Game 1 Analysis - The Slaughter in Seattle

This was an odd game for me. Normally I am engaged in the game and really emotionally into the outcome. I had this feeling for about 1 quarter. Then something happened. Instead of getting mad when things started to f**k up, I started to laugh. I grew up during the latter days of Montana and the emergence of Young. I think i just finally learned how to deal with a losing organization. Here is my summary of what happened by position:

Defense:

DBs: What can you say about our secondary besides terrible. Seattle came in with no real threats, yet were able to burn us for 2 TDs and a set up a 1 yard Hassellback TD run. You cannot jump routes like Clements and Brown did. Brown's was particularly inexcusable as he had no safety help. Clements could have also gotten burned on his INT if Matt went deep instead of throwing to Carlson. Except for a few unnecessary hits, our safeties did not make any hard hits or plays for the ball. Seattle's WR were receving cleanly, making moves, and getting up field.

D-Line: Good Job for the most part. They didn't get any pressure on Hasselback but in a 3-4, that is not neccessarily their jobs. They were solid against the run as usualy and forced Seattle to go pass happy, which we failed to stop. Special shout out to J. Smith the "Cowboy," as the announcer called him. He was playing like one, as he hog tied Justin Forcett on numerous occassions. He was the only one applying any kind of pressure on the QB.

LBs: Aside from Willis, an OK performance by this unit. They did not get to the QB and Laboy allowed Hasselback to get around him for a TD run. That is unacceptable. The coverage on Carlson was good. P Willis needs to get his guys more jacked up.

Offense:

OL: Terrible OL play. They could not move the Seattle line and got punished on pass protection. Davis was playing like a rookie out there and got burnt a few times. He almost caused a Smith fumble when his man shot through unfazed. No push up the middle. When we needed two yards, we got two inches. They knew we were running, stacked the box, and dared Smith to beat us.

WRs: All these guys had a bad game except for VD. Crabtree was nowhere to be seen. His lack of practice has is obvious. This is not the NBA....you need to PRACTICE. Smith's timing with his other WR's were off. Morgan needs to come down with that TD catch. Ginn was getting open but Smith couldn't hit him.

QB: For all the Smith lovers, you just witnessed what excellent QB play can do for your team. With a f**ked up offensive line, s**tty WRs, and a whack RB core, Hasselback was able to jam it down our throats three times. No Hassalbackxcuses there. Yeah, Clements jumped him for the 1st pick, but burned us twice later in the game. Smith did not finish drives. The pass to morgan was overthrown, as usual. Morgan made a hell of a catch but you have to help him with a more accurate throw. The throw to Norris was terrible. Anyone who says otherwise needs to watch it again. All smith has to to is pass is straight to Norris. Instead, he lobs it over his head. Smith missed a wide open Ginn for a TD. Rodgers hit Jennings on the exact same route in his with a perfect pass. Smith was constantly overthrowing guys, rolling out for no reason, and checking down to gore before going through his reads.

Coaching: The staff let our boys down. They were grossly unprepared for this game. It almost looked as if our players didn't know what to do, especially on offense. We wasted all of our timeouts because we had timing issues. What if we needed to challenge a critical play? We would be f**ked like the ATL game last year. I was tempted to start an unneccessary timeout thread. I just might have to do it. Same problem last year was not addressed. Jimmy Raye needs to stop with this run first bulls**t. I think he can't because he is aware that Smith sucks. Why didn't they draft Clausen?


This was a all aronud bad game which was topped off by horrendous QB play. Everyone I know, bot niner fans and non niner fans, all the experts, and all the analysts say that Smith is garbage. I can't understand why our staff cannot see this......

ST: Nothing to brag about here except for Lee's punting. They failed to down punts, no great returns, and sketchy coverage. Nedney looks to be ready for the field goal fest that will take place this year. Ginn looks scared out there.

All is not lost. We still have time to turn it around. Maybe Smith's brain will learn to throw on target and we can go deep into the playoffs. As of now, even when we win, it is going to be a nail biter. DO NOT expect many blowouts if any. Next week's game will be a good one. I think our niners will come out firing and surprise some people, especially after getting slaughtered in Seattle.

[ Edited by Young2Rice on Sep 13, 2010 at 02:08:33 ]

We suck and were overrated.

