"What's Changed?" - thru Game 4 of 2011

This O-line combined with Alex Smith = a beautiful disaster..... Smith has about as much pocket awarness as my dead grandma. The O-line has regressed terribly so far this season. Zero running lanes, horrible pass blocking, just bad play all around. Combine that with a QB who needs EVERYTHING to be perfect in order for a play to be successful = a beautiful disaster. Week in and week out this is what we have to deal with..

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:
What did you think of Gore's performance?

I think Gore is finished. He simply does not look like the punishing RB he once was. His nickname was once Frank the Tank. Now it's Frank the Flop or Frank the Fumbler. Kendall Hunter, at this point, is simply a better option.

That's why Kendall was in at the end of the game and not Frank, despite that erroneous "sprained ankle" injury report.

Originally posted by jays9ers:
This O-line combined with Alex Smith = a beautiful disaster..... Smith has about as much pocket awarness as my dead grandma. The O-line has regressed terribly so far this season. Zero running lanes, horrible pass blocking, just bad play all around. Combine that with a QB who needs EVERYTHING to be perfect in order for a play to be successful = a beautiful disaster. Week in and week out this is what we have to deal with..

If that means we're 4-2 after six weeks, 6-3 after nine weeks, 8-4 after 12 weeks and 10-5 after 15 weeks -- I'll take that.

Wouldn't you? My God man we're 2-1!

I am impressed by our defense this game. Way to finish with two ints. The 49ers of the past few years had a hard time creating turnovers.

Despite what some on this board are saying I think Alex did well with what he had. If not for some crabtree drops he passes for 70% again. He doesn't throw deep too often, but when he has , he completes it.

That crabtree td that was called back was b******t.

Crabtree dropped that slant or post pass which was a great throw by Smith. He needs to f**kin step up and catch those.

Raymac is a f**kin stud.

Rogers did good.

Gore sucks. He isn't gore anymore. He's gire lol

What changed in game 3 is we threw the ball to VD like we are supposed to do. And he put up real big #'s and we won. Like we should do every week instead of the SingleBrainCell leftover philosopy to keep him in to block....

Originally posted by billbird2111:

Originally posted by jays9ers:
This O-line combined with Alex Smith = a beautiful disaster..... Smith has about as much pocket awarness as my dead grandma. The O-line has regressed terribly so far this season. Zero running lanes, horrible pass blocking, just bad play all around. Combine that with a QB who needs EVERYTHING to be perfect in order for a play to be successful = a beautiful disaster. Week in and week out this is what we have to deal with..

If that means we're 4-2 after six weeks, 6-3 after nine weeks, 8-4 after 12 weeks and 10-5 after 15 weeks -- I'll take that.

Wouldn't you? My God man we're 2-1!

My friend if you believe we can go 10-5 playing ball like this, you're delusional.. If the offense continues it's minimal output against the next 3 opponents we will lose those games..

my name

Originally posted by jays9ers:
My friend if you believe we can go 10-5 playing ball like this, you're delusional.. If the offense continues it's minimal output against the next 3 opponents we will lose those games..

Originally posted by jays9ers:

Originally posted by billbird2111:

Originally posted by jays9ers:
This O-line combined with Alex Smith = a beautiful disaster..... Smith has about as much pocket awarness as my dead grandma. The O-line has regressed terribly so far this season. Zero running lanes, horrible pass blocking, just bad play all around. Combine that with a QB who needs EVERYTHING to be perfect in order for a play to be successful = a beautiful disaster. Week in and week out this is what we have to deal with..

If that means we're 4-2 after six weeks, 6-3 after nine weeks, 8-4 after 12 weeks and 10-5 after 15 weeks -- I'll take that.

Wouldn't you? My God man we're 2-1!

My friend if you believe we can go 10-5 playing ball like this, you're delusional.. If the offense continues it's minimal output against the next 3 opponents we will lose those games..

In Smith's last three games we won two of them and should have won the third. In any case we were competitive in all three and the team is beginning to believe that Harbaugh can lead them and teach them how to win. So if A. Smith can keep us in every game then we will struggle, while being competitive in these first 6 games and by the bye week we will be starting to settle into our identity then if we can win 6 of the last ten games we will be at 8 and 8. If we win 7 of our last 13 games we will be 9 and 7 and will have our first winning season in a long time. So I don't care about style point, I just want wins however the Niners can manufacture them. So far A. Smith and Harbaugh, and the team are doing well.

Originally posted by alexstinks:
my name

how cute

just when you give a certain group props for their previous performance, they end up s**tting on you the following week. First week, secondary played well. week two, let down. OL didn't make many bonehead mistakes (false start, holding, etc...), this week, let down. So what group will let us down next week?

