BREAKING NEWS

If I had posted my spastic notes yesterday as a form of Review for the 49ers week 3 31-10 loss, readers would see in it a lot of venom directed towards 49ers offensive coordinator, Jimmy Raye. Some of it was measured criticism. The rest of it was cruel, violent hyperbole, the sort of fatwah that professional football (and indeed, all sports) often brings out of its fans. "He needs to be benched! He needs to be fired! He needs to be benched AND fired! He needs to be strapped to a bench and set on fire!"

[By the way, did you know the Aztecs had a team sport played with a rubber ball? It's true. The object of was to put the ball through a ring-shaped goal, just like in basketball. Players were not allowed to use their hands to propel the ball towards the goal, just like in soccer. And the losing team was collectively sentenced to death, and sacrificed to their gods on their altars to satiate the cultural bloodlust, which does not actually happen in football, but fans have been known to call sports-talk radio shows and make demands spiritually consistent with this idea.]

Today, this ghoulish football fan got his bloodlust partially satiated, as the 49ers became the first NFL team to fire a coach. Offensive Coordinator Jimmy Raye was banished from Forty-Niner Land. Not quite the same as holding his still-quivering heart up to the sky so that Chuihuatopectli, God Of Third Down Conversions, might be pleased, but it'll have to do.

I was also hard on Alex "Check Down To The Fullback On A Flea Flicker [and then throw it away because even he's not open]" Smith in my rambling game notes. In truth, like the chicken/egg conundrum, it's hard to say whether the Quarterback or the Offensive Coordinator is more responsible for the pitiful offensive performance. It could be either. It could be both. But Alex Smith's career with the San Francisco 49ers is another saga for another blog entry, and an as yet unfinished saga. Jimmy Raye's saga is finished. My game notes are now half-irrelevant, as the concern has been addressed and resolved, though not necessarily for the better. As bad as Jimmy Raye was, his replacement is unlikely to be better, may very well be worse, and it may not even make one iota of real difference because Alex Smith is still the quarterback. It almost certainly won't make a difference this week against The Falcons in Atlanta.

Quetzalcotl (who prefers to stretch the field and believes establishing the
run is overrated in the modern NFL) firing his offensive coordinator.