O-line needs to play better, I feel like I am having 2005 flashbacks.

If the O-line doesn't play better, we have no chance. So, yes Alex sucks, but he is the least of our problems right now. The rookies need to get with it, even Staley was getting rocked.

Problems in order are:
1) O-line
2) Secondary
4) Offensive Play Calling
3) Quarterback Play

Harelson sucked - big time. He's so overrated.

I wouldn't call Alex the least of our problems, he is the biggest one. Even when given time to throw he was off. The throw to a wide open Moran Norris was typical.

Pash-rush was terrible against a weak Seattle O Line. IMO, the WR should of Seattle should not have had time to do double moves against our DBs.

The only thing I can hope is that this one game was a fluke because the Seattle coaching staff knew our team's weaknesses too well. But it is kind of hard to drink that Kool-Aid right now.

Seattle owned us in the trenches. They punched us in the mouth on both sides with some physicality.

Originally posted by DrofThuganomics:
O-line needs to play better, I feel like I am having 2005 flashbacks.

If the O-line doesn't play better, we have no chance. So, yes Alex sucks, but he is the least of our problems right now. The rookies need to get with it, even Staley was getting rocked.

Problems in order are:
1) O-line
2) Secondary
4) Offensive Play Calling
3) Quarterback Play

LOL. Alex is our Biggest Problem...

If we had a receiver that missed 2 easy TD receptions, fumbled once, turned the ball over twice and was responsible for a few very stupid penalties; everyone would be calling for his head. Since this is Smith though, we get post like he is the least of our problems. If we had an average QB in the game yesterday, we more than likely would have won...

i think when you can blame so many different facets of the game it comes down to one thing, the head coach. That was a lot of individual things to go wrong for it to be blind bad luck. The one consistent theme in it all for me is the unconsistent Mike Singletary. It was his job to get all these individual facets working, inspired, motivated, prepared and so on. After that 1st quarter, i just couldn't help but feel how helpless they seemed to do anything about what was going on, how unprepared they looked for the possibility of things not going their way. Everybody gets the same time to put into this game what they can and for better or worse, you could tell most teams did put something into it win or lose. With us, it felt as if there was no offseason workouts, training camps, gameday planning, etc...Can anyone figure out what the heck was even done at halftime? The team didnt go in and make adjustments to get better, they stayed with the status quo and actually got worse the second half.

The same game management mistakes made when he took over three seasons ago are still evident today. The same clueless gameplan feeling they had three seasons back are still there today. The same mistakes the team made three seasons ago are again, still there today. The talent has changed, no doubting that and in some instances like vernon davis, the talent has been nurtured and developed. But for the most part, this does not come off as a team being coached. It looks like a team being thrown out there and lets see what happens. Againt the teams where the game has meaning to it, that usually means a loss. End of the season when its just for pride, he motivates a few wins to get the record respectable but by in large, biggest glaring debacle from yesterday is just how badly coached this team is.

what in the world was the team doing by throwing on 2nd down at the end of the half when it was in run out the clock mode? again, useless randomness that just exposes the lack of cohesion a defined gameplan, a defined philosopy, a defined method of execution would have. He says he was not going to replace alex smith. Okay, that jus tmakes you look like a bigger fool then you already look like. Saying that is not to your advantage, it shows how unprepared you are for the pitfalls a game can bring, how unprepared your gameplanning is for the contingencies that may be needed over the course of a game. We didnt lose yesterday, we got exposed.

Biggest Problems

1. Smith (not even an argument, the guy is horrendous and has no poise)
2. Playcalling/clock management (it was amateur hour out there)
3. Oline (no push, horrible protection)
4. Secondary (STOP JUMPING ROUTES!)

Originally posted by ssahnan:
i think when you can blame so many different facets of the game it comes down to one thing, the head coach. That was a lot of individual things to go wrong for it to be blind bad luck. The one consistent theme in it all for me is the unconsistent Mike Singletary. It was his job to get all these individual facets working, inspired, motivated, prepared and so on. After that 1st quarter, i just couldn't help but feel how helpless they seemed to do anything about what was going on, how unprepared they looked for the possibility of things not going their way. Everybody gets the same time to put into this game what they can and for better or worse, you could tell most teams did put something into it win or lose. With us, it felt as if there was no offseason workouts, training camps, gameday planning, etc...Can anyone figure out what the heck was even done at halftime? The team didnt go in and make adjustments to get better, they stayed with the status quo and actually got worse the second half.

