter to his standout season by playing another excellent game. It's easy to point to his third-down tackle and fourth-down swatted pass to seal the game for the 49ers, but Smith was an unstoppable beast (as usual) for the full 60 minutes. He's been playing at a high level since his first season in Cincinnati, but anchoring the interior line of one of the best defenses in the league for an 8-1 team means his days of quiet anonymity are over. Add Justin Smith to the list of the league's defensive name-recognition stars.

Speaking of breakout stars, get ready to add Navorro Bowman to that list. The Niners' linebacking unit was already formidable with one Patrick Willis - now they have two.

• I was among the many doubters when Trent Baalke was named GM, but nearly every acquisition he made this offseason, from the draft to free agency, has contributed to the 49ers' success thus far. First-round pick Aldon Smith is on track for rookie of the year honors, and third-rounder Chris Culliver has cracked the starting lineup. Free-agent cornerbacks Donte Whitner and Carlos Rogers are exceeding even the most optimistic expectations, and a healthy Braylon Edwards should become a potent weapon in the passing attack as the second half of the season progresses. Individually, none of these transactions were very noteworthy, but together, they've managed to improve several weaknesses from the 2010 squad.
• Perhaps the biggest acquisition was the addition of David Akers, who has been absolute money, already nailing five field goals of 50+ yards. When the Niners' offense sputtered outside of the red zone during the first half yesterday, Akers calmly nailed a 52-yarder (his second of four field goals) to tie the game at 6-6, then executed a perfect onside kick to catch the Giants offguard.
• Akers' excellence is just one aspect of a vastly improved special teams unit, led by Brad Seely. While the Niners' offense may be pedestrian and average at times, opponents are simply unable to match up with their defense and special teams. If you need to win at least two of the three phases of a game (offense, defense and special teams), the Niners provide an excellent opportunity with their standout special teams and defense. 
• Hands-down, Jim Harbaugh is the coach of the year. I'm a believer. I've joined the cult of Jim and I'm drinking the Kool-Aid from a firehose.
• The 49ers were legitimate before yesterday - they shouldn't have needed a victory over one of the league's precious New York teams for the national media to finally recognize them as an elite team. East-coast bias is alive and well in the NFL.
• Tom Coughlin seems like a fun guy to play for, doesn't he? If you want to know how Mike Singletary would have reacted if he successfully coached the 49ers, just take a look at Coughlin. The entire Giants squad plays in fear of screwing up - and, inevitably, that's just what they do.
• By the way, that was a nice day for your teams, wasn't it, New York? Both the Giants and Jets were soundly beaten in front of a nationally televised audience. I'm sure that won't stop the media from slobbering all over them throughout the rest of the season, though.
• Great to see Roger Craig and RC Owens get inducted into the 49ers' hall of fame. Craig was the most versatile running back of his era, and Owens provided plenty of excitement during the Niners' early days as he and Y.A. Tittle connected on several late-game "Alley Oop" game-winning passes.
• One more word about Craig - if Floyd Little is in the NFL Hall of Fame, how can the man who anchored the ground attack for three Super Bowl teams, who became the first player to gain 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same year, and who was one of the most feared weapons in Bill Walsh's West Coast offense be kept out of Canton? Craig redefined the position and deserves a yellow sportsjacket to go along with the nifty red one he picked up this past weekend.
• Finally - how about that NFC West? The entire division completed an undefeated week for the first time since the Falcons and Saints were hanging out with the Niners and Rams in the only division that was completely screwed over in the 2002 alignment.

Taking Care of Business

Happy Frank = 49ers Victory

Yesterday's 19-11 victory over the Redskins in Washington went about as expected yesterday (that's a good thing). The 49ers avoided any of the traps or letdowns associated with road trips to the east coast in a workmanlike performance over another outmanned opponent.

It's also encouraging to see Niner fans appearing outside the Bay Area again. A friend of mine sent me a photo of an entire family wearing Frank Gore jerseys this past weekend - in San Diego. And then, there's this passage from Gwen Knapp's column this morning:

"...looking over the crowd Sunday in Washington, one could see a huge contingent of San Francisco fans. The team took over the place, raiding the fridge, grabbing the remote, turning up the thermostat until the regular occupants could barely breathe."

That's good stuff right there.

So here are the 49ers, with the second-best record in the league while sitting atop the NFC West with an unprecedented 5-game lead. Not much to complain about, other than the questionable officiating yesterday and a lack of delivering the death knell to the Browns and Redskins in the 3rd quarter when the Niners had a chance to do so during the past couple of weeks. Even Lil' Jed has learned to keep his mouth shut after the fan violence during the preseason debacle against the Raiders.

But there's one thing that's probably irritating all Niner fans right now: a presumed lack of national respect.

Yes, Jim Harbaugh has received plenty of attention and accolades for instantly turning the 49ers into a major contender in the NFC. But when given the chance to be "flexed" onto the Sunday Night Football schedule this week against the Giants, NBC decided to roll with (yet another) AFC matchup featuring the Patriots and Jets (again). So instead of showcasing one of the league's better stories this year in a marquee game against a New York team, we'll see fat, loudmouthed Rex Ryan and the punk-ass Jets square off against Tom Brady and the defenseless Patriots. How exciting it will be to listen to another pregame interview with Darrelle Revis while anticipating what color hooded sweatshirt Bill Belichick will wear! It's really a shame these two teams don't get the exposure they deserve, isn't it?

This was the one legit chance the 49ers had of being on Sunday Night Football this year (the Steelers and Ravens games are Monday and Thursday night contests and the rest of San Francisco's schedule is against the dregs of the NFC West), and instead of giving them a chance to be showcased, NBC is going with the same old tired formula with two teams that we see almost every week.

But there's a positive side to being snubbed by Sunday Night Football, too. Jim Harbaugh has already proven himself to be a master motivator, and this perceived lack of national respect will certainly come in handy the next time he has to fire up his troops, a tactic that Bill Walsh often used as he molded the 49ers of the 80s into one of the league's premier dynasties.

Maybe history is repeating itself, after all.