The 49ers own the Rams
The surprising San Francisco 49ers put on the greater show on turf, making just enough big plays for another win over the St. Louis Rams.
Antonio Bryant caught a 72-yard touchdown pass from Alex Smith, and San Francisco’s defense stood strong in the final minutes of its second straight home-opening win over its oldest rivals, 20-13 Sunday.
Smith passed for 233 yards and Frank Gore rushed for 127—including a 32-yard score—as the 49ers (1-1) followed up a narrow loss at Arizona last week with a cohesive victory over the Rams, who lost at Candlestick Park last September as well.
Smith completed just 11 of 22 passes but made good throws when it mattered, while San Francisco’s defense forced Marc Bulger’s fourth-quarter fumble and made another big stop in the closing minutes.
Under new coach Scott Linehan, the Rams (1-1) no longer have the “Greatest Show on Turf” offense that tormented the Niners for so many years – and they’ve scored just one touchdown in their first two games.
hondakillerzx said:
fuck yes
49ers looked good today. except for those two feild goals that could have been touchdowns they looked good. our defense looked pretty dangerous today guys. .500 haha. philly… bring it 
go Niners
14 mins after the fact.Nick said:
The Good:
They won, woo! Almost makes everything else meaningless. Huge victory with the now angry Eagles coming up after they blew a sure win.
Alex threw a couple bullets including a very nice pass to Bryant, who put up another 100 yard game because of it.
Gore was able to run behind the young line once again sans the expensive experienced guys.
The D made enough plays to win the game. Breaking up big passes, Forcing a huge fumble.
The Bad :
Gore fumbled again, hold onto that ball!
Alex was pretty erratic, throwing high several times.
Could not take advantage of the red zone, having a turnover and a failure on 4 downs from the 3. ( With a pretty poor play set in my opinion, where is the use of Davis or EJ? )
Nedney missed another fg.
The Ugly :
Though the defense made plays when they had their backs to the wall, in general, they did not. St Louis ran way more plays and held the niners D on the field for a very long time.
The first down play selection for the 49ers was WAY too predictable. Credit Gore for actually making positive yards out of many of them.
Roughing the kicker when the Rams were pinned back on the field. Terrible terrible terrible.
————-
All in all a great victory for a team when any victory is a great victory. But Nolan can not let them be happy for too long, come Tuesday they have to start getting focused and ready to be a bigger underdog to a better Philly team. Don’t want to get destroyed like the last couple of Philly games.
18 mins after the fact.scott said:
Hey Erickson, i live in oregon and i dont get to see to many niner games. I was wondering if you could put up the full game of all the 9er games on youtube, starting with rams game?
29 mins after the fact.MJ said:
Good game, good win. We should have had 34 point though, as we Gore should not have fumbled that ball and Nedney should not have missed that field goal. It’s all good though, we just need to bring our A-Game out next week.
Do not settle people. This is just the beginning. Next week it is an angry Eagles team. If we can beat them, we can beat anyone and you better believe it. Smith has to really step it up next week and be ready to throw a lot because the Eagles will look to target Gore.
40 mins after the fact.Great game today, GO NINERS!
mdg said:
all i got to say is yeaaaa smith is looking awsome so far gore is doing great bryant sweetness but i did nt davis at all our defence put down the rams defence lawson with 2 sacks we had alot of sacks we our now one an one going to face the eagles who are gona be mad for losing to the giants the way they did so look out niners smith has 500+ yrds in 2 games gore has 200+ rushing an bryant has 200+ recieving add it up an it equals a kick ass team so farsmith doubled his last year total in tds passing already with 2 woohoo gore has 3 rushing tds i would say our run defence stoped jackson an holt pretty well one fumble cost us a touchdown early but got it back later when it count i cant wait for sportcenter to see what they say about us to all the die hard faithful who endured there last couple bad years woohoo here we go finally
1 hour after the fact.ddushey said:
What a great game…I was disgusted with Antonio Bryant’s little fit that he threw because Alex couldn’t get him the ball. I think one of the announcers said it right…Dude, you haven’t really done much in your NFL career, CHILL THE FUCK OUT. Other than that, it’s all good in the neighborhood baby!
