NFL 2016 - <whatever Tony is doing>

49ers-Rams was a lot more fun than I expected. I usually figure that preseason is a lie and maybe it still is but I saw the same things that I saw in preseason. The defense looks tough. They play disciplined and aggressive and clearly Navarro Bowman is the heart of that. It really looks like he has brought back the attitude of the defense that went to the super bowl a few years back even though he's pretty much the only player left from that team on D. I was worried about pass rush and the Rams don't have a great O-line but they got after the quarterback regularly with Brooks, Bowman, Reid, and even Armstead got a sack. Can't wait until Aaron Lynch gets back to compliment that group. The secondary wasn't tested too much but both Ward and Brock made plays. The 9ers D was totally ready for everything the Rams did, even if all they did was throw zero yard passes to Tayvon Austin all night and fail to run Gurley. They had better get Goff ready to play soon because Case Keenum sucks ass.

The Offense is not good but the o-line is very much improved as we saw in preseason. Hyde looks like he's back to his old self and Draughn had some good runs as well. Hyde is shifty and Draughn brings the muscle so they are a nice combo. Unfortunately they are going to be limited by the lack of a passing game. Gabbert seems to be nearly as effective running as Kaepernick and he clearly sees the field much better but he still makes throws that make you go "WTF was that?". Sometimes he makes very accurate throws into tight windows and then he will just put it in the dirt 2 yards behind his receiver on the next pass. Hopefully some of that is just first game jitters but we saw it in preseason too. Nothing that makes me want Kaep back though. It would help if he had some receivers to throw to as well. Vance Macdonald makes some plays and it seems like Kerley was a good pickup but aside from that we got jack shit from the receivers last night. Hyde tends to drop the ball receiving quite a bit as well.

SF was clearly the better coached team last night. Obviously the D completely shut down the Rams and the offense was unspectacular but managed to move the ball vs. the Rams vaunted front 7 in all but the 3rd quarter. SF also had only one penalty all night where the Rams had 185 yards total offense and 102 yards in penalties.

I'm sure we've got a dose of reality coming with road games at Carolina and Seattle in the next two weeks but I still don't think these 49ers are as bad as people projected them to be in the off season.