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Vic Fangio + Adam Gase… or Jim Tomsula + Geep Chryst? The 49ers made that call last January and oops, oops, oops

Some Twitter musings from last night–after Chicago’s upset victory over Green Bay at Lambeau Field last night–and this morning, collected and expanded for this quick blog-item:

That’s the essential point of this, if you’re trying to figure out what the hell happened to the 49ers and why the Bears are suddenly 5-6, with a string of impressive victories, even though their 53-man roster is decidedly less than ideal.

And less than the 49ers’ total talent, I don’t think there’s any question about that. The 49ers, by the way, are 3-7 and host Arizona Sunday.

Then Tomsula’s team plays John Fox, Vic Fangio and Adam Gase’s team in Chicago next Sunday–when Chicago will have several extra days to prepare for the 49ers.  Uh-oh.

The 49ers did this to themselves, mainly, and everybody knew exactly how badly they were screwing it up, apparently except for them.

To recap from the start, the 49ers fired Jim Harbaugh after they went 8-8 last season (actually Jed York, Trent Baalke and Paraag Marathe plotted to fire Harbaugh for months before that, even when the 49ers were 7-4) .

I believe Michigan has done quite all right for itself this season after quickly hiring him.

There’s more: If York-Baalke-Marathe were going to stay in-house with a replacement for Harbaugh, especially if they were going to lean to the defensive side, you would’ve thought they would select Fangio, who ran the 49ers defense through some incredible times.

No, the YBM power trio wanted defensive line coach Jim Tomsula and in fact dreamed of hiring Tomsula for years–even while Harbaugh was winning big and Fangio was running the D.

Then, as an alternate option, Baalke flew to meet with Adam Gase (then Denver’s OC–though that staff was breaking up after John Fox had been fired), and Gase got into serious talks with the 49ers to take the top job.

Not bad by Baalke; but there’s every signal that York and Marathe were not as enthused about Gase as a potential HC option.

Good sign that Gase knew what he was doing: Gase wanted Fangio as his DC. But 49ers management insisted that Gase had to take Tomsula as his DC, or no deal.

Gase’s wise response: No deal, guess I’ll re-join Fox in Chicago… and then Fox hired Fangio as the Bears DC.

Apparently, Fangio wasn’t enough of a “teacher” for York, Baalke and Marathe, so they hired Tomsula, the guy they wanted all along.

Tomsula immediately tried to hire Gase as his OC but Gase turned him down, flat, several times. (More proof of his wisdom. You prove this in many ways, sometimes by the jobs you won’t take and the execs you no longer trust.)

And no, there’s zero chance Fangio would’ve stayed as 49ers DC  under Tomsula. 

So what’s happened with the two teams?

* The Bears have very little talent and the staff knew that coming into the situation, and the one big talent they inherited was flighty Jay Cutler… who is now playing very steadily under Gase.

After a rough 0-3 start, the Bears have gone 5-2, including victories at Kansas City, San Diego, St. Louis and Green Bay, and barely lost in Denver.

Oh, another point: Former 49ers secondary coach Ed Dontell followed Fangio to the Bears. What a great staff.

Fox should send Jed and Trent a gift basket for delivering Gase, Fangio and Donatell to Chicago.

* Meanwhile, the Tomsula hired Geep Chryst as his OC, Eric Manging as his DC–both off of last season’s staff–and the 49ers are 0-5 on the road and long ago benched their flighty QB, Colin Kaepernick.

And the 49ers essentially have an NFL Europe staff–at least at HC and OC. Two fairly important spots, I’d say.

How does 49ers management explain all this? Jed/Paraag/Trent have already issued their main excuse via national reporters & team employees >> Blame Kaepernick.

He’s not playing any more, so if the 49ers keep losing, YBM will have to find new ways to blame Kaepernick… or find somebody else to blame. They’re very good at the Blame Game, so they’ll find a way–they’re just not any good most anything else, though.

Tim Kawakami