smith @ end of game

The last part is so true.

"More broadly, the 49ers also need to find ways to reincorporate Frank Gore into the offense. Gore and Smith must be able to play well together."

Originally posted by Joecool:
The last part is so true.

"More broadly, the 49ers also need to find ways to reincorporate Frank Gore into the offense. Gore and Smith must be able to play well together."

But how good is gore right now?

Quote:
I think Frank Gore is approaching the end of the line. I fear this. He is still a good running back but he's no longer special. You know that. Admit it.

He had 9 carries for 25 yards against the Seahawks, this from the guy who was supposed to be the 49er offense. Before this season Singletary kept saying the offense goes through No. 21. Now it goes around him.

Gore is reaching the age when he can begin to see the end of his career. He has been hit a lot and he's been hurt and he is no longer dynamic. He will have good plays but in a year or two the Niners must replace him. I take no joy in writing this. I write what I believe.

LINK

Originally posted by ClassicNiner:

Originally posted by Chico:
this is a valid point. I like Alex but he needs to close these games when the game is on the line. He has failed too may times. He had time against the Texans and failed, he had time today twice and failed. Frank failed, VD failed, Crabs failed... this team has let me down too many times this year.

Sorry, but that's total crap. He closed the game twice, once when he bounced the winning TD off Vernon's helmet and once when he lead a drive from his 1 yard line to Seattle's 20, where Frank fumbled. He also lead them down the field for a tying TD.

And against Houston he came in at 1/2 time, down 3 TD's.

This is a team game. Maybe you should pay a bit of attention to the other players.

exactly

Originally posted by ninersush:
some of you guys are missing my point. i know there were mistakes and all.

but we had a chance to win with 50 secs left. if smith made better decisions/throws and we had more drops then i can say smith was not to blame at all. but it did not happen that way. he made bad plays when it was most cluth.

the 2nd & 3 pass to hill was bad. and so was the 3rd & 3 to crabs i think.

but can the lack of clutch play be fixed or not? that is all i'm asking.

I think it can. Some guys have that bravado naturally, some can/will develope it, and then there are those that never do figure it out. With Smith it seems to be a matter of a comfort zone. With guys like Joe, Steve, Elway, or Staubach it just was there. With someone like a Terry Bradshaw it didn't really show untill he felt comfortable and accepted by his team and his head coach. I think Alex Smith just needs to know that it is OK to take charge of situations like yesterday. That if he see's an opening to take off with the ball, to "make a play," it often is the smart thing to do. This is where some real mentoring can come in handy.
Calling Steve Young, calling Steve Young, We've got this 25 year old kid who got thrown under a bus and run over a few years ago by some dick in a suit, and is still just a little gun shy. How about you spend a couple hours with him in a film room and a practice field and show him the fine art of facial expression.

[ Edited by NP9er on Dec 7, 2009 at 11:41:29 ]

Originally posted by Brazilian49er:

Originally posted by Joecool:
The last part is so true.

"More broadly, the 49ers also need to find ways to reincorporate Frank Gore into the offense. Gore and Smith must be able to play well together."

But how good is gore right now?

Quote:
I think Frank Gore is approaching the end of the line. I fear this. He is still a good running back but he's no longer special. You know that. Admit it.

He had 9 carries for 25 yards against the Seahawks, this from the guy who was supposed to be the 49er offense. Before this season Singletary kept saying the offense goes through No. 21. Now it goes around him.

Gore is reaching the age when he can begin to see the end of his career. He has been hit a lot and he's been hurt and he is no longer dynamic. He will have good plays but in a year or two the Niners must replace him. I take no joy in writing this. I write what I believe.

LINK

I'm talking about catching the ball also. We won the game last week and Gore had the most catches. It keeps the check-down as a threat and if that is a threat, then the LBs don't get too far away from the LOS which allows for more open plays. Gore needs his touches, be them running or receiving. Even the quick pass yesterday with him at receiver, he would have scored if he didn't stumble but he still got 6 yards.

