Defensive post-game analysis (Week 1)

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.

Originally posted by SybErkRimInAL:
BigMar FTW!!!!!

Originally posted by dj43:

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

Originally posted by littleken:

Originally posted by dj43:

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.

No. According to Matt Maiocco, Larry Fitzgerald had little success against Nate Clements again. Fiz had some catches when Clements was not on him. Also per Matt Barrows, Clements shut down Larry Fitzgerald most of the day. There are certainly plays when Spencer was one Fitz, but not many plays.

You got to be kidding me if you are saying that neither Clements and Spencer had safety help over the top. The Niners defense was playing soft coverage with safety over the top all day long.

Originally posted by NoOffseason:
Well, the entire defense played great and not giving up the long bombs had a lot to do with our defense constantly getting good pressure on Warner (except during the 3rd quarter, where they promptly started to get bigger gains), but for me something else was important in this game:

There was no play where he screwed up so bad that the Cardinals could score

Remember, this was his first game as a starter. And he did not play that much before, as he was dinged up during extend parts of the past few seasons. So he lacks playing experience, which could lead to some mistakes and screw-ups.

However, the problem with a Safety screwing up is that usually there is no one left behind him to bail him out. So I was worried a bit that Goldson may make a few mistakes and that one of those mistakes may give a big scoring play.

But as I see it, he was steady, did his job most of the time and he did not have a big meltdown play that directly lead to points (I still have nightmares regarding that Dolphins touchdown Mark Roman gave up....). Which means he had an encouraging start and I hope he will show us his ball-hawking skills in a game soon, preferably with an interception or two against Seattle next week

Originally posted by NJNiner:

Originally posted by SybErkRimInAL:
BigMar FTW!!!!!

I love it when they lock his threads

Originally posted by WINiner:
Correct me if i'm wrong, and I very well may be, but I believe Fitz didn't catch one single ball while he was being covered by Spencer. If memory serves, his 1st catch didn't come till he was covered by Nate.

I have always liked Spencer and thought he was surely a #1 corner in the making before he ran into a string of injuries. I like most of you was honestly suprised when he was named starter. If Spencer continues to play the way he did yesterday, our defenseis going to be top 10 and maybe even better then that.......