Howdy Folks!

I wanted to let a couple of days pass in an effort to garner some perspective ... and yet my perspective is pretty much exactly the same as it was on Sunday night.

My thoughts on the game:

1) Ray Lewis is an ass, a hypocrite, and Sunday night, was the worst player on the field.

I'm sure he gave the Ravens an emotional boost as their leader, yadda yadda, but on the field? HE WAS A DISASTER.

AND THE 49'ers LET HIM OFF THE HOOK!!!!

He *could not* cover Vernon Davis. He *wasn't even close*. Of the 8 balls targeted to Vernon Davis, 6 were completed for HUGE YARDAGE, and the two incompletions were Davis's fault! (One a heartbreaking drop of a perfectly thrown bomb).

Why didn't we continue with this for the whole game? I don't understand it. If a team demonstrates an inability to stop a basic play ... why not keep going back to it?

Ray Lewis was also a HUGE LIABILITY IN THE RUNNING GAME. He was basically a huge liability the entire game.

AND WE LET HIM OFF THE HOOK!

2) "Goal Line Stand" to send Ray Lewis out in style?

Goal line stand MY ASS!

A goal line stand would have been four consecutive stops of FRANK GORE POWER RUNNING UP THE MIDDLE WITH THE BIG BOY FORMATION.

That would have been a goal line stand.

I "love" how the Hypocrite Ass gets all the credit for a "goal line stand" that will go down in history as one of the worst called series in the Super Bowl.

Ever.

...

Ever.

The Ravens defense was finished on that last drive. They could NOT stop the run, even if they had defensive formations TRYING to stop the run. THEY COULDN'T STOP IT.

If anything, I was afraid that the 9'ers would SCORE TOO QUICKLY and Flacco would burn the 49'ers secondary for a 50 yard touchdown pass to win the game! (This was a legitimate fear, and a legitimate possibility, considering how 'well' the secondary played ...)

If anything, I thought that the Ravens might be tempted to let the 49'ers run it in, so that they WOULD HAVE TIME to let Flacco abuse the 49'er secondary!

But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Instead, in what can best be described as an out-of-universe-surreal moment, three consecutive passes were forced into tight coverage.

Mind-Blowing.

Flabbergasting.

In what UNIVERSE do the Ravens stop Frank Gore four consecutive times for 5 total yards?

In what UNIVERSE does that happen? And as an added bonus, we would have drained the clock and protected our weak secondary from Flacco, who was legitimately en fuego.

This should have gone down in history as the finest Super Bowl comeback in history.

It was right there. It was obvious to everyone. The Ravens Defense was beat, and it was Frank Gore's DESTINY to be the touchdown scoring back, a fitting move for such a brave soldier who has endured so much misery with this franchise.

It was right there.

I will never forget this drive. Ever. Not one painful moment of it.

Shoulda Coulda Woulda my ass -- it was right there. Valhalla was right there. And to add salt to the wound, a sanctimonious, loud-mouthed, out-matched and out-played HYPOCRITE gets to go out as some 'Hero'?

Ugh.

3) Randy Moss had alligator arms.

And seriously? F*** Randy Moss, ok?

I know the ball was uncatchable. Everybody knew it was uncatchable. But if Randy JUMPS UP, maybe Ed Reed would have instinctively made a play on Randy? Would it not have distracted him enough to possible change the outcome of that play? And if you're not going to even PRETEND to try and catch it, could you at least interfere with Reed? Turn into a mediocre DB and interfere with Reed to avoid the turnover?

Randy's attitude before the game was irritating enough, and his alligator arms sealed the deal for me.

Bye bye Randy.

4) The Referees really sucked.

No, it wasn't the Refs fault that the 49'ers blew that last drive, and the non-call on the Holding was about the same non-call as the non-call in the Atlanta game.

But how about the rest of the game?

How about some of the blatant holding at other points of the game?

How about some of the hits that were clearly out of bounds?

And how the f*** does Cary Williams not get thrown out of the game for VIOLENTLY PUSHING a referee?

Seriously?!?!

5) Kap has the talent, the drive, the leadership quality, the intangibles, the work ethic, and the total package -- he could easily transform into the best QB in the NFL within another season or two.

