Originally posted by BrianGO:Originally posted by WillistheWall:Originally posted by BrianGO:
Because we go into the year fresh and exited. The players are super fired up. The defense wins a couple of games for us early in the year single handedly.
Because of the wins, we think that having a horrible offense is OK, as long as the defense keeps playing with such fire.
But then teams watch some film, and realize that they can exploit us with screens and short passes, our offense stays the same, and we lose lose lose.
At the end of a season, the defense plays loose and exited again, because there is nothing to lose, while the opposing teams are either bad, or tense and nervous (like the Cardinals).
If we are fooled into believing that our offense won the game for us tonight, we will never be able to be a good team in this league.
Our defense forced SEVEN turnovers. Can you imagine what the Eagles, or Cowboys, or Colts, or Cardinals, or Giants, or basically any team except the worst ten, would have done if they had forced SEVEN turnovers?
We should have DESTROYED the Cardinals.
Anyhow, Smith's spread offense and Gore's I-Form attack can't coexist together.
Smith is bad as a drop-back passer, pure and simple. He NEEDS the spread offense, otherwise forget it. One of them has to go, and its probably going to be Smith. Perhaps Nate Davis or a draft pick can drop back in the pocket.
We can't expect our defense to single-handedly win every game for us. Otherwise, if we go into next year expecting to win 10 games like this, unfortunately, all we will find is yet another "mysterious" disappointing season.
Well the fact remains that QBs have a longer life span than running backs and you can't really build around a running back for more than a few years. To be honest I disagree with you. I think it's GREAT that we can throw a lot of different looks at teams. We ran the ball out of the shotgun a few times tonight, and got positive plays out of it. I think one of those TDs was Alex from under center, and I know both in Seattle were. The fact of the matter is the more you can do, the better you are, and there's more looks they have to prepare for. The Saints go in the I, sometimes they're in the gun, they use some play action, etc. The biggest thing IMO is, we didn't practice all these plays in TC. We didn't have all these players in TC. Give them an offseason to get better and things will get better.
Did Smith play like crap tonight? For the most part yeah, compared to what he did in Seattle. But in Seattle both TDs were from under center. And when you can say he played like crap even though he threw 2 TDs, that's pretty good. The passer rating sucked. But he converted multiple third downs tonight, and he capitalized when we were in the redzone. The Dockett INT was a great play on Dockett's part, Smith got the ball pretty high for the most part and Dockett jumped up pretty damn high. He's a good athlete. The other INT was a crappy throw, a bad play call IMO, and a worse decision. But that's 1 play. There were a few overthrows, here and there. But AZ made Favre look like crap too. They made him look worse than Alex IIRC. They made Manning look poorly with 3 INTs. They have a good D, with a good secondary. Bryant McFadden won a superbowl with the steelers last year, and DRC was a first round pick who is pretty big and athletic. Rolle wasn't a great corner but he's a pretty good FS that can cover. Wilson makes a lot of plays. They have a good defense. They have prior to this game, 34 sacks and 26 forced turnovers. So that Alex got 2 TDs when we needed them, and converted half of the 3rd downs, and that's on a defense that holds teams to converting only 33% of 3rd downs, that's pretty good.
You make some good points, the Cardinals have a good secondary, and its true that we didn't practice those plays in training camp.
But I just don't see it from Smith when he drops back to pass, its just not there. He makes some good plays at times when dropping back, but he makes up for it with bad plays.
In the shotgun he can drive down the field and score and sometimes actually make it look EASY. It never looks easy for him when he is dropping back.
Doing many different things is great, but making a defense unsure of what you are doing in a given formation is the most important thing.
We go into I-Form, history shows that you had better stop Frank Gore, Alex Smith should not be a problem.
We go into shotgun, history shows that you had better do something about Alex Smith, Frank Gore should not be a problem.
When a defense can prepare like that, it gives them an advantage.
If Smith can't drop back in the pocket and play well consistently in that formation, then its simply not going to work for us. Every game will be a struggle and we will have to depend on our defense to play outstanding.
Our defense played OUTSTANDING against Arizona, in both games.
Let's put it this way, another great defensive player, is not going to solve the 49ers problems.
Eh I think the big thing is, he's been out of the shotgun his whole career, in college and I think HS too. HE can instinctually do that. He knows how to play that way. But from under center, the only season he consistently was under center for an extended period of time was 06, 07 he was hurt and didn't play that much and 05 he was a rookie. If he practices it and gets used to doing it that way from under center, has good protection, and he can get better at making the reads, I don't see why he can't do it. I think he can do it. I think we have a lot of different things we can do. I think as long as we get some continuity this offseason, with this group of guys practicing together, we can play well doing a few different things. I mean, the only really terrible read tonight was the 2nd INT, and according to Sing it was the right one just a bad throw or something like that. That was the only really terrible decision IMO. There was the drop by Crabtree on an intermediate route where he overthrew him. That was a problem because he doesn't have a great feel for Crabtree IMO. Then on an out route to Crabtree, the ball was thrown behind him and Crabtree didn't stop where Smith threw it, another miscommunication that can be solved by chemistry. Then the pass to Davis that was dropped that hit him in the hands, it was a good throw because he got it over the LB and right to Vernon, but it was a hard throw and Vernon was covered so he really should have went somewhere else. But on the TD to Vernon, he knew he was open and he put it right on the numbers. Correct read and great throw. On the throw to Crabtree, he threw him open and Crabtree caught it in stride and was able to run after the catch for the TD. That was a good decision. As he continues to play he's going to learn what he can and can't do, if he practices dropping back under center he can continue to get better at it, and I don't think it's impossible. The main difference is in the shotgun he has an extra second to see the whole field, and throw the ball.
The more you can do, the more they have to change their personnel. How about puting 3 WRs out there out of the shotgun and then running it with Gore vs 5 DBs. That works pretty well, we did that a few times tonight IIRC. How about the play action with Smith, IIRC that was what got Davis his TD vs Seattle. Yeah you need to be able to do a lot of different things out of 1 formation, but being able to use different formations and keep them changing personnel and then switch it up on the other team is great also. We can basically get the matchup we want(5 DBs on a run play, or 8 man box on a play action pass), if we can do everything well. Gore runs pretty well out of the shotgun. He had some tonight, and in the Bears game he had 100 yards and also had some nice runs out of the shotgun. We can hurry it up in the gun or grind the clock with Gore. But the OLine needs to be able to open holes and create space to run with Gore, otherwise we become a 1 dimensional passing team.