John Cashman: What is up Niners Nation? It is Victory Tuesday for the NFC West Champion San Francisco 49ers with a two game lead over the Eagles and the Cowboys. I am feeling fantastic. Brian, how are
Brian Caynan: you feeling? I’m doing great. It was a great win on Sunday. I didn’t get to experience it live like you guys did, but I want to hear all about the stadium, the city what kind of foods you ate what sort of drinks you imbibed in.
But then for me, I’m doing great. Watch the the game at a local brewery with my brother here in our area. So that was, it was a little close for a while, but you know, we pulled away in the, in the second half and and then it was an even better Monday night watching Philly lose. So that was great too.
Tim Cashman: Conflicted is a word
John Cashman: I would use. Tim,
Tim Cashman: how are you feeling? Well, I, you stole the word I was going to use and that is conflicted because you know, last night I, I just, it’s just out of sheer habit and just sheer, just emotion that I got off the plane. I immediately grabbed my phone. I’m watching the game and it’s just like, I could not cheer for Seattle.
It just, I couldn’t, just wasn’t going to happen. So, at the end of the game last night , I was just, I think Niners Nation put it best. And that is, you know, the one hand was going, you know, a fist pump. The other hand was smacking it down. So it was, I look at it this way.
The Eagles lost the 49ers NFC champions. And that’s all I’ll say. Okay. Karma tends to be kind of, Yeah, it kind of comes back to haunt you, John, because a couple weeks ago I asked you, Did you cheer for the Cowboys? I did. And now it’s written some ugly head back on me. But no, feeling good. Niners are NFC champions.
Yeah, I think the only thing you can say about this team is that if I had told both you guys that the Cardinals were going to have over 200 yards on the ground close to 436 total. They were going to win the time of possession battle. 34 25 as it turned out, you probably would have said, well those are red flags, and sounds like either a very tight game or one that the Niners lose.
The Niners win 45 29, and the game actually wasn’t that close. The Cardinals did get a touchdown at the end, made it a little bit closer, but I think this just goes to show you that even on their best day, you know, when the, the day the defense was not we’ve seen them play better, of course, and we’ll get into that.
But. The 49ers just have so much firepower that even on a day where, yeah, you did lose the time possession battle, yeah, you did have missed tackles, you did allow 200 yards on the ground. I mean, going into the fourth quarter, we saw Sandrama come in for a couple series. I think, I think it was at least maybe one, maybe two.
But, you know, we were standing there knowing that the game was over instead of the Cardinals. So, it just tells you what kind of team this is.
John Cashman: Yeah for those of you who are turning in for the first time, or those of you who have tuned in before. And I know there might be some new ones from the state of Montana that we met during our trip.
We’re three obsessed Niners fans who get together weekly to talk about 49ers football. I’m John joined by my brother, Tim, and my brother from another mother, Brian. You get a chance to leave us a review, give us a like, give us a follow. We’ve seen the podcast audience increase over the season, which has been a lot of fun to watch and thank you all for tuning in, but yeah it was, it was a great game.
That is a absolutely. Beautiful stadium. And it was a Niners home game. It was just like when they had a home game in Mexico City. Yeah. For the Arizona Cardinals and all the Niners fans showed up. Same thing. It was, I think they sit on vivid seats, 65%. I would almost go 80, 85 percent Niners fans. Sat next to a very nice couple.
From Arizona, who were surrounded by Niners fans, but they took it with a grain of salt. But when Kyle Murray has to go to a silent count in his own stadium, you know it’s kind of a Niners home
Tim Cashman: game. Did he actually go to a silent count? Yeah. Yeah, the
John Cashman: guard kept looking behind him. Wow. When The, scoreboard is saying defense get louder and it actually gets quieter, not a good sign
Tim Cashman: for the home team.
I’ll do one other, one other illustration of how partisan it was for the 49ers. So when we were walking into the stadium you know, they’re handing out these flags to Cardinals fans because it is a Cardinals home game. And they say protect the nest. So, these folks are trying to hand these things out.
Not a lot of people to hand them out to. Nobody’s picking them up. No, no, no, no, no. They’re literally like, Here, here, Okay, we got one. We got one. And, and, Okay, we’ll just wait for the next one. So, yeah, it was, It was, like as John said, It was very much was a Niner home game. He granted when we left.
Certainly all the Niner fans had seen it. Stayed almost to the end, but as we, you know, walking through the crowd, it was just absolute, just complete Niners fans. I saw a couple Cardinals fans, but it, like, it might, we might as well have been walking out of Levi’s.
John Cashman: Yeah, when we were walking out, we ran right into Isaiah Oliver’s family and said, hello.
It’s a good
Tim Cashman: game. Yeah.
Brian Caynan: Now, how did you know that that was Isaiah Oliver’s family?
John Cashman: All of them were wearing Isaiah Oliver jerseys. Ah, okay. Okay. I literally like, are you Isaiah Oliver’s family? And they’re like, yes. I’m like, Congrats! You had an awesome game! Walked right on by. Wished him a Merry Christmas.
Yep. But yeah, awesome stadium. I can see why they have the Super Bowl there every now and again. Really good vibe, really good sight lines. Food I didn’t have any food there. I had two Bloody Marys, which were delicious. And, yeah, it’s just really easy to see. The grass field, which is also really, really nice.
And the scoreboards are, , right there. What was also funny was when they actually showed the Cowboys Bills game. The score, everybody was starting to cheer.
Tim Cashman: And we’re all, that was both Cardinals and 49ers. Yeah, awesome. So we have something in common. But
Brian Caynan: how was the outside like the, you know, like areas where they would tailgate?
It was it, Pretty
John Cashman: great. Yeah, very open. You basically could come in to the stadium without a ticket and just kind of wander around and, you know, they had merch and stuff and some bands playing, and things like that. And then when you went to go into the stadium, that’s when they scanned your ticket.
