Now that I have rewatched the game...

Originally posted by NatralBrnThrila:

Originally posted by Marvin49:
Ya know, its amazing what can happen when you rewatch a game and alot of the tension is removed. You see things quite a bit differently. I think you end up seeing things the way fans of other teams see them.

Anyway....many things stood out.

1) The play of Alex Smith
2) The playcalling of Mike Johnson
3) The Play of Michael Crabtree
4) The problems on D.

1) Alex: This is well covered territory and I know I'm not breaking any ground here, but I watched him very closely when I watched the game again. I know this won't be popular, but he actually played pretty damn well even before the argument with Singletary.

I was on the verge of calling for the Yorks to blow the team up and waive goodbye to Alex, but now I'm not so sure.

He made 2 mistakes. One was the INT on the deep pass to Ginn. Ya, it wasn't a great pass, but those things are low % throws so I can't blame him for taking the shot we have been wanting him to take all season. It would also help if Ginn made more of an effort on the ball, but it was still not a great throw and was Alex's fault. The theres the fumble. No excuse. Horrible. He'd be the first to tell you that. That simply can't happen. Period. The final INT of the game tho was really Anthony Davis fault. If you watch, Alex makes the decision to throw the ball BEFORE the DE breaks free of Davis. Alex didn't have a chance.

Other than that tho....he looked GOOD. I mean REALLY good. If you don't believe me, watch the game again. The drives that stalled did so because of turnovers. The Niners punted only ONCE until there were 5 minutes left in the THIRD quarter. Alex was hitting passes on third down. He was hitting passes for 15 and 20 yards, so they weren't just checkdowns. He was hitting Crabtree, Ginn, Davis, Morgan, Gore....he was getting EVERYONE involved. He hit Ginn for almost 20 yards on a 3rd and ONE. He hit Davis for about 25 yards on 3rd and 15.

After the confrontation with Sing, he was even better.

Smith is everyones favorite scapegoat. To be fair he has at times made it easy to scapegoat him. Sunday tho....he played pretty damn well. If you don't believe me, watch the game again.



2) Johnson: I was reading yesterday that there were peeps here who were critical of MJs playcalling. WATCH THE GAME AGAIN. He was AGGRESSIVE. The Niners punted ONCE until 5 min left in the 3rd quarter and only punted 3 times in the entire game. One of those punts came after three consecutive incomplete passes. EVERY SINGLE ONE of the turnovers happened on a drive in which the 49ers had gotten a first down. They were moving the ball. The second Gore fumble was after back to back playes of 25 yards (pass to Davis) and 17 yards (run by Gore).

After watching this game again, I am not concerned at all about the playcalling.


3) Crabtree: Crabtree started to look like the guy who played at Texas Tech. The attribute of his game that has been missing so far is his run-after-catch ability. He showed it on some nifty plays down the sideline. He also ran a great route and made a great catch on his TD. What strikes me the most tho are the length of his arms. LOL. Serously...he looks like a freak. Watch him when he puts his arms up after scoring the TD...I swear to got he could fly with those things...lol.


4) The D: This is the one that concerns me. They to often find themselves out of position and have a reciever running through the secondary with nobody within 5-10 yards of them. Kolb looked good, but when a guy is that open, its pretty hard to miss them. The run D has also been showing some cracks of late. Some have said that WIllis may be hurt, but I don't think thats it. I think he's getting covered up by lionemen more than in the past. He hasn't been able to run free. I dunno if thats something offenses are doing or if its the D not protecting him. I just hope they fix it.

I'm also concerned about Mays. Its not that he played poorly. He just seems a step slow right now (although he caused the fumble that the Eagles recovered). Its not about his potential...I'm just not sure he was ready to play. We'll see and I hope he proves me wrong.

Thought I'd help you get this train wreck back on point and bring the OP back in to play. Funny how every thread gets turned into the great Smitty debate. Nice OP btw, couldn't agree more.

You eluded to the defensive line possibly not keeping the middle linebackers clean enough to do their jobs and I was wondering what your take is on Franklin's play 2 nights ago. I never had the opportunity to re-watch the game, but I remember thinking more than a few times that night that the Eagles linemen were getting movement up the middle and hitting the second level way too easily. That run before the 1st half ended was prime example as I remember it, but their were definitely more instances than that 1 time I thought.

Our pass defense is what it is, but if we can't stop the run like we did last year then our bend but don't break thing is really pointless.

I wasn't looking to Franklin in particular, but what I noticed was that it seemed McCoy was getting the ball consistantly with more "space" to run and cut. The LBs weren't getting to him till he was 2 or 3 yards upfield and the linemen were getting to the second level.

I'd have to watch more closely to see in particular what was happening.

This Joecool guy is the most epic troll of all time. Jesus Christ.

Ya that's what I was looking at too. Usually we're good at creating a pretty fair amount of wash in the middle at the very least. Not only were our guys not able to attack and collapse the lanes consistently, but there were pronounced bubbles where that wash usually is. Bad news if we can't get our run D going better than that.

Smith was damn near flawless minus the fumble that was taken to the house.. then everyone booed and he almost got benched.. unfair!! so now guys that dont make plays are we gonna boo them and call for their backups to play?? unreal. Smith has been playing some pretty good football, minus the Jimmy Raye play call era the first few games, minus the oline break downs, and minus the tipped balls and receivers falling on their routes..

