What is happening to our D?

Originally posted by wailers15:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by wailers15:

Originally posted by znk916:
2 things mainly

demoralized by the offense
cant stop the screen

Also

OUR DEFENSE IS OVERRATED!!!! I know alot of you will hate to hear this but come on it's true.
Spencer made a great pick, but man he get's burnt alot or it's always his WR making a big play or it's Nate's man. Our DB's are subpar. Spikes needs to go. We should've never even signed him. When Vilma was available we didn't even bring him in. He would be a much better partner next to Willis.
Our Defensive Line is Crap! All we have is Smith, and Franklin is okay. He had 1 break out year for us. Wonder why (contract). Manny Lawson just doesn't know how to utilize his talents. Michael Lewis is crap he's slow. Dashon has rapidly regressed.

Manusky needs to get a lot of blame for this. He continues to call the most vanilla 3-4 in the game, places ZERO premium on OLB's who can pass rush, can't make in-game adjustments or identify OBVIOUS weaknesses in this defense (off-tackle runs, screen passes, zero pass rush, slow safety and ILB and piss poor coverage in the middle of the field, etc.)...same problems every year yet you freaking fans expect us to be a top 5 defense? Laughable!

Want to watch one play that exemplifies our defense? Watch the flea-flicker TD by KC. Watch an unblocked Manny Lawson lightly jogging towards Cassel as he completed that TD. NO HEART!

I agree with manny. i was cursing infront of my 2 yr old son when i saw him doggin. i am shocked he wasn't benched for the rest of the game. telling me not one coahc saw that? bush league

Lawson made plays all day, and was probably one of our best and most consistent players on D yesterday. If you saw something on ONE play, that doesn't really represtent his contribution. The guy is one of the most underappreciated players on our D. He may not be what we were hoping for when we drafted him, but he's a stud none the less.

Teams are starting to figure out how to contain Willis. That and we've had the same starters for years, teams are attacking their weaknesses.

Some of you posting are notorious Alex haters who demean any support for Alex as "excuses." Now, I see you making "excuses" for the defense. Is there a problem with this?

32nd in pts/game (29.0)
17th in yards/game (328.7)

Over rated IMO

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by wailers15:

Originally posted by znk916:
2 things mainly

demoralized by the offense
cant stop the screen

Also

OUR DEFENSE IS OVERRATED!!!! I know alot of you will hate to hear this but come on it's true.
Spencer made a great pick, but man he get's burnt alot or it's always his WR making a big play or it's Nate's man. Our DB's are subpar. Spikes needs to go. We should've never even signed him. When Vilma was available we didn't even bring him in. He would be a much better partner next to Willis.
Our Defensive Line is Crap! All we have is Smith, and Franklin is okay. He had 1 break out year for us. Wonder why (contract). Manny Lawson just doesn't know how to utilize his talents. Michael Lewis is crap he's slow. Dashon has rapidly regressed.

Manusky needs to get a lot of blame for this. He continues to call the most vanilla 3-4 in the game, places ZERO premium on OLB's who can pass rush, can't make in-game adjustments or identify OBVIOUS weaknesses in this defense (off-tackle runs, screen passes, zero pass rush, slow safety and ILB and piss poor coverage in the middle of the field, etc.)...same problems every year yet you freaking fans expect us to be a top 5 defense? Laughable!

Want to watch one play that exemplifies our defense? Watch the flea-flicker TD by KC. Watch an unblocked Manny Lawson lightly jogging towards Cassel as he completed that TD. NO HEART!

I think everyone is so caught up in blaming Raye and Singletary, that Manusky has gotten a free pass. He is the biggest offender IMO of not being able to make any in game adjustments. How many times are they going to get destroyed on a screen pass or have a TE/WR wide open in the middle of the field before he decides to make a change? Other coordinators do it, yet he seems averse to doing so. Not to mention it seemed to me that they playing pretty light on the line yesterday, almost as if they were concerned about getting beat by he pass. That's fine if you are playing Manning or Brees, but Matt Cassel??? They were getting gashed every time for about 5 yards a pop (5.3 to be exact). And the pathetic part was that when they did stop them for "only" 5 yards, I was relieved that it wasn't 20. Meanwhile KC is stacking the line with 8 or 9 men. I'm not a football genius, but the lack of in game adjustments is pretty blatant and I am fed up with it.