But yeah, just a lot of people milling around having a good time. Not a huge tailgate scene. At least that we could tell. That we could tell but a lot of people, we went in about an hour and change beforehand and there were a lot of people already in the stadium. Yeah. So yeah, so it was pretty, it was pretty cool.
We were up in the club level and I mean, the bar area was packed. So I think for the most part, people. Coming into that stadium early to eat and have, have some drinks rather than tailgate outside. And then randomly Brandon Crawford of the San Francisco Giants was sitting right in our section. So with his newborn,
Tim Cashman: so congrats to him.
Yep. But
GMT20231220-013141_Recording_640x360-2: anyway,
John Cashman: let’s get into the game. So, Brian, watching it on TV, , some thoughts, overall thoughts about the game?
Brian Caynan: Well, I, I guess on, on TV, I mean, if I’m just a man of, I can go back to it. Okay, so Arizona scored first. They were throwing really was it McBride who was their tight end? He, he seemed to be picking up everything.
Yeah, we had a good game. He seemed to pick up everything in that first half, and I know he went out later. But I think just the overall impressions on the game, just watching it, was the amount of missed tackles. You could, you could sense it. You could see it. You know, I know watching it in the stadium is probably a little different, in, in seeing some of the injuries, but on TV, it just, I think from the first quarter onward, you could totally tell they were missing at least, , one to two tackles every every possession, it just, it just felt like it, every Cardinals possession, I should say.
Tim Cashman: Yeah, I absolutely agree. In fact echoing that David Lombardi posted I think it was today. This was the season high of missed tackles for the 49ers. They had 16. Previous to that the season high was 14 only a week ago. So There is some speculation and some reporting that the Dynasty events is just gassed at this point which is something that, you know, we’re gonna have to take into account coming up against a very, very good Baltimore Ravens team.
Yeah, the, John, you and I had previewed the game, you know, and we looked at the weapons that the Cardinals have, and we really felt that, you know, Connor, their running back, could have a, potentially a, a great game. I ended up having 86 yards on 14 carries, but that they were going to attack the interior of the 49er line, which is exactly what they did with the 49ers deciding to well, sit Javon Hargrave and Eric Armstead.
There was some reporting earlier in the week that had this been a playoff game, Shanahan would have opted to go with, with both of them. But in my opinion, felt that, , even with these two guys out, we simply have too many other weapons that the Cardinals can keep pace with. But in terms of the defense I think a lot of over pursuit you know, a couple times it just, it got a little sloppy particularly on the, the Cardinals last touchdown.
Looked like the Niners had him wrapped up. In fact, Dre Greenlaw had actually stopped on the play. It was I think it was Demercado who, who scored the last one, but I thought they had had him wrapped up and all of a sudden he bolts out makes, makes a touchdown. But, you know, as I said at the outset the 49ers offensively, They just had every answer for the Cardinals, and, it, John, I don’t know about you, but it’s, it’s now gotten to the point, and, you, you texted a statistic about this to both Brian and I, that it’s, it’s now becoming almost the exception when the 49ers, much more the exception when the 49ers don’t score and they’ve had a season total of 45 punts.
John Cashman: No, I think it was 14 punts.
Tim Cashman: Was it 14? No, I’m not gonna look. 14. No, I don’t think 14. 14 sounds awfully low, but let’s John’s gonna check his his stat line here. So while, so while he’s doing there. Yeah, I, I, you know, it was just, you know, when Hurdy does what he does best, when Debo does what he does best, when CMC does what he does best, that’s just a tough, tough team to stop.
And they had a couple of miscues you know, here and there. With that punt total here in just a moment here, but yeah, overall , the Niners are sitting in a great position right now with the Eagles loss. Now they have to win two of their next three to clinch the, the first buy and they, they obviously got the team to do just, just that.
John Cashman: Yeah. Yeah. So I found the stat, the Niners have scored 53 touchdowns on the season and hunted only 45 times. Anytime touchdowns or outpacing punts is, is obviously a good thing. I’d say that’s a good thing. So some, some thoughts from, from my vantage point, you know, it was. The first drive was, , Cardinals went down, they scored, they’re like, Okay, well, this is gonna be a game, you know, not gonna roll over, they’re well rested after the bye.
Niners come down, score. But really, the big turning point, which everybody got up on their feet for, was Mooney, Ward’s pick six. Where, , Kyler was going for it on fourth and one, and we were all kinda like, Really? You guys going for this? Really? Alright. And, you know, Tiberius just grabs it and, I mean, he was gone.
And he grabbed it kind of right in front of us and then just took off to the left. Yeah. And then the moment of sheer unadulterated panic Was when Ronnie Bell dropped the ball and all of a sudden it was 21 to 20 and the Arizona Cardinals had hope like oh, oh. Like literally the, the air went out of the building.
Yeah. It became the home stadium of the Arizona Cardinals again. And then of course, everybody’s got their, their phones, so they can review it basically sitting in their seat and they’re showing it on the base screen. His arms down. It’s like, okay. Whew. So,
Brian Caynan: how was the stadium when, or how was it for you guys when Hurdy looked like he got hurt?
I looked on TV at first glance, it looked like it was a concussion, but like, how did, how did that come across over there? Well,
Tim Cashman: he threw, oh go ahead, sorry. So when he threw it, I was focused on Yuszczek, who caught the pass, and then I went back and I saw just a purdy, just all I could see him was on the ground.
My initial thought was, oh, because, he had, he was down there, he was down on the ground for a little while, and as it turns out, He felt he could have popped back up, but the training staff was like, no, no, no, no, lay down, let us take a look at you, but you know, he goes into the medical tent.
