A Fun Two Weeks of Competition Across the Offense | Page 5

MadDog49er · 2009-10-12T12:35:01-07:00

After yesterday's massacre, which I believe has been far too dramatized on the board by many (in the grand scheme of things, it is one game, and the first bad overall game the team has played all year), the next couple weeks could be a blast to watch, as I surmise Singletary is open up competition all across the offense. The problems are far and wide, and do not seem to be getting better. Hence, the potential for a massive overhaul before the Niners face the Texans. Here are some of the competitions I expect to see: 1) Rachal vs. Wragge vs. Snyder- While Rachal is far more athletic, the bottom line is that he is struggling. Struggling against a backup lineman last week with the Rams, struggling this week against the Falcons; heck, he's struggled all year. While is has been more convenient for fans to blast Baas (since he will probably depart in FA this year, and Rachal is young), Rachal simply has been terrible in pass protection. He is a lost puppy right now. Wragge is a savvy vet who may need to give the kid a break to get his head together. I have added Snyder just in case he is the loser of the battle below. 2) Snyder vs. Pashos- A showdown between two mediocre RT's, I've got a feeling that the extra two weeks in this offense will help Pashos, and he will emerge the starter. This would allow Snyder the potential to move inside to replace Rachal or Baas. We need to get our best five guys on the field, and Snyder would be better than Rachal at this point of the season. 3) Bruce vs. Jones vs. Crabtree vs. Battle vs. Hill- So, who wants to be the starter next to Morgan? It seems like Morgan has emerged as the top guy the past two weeks (although besides his breakway run yesterday, we still did not see much). However, he is contributing, something we are not seeing elsewhere. Bruce looks like he is 80 years old. Jones is coming back from injury. Battle has been sitting on the sidelines a lot due to Raye's offense, and Hill has been playing special teams. I expect the Niners to give Jones every shot to move up the depth chart and possibly push for a starting role. Crabtree is not going to be ready for the full package, so he's competing for the third WR role. This will be a fun week to see who gets the chance to start and play backup. And, I think someone surprising is going to get cut this week: Hill? Battle? Rossum? Even with Spurlock headed to the waiver wire, I'm just not convinced the Niners will keep 6 WR's, and a PR. I could be wrong. 4) Smith vs. Hill- I fully expect Singletary to allow Smith some first team reps, and this may be his shot to run the offense. I still expect Hill to emerge the starter after the bye, but Hill was pretty shaky, and the passing game has been inconsistent all season. So, if Smith lights it up in practice, we may see a change. Something has to pump up this dreadful offense. Anyone else think the practices the next couple weeks are going to be intense? Cheers. P.S. As for the defense, I'm not going to panic. I think they simply had a bad game, and this unit simply needs to move on. If it becomes a week-to-week issue like the offense, then we have a major problem. One final note: We may be seeing the future at SS come sooner than expected. If Michael Lewis has experienced his third concussion since August, the writing is on the wall. I fully expect the team to target either Eric Berry or Taylor Mays to be the starting SS next season, and the other first rounder to be a RT. [ Edited by MadDog49er on Oct 12, 2009 at 12:35:43 ]

Oct 13, 2009 at 10:53 AM

#61

nvninerfan1
Veteran
Posts: 2,601

Originally posted by cNiner:
Wow , so our best potintial WR will be coming out only on 3rd and long, unless MR Ray decide, he wants to throw on 2nd down and leave old timer in the whole time. I would put in Crap , Morgan & jones run go routes and let VD, gore work the short medium routes !

Ahhh.....Don't you have to have protection for that to work? You know, just thinking out loud.

Oct 13, 2009 at 11:15 AM

#62

Daniel2778
Veteran
Posts: 1,714

Originally posted by nvninerfan1:
Originally posted by cNiner:
Wow , so our best potintial WR will be coming out only on 3rd and long, unless MR Ray decide, he wants to throw on 2nd down and leave old timer in the whole time. I would put in Crap , Morgan & jones run go routes and let VD, gore work the short medium routes !

Ahhh.....Don't you have to have protection for that to work? You know, just thinking out loud.

and a qb that can get the receivers the ball?

Oct 13, 2009 at 11:19 AM

#63

49ers1fan1982
Veteran
Posts: 582

Originally posted by nvninerfan1:
Originally posted by cNiner:
Wow , so our best potintial WR will be coming out only on 3rd and long, unless MR Ray decide, he wants to throw on 2nd down and leave old timer in the whole time. I would put in Crap , Morgan & jones run go routes and let VD, gore work the short medium routes !