1. Short Fields-- The kickoff and punt return coverage has been awful. The Offense is either 3 and out or turnover. When we do get the chance to punt, Andy Lee is outkicking the gunners. We miss open field tackles, and get gashed at least once per game.

2. No Pass Rush-- Same old song and dance. None of our linebackers can get to the QB. Correction, none of our linebackers can get near the QB. Is this due to vanilla blitzing, or lack of disguise, lack of talent? The only aggression on defense comes from the secondary, and they get burned.

3. Lack of Speed[b]-- Particularly demonstrated in the KC loss, the secondary severly lacks speed. Mike Lewis makes tackles, but cant run with any WR. Nate gets fooled and doesnt have speed to recover. The linebackers also lack speed. Takeo is obviously slow, Parys is too slow to chase.

When your offense only converts 5 of 32 3rd down att, it kinda falls on the defense.

Originally posted by Hoovtrain:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by wailers15:

Originally posted by znk916:
2 things mainly

demoralized by the offense
cant stop the screen

Also

OUR DEFENSE IS OVERRATED!!!! I know alot of you will hate to hear this but come on it's true.
Spencer made a great pick, but man he get's burnt alot or it's always his WR making a big play or it's Nate's man. Our DB's are subpar. Spikes needs to go. We should've never even signed him. When Vilma was available we didn't even bring him in. He would be a much better partner next to Willis.
Our Defensive Line is Crap! All we have is Smith, and Franklin is okay. He had 1 break out year for us. Wonder why (contract). Manny Lawson just doesn't know how to utilize his talents. Michael Lewis is crap he's slow. Dashon has rapidly regressed.

Manusky needs to get a lot of blame for this. He continues to call the most vanilla 3-4 in the game, places ZERO premium on OLB's who can pass rush, can't make in-game adjustments or identify OBVIOUS weaknesses in this defense (off-tackle runs, screen passes, zero pass rush, slow safety and ILB and piss poor coverage in the middle of the field, etc.)...same problems every year yet you freaking fans expect us to be a top 5 defense? Laughable!

Want to watch one play that exemplifies our defense? Watch the flea-flicker TD by KC. Watch an unblocked Manny Lawson lightly jogging towards Cassel as he completed that TD. NO HEART!

I think everyone is so caught up in blaming Raye and Singletary, that Manusky has gotten a free pass. He is the biggest offender IMO of not being able to make any in game adjustments. How many times are they going to get destroyed on a screen pass or have a TE/WR wide open in the middle of the field before he decides to make a change? Other coordinators do it, yet he seems averse to doing so. Not to mention it seemed to me that they playing pretty light on the line yesterday, almost as if they were concerned about getting beat by he pass. That's fine if you are playing Manning or Brees, but Matt Cassel??? They were getting gashed every time for about 5 yards a pop (5.3 to be exact). And the pathetic part was that when they did stop them for "only" 5 yards, I was relieved that it wasn't 20. Meanwhile KC is stacking the line with 8 or 9 men. I'm not a football genius, but the lack of in game adjustments is pretty blatant and I am fed up with it.

Totally; been calling him out since last year but noting that with another offseason and having virtually, the same defense for YEARS now, he would grow in his recognition of proper personnel, develop more exotic blitz schemes, fix the glaring holes that are obvious to even the most casual Niner fans, etc. Again, ppl thought we'd be a top 5 defense (very laughable). The defense has been getting a pass for years b/c of the offense. No mas...

Originally posted by NJNiner:
Now that heads are rolling in 49erland, what's gonna happen with our defense? It's pretty obvious that there has been a huge dropoff from last season. How are we going to fix this?

CHUCK NORRIS!!