Of course, you know, we’re, we’re sort of watching Sam Darnold in the medical tent, medical tent, Sam Darnold, and he comes out and then puts his helmet back on, which was obviously a great sign. It turned out he had a stinger, fortunately on his, on his left shoulder. So no concussion protocol there. It was a little, I mean, it was a little nerve wracking.
But I do remember thinking, okay. Donaldson, one of the things that we spoke about after they had traded Trey Lance, was one of the knocks on Trey Lance was that he takes a while to warm up, and at some point you know, at some point, it’s just, the odds are your backup’s gonna have to come in, he’s gonna have to play well.
I’m not gonna say Donald played well in that resolve, but he didn’t make any mistakes, and that, that was the first thing that’s top of my head, is that Donald doesn’t take as long to get to get into the game as would have Trey Lance there. So that was my initial impression. But John, go ahead.
John Cashman: Yeah, I mean, everybody was concerned because they know how money he is.
I was a little less concerned when Sam Donald hit George Kittle in the hands twice. George couldn’t seem to hold on to the ball. The other moment where it was like, Oh no. Was when Bosa went down and we’re like, okay, well, we don’t want to be part of that game. And, and then he gets up and, and, and finally jogs off.
So the Niners injury wise, with the exception of Khalid Davis and maybe Lenore still did, did okay. But I do think as Tim was alluding to, I think the defense is getting somewhat stretched and gassed. They’re going to have a challenge upcoming. This Monday night on Christmas night, but they have to win two out of three and the Eagles and Cowboys have to win out for them to lose the number one seed.
And Cowboys are facing Miami Detroit commanders, which is no joke. The Eagles have somewhat of a easier road giants, Arizona giants, but. Giants have nothing to play for but pride, you know, get Tommy DeVito out there. And Arizona wasn’t laying down either. So. No, and watching the Eagles, I was like, Jalen Hurts is like, not right.
He’s
Tim Cashman: not 100%. He’s not 100%, but I want to go back to our game. I think, you know, a couple other thoughts there, John. This was my impression, you know, even when Arizona scored on their opening possession and yes, of course, my heart skipped a beat when it looked like Ronnie Bell had fumbled. I never felt the Niners had lost control of that game.
Even when the Cardinals were trying to make it interesting in the third quarter, and, and I’ll talk about that third quarter, or it was that, you know, the 49ers first possession, I mean, they just literally go right down the field. I, I, I’ll have to look up the actual drive. I want to say it was only a few plays, but.
Purdy hits Kittle on a third and eleven a perfectly timed route. He hit the hot route read it perfectly because the Cardinals were bringing a blitz. And that was also the play that Purdy, you know, rolled out. He, he sort of rolled out to his left, hit McCaffrey who, Fall, fell down, but then, you know, was able to gather, get onto his feet.
And that just was just sort of, , Okay guys, if you want to hang with us, this is what you’re going to have to stop. And, so again, I, I never felt the 49ers had lost control of the game. It just felt like, you know, Hey, D. Va was wide open on his first pass. All the Niners really had to do was execute.
And, , as I said at the outset, John you know, in the middle of Middle of the fourth quarter, we’re watching the backups play, so that just tells everything you need to know about what kind of team the 49ers have. Yeah,
John Cashman: and when you’re saying Debo and CMC were wide open, I mean, cause it was really right in front of us, wide open.
I mean, you could have had trucks. Drive through the amount of space that they had between them, the Arizona Cardinals. So yeah, it was it was impressive. I mean, honestly, the offense is, is just clicking right now, with all of the pieces. I mean, the only one who had kind of an iffy game was Iuke who dropped a few.
But, I mean, you know, we’re nitpicking at that point. Alright, well, let’s look over our keys to victory. So this is Brock Purdy’s home game, and it was funny because when we came in, they had the Arizona, like, pregame show going on in the bar area, and they were talking about Brock Purdy coming home.
Tim Cashman: Let’s let’s be honest to our listeners. We weren’t in the bar area. We were in the men’s room. Listen, that’s Me well, you know, you drink a lot of water. It’s the desert. So, you know, obviously I have to go to the men’s room So the pregame show is on the audio within the men’s room. So I’ll let John finish the story, but we were
John Cashman: it’s brought birdies homies from Arizona and They said, well, you know, Brock Purdy’s that pick really bailed out the 49ers from the real big screw up of picking Trey Lance.
One of the Niners fans turned to me and was like, well, he’s not wrong.
So yeah, a homecoming game, Purdy’s parents to us. There was a ton of people there. I’m sure who were, were Brock Purdy friends and family but , he did great.
Tim Cashman: Yeah. 16 to 25, 242, four touchdowns. How many times have you said four touchdowns of Brock Purdy so far this year? Yeah, to,
John Cashman: to, to different people too, and no interceptions, which is always the big one.
Yeah. Yeah. But really I thought one of the biggest comebacks , was Mooney Ward. You know, he was kind of iffy to play, came back to play and two interceptions and one pick six, which he had never,
Tim Cashman: ever had. Well, he actually said, I think he had one in Pop Warner. So, let’s, you know, go to the statistics on that.
I’m just trying to be factual here.
Brian Caynan: Well, I did, you know, I was listening to the Niners talk. Not the Niners. The podcast with Mayoko and Jennifer Lee Chan, and they, I think Jennifer Lee Chan Oh, the other Niners talk. The, the, the lower one. We have com we have
Tim Cashman: competition.
Brian Caynan: And Jennifer Lee Chan had some, a great anecdote about Mooney Ward, how, because he only played four, four snaps last week, And he , was basically off for the rest of the game, and he took a couple practices off that he felt he felt really refreshed, I guess, for this game.
Which, which, it definitely showed, and, and, everything to do with his two picks, and that that pick six. So, yeah, he definitely looked fresh.
John Cashman: That’s why getting that buy will be so
Tim Cashman: huge. Yeah. Oh yeah. Most definitely.
