Defensive post-game analysis (Week 1)

It seems like after this huge victory, many of the 49ers fans got carried away and have set too high of an expectation for the 49ers secondary. The Cardinals' running game was not a threat for the 49ers and the Niners had just 7 man in the box in the most of the game. The team had double coverage on both wideouts all game long, which allows the Hightower to ben open underneath in almost every play. That is fine because Hightower is not a real threat. It was a good defensive game plan for Singletary and Manusky.

However, that scheme will not work for all teams. Teams with better running game will force the Niners to use 8 man in the box. And teams with a real threat with tightend, running back, full back as a receiver will force the Niners defense coverage to mix a little. The Niners defense is simply not a cover 2 based defense. You will see a lot of Michael Lewis close to the line of scrimmage in other games.

I still doubt Clements or any other corner's abilities to cover receivers one on one.

[ Edited by littleken on Sep 14, 2009 at 10:20:02 ]

Manny is still a weakness in rushing the QB. Teams will realize we are heavily relying on stunts and stuff in order to try and get Manny to the QB, so those teams will figure a way to use their run to counter that.

Originally posted by Blitz:

Originally posted by verb1der:
I gotta give my props to the entire D, but Patrick Willis' dominance in the middle (and the rest of the field) is freaky scary, and is just ABSOLUTELY the BEST IN THE LEAGUE, hands down.

I can definitely see a top 5 defense forming.

Willis:
13 Tackles, 11 solo
2 pass defensed
1 int

I think he's going to have his best year so far. He has enough experience now that he should have about ZERO weakness in his game this year. That's going to be big. Maybe scary big.

Something else...I think KB is going to factor in this year. We won't see it in his stats, but I think we are going to end up seeing it in Smith's, Haralson's, Lawson's and Willis's.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe he was the one who made it possible for Smith to make that game ending sack. That was a beautiful play, Smith and KB pulled that off in textbook fashion. I haven't watched the game in replay yet, so I could be wrong.

I also must add, that Aubrayo Franklin did a very solid job occupying 2 linemen, freeing up Willis, and allowing him to rack up the tackles! Good job AF, he's proving me wrong this season.

[ Edited by verb1der on Sep 14, 2009 at 08:23:24 ]

Originally posted by Joecool:
Manny is still a weakness in rushing the QB. Teams will realize we are heavily relying on stunts and stuff in order to try and get Manny to the QB, so those teams will figure a way to use their run to counter that.

Agreed. ManLaw is a weak pass rusher, I paid close attention to him and he consistently gets stoned with this one on one match-ups. I fully expect Seattle to test him.

Originally posted by Joecool:
Manny is still a weakness in rushing the QB. Teams will realize we are heavily relying on stunts and stuff in order to try and get Manny to the QB, so those teams will figure a way to use their run to counter that.

Yes. And there is nothing wrong with that either. And don't forget that them figuring out a way to counter that will come with a price to them as well. There are NO free lunches in this game.

It will come down to who can adjust better during the game. I think we have the personnel/depth to adjust effectively now.

Confucius say: There's always more than way to skin a cat.

Originally posted by Blitz:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Manny is still a weakness in rushing the QB. Teams will realize we are heavily relying on stunts and stuff in order to try and get Manny to the QB, so those teams will figure a way to use their run to counter that.

Yes. And there is nothing wrong with that either. And don't forget that them figuring out a way to counter that will come with a price to them as well. There are NO free lunches in this game.

It will come down to who can adjust better during the game. I think we have the personnel/depth to adjust effectively now.

Confucius say: There's always more than way to skin a cat.

Yes, you are correct. It would actually be easy for us to counter a team trying to run at our stunts because Manny is VERY good against the run.

Man, we held on of the top NFL offenses to 16 points while having difficulty with our own offense!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


That's damn good defense!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by Blitz:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Manny is still a weakness in rushing the QB. Teams will realize we are heavily relying on stunts and stuff in order to try and get Manny to the QB, so those teams will figure a way to use their run to counter that.

Yes. And there is nothing wrong with that either. And don't forget that them figuring out a way to counter that will come with a price to them as well. There are NO free lunches in this game.

It will come down to who can adjust better during the game. I think we have the personnel/depth to adjust effectively now.

Confucius say: There's always more than way to skin a cat.

Yes, you are correct. It would actually be easy for us to counter a team trying to run at our stunts because Manny is VERY good against the run.

You could also do some blitzing, which we did little of yesterday because we were concentrating on taking away their nuclear option of the down field Fitz/Boldin combo. We didn't bring up any safety help into the box either (could have but didn't need to). Manny is good in coverage, we still have the option of dropping him back into coverage, or blitzing him. We pretty much played him straight up last night, but I think that would have changed had they gotten too out of hand with that underneath s**t to Hightower. But, the point is, we didn't have to change our game plan defensively yesterday, and that's a damn good thing. Manny is a versatile player, no doubt.

I'm all smile.

I'm smiling because I saw a great 49ers defense harrassing Warner all day and making big plays.

I'm smiling because the WZ haters are quiet now.

With Parys pass rushing 99% of the time, I saw a 4-3 defense out there. Good job Manusky.

Originally posted by littleken:
It seems like after this huge victory, many of the 49ers fans got carried away and have set too high of an expectation for the 49ers secondary. The Cardinals' running game was not a threat for the 49ers and the Niners had just 7 man in the box in the most of the game. The team had double coverage on both wideouts all game long, which allows the Hightower to ben open underneath in almost every play. That is fine because Hightower is not a real threat. It was a good defensive game plan for Singletary and Manusky.

However, that scheme will not work for all teams. Teams with better running game will force the Niners to use 8 man in the box. And teams with a real threat with tightend, running back, full back as a receiver will force the Niners defense coverage to mix a little. The Niners defense is simply not a cover 2 based defense. You will see a lot of Michael Lewis close to the line of scrimmage in other games.

I still doubt Clements or any other corner's abilities to cover receivers one on one.

Actually, Spencer was one on one with Fitzgerald most of the time. If he can cover Fitzgerald, he can cover anyone.

I was one of those who asked that folks look back three years to when Spencer was fully healthy and was rated as one of the better young CBs in the league. Yesterday he played back to those ratings.

Originally posted by 49ersalldaway126:

Originally posted by RogerCraig:
The O - line was the only unit, which played poorly. Gore was being abused at the line of scrimmage. Really would like to know what was going on.

Shawnte pleasantly surprised us all.

the right side of line (snyder and baas) got completely manhandled

Baas plays on the left side.

I thought in the past he was prone to getting burned, too inconcistent, always a step too slow to react to a WR. But I am impressed to see he has come back along way to earn s starter position. Last weekend he showed us whythe coaches gave him the promotion. Good job Spencer.

Props to Singletary for calling that defensive timeout! That was EXTREMELY smart.

Only someone who knows the game and actually played it , knows that when the defense is tired.

The hurry up was tiring the d' , and coach called the timeout, rallied the troops with his awesome speeches and they came through AGAINST THE NFC CHAMPS.

''Our formula is this; we go out and punch people in the mouth.''



My favorite niners coach since Walsh.

That was a great call by Sing!