Originally posted by captnkos:

Originally posted by wailers15:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by wailers15:

Originally posted by znk916:
2 things mainly

demoralized by the offense
cant stop the screen

Also

OUR DEFENSE IS OVERRATED!!!! I know alot of you will hate to hear this but come on it's true.
Spencer made a great pick, but man he get's burnt alot or it's always his WR making a big play or it's Nate's man. Our DB's are subpar. Spikes needs to go. We should've never even signed him. When Vilma was available we didn't even bring him in. He would be a much better partner next to Willis.
Our Defensive Line is Crap! All we have is Smith, and Franklin is okay. He had 1 break out year for us. Wonder why (contract). Manny Lawson just doesn't know how to utilize his talents. Michael Lewis is crap he's slow. Dashon has rapidly regressed.

Manusky needs to get a lot of blame for this. He continues to call the most vanilla 3-4 in the game, places ZERO premium on OLB's who can pass rush, can't make in-game adjustments or identify OBVIOUS weaknesses in this defense (off-tackle runs, screen passes, zero pass rush, slow safety and ILB and piss poor coverage in the middle of the field, etc.)...same problems every year yet you freaking fans expect us to be a top 5 defense? Laughable!

Want to watch one play that exemplifies our defense? Watch the flea-flicker TD by KC. Watch an unblocked Manny Lawson lightly jogging towards Cassel as he completed that TD. NO HEART!

I agree with manny. i was cursing infront of my 2 yr old son when i saw him doggin. i am shocked he wasn't benched for the rest of the game. telling me not one coahc saw that? bush league

Lawson made plays all day, and was probably one of our best and most consistent players on D yesterday. If you saw something on ONE play, that doesn't really represtent his contribution. The guy is one of the most underappreciated players on our D. He may not be what we were hoping for when we drafted him, but he's a stud none the less.

Please highlight these plays for us.

Originally posted by Dominate:
When your offense only converts 5 of 32 3rd down att, it kinda falls on the defense.

Do you think the Steelers used that excuse when they found out their Superbowl winning QB was going to sit out for four games? BTW: The Steelers are 3-0 primarily winning WITH defense! Next excuse please...

nothing. They were never that good to begin with.

Originally posted by znk916:
2 things mainly

demoralized by the offense
cant stop the screen

I posted on another thread that I have never seen a team get burned so often with the same basic play (screen) it ssemed every drive they were able to run a couple of them for 10 plus yards, even on third downs. We never adjusted until it was way too late and they just ran straight at us then.

Inconsistent offense has contributed to their downfall...but it's also not fair to put all the blame there. BL is they've given up an avg of 29 pts a game this season...and that's not going to win many games. Just like the offense, they need a shakeup...and get guys like RJF, Mays, Bowman, Reggie SMith, Brooks, La Boy & Ray Mac on the field a lot more. That means demoting M. Lewis, Spikes, Haralson, even Manny, et al. KC looked like they were on 78 speed and our D was on 45 yesterday...that's got to prompt change, so we get younger, faster players on the field and then Manusky has to be able to adjust on the fly.

Originally posted by archcity49er:

Originally posted by znk916:
2 things mainly

demoralized by the offense
cant stop the screen

I posted on another thread that I have never seen a team get burned so often with the same basic play (screen) it ssemed every drive they were able to run a couple of them for 10 plus yards, even on third downs. We never adjusted until it was way too late and they just ran straight at us then.

I think it has a lot to do with mentality and the fact that KC was setting a lot of illegal picks but back to mentality.

The difference between this team and Pitt's defense is that Pittsburgh expected their offense to be terrible whereas the Niners expected their offense to do good things. When everyone, including the defense, realized this offense is no different than what we had in 2005 after 5 years of improved talent...I think the team just gave up or morale became low.

This team's morale was in the gutter after Game 3 and may have been slightly lifted with the Raye firing. Let's see if Johnson can raise the morale and show the team that they can outwit the opponent in turn firing everyone up.

We have seen what this defense can do when it is fired up and this is on the offense more than anything.