John Cashman: So Tim, any other keys to victory that we
Tim Cashman: looked at? Well, you, you talked about Mooney Ward and we, you know, we saw the, we saw the impact of losing, , Hargrave and, Eric Armstead.
We, we talked about how the Cardinals running game really attacked that area. And unfortunately that problem was exacerbated with Davis going out, which now has been determined to be a high ankle sprain. So unfortunately he’s going to be out for a few weeks. So, we’re going to be watching practice very closely this week.
, Shanahan was a little ambiguous in terms of the progress. He said they have a chance to come back and play against the Ravens. So. You know, it’ll be the Thursday Friday practices when we see if both Armstead and Hargrave are on the field. But, if they are unable to go that will be a weakness for the 49er line going to the Ravens.
But in terms of you know, there’s been some speculation that they may bring in another defensive tackle. Suh could be one. But yeah, if there’s an Achilles heel right now, it’s the center of that 49ers defensive line. The
John Cashman: other interesting thing is that the Niners will know how the Cowboys and Eagles Did on Sunday before they play Monday.
Very true. Very true. Brian, the other keys to victory that you saw that the Niners were able to pull
Brian Caynan: off? Well we always talk about turnovers as being big. So I know that the Niners had two takeaways. Niners were pretty much clean. No fumbles, no interceptions. Although pretty, almost threw one.
Yeah. That, that looked, looked like it should have been an interception. On TV. But other than that, it looked You know, the Niners seemed to play a really clean game.
Tim Cashman: Yeah. There
John Cashman: was one pass Purdy threw to Iuke and actually the Debo touchdown, which were absolutely elite. I mean, he threw it to Iuke in a, such a small window right in front of the defender to get.
First down, it was like, I don’t know how he did that. Cause when he was throwing it, it was kind of right in front of us. Like, Oh, I don’t know about that one Brock. But yeah, I mean, it was right where I, you could get it and you know, the drive continues and then the last one to Debo was just like, I’m going to throw it to a spot and you go get it.
And that was, it was like, Tim would turn to me like, did he catch it? I’m like, I think he caught it. So, yeah, I mean, we just, you know, again, let him cook and he’s just doing an awesome job. I’ll let him game manage the hell out of it. Just. Sure. No, keep He’ll let him be a
Tim Cashman: game manager. Keep doubting him.
Keep saying he’s a game manager. That’s the best thing you can do, and I will say, you know, and you know me, John, you’ve seen me watch the 49ers. Whenever they score a touchdown or a big sack, or frankly anything positive, there’s a delayed reaction for me if there’s any reaction at all. Because I’m waiting for the flag, I’m waiting for the replay, I would just refuse to get my emotions up because I’m waiting for the inevitable buzzkill.
But that, that’s the state of my, therapy that I’m currently working on, so I’ll just keep you posted on that progress, if there’s any progress. It’s
John Cashman: a long road. Yeah. So let’s go to our stars of the game. Brian, you always have the
Brian Caynan: Well, I like, I always, I always love picking somebody on the defense, but, you know, I know we have Mooney Ward, Travaris Ward, and we already talked about him today, but I’m, I’m just gonna go with somebody else.
I’m going to go with, well, the other MVP of our team, Christian McCaffrey. So, , he, he didn’t lay down today. He, he killed it in fantasy. He had 150 yards rushing. He had 72 yards receiving. I mean, we were talking about that one play on what the start of the third quarter, where he was all alone on the on the left side he caught that ball, I think, was he backpedaling or like.
I don’t know. It looked nuts. It, and he looked, I remember I was at the bar and I turned around for a second and I flashed back at the TV and I just saw nothing around McCaffrey and I guess the ball was in mid flight going to him. And then when he caught it. It was just, it was just crazy because I looked at the TV and I didn’t see anyone around him, and I thought it was just like some broken play, but it was just an absolute touchdown, absolute great play, great touchdown, and , I just think he shows everyone to me I, if I was to vote for an MVP, that would be my choice, like, because I think he’s changed the way.
That the Niners have played. He makes it easier for everyone else. And he fights really hard just to get a couple of few yards. There was one play. I think I remember watching. It looked like he probably would have been stopped for a few yards, but he kept his balance on one arm and he threw himself, yeah, he threw himself forward for another, like five to 10 yards.
So that was just nuts. So that would be my start of the game guys.
Tim Cashman: Well, I’m going to give the offensive line a little bit of credit. First of all, Purdy with no sacks on Purdy. And I know we would probably not consider the Cardinals defense that of say, you know, a Cleveland Browns or, you know, even Dallas at its peak.
But John Feliciano, I think he’s come in and done a stellar job in replacing Buford. That is and it looks like Buford’s going to be able to make it back in series. As a backup to give, either Buford or maybe even Banks, I don’t know if he’s played much left guard a break there but he is according to PFF you know, Pro Football’s you know, grading system if you will, he’s the highest graded offensive player, and he had an absolutely clean sheet against the the Cardinals, and, and he’s been doing this week in, week out.
I think going back to the Thanksgiving game, so great job Feliciano. I’d love to see guys who, , have to step into a role and you know, they fill the gap. So, that’s
John Cashman: all I would not be surprised if he has that job, for the next couple games. Yeah. I mean, you know, go with the hot hand, go with the guy who’s, who’s getting it done.
And he certainly has the experience. Well, I’m gonna go with, Deebo. Whoa, Deebo. Two touchdowns, 48 yards, yeah, I was reading Marcus Thompson today and in the last three games he’s had, I think, eight touchdowns and 400 and some odd yards from scrimmage. You know, and before that he had three or two or three touchdowns and 500 yards.
So all of a sudden the offense is rediscovered Debo and he is starting to roll with them and I mean, when you’ve got all of those pistons firing Debo, it’ll I uke, and then you spread that field vertically. It’s like, Oh, we’re going to hand the ball to CMC now. Good luck with that. So, uh, it’s really turning out to be a pretty.