That said, his lack of experience showed up in many painful moments, none more so than the first play of the game. In what SHOULD have been the prelude to a beautiful, opening scoring drive, with a beautiful 20 yard strike, Kap's inability to alert his teammates of the illegal formation was momentum-killing. A brutal call. In a chaotic universe of butterfly flaps causing hurricanes, might the entire game not been completely different if that 20 yard strike is not called back?

And he simply HAS to get faster with his reads and adjustments.

And lastly, if there is one other glaring weakness in his game, it is passing completion percentage. I love his Yards per attempt (my favorite QB stat), but is completion percentage needs to be improved. In fairness, he had a lot of drops on perfectly thrown balls, but he also still puts on too much hot sauce on passes that require my touch. When the chips need the salsa, he might have the best cannon in the NFL, but not every pass needs the pico de gallo, know what I'm saying?

The good news is that he has already shown the talent and drive and the work ethic and the commitment -- he's probably studying his playbook right now. This kid is the real deal.

And, by the way, not to "kick sand in the eyes" of my fellow Audibilites, but Alex Smith deserves *A LOT* of the credit for Kap's success this year. He has been another QB coach for him, helping him with reads and coverages. And to Kap's credit, he has nothing but heaps of praise for his teammate. Lots of talented QB's find themselves in a locker room of sharks and back-stabbers. Think of the advantages this QB has had to the start of his career.

6) The fire in Kap's eyes after the game was probably the most promising thing I have seen in a 49'er in many moons.

That level of passionate fire is rare. And Kap has it. In spades. Fire, passion, talent, work ethic, intangibles, HOWITZER arm, gazelle quickness, brains, IQ, height, power, and the perfectionist obsession. Holy Mackeral, this kid is for real.

7) The 49'er defense is overrated.

Say what?

That's right, I said it girlfriend.

The 49'er defense is overrated.

The glaring deficiencies in the secondary have become painfully obvious to every opposing NFL coach, and the 49'ers defense was absolutely abused for most of December and January. If not for an overwhelmingly powerful 49'er offense, we would not even have survived the divisional round.

The secondary was protected by a great pass rush, but as soon as Justin Smith went out and teams could safely double Aldon Smith, it's been disastrous, to say the least.

Speaking of Justin Smith ...

... I'm really fearful that his career is quickly moving away from his peak. He has been one of my all time favorites, so this is hard to say, but it's true. Can we reasonably expect Smith to fully recover this offseason AND play the work load he has had AND stay healthy and dominant all the way to February? This is simply unrealistic.

The team really needs to start bolstering the D line rotation.

9) ... and the Secondary?

Can we really afford to pay Goldson a huge contract? Is he worth the huge contract? I have mixed feelings. I love the big hits, but I hate the blown coverages. I think having Whitner and Goldson, two intimidators, is probably a mistake. We need a true center fielder back there to combine with a big hitter.

10) The 49'ers Season

You know, over all I kept my emotional composure throughout the game. Perhaps I'm simply getting older and more mature. Perhaps ... but another big part of me has been so overjoyed to have a relevant team for the first time in a decade that I try to remind myself of the bigger picture. As much as it blows to lose the game (and such an epic game ... and with a drive destined for History that was blown at the end ...), the 49'ers are relevant! They have a beautiful new stadium in the works! Free Agents WANT to come to SF! Super Bowl seeking veterans tired of losing will come to SF!

The future is bright, and for the first time, in a Looooooooooooooooooooooooong time, I like the coach, I like the owner, and I like the GM. And my team is stacked with talent.

So I have to take a step back and be happy with the developments that have occurred.

At the same time, let's not kid ourselves about next season. It is going to be INCREDIBLY challenging. We could have several more years of playoff heartbreaks before getting another chance in the SB.

Here's an interesting factoid: The NFC West has had every one of its teams represented in the Super Bowl in the last 10 years. How many divisions can say that?

NOBODY ELSE.

So 'enough' with the BS about the NFC West being a weak division!

And the 49'ers are going to have a TOUGH BATTLE for the NFC West next year. It will likely go down to the final week of the season.

We are missing several pieces, but we are closer than we have been in a long time, and thus my optimism is at a much higher level as well.

On to the draft! Go 49ers!!!!!!!