Ahhh.....Don't you have to have protection for that to work? You know, just thinking out loud.

Oct 13, 2009 at 11:50 AM

#64

Schulzy
Veteran
Posts: 2,393

Originally posted by nvchamp9ers:
I think something that most people don't account when blaming the defense is the spot the offense puts them in, first giving the other team the ball at the 20 yard line first thing(INT) followed by a short drive and putting the D right back out there. Our offense needs to sustain drives we can't have so many 3 and outs, it will wear the defense down, it will get in their head. Our offense needs to help the defense win not be dragged there. I put this loss on the offense as much or more then the defense. The only 3 people that played the game for real was Lawson, Smith and Willis other than that no one really showed up on either side.

I think this is a fantastic point. But you look at the yards per game numbers for our defense, they don't really look elite, but those numbers are deceiving because the defense spends so much time on the field.

These numbers I like better:

Pass defense
6.7 Y/A against - 14th in NFL
180 attempts against - 3rd most in NFL
58.8 comp. % against - 11 in NFL

Rush defense
3.3 Y/A against - 3rd in NFL
135 att against - 11th most in NFL

These numbers clearly show that our offense has not been on the field long enough.

Oct 13, 2009 at 2:06 PM

#65

OnTheClock
Hall of Fame
Posts: 38,449

It would be smart to at least keep an eye the QB situation. Hill looks to be getting progressively worse. Many here fail to remember that he has NEVER started a complete NFL season, and you know what?

I expect that to still be the case at the end of this year.

Hill is going to get stuck on the sideline due to one of two possible reasons:

1) Plays so poorly that we have to bench him to allow another QB to spark the offense.

2) Our OL continues to play horrendous and Hill gets blasted and injured, leading to Alex starting.

[ Edited by OnTheClock on Oct 13, 2009 at 14:06:56 ]

Oct 13, 2009 at 2:13 PM

#66

king32
Info N/A

From Mindi Bach's Twitter:

"From 49ers; Gore, Crabtree & Alex Smith will stay during the bye week to work on offense"

Somebody may have already noted this. Couldn't find it anywhere though. I would think Shaun Hill should stay during the bye as well and build some chemistry with Crab.

Link

Oct 13, 2009 at 2:14 PM

#67

AXEGRINDER
Veteran
Posts: 25,679

Originally posted by king32:
From Mindi Bach's Twitter:

"From 49ers; Gore, Crabtree & Alex Smith will stay during the bye week to work on offense"

Somebody may have already noted this. Couldn't find it anywhere though. I would think Shaun Hill should stay during the bye as well and build some chemistry with Crab.

Link

The entire offensive line should stay too.

Oct 13, 2009 at 2:15 PM

#68

PA9erFaithful
Veteran
Posts: 12,458

Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
Originally posted by king32:
From Mindi Bach's Twitter:

"From 49ers; Gore, Crabtree & Alex Smith will stay during the bye week to work on offense"

Somebody may have already noted this. Couldn't find it anywhere though. I would think Shaun Hill should stay during the bye as well and build some chemistry with Crab.

Link

The entire offensive line should stay too.

Absolutely.

Oct 13, 2009 at 3:13 PM

#69

MadDog49er
Hall of Fame
Posts: 19,400

Running some numbers on Hill. Take it for what it is worth:
1) 179.6 Passing Yards per game- 27th in NFL
2) 80.7 Passer Rating- 23rd in NFL
3) 5 TD Passes- Tied for 20th in NFL
4) 9 Passes of 20+ yards- Tied for 22nd in the NFL
5) 6.2 yards per pass attempt- 25th in NFL
6) 56.3% completion percentage- 30th in NFL
7) 144 Passing attempts- 16th in the NFL
8) 26.4 of passes completed create first down-32nd in the NFL

The number that jumped out to me was the number of pass attempts, 144. Hill has thrown the ball in the middle area for starting QB's (16th in the NFL), but we are 27th in yards per game.

Oct 13, 2009 at 3:20 PM

#70

AXEGRINDER
Veteran
Posts: 25,679

Originally posted by MadDog49er:
Running some numbers on Hill. Take it for what it is worth:
1) 179.6 Passing Yards per game- 27th in NFL
2) 80.7 Passer Rating- 23rd in NFL
3) 5 TD Passes- Tied for 20th in NFL
4) 9 Passes of 20+ yards- Tied for 22nd in the NFL
5) 6.2 yards per pass attempt- 25th in NFL
6) 56.3% completion percentage- 30th in NFL
7) 144 Passing attempts- 16th in the NFL
8) 26.4 of passes completed create first down-32nd in the NFL

The number that jumped out to me was the number of pass attempts, 144. Hill has thrown the ball in the middle area for starting QB's (16th in the NFL), but we are 27th in yards per game.