Special offense and watching them go, and, and Debo is, is really one of those special players that, you know, he doesn’t really have a position, he’s just Debo. It’s like, okay, you go, it’s almost like LeBron, like, okay, well, LeBron, play point guard. LeBron, play center. LeBron, do this. Like, Debo, go out and just win the game.
Okay. Yeah. So. And then, of course, the star of the game, again, Brock Birdy. Getting boring. But, you know, four
Tim Cashman: touchdowns. I’m okay with boring. Yeah. I’m okay with that kind of boring. Game
John Cashman: manager’s way to get another star of the game. Sure. So, Tim, if you had to vote today for MVP, who would you vote for?
Tim Cashman: You know, as, as much as I am just continually amazed by what Purdy does, just seemingly coming from, I know they keep saying Mr.
O’Ellivan, I think we need to put that one to rest, by the way. I’m gonna go with, with CMC, just because what he is able to do as a running back, as a receiver, I think you, you have to account for him. It is certainly not to diminish anything that Purdy has done. CMC It has just been, I guess, I’ll give it to him for one reason and one reason only, and I know you have to vote it by ear, but I’m gonna make a little asterisk here.
What he has done for the 49er team since he came in last year, and I think back to the LA Rams game so far, Niners needed to turn things around, and he had a rushing touchdown, he threw a touchdown, and he caught a touchdown. So, that just shows you how versatile this guy is, so he’s my pick.
John Cashman: Yeah, last week I talked, I thought Tyreek Hill should’ve been the MVP because of what he’s doing, but set out this last time, so it’s always a little bit of a ding.
I actually have to say now it’s CMC, and for this reason, while I think Brock’s having an unbelievable season, every time CMC touches the ball, he has a chance to get a touchdown. Like every single time. And while Brock has been awesome, every time Brock touches the ball, yeah, I think it’s going to be it’ll be a pass or we’ll hand it to CMC or he’ll give it to Devo or something like that.
And you know, he’s had been awesome giving the ball to him, but if you just give the ball to CMC, there’s a really good chance he could score. And that’s just, that’s just crazy. So, well, for some of our listeners, it’s the favorite part of time. It’s sunshine and lollipops time or sigh time. That
Tim Cashman: was actually the easiest side you’ve ever done this entire season.
John Cashman: What six game winning streak right now, no
Tim Cashman: one’s seen. Come on. You can phony it up. No,
John Cashman: I’m real Tim. I’m keeping it real. This is real Niners talk. Anyway, Brian. Well,
Brian Caynan: we talked about this, I think, at great length here, was the defense being gassed and it showed on the number of tackles. So, , we are going to be playing Baltimore this weekend coming up, who I think, It’s the number one rushing team in the league.
So that would be, I would say paramount would be the absolute thing we would need to improve as their rushing defense. So yes. And then we also talked about this having Hargrave, gosh, Armstead back and just everyone making strong tackles. I think, you know, I don’t know if. If the Cardinals game, do you, maybe the Niners, I know they’re prepared, they’re professionals, but you know, but they weren’t playing against the Eagles or they’re not playing against the Seahawks.
So maybe there’s, you know, a slight psychological down edge, but , they, they are playing the number one team in the AFC, we are still trying to fight and hold back Dallas and Philly. So I expect, you know, a run defense to improve that’s definitely what, what I was going to say. And definitely, you guys put this here in the notes, but that was, that was my number one thing.
Tim Cashman: Yeah. Yeah.
John Cashman: Yeah. Well, it Where are your sighs coming from? Where are your
Tim Cashman: sighs coming from? I, I would say this. Turnovers, courtesy of Mooney Ward. But, looking at statistics today and watching the game again, the Cardinals fumbled five times. And the Niners did not recover any of them. So, , those kinds of opportunities, you have to take advantage of them.
Certainly Ward’s pick six help. Certainly his fourth quarter interception was pretty much the nail in the coffin. But when a team fumbles five times, I think you gotta hop on one of those. And for a team like the Ravens, they fumble. You’ve gotta get the ball. You’ve gotta take advantage of those opportunities.
Yeah,
John Cashman: I’ll be, I’ll be curious because we saw a lot of zone this time around against Arizona. So I think Wilkes was basically putting out his kind of vanilla defense. Like, I don’t think we have to do anything special or crazy, to beat the Cardinals. I think we can just, you know, our offense is going to score a lot of points.
We keep them to, , 17 or 20 and we’ll be fine. So I think they’re going to have to tighten it up quite a bit against Baltimore. They’re gonna have to hopefully improve show the Jalen Hurts strategy again. And the corner, the secondary is going to have to have a really good game, but mistackles, that’s the biggest place to improve.
You just can’t have 16. , it’s like, let’s clean that up. And, and see where we’re at with the D. So, um, so, that wraps up Arizona Week. Which brings us to Niners Trivia Time with Brian Kanin. Alright. So, are we Christmas themed? Are we Baltimore themed?
Tim Cashman: I’m sensing crab cakes. That’s what Maryland does.
Crab cakes and football! That’s what Maryland does! Why do you steal my lines? You gotta be quick. I always
John Cashman: thought that was the dumbest quote ever, because I mean, Maryland’s not exactly a, well, ill invited football. Well,
Tim Cashman: we’re going to find out Monday.
Brian Caynan: Oh man. This is Baltimore themed, so.
Tim Cashman: Okay. There you go.
The answer is the wire. Quoth the Raven.
John Cashman: Nevermore.
Brian Caynan: Alright. Alright. This one’s going to be a softball here. So the Baltimore Ravens are named in honor of which literary figure and his short story.
Tim Cashman: Dr. Seuss. That’s it. Okay. My, my parents are probably looking down and saying, really, that’s what we spent your education on.