Now that i've calmed down it makes sense what u say. I think when us die hard fans watch the game our emotions get the better of us... we can be so critical that we forget to look at the good things that Alex did that night. I toss the football with my son almost everyday... do u know how hard it is to throw a 30-40 yrd pass on a line... its hard!
One things for sure, our D needs to get pressure on the QB. Kolb had all day back there! Manusky's got to figure out a way to get pressure! As far as Alex goes he looks like a good QB when he goes to gunslinger mode! Alex better figure out something because he's definitely running out of time. As long as we win I don't care who the QB is!

Originally posted by binary2nd:
This Joecool guy is the most epic troll of all time. Jesus Christ.

[ Edited by HomerJ on Oct 12, 2010 at 17:27:50 ]

even that deep first interception isn't totally on Alex...or at all really...

That is a play call issue more than anything, because who the eff call's a deep jump ball to ted ginn when crabtree and davis are on the football team...morgan, ziegler, and hill are all probably better jump ball receivers...

Originally posted by MaliCali:
even that deep first interception isn't totally on Alex...or at all really...

That is a play call issue more than anything, because who the eff call's a deep jump ball to ted ginn when crabtree and davis are on the football team...morgan, ziegler, and hill are all probably better jump ball receivers...

I doubt it was a "jump ball" man, it was underthrown by Alex Smith so Ginn and the defender slowed down to wait for it..

When this team finally puts together a complete, mistake free game, it will blow whoever they're playing out of the water.

I hope it happens this week. I know we're outta the playoffs, I've come to grips with that, but I'd really at least like to see this team play to it's potential because it could be scary good.

Originally posted by Antix:
When this team finally puts together a complete, mistake free game, it will blow whoever they're playing out of the water.

I hope it happens this week. I know we're outta the playoffs, I've come to grips with that, but I'd really at least like to see this team play to it's potential because it could be scary good.

We're not even close to being out of the playoffs. There's 5 division games left and if we sweep those games I like our chances.

Originally posted by Antix:
When this team finally puts together a complete, mistake free game, it will blow whoever they're playing out of the water.

I hope it happens this week. I know we're outta the playoffs, I've come to grips with that, but I'd really at least like to see this team play to it's potential because it could be scary good.

We can play a mistake free game, but our strategy lends itself to keeping games close. We will always be in close games even if we play well, it's Sing's style.

Originally posted by Antix:
When this team finally puts together a complete, mistake free game, it will blow whoever they're playing out of the water.

I hope it happens this week. I know we're outta the playoffs, I've come to grips with that, but I'd really at least like to see this team play to it's potential because it could be scary good.

Who knows where and who knows when but somebody this season is going to bear to brunt of the Niner frustration. Couldn't think of a better team to it to happen to than the Raiders.

Originally posted by binary2nd:

Originally posted by Antix:
When this team finally puts together a complete, mistake free game, it will blow whoever they're playing out of the water.

I hope it happens this week. I know we're outta the playoffs, I've come to grips with that, but I'd really at least like to see this team play to it's potential because it could be scary good.

We can play a mistake free game, but our strategy lends itself to keeping games close. We will always be in close games even if we play well, it's Sing's style.

I hate it but I am convinced your right. I just don't see Singletary ever letting this team put the pedal to the medal for a full game.

Great post, man.

I'll tell you this. When all the chanting was going on for carr, and I was watching alex fall apart, and then get yelled at by singletary. (I need to forwarn this...I am a youth pastor, but my personality is a coach. I teach kids how to succeed, how to do better, and I encourage them, go to their games, take them out to eat, and my kids know that I Love them and want them to succeed) So when I watch this kid failing and the whole country watching his collapse, My heart sank. I litterally had to pause the game (I had it one DVR) because I almost cried.

When he got mad, and came back. There was something so different. He was pissed. He was like, I'm going to make this happen, and I dont care who is in my way. For the first time, I became an Alex fan. Seriously. I hope this guy can turn this around, I will root for him. He can do it, I believe in him.

Originally posted by Antix:
When this team finally puts together a complete, mistake free game, it will blow whoever they're playing out of the water.

I hope it happens this week. I know we're outta the playoffs, I've come to grips with that, but I'd really at least like to see this team play to it's potential because it could be scary good.

This.

I just watched the first 4 to 5 series of each team.

Both teams 1st: Both teams scored. We pressured Kolb well but he made a great play.

SF 2nd: We would have been in 2nd and short or 3rd and short but Gore fumbled at our 20.

PHI 2nd: with only 20 yards to go for the TD because of a Niners turnover, Justin Smith gets a key sack to hold the Philly offense to 3 points.

PHI 10, SF 7

SF 3rd: We pass the 50 making a solid drive into PHI territory. 2nd and 12, Alex throws the INT.

PHI 3rd: Another Justin Smith sack to stop there drive

At this point, PHI averaging 2.0 per carry, Niners averaging over 5.

SF 4th: False start penalty hurts our drive: punt.

PHI 4th: big run play for the TD.

We had all the momentum and were driving well after that first TD opening drive. We were also running well and shutting down the run.

Turnovers kill momentum, especially two drives consecutive drives after our offense was clicking and moving the ball. Sooner or later, the opposition is going to stop your offense on their own and that's what finally happened on our 4th possession. Even then, we hurt ourselves with a false start.

They finally scored and made it 17 to 7.