Banedon

he never gets air under his throws. they go from his hand at a downward trajectory every single time. If he'd led Forte they had a 1st.

Podlesh: "Its about [expletive] time."

Sure seems like Major Wright is getting smoked tonight.

We let this guy beat us. Ehhh. Significantly lower douche level being put out there.

Don't let this guy beat you, Bears.

IMO, Steve Smith was a bigger issue in the Panthers game though. The Bears have had trouble with him no matter who the QB is in the past. Toeina is out for this game, btw. I like our chances of rattling Kaepernick. He had 2 fumbles in the game last week (lost neither). I think we'll get some turnovers tonight.

I was kind of hoping Smith would get the start. Between trying to contain Gore, Vernon Davis and the deer-like Kaepernick with the football, the LB's are gonna be real busy. While it's great to have Jeffery back for tonight, I'd sure like to see some plays get called Evan Rodriguez' way. You might be undervaluing Smith's value a little bit if you are wishing he played. He's been pretty damn good in the role he's played this year. Now I'm no 49er expert so excuse me if I say something dumb here, but as far as talent he's seems probably a slightly above average, but in the 49ers offense with the things they do, he's been great. 70% completion percentage (1st in NFL), 104.1 QBR (3rd), 13 TD, 5 INT, 7.98 YPA (tied for 2nd and 0.02 yards behind Peyton Manning for 1st). Now part of the reason he's so high in those rate stats is because they don't give him the reigns to the offense and let him go crazy. 192 yards per game is 29th among active QBs and below Jay Cutler, Matt Cassel, Mark Sanchez, Ryan Tannehill, etc. 217 PA this year is 31st in the NFL, 13 passing TD is 14th, etc. So he's not some superstud QB, but if he were playing and Gore was breaking runs and giving Smith opportunities to make smart decisions and compliment the run game, he'd be much more of a worry than Kaepernick. I'm not bagging on Smith, per se. I think he's an adequate field general and just a notch or two below Cutler. Neither is really needed to be the star on offense, but rather to move the offense and not turn over the ball. The thing about Kaepernick is that he isn't afraid to run with the ball, and that could create match up problems for our linebacking crew when they are already protecting against their two best offensive players (Davis, Gore). I was watching Kaepernick last week and he reminded me a lot of Ponder. The Bears have never really been a team that's gotten burned by mobile QB's. Maybe with staying alive, but not so much giving up QB rushing yards.

I feel like we're discussing Orton vs Grossman.

Nah, I think even most Cutler haters think he's better than Campbell. Most, not all. I don't know, if Campell's brand of 1 read then check down with the occasional downfield throw worked really well against a stout defense, I would guess a decent portion of Cutler haters would at least be willing to discuss the issue. The theme of the discussion would be "Campbell is much better for the Bears in this offense" or something dumb like that. Just you mentioning that argument giving me an aneurysm.

Nah, I think even most Cutler haters think he's better than Campbell. Most, not all.

Isn't Kasper's strength his willingness to explore the world of modern statistics? That's a really big strength. And his strength is everything, because he's awesome. Between Len and Pat, we really have two of the best PBP guys in the business.

You think Gould will miss the extra point after the defense scores? Because the defense is probably going to be the only thing that scores. Defense could come short of scoring, such that a FG or two occurs.

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2012/11/17/alex-smith-still-in-black-likely-to-start-vs-bears/ Obviously Smith isn't starting, just pointing out the bit about the snaps taken.

I agree. 1 game automatic (unless there's a bye week following the concussion) is a good rule to put in place. It takes away the temptation and guessing games. The only problem is that you are going to get players trying even harder to conceal concussions. In their minds, its hard enough to be forced to miss the rest of the game. I could be wrong on this, but I would think is easier for a Safety to hide a mild concussion from the team than it is for a QB. You'd hope a lot of players would care enough about their own safety to tell their coaches when they feel funny, but I don't many would if they could get away with it. I agree in principle this would be a good rule to implement though. Yeah, I get what you and Jersey are saying, but I still think the NFL should implement the policy. If the players are going to be dumb, then that's on them. They can't come back later and sue the NFL for not taking care of them, when they were hiding the injury to start with.

I agree. 1 game automatic (unless there's a bye week following the concussion) is a good rule to put in place. It takes away the temptation and guessing games. Although it could make it more tempting to not diagnose the concussion in the first place. I guess it goes hand in hand with having a third party doctor, agreed to by the players and ownership, evaluate the player. Even with that there are going to be situations where the players can and do hide them. Peter King addressed this in MMQB today, and the doctor he was talking to was against this. Said it's important for a doctor evaluating someone to have a familiarity with them already. (Though it's a Dr affiliated with the NFL.) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/peter_king/11/19/week-11/1.html

I agree. 1 game automatic (unless there's a bye week following the concussion) is a good rule to put in place. It takes away the temptation and guessing games.

Rotoworld described him as a mix between Randall Cunningham and Tim Tebow, wtf? That's a pretty wide range of talent there.... I saw him play a couple times in college and he was a great system QB. I haven't watched him play in the NFL yet. Last week he played after Smith went down. He was running a lot. Keeping containment on the ends is going to be important.

49ers fans saying that Alex Smith had gotten most of the practice reps this week. Oops.

Yep, just came to post the same. I really found it hard to believe he'd play. http://espn.go.com/chicago/nfl/story/_/id/8651667/alex-smith-san-francisco-49ers-concussion-ruled-sources

Also linked to from MMQB, a great article about why kids should not be playing tackle football at a young age. http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2012/11/pop_warner_football_kids_should_not_be_allowed_to_put_on_helmets_and_knock.html

lol Peter King...

All of the potential upsets failed to materialize. That's sad.

Jags up on Texans in 4th.

I enjoyed the FJM article he linked to more.... http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2008/04/heady-days.html