So, you know, it was a ground though. Benefits are those liberal arts education that I put to so much use. The Raven. There you go. Okay,
Brian Caynan: that was the easy one. Good thing they’re not named
John Cashman: the Annabelle Lees.
Tim Cashman: I want to know how many of our listeners get that one.
John Cashman: Okay, well, I mean, you know, I have a high bar for our
Tim Cashman: listeners.
If the next, if the next one is going to be about Aristotle and Nietzsche, I think we’re going to lose everyone, probably including me.
John Cashman: Well, I mean, you know, whatever. Brian, next question. Number
Brian Caynan: two, john Harbaugh, the coach of the Ravens what team did he first coach for in the NFL before he came to the Ravens?
And bonus points if you can tell me who hired him and that
Tim Cashman: staff. For some reason I
John Cashman: want to say, I want to say the Giants. It’s either the Giants or the Jaguars. I want to say Tom Coughlin. I think it’s a Tom Coughlin guy. I’m gonna
Tim Cashman: go with John on that one. All right,
Brian Caynan: we’ll leave it Tom Coughlin and the New York Giants.
All right. John Harbaugh’s younger brother, who is the coach of our beloved 49ers from 2011 to 2014. Which team did he coach in 2002 2003? He was an assistant on an NFL team Coach Jim Harbaugh. Coach
Tim Cashman: Jim. Coach Jim Harbaugh, and he was an assistant in, in the NFL 2002, 2003 for two seasons. I was the Raiders.
I think he was the quarterback’s coach. Okay, John, well, I’ll go with
John Cashman: him on that one. All right.
Brian Caynan: Bonus points, if you can tell me. In the Thanksgiving Bowl game in 2011, we had a chance to score before halftime. Tim, you might remember this. Who, who was Alex Smith trying to hit in the end zone for a touchdown before the end of the first half before it
Tim Cashman: was picked off?
I have to be a full confession. I actually had fallen asleep. Yeah, me too. Two because of two reasons one it was Thanksgiving And the second was I had become a father and I had a an infant child who was had refused to sleep the night before. So I don’t remember, frankly, I don’t remember much about that game.
So I, I remember being on, I was trying to stay up, but Abby found me on the couch and said, you need to go to bed. I’ll just throw, I’ll just take a shot in the dark. I’ll say Vernon Davis. But you don’t. I’ll say Michael Crabtree. Okay.
Brian Caynan: Alright. Last question. We don’t want to talk about the 2012 2013 Super Bowl, so let’s, let’s go back, let’s go back to the other one, the 2000 2001 Super Bowl winning team.
Name two of the pro bowlers on that squad. Name any two of the pro bowlers. There were five.
Tim Cashman: Ray
John Cashman: Lewis. Okay. And probably Ed Oliver. What was it?
Brian Caynan: There’s five total.
Tim Cashman: It’s
John Cashman: a safety. Ed Reed. Sorry, Ed Reed. I’ll go with good old Joe Flacco. Even Brown’s savior. This is 2000
Brian Caynan: and
Tim Cashman: 2001. Tony Saragusa.
John Cashman: It wasn’t Trent Dilfer.
Tim Cashman: No, that much we know. He was too busy chatting up Trent Dalkey.
John Cashman: But it was Goose.
Tim Cashman: No Jamal Lewis.
Brian Caynan: Okay, so you said Jamal Lewis, Ray Lewis, Trent Dilfer. No, not
Tim Cashman: Trent Dilfer. Not Trent
John Cashman: Dilfer. Ed Reed. Ed Reed. That’s all I
Brian Caynan: can think of.
Well, that’s it. Let’s move on.
Tim Cashman: Actually, I’ll throw one other out. I’ll say Shannon Sharpe.
Brian Caynan: Shannon Sharpe.
John Cashman: Good one. Alright, so, we get a gift. It’s gonna be the first time, it’s gonna be the last time for a while that we’ll have football on Christmas. So we get, we get a Monday night game, Christmas night, with Troy and, Troy and Joe, at home against the Ravens.
My initial thoughts is I think this might just be a complete shootout. Niners D is looking a little, little iffy. The offense is really humming right now. The Ravens, depending on how the Dolphins do, will try and win this game because they can remain the number one seed. So I think you might see both offenses at full throttle.
Lamar trying to show He is the MVP. So my initial thought on this game is that it could be 43 to 42. I mean, it could just be a crazy, crazy offensive game like, like the Saints game long, you know, long time ago. So, Brian, any thoughts on, on what you’re looking at this game?
Brian Caynan: Well, you know, I watched a little bit of the Sunday night game was it Baltimore in Jacksonville?
Mm-Hmm. , yeah. In Jacksonville. Lamar had some crazy, crazy friggin plays and there’s, I actually watched that one play where I thought he was gonna get sacked. I want to say it was the third or the fourth quarter. He looked like he should have been taken down and he made a deep throw close to the end zone and the receiver caught it maybe a few yards short of the end zone.
So he’s athletic, he’s big, he is strong, he’s tough, he can run. He didn’t play much last year, but I think that is He’s just gotten better. I mean, you know, he didn’t play last year and his team looks great. So yeah, he has
John Cashman: a better offensive coordinator too, even though, you know, the guy who came from the Niners was this, this one’s doing a much better job.
He’s got better wide receivers as well than he’s ever had. So, you know, he’s got Flowers and he’s got Odell. So yeah, he’s, he’s going to be very dual threat.
Tim Cashman: Them. Well, you know, I look at this game and I compare it to the other matchups that the 49ers have had. I guess marquee matchups and that would be Dallas in October and Philadelphia earlier this month.
What I’m going to expect the 49ers to do offensively, I think Shanahan is going to come out throwing. If he tries to do the CMC show, I think you know, we’re going to see. The Ravens put eight men in the box. They’re gonna crowd the line of scrimmage. They wanna get the 49ers behind the sticks in the early downs.
