Willis is tied for 17th in the NFL for tackles (wtf?)

Originally posted by Hollywood:
The great thing about Niner fans, is that when things are going wrong, you can count on many of them to point fingers and complain about the wrong person. At this rate, some of you will be complaining about the fact that Gore hasn't rushed for 6 million yards in a season.

No, some are actually complaining that he's getting it too much.

who cares........0-4 is the only stat that matters

Originally posted by jreff22:
Let me guess, it's Alex Smith's fault!

Blame the front 3 for not taking up enough blockers.

Originally posted by theninermaniac:

Originally posted by Chief:
He has been honestly, playing like a scrub.


Not sure why, but he has looked slow and out of place the past two games. Maybe he is no good in early east coast games, maybe he got his money and is done, maybe he is dealing with injury, maybe he is fed up, maybe, what if, who knows?

I hope it changes soon and we get our LB back or we are f**ked.

maybe you are a moron that doesnt devserve to have an opinion

oh, thats why I stay out of NT.

His last 2 games have been very very ordinary. Nothing special at all, besides one kinda big hit on Turner 5 yards downfield

He's lost his step (along with the entire team this year), either his knee has been bugging him or defenses have just gotten smarter in containing him.

Originally posted by SnakePlissken:
He's lost his step (along with the entire team this year), either his knee has been bugging him or defenses have just gotten smarter in containing him.

It cause teams can run screens all day on us, so even when he does make tackles its gonna be 8 yards down field.

let's cut him.

He is at his best when playing close to the line when he gets a chance to run blitz and be aggressive he dominates people lol When he smacked Turner last game that was AWSOME. The problem we have is when he plays too far back and then they stretch us out and run wide and get big bodies on him he's only human he's not gonna shed 300 pound lineman over and over again. The only way to make this work is for the outsidebacker to ATTACK the outside shoulder of the tackles/tight ends which they do a horrible job of, if you watch Brooks he is the worst he doesn't ever keep containment!

Originally posted by Chief:
He has been honestly, playing like a scrub.


Not sure why, but he has looked slow and out of place the past two games. Maybe he is no good in early east coast games, maybe he got his money and is done, maybe he is dealing with injury, maybe he is fed up, maybe, what if, who knows?

I hope it changes soon and we get our LB back or we are f**ked.

That's pretty harsh. He dominated the NO game, although, because he set the bar so high he hasn't looked like his normal self besides that. He has looked like an average LB. Scrub? That's probably an overreaction.

You people are stupid...the first quarter of sports mean nothing...the bills went like 6 and 0 about two or three yearsago then lost i.think the rest of their games...chris shelton led the mlb in home runs for the first quarter of the season a couple years ago...the memphis grizzlies were playing like one of the top teams in the west during the beginning last nba season...in all sports...the really good ones always catch up...anyone who puts a lot of stock into the first 4 games is a fool...if he were in the bottom half it would be different...but hes in the top quarter

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by lamontb:
It's all about the guys upfront. The d line hasn't played as well this year thus not keeping those big guys off of Willis. I think that knee injury is affecting him as well. when Peyton Manning came back from that surgery he started off slow the 1st few games.

Not to mention the tackle stat doens't reflect how good he is playing. Just like when he led the league in tackles that was vastly overrated. Clay Matthews isn't in the top 20 in tackles so is he having a bad year? Urlacher, Ray Lewis, and James Harrison aren't in the top 20 either so i guess they are all having a bad year? the problem is playing in a 3-4 Willis rarely gets to make plays like he would be able to as a 4-3 MLB'er so folks want to cling to tackles. Manusky needs to use him more in blitzes. It's amazing we have him and instead of being aggressive with him they are more passive with him. Look how they used him in the Saints game vs the other 3 games.

The examples you gave of Urlacher, Lewis and Harrison all speak to the idea that they are used differently than Willis. Each of those other guys play alongside LBs that also run to make plays. That cuts down on their stats but not their effectiveness.

Manusky needs to modify the way he is using the inside LBs in the way I mentioned above. Willis is SUCH a physical player, and relies SO heavily on his speed that if he continues to be the battering ram on every opposing runner his risk of injury is much higher. Instead of asking Willis to run sideline to sideline, let Bowman and Spikes share that load for at least 1/3 of the field.

Everybody in the league knows Willis is right there with Ray Lewis for best interior LB in the game. He doesn't need to make every tackle to maintain his rep.

True but at the end of the day how many tackles you have is a meaningless stat and doesn't account for how well a guy is playing. That's all i meant by using those guys. But I get your points and agree about how we use him needs to switch up. Once again teams have adjusted to the Niners scheme and we have yet to see the niners coaching staff counter act that.

p52 gonna b ahight.

on a related note when bowman gets up to speed maybe manusky will employ more of the mirror philosophy (dont know how much its been used if at all) with the ILBS so as to confuse the line calls based off the mike

PROBOWL