The Best Reasons to Watch the San Francisco 49ers This Week
By Anthony Bertacchi
In a little less than 48 hours the San Francisco 49ers take on the Baltimore Ravens in Santa Clara, California. If I would have said that exact same thing 36 months ago it would have been a must-see game of the week. Both fan bases had optimism after coming up short in the AFC and NFC Championship rounds the year before and the ridiculous depth of talent on defense would be more than enough to handle.
Ray Lewis, Patrick Willis, Terrell Suggs, Justin Smith, Ed Reed, Aldon Smith and Haloti Ngata all would be propped up by their teams as defensive captains and people who would be menaces for the opposing offenses. We would have even been treated with an amazing game.
Now, fast forward to today aaaaand… nothing. Most stations outside of Northern California and Maryland don't care about this game for any reason other than if it helps out their fantasy teams. Also, all of the people who I mentioned above are gone. All of them! Every single defensive player that you can remember from those two teams (Outside of Bowman) are gone.
Even the 2011 and 2012 Pro Bowl running backs, Frank Gore and Ray Rice, are gone. One left the team as it was metaphorically burning to the ground and the other one was banished from the NFL entirely. Are the Ravens even allowed to talk about Rice or is it a Lord Voldermort "He who shall not be named" situation?
Anyways, so what's/ who's left to care about on the team? Kaepernick has, at the very least regressed since then and Joe Flacco is…OK. You'd take him over half of the quarterbacks in the league, but he doesn't make you excited. He's the girlfriend you ended up marrying (giant contract) who won't cheat on you, but doesn't excite you. Then again, if we're analogizing the quarterbacks in this game Kaepernick is the girl you cheated on with (Sorry Alex Smith), but now you can't trust anymore and want any reason to get away from.
With that said, here are four things that will, at least mildly, excite you for Sunday's game.
Carlos Hyde
After week one you were sure that Hyde was going to be a great running back, weren't you? Hyde had 168 yards rushing and two touchdowns while averaging over six yards a carry. He looked great and, at least for one game, fans forgot about the offseason from hell. However, in the four game since, Hyde has 207 yards and one touchdown on a little more than 3.6 yards per carry.
Last week looked promising with 93 yards and a touchdown against the Giants, who rank third in the league in rushing yards allowed. Going against the Ravens' 16th ranked rushing defense looks promising for Hyde.
Colin Kaepernick
OK… to be honest with you, I don't have much for you to be excited for with Kaepernick. At best this is you watching Youtube clips with the title simply saying, "FUNNY PEOPLE FAILING!" You know it's probably going to be a disaster and at some point you'll look away in horror.
Then again, maybe he can rally. Kaepernick looked like a serviceable QB against Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and New York, throwing four touchdowns and zero interceptions. However, against the Arizona Cardinals, Kaepernick looked like, maybe, the worst quarterback in the league. He threw four interceptions in his first ten passes. Do you know who never threw four interceptions in a game? Jamarcus Russell never did it. Do you know who else never had a four interception game? Blaine Gabbert never had that bad of a game.
Maybe he'll be serviceable and maybe he'll be terrible, but you have to watch it to see what happens.
Steve Smith Sr.
Now, to be fair, I'm biased when it comes to this, but I love Steve Smith Sr. Why? Well, simply put he's a mad man. I like the players who are great and a bit insane. Deion Sanders, Terrell Owens, and Michael Irvin are all great players who are a bit out of their minds.
Smith Sr. may or may not have punched TWO separate teammates and has a history for being a hot head. He's also 5'9" according to ESPN. They don't even give him the respect of being the average 5'10" mark. He's short when it comes to regular measurements. Now imagine being short in a league of giants and alpha dogs. You have to be tough in order to stay in the league this long. It isn't like he's Randy Moss running 9 routes all day. He cuts up the middle and welcomes the incoming tackle from James Harrison or Patrick Willis.
He's also a borderline Hall of Famer in his final season. You should watch and enjoy the greats before they're gone.
Jim Tomsula
It has to be rough for Tomsula, no? I mean, the man took over a team that was left with nothing. He's sort of the guy that goes to Radio Shack during the "Everything must go. We're going out of business sale." The only problem is that he came in two days before they close their doors and the only thing left is an extension cord and a universal remote.
After the mass exodus offseason you're happy if the 49ers win six games. Seriously, the only pro bowlers remaining from 2011 and 2012 is Joe Staley and NaVorro Bowman. At this point we're watching to see if the man can hold it together after the game and now snap in a Jim Mora/ Dennis Green style press conference. Good luck Jim.