But when the Niners came out against Dallas, they came out, you know, they had one run to McCaffer, but then it was a lot of play action. There was a lot of moving purdy around the pocket. And one of them resulted when he was rolling out to the right, and he hit Kittle for a touchdown. Philly, they got off to a slower start, but the game plan was still put the ball into Purdy’s hands and let him find his receivers.
So I’m anticipating that as a start for the 49ers. I think they want to get the Ravens defense quickly on their heels and establish, the tempo they want to make sure that you know, not only I mean winning the line of scrimmage It’s going to be a tough battle for both lines, for both defense and offense of the 49ers.
But, , keep the time of possession, keep the ball away from Lamar and limit his opportunities. That’s what I see from the offense. Defensively I do wonder, I mean, Brian just mentioned the plays that Lamar Jackson you know can made against the Jaguars. We certainly know what he’s capable of, you know, the 49ers faced him four years ago, and we saw what he was capable of then.
So, will they, I’m wondering if defensively you know, John, you, you mentioned that the 49ers played a lot of zone against the Cardinals and maybe Wilkes was holding his cards to his chest I do think we’re going to see a lot more man coverage I think that the 49ers very much want to, not only get the number one seed, but if they can get this one, they’re one more win away from the number one seed that basically would make the final week a practice game where they could further rest their starters.
So they have all the motivation in the world to win this game. But I think the 49ers, you’ll see a lot of man coverage. I think defensively they’re going to try to just keep the line of scrimmage, make sure that, you know, if Lamar runs you got to keep it to a minimum and take the opportunities when they, when, when they happen, the turnovers, the penalties make them pay for those things.
And the 49ers can do all those things. I think it’ll be successful, but. You know, Ravens are 11 3. for a reason, so I completely agree with you, John. This has the potential to be a shootout. Like the Saints came up to bring a team. Yeah, they’re, they’re
John Cashman: legit Leavenants. They’re not like the Cowboys record, where they were, you know, beaten up on, on other teams.
They’ve, they’ve beaten, you know, they’ve gone up against some really good ones. I mean, just the Daguars the other night. So, yeah, I think it’s gonna be, it’s, it could be a Super Bowl preview. It could also be just an absolute shootout. The Niners have the advantage of being at home, which is great, especially on, on Christmas.
So I think it’s going, it’s going to be good. Brian, are you going to go to the game or did you already get?
Brian Caynan: This one I actually had to sell. We’re we’re visiting our in laws in LA. So no, so I can’t go. I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish. So no, but That would have been an awesome game to go to seeing that live seeing a game on Christmas.
But I, you know, we talked about this earlier in the year when we were talking about the schedule. This was probably a game I was probably not going to be able, you know,
John Cashman: to make, so. Yeah, this’ll be not like Christmas because, it’ll just be, , my, my family by the, you know, 8 o’clock rolls around and You know, fill with prime rib and probably a couple glasses of wine and, you know, it’ll be, it’ll be quiet.
Like people, it’s been a, it’s already been a long day. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, but hopefully we’ll end it on a, on a good note. So, Brian, you want to give us the answers to Niners trivia?
Brian Caynan: All right. Okay. So question number one, Baltimore Ravens named as, as an honor to this literary figure and what was his short story?
I, you guys nailed it. Tim, what was that again?
Tim Cashman: Edgar Allan Poe and quote the Raven nevermore was that title was the Raven. That’s it. Okay,
John Cashman: number two How about we use her second? It was a second choice. Yeah
Brian Caynan: close close Actually bonus. Can you tell me how he died Edgar Allan Poe? His heart
John Cashman: stopped beating It
Brian Caynan: was
John Cashman: like some kind of like opium
Brian Caynan: or they found him in a gutter of all, and like the streets of Baltimore, but they never figured out like You know, what was the official cause of death?
So I thought it was interesting when I was doing this research. Hence why I was asking you those questions, Tim, about. Jerseys and you know, you know where my head goes when I do
Tim Cashman: research. Well, we can talk about superstitions, but I think we’ll need a whole another hour to get through all of mine. You
Brian Caynan: know, that might be
Tim Cashman: good something to talk about.
I think what we ought to do, I was talking to John about this, we ought to do maybe a fun episode, where we’ll see if the opportunity presents it, maybe in a bi week or end of season, but not only talk about our superstitions mostly mine probably, but also we need to go back to our early season predictions and just see how far off we were.
Oh, good call. You know, maybe some of us, , kind of akin to me, you know, I predicted that Amazon was going to go bankrupt in 1999. I wrote a paper about it for a professor and we obviously know how well that prediction turned out.
Brian Caynan: Oh gosh. All right. Well, I like that idea though about it. Yeah.
Sounds good. Okay, number two John Harbaugh, what team did he first coach for, in the NFL? So, what team hired him as an assistant?
John Cashman: So I had said either Giants or Jaguars, but under Tom Coughlin.
And Tim?
Tim Cashman: I, I agreed with John.
Brian Caynan: No, it’s an NFC east team though.
Tim Cashman: Really? Okay. Mm-Hmm? .
Brian Caynan: Ray
John Cashman: Rhodes. Oh, in the Philly The Eagles. Mm-Hmm. . Oh, no kidding.
Brian Caynan: 90, 98. He was there as our special teams coach, and then he was a holdover when Andy Reed came in. And then he became a BB coach. And then I think first last year and after that he got hired by, .
Uh, Baltimore, I think, what was it, eight? 2008? 2009 ish? He went over there. Okay, John Harbaugh, Jim’s, I’m sorry, Jim Harbaugh, John’s younger brother currently the coach of Michigan. What team did he coach in 2002 and 2003?
Tim Cashman: And I said the Raiders and it was the quarterbacks coach. That’s it.