Originally posted by ninersush:
let me first say this is not to bash/luv on anyone. i would just like to see if anyone's thoughts are similar to mine or why not.

smith played a great game today for the most part. the drops/fumbles/coaching (3 TOs in Q1 amongst other things) killed us.

yet in the end we had the ball tied with about 50 secs to go. everyone was expecting smith would drive us down for a game winning score (FG or TD).

this is when a good qb becomes great. this is when leaders/winners are made. this is when u need ur qb to win the game.

however, alex had his 2 worst plays at that point. very disappointing.

and at this point you forget all the mistakes that have happened to this point. all the other stuff. all that matters is scoring. somehow. someway. and it didn't happen.

so i'm left to think that alex is good but not great. i don't if it is something that he can learn....that is being clutch in critical moments or is it something you just have.

but i personally came away very disappointed in how alex played on the 2 most crucial downs and have lost some faith in him.

so can he learn to finish or is it curtains for smith? lets keep this a respectable discussion folks.

What a stupid post ...........

Originally posted by NP9er:

Originally posted by ninersush:
some of you guys are missing my point. i know there were mistakes and all.

but we had a chance to win with 50 secs left. if smith made better decisions/throws and we had more drops then i can say smith was not to blame at all. but it did not happen that way. he made bad plays when it was most cluth.

the 2nd & 3 pass to hill was bad. and so was the 3rd & 3 to crabs i think.

but can the lack of clutch play be fixed or not? that is all i'm asking.

I think it can. Some guys have that bravado naturally, some can/will develope it, and then there are those that never do figure it out. With Smith it seems to be a matter of a comfort zone. With guys like Joe, Steve, Elway, or Staubach it just was there. With someone like a Terry Bradshaw it didn't really show untill he felt comfortable and accepted by his team and his head coach. I think Alex Smith just needs to know that it is OK to take charge of situations like yesterday. That if he see's an opening to take off with the ball, to "make a play," it often is the smart thing to do. This is where some real mentoring can come in handy.
Calling Steve Young, calling Steve Young, We've got this 25 year old kid who got thrown under a bus and run over a few years ago by some dick in a suit, and is still just a little gun shy. How about you spend a couple hours with him in a film room and a practice field and show him the fine art of facial expression.

you bring up an excellent point about bradshaw. he didn't get it for a few seasons until he was broken down and rebuiltish. hopefully smith is on the same track. i would love to see him end his career with the 3 (?) superbowl wins that bradshaw had.

f**k man! Just saw the last drive on ESPN. WTF was the coaching staff thinking??? Run the f**king clock out!!!!

Originally posted by SybErkRimInAL:
f**k man! Just saw the last drive on ESPN. WTF was the coaching staff thinking??? Run the f**king clock out!!!!

you saw that on espn? try seeing that in person..every seahawk fan that sat around us kept wondering why we didnt just take our chances in ot

Originally posted by SybErkRimInAL:
f**k man! Just saw the last drive on ESPN. WTF was the coaching staff thinking??? Run the f**king clock out!!!!

In hindsight it looks bad. But lets say that we did run out the clock and the Seahawks won the game in OT. Then everybody would be saying that why did we just run the clock out.

Everything gets second guessed if dont work.

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:

Originally posted by SybErkRimInAL:
f**k man! Just saw the last drive on ESPN. WTF was the coaching staff thinking??? Run the f**king clock out!!!!

you saw that on espn? try seeing that in person..every seahawk fan that sat around us kept wondering why we didnt just take our chances in ot

I agree with going for it. You don't run out the clock with 51 seconds left when you're 5-6. Seriously, Seattle had 1 drive the entire game that was decent against out defense. How many times are they going to move into field goal range when you have Andy Lee punting and 27 seconds left?

Originally posted by ClassicNiner:

Originally posted by Chico:
this is a valid point. I like Alex but he needs to close these games when the game is on the line. He has failed too may times. He had time against the Texans and failed, he had time today twice and failed. Frank failed, VD failed, Crabs failed... this team has let me down too many times this year.

Sorry, but that's total crap. He closed the game twice, once when he bounced the winning TD off Vernon's helmet and once when he lead a drive from his 1 yard line to Seattle's 20, where Frank fumbled. He also lead them down the field for a tying TD.

And against Houston he came in at 1/2 time, down 3 TD's.

