Defensive post-game analysis (week 3)

It all goes together on defense:

Dline doesn't collapse the pocket -
OTs free to step out on the outside rush and smother them -
Lack of rush means CBs play soft and look bad too.

Raji would have helped, but didn't make it to us. Orakpo is doing well in Washington, he would have been a good add for outside pressure. We traded a 2nd instead of taling any pass rush help??

Again though, this falls on McCloughan - our roster has not improved from last year. He opted for a gimpy solution at RT and the only reason he added Bly was the injury to Walt - so if Bly turns out to be a good addition, Scotty shouldn't get too much credit for that one.

The secondary has played well and most of the LBs have done ok, but the D-line is just plain horrible. If they can't improve drastically in a hurry, then the 9ers age going to suffer through some blowouts again this season.

Attended the game last night and then watched a replay of it on TV, enduring the Cowboy commentators through out the game. Maybe my perspective from attending the game will interest a few of you.

DL
Our pass rush was for the horrible. We had several decent pressures but would be from the blind side so Romo was able to slide to his right and give himself more time. Several times Romo had 7-10 seconds to find a receiver no way a secondary can cover that long. Justin Smith had his motor on high while in the game and was good. Lawson does a good job with his speed rush but the moment is engaged by a RB or OL is tied up and taken out of the play. Franklin, Sop did a good job holding up the line and filling space so our LB could hit the seam and make tackles. Balmer on pass rushes had good penetration several times did a good job pursuing on runs as well is pretty fast for a big man. DL does a decent job against the run but our pass rush is non-existent which makes the turnovers that we have gotten in the preseason even more amazing. Oh how I wish we could have drafted Raij.

LB
Willis is going to fine but was consistently half step behind and was taken out of a few plays by the OL or RB. I expect by start of the season that will be resolved. Spikes got owned by the Cowboy line and FB on several plays (goes back to DL issues). Lawson did not have a good game the TE caught several passes that he could have knocked down and as mentioned his pass rush was useless and never around the ball on run plays. McKillop did a solid job in the second half. Be fun to watch McKillop and Willis side by side for years to come.

Secondary
IMO Bly is an upgrade over Harris did a nice job on coverage should have had a pick but dropped the ball. His run support was very good stuck his head in there on several occasions forcing Barber to turn back inside. Clements as well did great on run support his coverage was a little suspect (to far off his man) but on many occasions Romo would not even consider throwing to Clements side. Brown came in and did a great job of coverage and run support. There were many, many plays when Clements, Bly, or Brown was getting a better break on the ball then the Cowboy receivers. Goldson was all over the place played a little out of control his hit on Barber is highlight material. Barber is not one to get hit and fall backwards. Good to see Roman get a pick and nice run back. The strip by Bly was another very nice play. Considering how poor the rush is our LB and secondary really need to be complimented for the turnovers they are creating. Imagine what could happen if we had a rush?

DO
Our DC pretty much played the Cowboys man on man which in my IMO is a losing proposition Cowboys have a huge OL that can bury you. With the way Jones and Barber run can guarantee Boys will get 100+ yards rushing a game against anyone if you take them on straight up. Didn’t do anything special when it came to line stunts, over loading one side, etc. very vanilla. Very little time went into planning how they were going to play defense against the boys which I understand since only pre-season

Conclusion
I understand that we get most of our sacks due to miss matches but some day that has to change and we have to use one of our first round picks to either get a dominating NT that has to be blocked by 2 OL or pass rushing DL. Considering we played the boys straight up did ok playing the run. Have to remember the Boys are very deep and good at RB (Barber is a Pro Bowler) and there line is f**king huge. Was pleased with the secondary we controlled the WR however our LB or SS could have done a better job covering there Tight Ends. Romo got the ball to Witten and his other TE on several occasions.

We appear to be a bend but don’t break type defense. You will get lots of yards on us but once you get down to our 30 we are going to tighten up and at the most give you a field goal.

Cowboy commentators reaction
Commentators had some nice comments about the Niners specifically Darryl “Moose” Johnston.

When N. Davis came on to play QB Babe Luefenberg made it sound like Davis was mentally retarded when talking about his dyslexia. After watching his performance Johnston and Luefenberg were heaping a lot of praise on Davis and said no way the kid makes it through waivers.

Johnston educated the Cowboy fans on Gore and that he is and elite runner and only LT has more yards over last 3 years. They were very impressed by Coffee and Sheets and said that the Cowboys and Niners may have the deepest set of RB in the league. Very nice compliment coming from Johnston considering how deep the Boys are with Barber, Jones and Choice. All the commentators especially Johnston were emphatic that there is no way Sheets makes it through waivers especially after watching him on two seperate play run over one Boy and carry two others into the end zone

Johnston pointed out that Niner defense is very under rated and that even though is pre-season with Willis, Clements was impressed by Bly and Goldson that will be a force to be reckoned with.