Brian Caynan: You nailed it. I did not think you would get that, but yeah, he was your quarterbacks coach when they
Tim Cashman: went to the Super Bowl. Well, I remember that specifically because when the Niners hired him, one of the other suitors was Al Davison, the Raiders, and that’s just because he had had that experience and Harbaugh later said that I don’t think he even called Al Davis because he didn’t want to disappoint him.
Because he was very grateful for the opportunity that that he had provided for him. Could he get that first coaching start in the NFL. That’s awesome.
Brian Caynan: Okay, and then the extension question was who did Alex Smith throw that? Who was he intending to throw, when he threw that first first half interception to end end the second quarter, for that game, Thanksgiving game 2011.
Tim Cashman: I said, I said Vernon, Vernon Davis. It was a shot in the dark. I said Crabtree. Braylon Edwards. Oh, wow. Trying to hit Braylon Edwards on there. He was trying to hit Braylon Edwards, no kidding. Yeah,
Brian Caynan: okay going back to the 2000 2001 Super Bowl winning team for the Ravens name any five of their pro bowlers on that team.
So I have here, I’ll just, I’ll read them off you guys said. So Shannon Sharp, Ed Reed, Ray Lewis, Tony Siragusa, did you guys have anyone
Tim Cashman: else on that list? I think I said Jamal Lewis. Anyone else? Don’t remember saying anybody else, no. Well, I’ll go for
Brian Caynan: the obvious one. Ray Lewis, that’s correct. I’ll give you guys a hint.
49ers, free safety.
He moved to the Ravens.
97, he was our safety. Rod
Tim Cashman: Woodson. There you go. Oh, wow. Rod Woodson, yeah.
Brian Caynan: I forgot he was on that team. Okay, Sam Adams, they’re one of their defensive tackles. Yeah. They had a kicker. Oh, Justin Tucker. No, he was not. Oh, Matt Barr? Matt Stover?
Tim Cashman: Remember that name? Yeah, the first, yeah, the first name, right, Sean?
Yeah. I do remember the name. I don’t recall him very much as a kicker, but then again, how many kickers have I truly followed?
Brian Caynan: Well, you do follow David Aker. Oh, no, all right, last one. He’s a tackle, a big guy. Jonathan. Oh
Tim Cashman: Jonathan Ogden, yeah. Yeah, that’s it.
Brian Caynan: So, those guys. Rod Woodson, Sam Adams, Matt Stover, Jonathan Ogden, and Ray Lewis.
So, there’s
Tim Cashman: those guys. There you
John Cashman: go. There you go. Alright, well, final thoughts on this Christmas edition of Niners Talk and the Ravens? Yeah,
Tim Cashman: I think, you know, it’s interesting, the Niners have not played the Ravens that often, I mean, we all know about, you know, the, the Super Bowl, but the Niners going back to, to 96 have only played the Ravens seven times including the Super Bowl.
So 49ers have only won twice. Once when the Ravens initially moved from Cleveland and then they defeated them the other time when it was the Jim Tomsula year and they managed to pull off that opposite. But yeah, the last time How’s that possible? I, I, you know what, I think, I don’t know, the football gods just decided, hey, let the 49er fans feel a little bit better about themselves today.
But the last time they played was 2019. It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Big rainstorm. Very tight ball game. The 49ers were driving to what potentially could have been a game winning field goal. They turned the ball over and down, and then Lamar did what Lamar always can do, and that was driving to the field winning the field, kick a field goal to win 2017.
But that was four years ago, so we have not seen this team. Often at all over the last almost a couple decades now here. So it’s going to be a shootout, but , look at the 49ers, what they’ve accomplished this year with their offense. They have stepped up in big games this season so far.
I don’t see any reason why they won’t be able to do again this year, but I think the other final thought is to wish you both a very merry Christmas. Hopefully you’ll be even merrier at about 11. 30, 11. 45 Christmas Eve, Christmas evening.
Ryan?
Brian Caynan: That’s East Coast time, so that’s on West Coast. By nine o’clock, we’ll be feeling good. No, I’m, I think I’ll just echo everything with what Tim just said. I was, I was kind of thinking into my head the Niners have showed up for the big games this year against Dallas and Philly. And you know, I see no reason for them not to show up here as long as they get their rest.
If they can, you know, come back from injuries from You know, if we can have our full defensive line back. I think they’re going to play this game tough and , they should be able to contain, Lamar Jackson and I see no reason for them, , for this not to be a letdown. So, you know, I also will say Merry Christmas to the both of you.
And it’s been a great experience this year doing this podcast with both you guys. And yeah, thanks for bringing me along for the ride guys. So I appreciate that.
John Cashman: Yeah, it’s been awesome. I am pretty much in the same spot that I was with the Eagles. I, I, I can’t pick this one. I, I think, I, I’m sure the Niners will probably be favored because they’re at home, but, yeah, I, I think, I think it’s going to be an absolute shootout.
And I think at the end of the game, we’ll be, this is the MVP of the league. And this is the odds on Super Bowl favorite. It’s either gonna be Brock, CMC, or Lamar. And it’s either gonna be the Ravens are the top seed and the Niners have a hiccup, or the Niners are just rolling. So, I think it’s going to be a really, really good game.
Looking forward to it. Also just looking forward to, we’ve got a whole slate, you know, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday which will be, which will be nice. Christmas Eve with seven fishes and then Christmas day with just family and chilling and then kind of a, you know, pseudo week off before we head down to DC to visit my brother.
So Merry Christmas to the both of you. I can’t believe we’re almost the end of the season. It’s gone by way too fast. We’re all in the twenties now with our podcast, which is great. And to all of those who have been listening to us, thank you. Merry Christmas. And we’re looking forward to talking to you after Christmas and wishing you a happy new year until then keep the faith go Niners.