This is a team game. Maybe you should pay a bit of attention to the other players.

some people just watch the games to find something, anything to hate on alex smith the guy more than did his part yesterday. VD let him down a few times, Delanie was interfered with but still shouldve hung on to the ball, crabtree ducked a TD and Gore fumbled on their side of the field. all of these plays happened while we were in scoring distance obviously because 3 or 4 of the drops wouldve been TD's and Gore's fumble was on the 30 i believe? even on the final drive a receiver dropped a second down pass that wouldve extended the drive. smith is the last person anyone should be blaming today.

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:

Originally posted by ClassicNiner:

Originally posted by Chico:
this is a valid point. I like Alex but he needs to close these games when the game is on the line. He has failed too may times. He had time against the Texans and failed, he had time today twice and failed. Frank failed, VD failed, Crabs failed... this team has let me down too many times this year.

Sorry, but that's total crap. He closed the game twice, once when he bounced the winning TD off Vernon's helmet and once when he lead a drive from his 1 yard line to Seattle's 20, where Frank fumbled. He also lead them down the field for a tying TD.

And against Houston he came in at 1/2 time, down 3 TD's.

This is a team game. Maybe you should pay a bit of attention to the other players.

some people just watch the games to find something, anything to hate on alex smith the guy more than did his part yesterday. VD let him down a few times, Delanie was interfered with but still shouldve hung on to the ball, crabtree ducked a TD and Gore fumbled on their side of the field. all of these plays happened while we were in scoring distance obviously because 3 or 4 of the drops wouldve been TD's and Gore's fumble was on the 30 i believe? even on the final drive a receiver dropped a second down pass that wouldve extended the drive. smith is the last person anyone should be blaming today.

Alex also stood in there and made the tackle on the fumble return. It probably wouldn't have gone for a TD, but a lot of NFL QB's wouldn't have done that!

Originally posted by ClassicNiner:

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:

Originally posted by ClassicNiner:

Originally posted by Chico:
this is a valid point. I like Alex but he needs to close these games when the game is on the line. He has failed too may times. He had time against the Texans and failed, he had time today twice and failed. Frank failed, VD failed, Crabs failed... this team has let me down too many times this year.

Sorry, but that's total crap. He closed the game twice, once when he bounced the winning TD off Vernon's helmet and once when he lead a drive from his 1 yard line to Seattle's 20, where Frank fumbled. He also lead them down the field for a tying TD.

And against Houston he came in at 1/2 time, down 3 TD's.

This is a team game. Maybe you should pay a bit of attention to the other players.

some people just watch the games to find something, anything to hate on alex smith the guy more than did his part yesterday. VD let him down a few times, Delanie was interfered with but still shouldve hung on to the ball, crabtree ducked a TD and Gore fumbled on their side of the field. all of these plays happened while we were in scoring distance obviously because 3 or 4 of the drops wouldve been TD's and Gore's fumble was on the 30 i believe? even on the final drive a receiver dropped a second down pass that wouldve extended the drive. smith is the last person anyone should be blaming today.

Alex also stood in there and made the tackle on the fumble return. It probably wouldn't have gone for a TD, but a lot of NFL QB's wouldn't have done that!

ya i forgot to mention that. nice assist bro alex is a team player, that wasnt his mistake but he was hustling more than anyone to get to the play to make the stop

Originally posted by ninersush:
let me first say this is not to bash/luv on anyone. i would just like to see if anyone's thoughts are similar to mine or why not.

smith played a great game today for the most part. the drops/fumbles/coaching (3 TOs in Q1 amongst other things) killed us.

yet in the end we had the ball tied with about 50 secs to go. everyone was expecting smith would drive us down for a game winning score (FG or TD).

this is when a good qb becomes great. this is when leaders/winners are made. this is when u need ur qb to win the game.

however, alex had his 2 worst plays at that point. very disappointing.

and at this point you forget all the mistakes that have happened to this point. all the other stuff. all that matters is scoring. somehow. someway. and it didn't happen.

so i'm left to think that alex is good but not great. i don't if it is something that he can learn....that is being clutch in critical moments or is it something you just have.

but i personally came away very disappointed in how alex played on the 2 most crucial downs and have lost some faith in him.

so can he learn to finish or is it curtains for smith? lets keep this a respectable discussion folks.

One was a drop and the last one Morgan gave up the play that could be the one that put os on range