Johnston like many of us pointed out the obvious that the Niners this year are a team that could do well or suck and that it depends on are QB play, however flat said that even though he has seen Hill play on several occasions and is does not think he is the answer for us long term.

I've always really like Lawson, but it's obvious he has zero passrushing skills, at least at this point. I focused in on him all last night. I noticed that often times he gets good initial push, even driving his man into the backfield. But then, it's like he doesn't know how to disengage and gets stuck fighting with the OT when all he has to do is spin off and tackle the QB. I dont get it.

Its a shame, because I think he could be a probowler on a 4-3 team. Hopefully he can learn a few more moves, because he is physically gifted.

Originally posted by derek_allen_02:

Originally posted by nflguy49:
Manny Lawson is another first rd bust unless he steps up his game BIGTIME this season. He was getting knocked on his ass all game. He has no passrush moves and if he doesn't have em by now he never will.

He wants to be like Merriman, Just run over the person. But he doesn't have the power. And it seemed like our blitzing was just running into the block. What about some stints? Misdirection?

ugh.

this is preseason........

-9fA

Originally posted by NTeply49:
ROMAN INTERCEPTED A PASS?

and pigs flew and the fat lady sang country music all the way back to her trailerpark in dallas.

Uhmmm.... not so much that he made a play on the ball to get that intereception, the Q.B. throw it directly to him.

Roman still S-U-C-K-S

Originally posted by teeohh:
manny lawson pisses me off

Here is the problem.... Manny has not alternative move other than his failed "bull rush" to get to a Q.B.

He has no spin move, no counter move, no nothen.

A great majority of the time his attempted Bull Rush results in Manny getting stone walled or thrown to the ground.

Glad Manny put on that extra ten pounds of muscle, but it is not helping him.

I think his physical shortcoming as far as strength lay in his "pencil thin legs".

Quote:
---CB Tarell Brown: He saw his first action of the exhibition season, and he looked really, really good. Don't be surprised if he ends up winning the starting job over veteran Dre' Bly. At the very least, Brown showed he deserves a big role in the offense this season. Not only was he strong in coverage, he showed good awareness in the run game.

from maiocco


very good news, I'm rooting for him

Manny Lawson should not be rushing the QB at all he should be being used as a coverage LB pure and simple

um there is no way dre bly doesn't win that starting job. has anyone watched him play? he has been BY FAR the best secondary player on our team in the pre-season.

if anything, it should be nate clements job that is in jeopardy. but of course the $80 million dollar man isn't going to be benched.

i love brown but you can't give him the nod over bly after the awesome pre-season bly has had.

Originally posted by teeohh:

Quote:
---CB Tarell Brown: He saw his first action of the exhibition season, and he looked really, really good. Don't be surprised if he ends up winning the starting job over veteran Dre' Bly. At the very least, Brown showed he deserves a big role in the offense this season. Not only was he strong in coverage, he showed good awareness in the run game.

from maiocco


very good news, I'm rooting for him

Originally posted by frenchmov:
um there is no way dre bly doesn't win that starting job. has anyone watched him play? he has been BY FAR the best secondary player on our team in the pre-season. if anything, it should be nate clements job that is in jeopardy. but of course the $80 million dollar man isn't going to be benched. i love brown but you can't give him the nod over bly after the awesome pre-season bly has had.

yeah i kind of agree. bly has gone through all of the training camp, preseason, etc, he has played really well. tbrown might be legit but he missed a ton of time so far. wouldnt be unhappy though if we started bly and tbrown but it wont happen.

Originally posted by Conejo:

Originally posted by 49erWill:
1 sack in 3 games?

thats the problem with the defense.

/thread

why don't you lock it then

Originally posted by SJniner7:
I really feel like they are holding back, at least I friggin hope so! They are typically sending 3-4 guys... sometimes 5, but never 6 or 7 like blitz-happy Dallas likes to send. My guess would be holding back for hte season opener

Which is exactly why it's total B.S. that we're playing vanilla. Is Dallas, S, Pittsburgh & NE holding back their defensive 3-4 schemes b/c it's preseason? Of course not!!! They work on perfecting their game and throwing in new wrinkles into their schemes.

Again, we run the most vanilla 3-4 I have ever seen...preseason or not.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by SJniner7:
I really feel like they are holding back, at least I friggin hope so! They are typically sending 3-4 guys... sometimes 5, but never 6 or 7 like blitz-happy Dallas likes to send. My guess would be holding back for hte season opener

Which is exactly why it's total B.S. that we're playing vanilla. Is Dallas, S, Pittsburgh & NE holding back their defensive 3-4 schemes b/c it's preseason? Of course not!!! They work on perfecting their game and throwing in new wrinkles into their schemes.

Again, we run the most vanilla 3-4 I have ever seen...preseason or not.

Thier stories different. The dont have to blitz to get to the QB. We do. If we show our blitz scheme's now we dont have any suprises for the season. We need a big time pass rusher. I wish we would have traded for Burgess.