1 hour after the fact.ShaneO said:
Seriously man i agree with ddushey…. another announcer said he knew he was signing up with a young team when he went there, u cant freak the fuck out for TWO quarters cuz he missed one throw. he even threw it at him he just missed high… im sure he has dropped at least ONE ball in his career, all im sayin is you are the number one receiver on the team u will get ur touches relax we dont need anymore TO shit on this team cuz faithful we are going places
!! yeaaaaaa
3 hours after the fact.Mr. Lombardi said:
Antonio Bryant had a good game, but the complaining is unnecessary he needs to show more professionalism. It Vernon Davis continues to drop td passes he will stay on my shit list, cuz right now he’s on my shit list. Although Manny Lawson had two sacks he still appeared not to be able to get it done in my opinion. Frank Gore for president. I actually think the niners have a good chance of beating the Eagles next week if they don’t turn over the ball. Taylor Jacobs needs to be the number 3 possibly the number 2 reciever based off what I saw in pre-season. Yet I have not seen him at all in the regular season. What is up with that. Take it from someone who knows football.
P.S. In the words of the Great Vince Lombardi winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing
4 hours after the fact.straighthate said:
great to see a win. i’m impressed with smith’s confidence and composure in the pocket. a few bad passes, but at least he doesn’t look like a deer in headlights when the ball gets snapped anymore.
4 hours after the fact.gore looks great. can’t say enough about him, although i’m hoping the fumbles are just a fluke.
bryant looks good, but the t.o. shit needs to end now. i’m assuming nolan will talk to him and we won’t see that shit anymore.
walt harris was as impressive as anyone. the secondary in general was better than expected, but harris led it for sure.
manny lawson’s a work in progress, but he’ll be good. good to see a couple sacks, and i’m sure there’ll be many more to come.
i can’t wait to see this offense when davis comes around. give him time. he’ll do fine.
Davis #6 Pick for President said:
Boy it feels good to be back on the right track. We still got some growing to do, and we will suffer some bad defeats, but we have peices to the puzzle now and will only get better with time. GO NINERS
!
5 hours after the fact.J Dubb said:
BIG PROPS TO THE O-LINE BABY
5 hours after the fact.0 SACKS IN THE FIRST TWO GAMES!
ROLIN WIT NOLAN 4 LIFE
Dave said:
“Animation doesn’t bother me,” said Nolan. “Did you guys hear what he said? I heard what he said. He said, ‘Jerry Sullivan, I’m so glad you’re the coach for me. I love being a 49er and I just love being here, by golly.’ As I said all along, Antonio is a very competitive player. He does get animated at times, but he’s growing up. He understands it. He can articulate it right away. He says, ‘I need to count to 10,’ or whatever it be. I can accept that. He and I have our moments, but I’m darn glad he’s here.”
5 hours after the fact.Dave said:
I was at the game. Was pretty good to be there @ the home opener.
Some random observations:
– The crowd and the niners started out strong, but kinda fizzled a little bit with that drive ending in a FG instead of a TD early on. – The 2 things that really killed the crowd in the 2nd quarter were Frank Gore’s fumble and the 15 yard personal foul for running into the punter. That really gave the Rams some short lived momentum. – The Niner’s came out strong in the 2nd half, thanks to Hicks return. The rest is history. I’m really glad we had a good turn out for our home opener.
– There was a good cheer / roar in the crowd (and some laughs) when the Raiders / Ravens final score was announced.
I really didn’t see too many rams fans there. There might have been a few spread out, but you couldn’t really look @ any one spot in the crowd and say that the Rams really owned any one section. Having the crowd into it also helped at times I’m sure.
Some random questions:
– Whats it going to take for the national media to stop hating on the Niners? Everyone of those so called ‘analysts’ on ESPN picked the Rams to win today. There were a few guys @ ESPN that picked the 49ers (Berman, Karabell, Wickersham). I also remember that clown ‘Jaws’ said that Bulger was going to go off against the Niner D today. WHAT NOW JAWS?
6 hours after the fact.– Are MJ/baaqi done hating on Nolan & Co yet?
hondakillerzx said:
i called it this week. niners by a touchdown so fuck the analyst because theyre just guessing and assuming like every other arm chair qb. all those analysts do is go by last years team and completely write us off but this team is completely different that last years team. they looked really confident today. oh ya and jeavon kearse will probably miss a few games so the niners dont have to worry about him either.