This is CORRECT.

The same game management mistakes made when he took over three seasons ago are still evident today. The same clueless gameplan feeling they had three seasons back are still there today. The same mistakes the team made three seasons ago are again, still there today. The talent has changed, no doubting that and in some instances like vernon davis, the talent has been nurtured and developed. But for the most part, this does not come off as a team being coached. It looks like a team being thrown out there and lets see what happens. Againt the teams where the game has meaning to it, that usually means a loss. End of the season when its just for pride, he motivates a few wins to get the record respectable but by in large, biggest glaring debacle from yesterday is just how badly coached this team is.

what in the world was the team doing by throwing on 2nd down at the end of the half when it was in run out the clock mode? again, useless randomness that just exposes the lack of cohesion a defined gameplan, a defined philosopy, a defined method of execution would have. He says he was not going to replace alex smith. Okay, that jus tmakes you look like a bigger fool then you already look like. Saying that is not to your advantage, it shows how unprepared you are for the pitfalls a game can bring, how unprepared your gameplanning is for the contingencies that may be needed over the course of a game. We didnt lose yesterday, we got exposed.

Hey Folks. I didn't get to see the game at all but was flabbergasted at the results. I really didn't expect a win, much less a blowout. I still think the Niner's will finish with the Division and fully expect the Hawk's to end up as a 5-11 or 6-10 team. I will however, continue to be amazed if PC can keep our motley crew over achieving.

Good luck against the Aints next week.

Two points:

1. The offensive line wasn't as bad as everyone is saying. It's not that they didn't get any push, in the first half they only had one rush for a loss (Gore saw he wasn't going to get much in the middle and tried to jump outside and lost 4). The problem is when you run 8 times and all 8 are between the guards, the defense can stack against you. Good coaches put their players in positions to succeed.

Now the pass protection started breaking down in the second half, but a) they knew we had to pass, and b) they knew Smith wouldn't respond to pressure by beating single coverage deep. When your leader losses his cool, his line is going to have trouble protecting for him. If Smith had made ONE key throw under a little bit of pressure, the whole line would have stabilized. I've seen this over and over again, just never since Smith has been here!

2. It's NOT going to get better, because in Smith we've seen as good as we're going to get, and Singletary is too stubborn or to stupid to make a change until the season is lost - AGAIN!

Originally posted by NinerPrideinNJ:
Biggest Problems

1. Smith (not even an argument, the guy is horrendous and has no poise)
2. Playcalling/clock management (it was amateur hour out there)
3. Oline (no push, horrible protection)
4. Secondary (STOP JUMPING ROUTES!)

This is about how I would order the problems with yesterday's game

Originally posted by DrofThuganomics:
O-line needs to play better, I feel like I am having 2005 flashbacks.

If the O-line doesn't play better, we have no chance. So, yes Alex sucks, but he is the least of our problems right now. The rookies need to get with it, even Staley was getting rocked.

Problems in order are:
1) O-line
2) Secondary
4) Offensive Play Calling
3) Quarterback Play

My order would be;

1. offensive playcalling. dont think it was horrendous. this is the first game where i've seen us lose on soo many 3 and 1's and fail on soo many 4th downs.
2. o-line. We agree that Gore is our focal point. Thats fine and dandy, but whats the backup plan when he falters.
3. secondary. say what u want, goin back to last year, we proved we can stop the run. but if we do this soo well, why is it soo hard to focus on keepin the plays stopped from the pass.
4. QB play, many missed opportunities, and he played horrible. After the first qt, in my opinion. Some throws superman couldnt of been caught, others, i'll just take this line from Rice.."I dont care if the ball comes down a thousand different ways, what separates a good from great WR, is catching ANYTHING thrown his way period." Dont think soo, tell me if TO, or Rice, or Ocho would of had the same results from both INT's. Not too mention not play all pre-season, and turn it on on GameDay...

[ Edited by Jersey9er on Sep 13, 2010 at 09:07:25 ]