That directly translates to "no arm" and "coaches don't trust me"

Oct 13, 2009 at 3:21 PM

#71

ninertico
Veteran
Posts: 10,259

Originally posted by king32:
From Mindi Bach's Twitter:

"From 49ers; Gore, Crabtree & Alex Smith will stay during the bye week to work on offense"

Somebody may have already noted this. Couldn't find it anywhere though. I would think Shaun Hill should stay during the bye as well and build some chemistry with Crab.

Link

Whoa, Alex Smith? Why not Shaun Hill? Wouldn't the starter need more chemistry?

Still, the fact that these players want to stay back and work with Crabtree says volumes.

We got two weeks to fix this thing and this is a solid start!

Oct 13, 2009 at 3:24 PM

#72

da209
Veteran
Posts: 3,403

Originally posted by ninertico:
Originally posted by king32:
From Mindi Bach's Twitter:

"From 49ers; Gore, Crabtree & Alex Smith will stay during the bye week to work on offense"

Somebody may have already noted this. Couldn't find it anywhere though. I would think Shaun Hill should stay during the bye as well and build some chemistry with Crab.

Link

Whoa, Alex Smith? Why not Shaun Hill? Wouldn't the starter need more chemistry?

Still, the fact that these players want to stay back and work with Crabtree says volumes.

We got two weeks to fix this thing and this is a solid start!

championship!!!!!!!!!! way to go A. Smith

Oct 13, 2009 at 3:25 PM

#73

Antix
Veteran
Posts: 9,918

Originally posted by ninertico:
Originally posted by king32:
From Mindi Bach's Twitter:

"From 49ers; Gore, Crabtree & Alex Smith will stay during the bye week to work on offense"

Somebody may have already noted this. Couldn't find it anywhere though. I would think Shaun Hill should stay during the bye as well and build some chemistry with Crab.

Link

Whoa, Alex Smith? Why not Shaun Hill? Wouldn't the starter need more chemistry?

Still, the fact that these players want to stay back and work with Crabtree says volumes.

We got two weeks to fix this thing and this is a solid start!

Smith has seen our line. He knows it's only a matter of time.

Oct 13, 2009 at 3:32 PM

#74

DaveWilcox
Veteran
Posts: 3,717

Originally posted by AXEGRINDER:
Originally posted by king32:
From Mindi Bach's Twitter:

"From 49ers; Gore, Crabtree & Alex Smith will stay during the bye week to work on offense"

Somebody may have already noted this. Couldn't find it anywhere though. I would think Shaun Hill should stay during the bye as well and build some chemistry with Crab.

Link

The entire offensive line should stay too.

And the coaches too, and while were at it, how about the entire team.

Oct 13, 2009 at 3:36 PM

#75

OnTheClock
Hall of Fame
Posts: 38,449

Originally posted by MadDog49er:
Running some numbers on Hill. Take it for what it is worth:
1) 179.6 Passing Yards per game- 27th in NFL
2) 80.7 Passer Rating- 23rd in NFL
3) 5 TD Passes- Tied for 20th in NFL
4) 9 Passes of 20+ yards- Tied for 22nd in the NFL
5) 6.2 yards per pass attempt- 25th in NFL
6) 56.3% completion percentage- 30th in NFL
7) 144 Passing attempts- 16th in the NFL
8) 26.4 of passes completed create first down-32nd in the NFL

The number that jumped out to me was the number of pass attempts, 144. Hill has thrown the ball in the middle area for starting QB's (16th in the NFL), but we are 27th in yards per game.

You can't beat around the bush here. Telling it like it is, those numbers are atrocious. We're last in the league with the highest number of 3-and-outs in the NFL. Understandably, that doesn't all fall on Hill -- but I wouldn't doubt for a second that if Alex were in and our offense had a stat like that, people would be all over him instead of defending him like many are with Hill as they blame Raye instead.

I'd have to believe the percentage would be better if Alex were playing, too -- and why? -- because you can't get any worse than last place, and that's where we fall under that category.

It's whatever, though. If this continues it's only a matter of time before a change occurs. I believe Singletary has made it clear he has no problem doing so.