6 hours after the fact.MJ said:
Dave, that last sentence was unnecessary. To answer your question, NO. I do not accredit our progress to Nolan but I accredit it to Norv Turner. If you read all my arguments about Nolan, which you obviously do remember, you would know it is about his offseason moves and last year’s clock management. My main criticisms were that he should acquire veteran proven talent with some of the many 4th round picks that we have for next year (Veterans like Stallworth) and the time management. But like I said a few blogs/posts back, season has begun now so it does not matter what is said now. Any criticisms I have I will express before or after the season. Right now, the team should be supported no matter what.
7 hours after the fact.Dave said:
Ok MJ, I can respect that.
What I can’t respect is your constant hating on Nolan in the offseason. Obviously some of those moves have worked out for the better. I can’t even count how many Walt Harris haters there were in here over the offseason.
But I’ll leave it at that. No need to go into the conversations we’ve already had, as you know my stance on those.
My one question for you, is that I don’t see how Stallworth is all that great of a veteran. Before these last 2 weeks with the Eagles, has he really been all that great. You could honestly argue his draft-class-mate and also 4th year player in Ashlie Lelie has played better prior to this point, and I wouldn’t even want Lelie. Obviously Stallworth has played better these last 2 weeks now given the chance, and he did have a decent year last year, but (from what I remember and with out looking at the stats) his first 2 years weren’t all that great.
I do agree that vet presence is important, but I don’t agree with overpaying for those vet players at any point while you are still rebuilding. I think that should be left for when you are getting your team ‘over the hump’ so to speak, as thats the state of the salary cap era NFL. I also do know that you don’t exactly agree with that philosphy and you think that we can simply go out and spend money like crazy every year and make a run at the SB every year. All I can say to that is take a look @ the Redskins, lol. They try that crap every year.
But as you said, you’ll save your criticisms for after the season
Cheers.
8 hours after the fact.Nick said:
To those upset with Bryant’s “tirades”, he apolgozies for them before hand, it’s just part of a compeitive personality he has a hard time controlling… He’s the only real receiver the 9ers have so, take it or leave it..
To those who want espn to “stop hating” the niners, even with this win, have 7 wins in 34 games. I don’t know why you expect instant respect again when you continue to bash on teams like Arizona who, despite their horrid history, have done better in the last few years. You can’t have it both ways.
To jaws thinking bulger would go off, he will probably not put up mor ethan 1 big game this year with their game plan and his recovering arm.
If Philli does one of these 60 pass things against the niners i’m expecting that Smith & Co. will have to put up 45 to win.
15 hours after the fact.Bay Area said:
aye lomabardi you’re an idiot manny lawson had a sick ass game i didn’t see nothing he did wrong. And who cares if antonio bryant gets mad that just shows that he has intensity and he wants to win the game. Stop whining about him getting mad…”omg i was disgusted with his attitude”.. cmon what WR doesnt get mad when the game is on the line and they want the ball to do something 4 their team…you should be happy 4 a player like that…im out yee yee
22 hours after the fact.ddushey said:
Bay Area you dummy, did you not see your boy Antonio Bryant bitch and cry for 30 minutes after the fact????! What kind of professionalism does that show? I understand what it’s like to have your QB over throw you first hand, I played WR myself but there is no reason to throw a fit, start throwing your hands in the air and bitch like a woman. Yea, there’s a competitive edge involved but that’s no way to show it. Like I said before, Bryant hasn’t done enough with his career in the NFL to do that, he isn’t TO. So shut your mouth or learn correct grammer before you speak. Fool.
1 day after the fact.Bay Area said:
dushey shut yo mouth …im sorry i dont have correct grammar does that offend u 2…u dumb ass whiner…maybe he hasnt done much because he has been a backup WR his whole career idiot…look at him now in his 1st 2 games as a 1st WR…yeah shut yo mouth now…and i dont care if u played football know one wants 2 know about u…we want 2 know about the niners…yee yee im out
1 day after the fact.Niner said:
ddushey- i was at the game right behind the o-line bench and Bryant was mad for like a minute but Dilfer caled him down, he was joking around with Alex a few minutes later. Dont need to be all over-dramatic like a woman.
Is it me or does it seem like when we lose all these Niner/Nolan haters on here say “we should have done this” or “I wouldn’t have done that”. And when we win its like “yeah thats what I would have done”. FUCK THAT- ROLLIN WIT NOLAN BABY
2 days after the fact.Bay Area said:
thank you niner at least someone knows it wasnt that big of a deal.
2 days after the fact.