Anyone else notice the offensive audibles today? Thats the first time all season that has happened. I'm assuming that the entire playbook has just now started to digest and will soon open up.

Originally posted by Bluefalcon61:
If you all recall last year, 'What's changed?" is one of the replies Alex gave to Mike Singletary and the coaching staff when he was recalled to be the starter, and help salvage what had been a disaster of a season already. It was like Alex was asking what was different about the coaching philosophy or other team dynamics that made it worth for him to be back as a starter. I suspect that at this point, Alex was already mentally checking out and getting ready for life as an ex-49er. Future events changed all that of course, foremost was the Harbaugh hiring - and that is the real point of this thread.

The purpose is to discuss changes (positive or negative) that we see through the 2011 games. Point of comparison are the Singletary and Nolan regimes.

Let's go.

Game 1 at home against the Seahawks:

Bottom line what's changed: Not a whole lot. Yet. A win is a win but we were also 3-1 thru 4 games in 2009, and that stretch just masked the mess that was yet to come over the next season.

What's changed?:
- Overall game and clock management has improved. I didn't see any hints of confusion or inefficiency getting any plays in. I thought Harbaugh may have been a little too zealous challenging that play on Leon Washington (where he may have touched it) but otherwise - no issues. And pretty remarkable since this was THE first game of the season. On the sidelines, you can tell that Harbaugh was very involved in the minutiae of eveything.


- The results don't show it, but the run game is more sophisticated. More movement, shifts, less predictable.

- Harbaugh and the staff had a vanilla passing game plan and are protecting Alex and treating him like a 7 year rookie, as opposed to Singletary and staff coming up with a vanilla game plan, exposing Alex, and leaving it up to him to sink or swim. There is a difference. What used to be run-run-pass became run, maybe pass, run - at least in this first game. This was a gameplan Colin Kaepernick or Scott Tolzien could have executed - but probably with slightly poorer results.

- David Akers looking more studly than even Joe Nedney who was a tough dude in his own right.

- Defensive speed at the DB positions and pass rush pressure off a 4 man rush (granted against a young, inexperienced Seattle O-line and undermanned receiver corps)



Your thoughts?

On to Game 2 against the Cowboys.

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GAME 2 AT HOME AGAINST THE COWBOYS:


Wow, what a tough loss. , Through 2 games at home, what's changed?

- Overall game management is still more organized than the Nolan/Singletary years. Constant moments of indecision and confusion, costing inopportune timeouts are much less. There was that instance in the 2nd half, when there seemed to be a mixup with Snyder reporting in as an eligible receiver (TE) and Harbaugh was arguing with the officials quite a bit, but he was the primary person INVOLVED as oppsed to Nolan and Singletary as being bystanders to the confusion.

- As for the decision to stay with the FG instead of taking the 1st down, that would have been a HUGE CHANGE, if he had taken points off the board (again)and shown agressiveness (remember Nolan's 3rd and AN INCH episode against the Rams). However, I can't fault him for the decision to stay with the FG. At that time, it seemed like a 50-50 call.

- HC handling of a QB after a tough series or an INT. After Alex had that poor throw and then the INT, notice that harbaugh and the staff immediately went to a long range pass play to get the QB right back into it. Alex ended up getting sacked, but this is a subtle but significant change. Nolan and Sing usually retreated farther into a shell and taken the ball away fron the QBs hands.

- Alex is more efficient and in more command of the huddle. He even seems like he's calling his own plays from his wristband based on the set that Harbaugh and Roman give him.

- Pressure from just the front four is much improved still, but it won't be enough with the porous secondary coverage we have, especially over the middle. We need to see those blitzes even more, I think.

- Pass Coverage on intermediate routes to Tight Ends and taller receivers has gotten much WORSE. This is where we miss what Manny Lawson and Nate Clements brought to us. Better coverage and more physical play at the covering linebacker, and how Clements would come up like a safety. We've gotten killed these past 2 games.

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Game 3 on the road against the Bengals

Several positive changes from this win and first 3 game set of 2011:

We've been competitive and have a chance to win in very game - LATE IN EVERY GAME. Just 3 games in, I no longer have the feeling that we've lost a game even before we started playing, like I did with Singletary last year.

We can win on the road in an early game against a non-divisional/ non NFC opponent we rarely see. This game was huge to the team's confidence - especially in a game we did not play well until late in the 4th quarter. Under Nolan and Singletary we would have lost this game, somehow. I feel confident we can go into Philly and have a very decent showing.

May be time to ease Frank Gore out (new contract or not). From his brief appearances, Hunter is just a more dangerous dude to have in our offense. He can run inside, outside, and catch the ball. Even if Frank Gore finds his legs, he's a purely inside runner at this point and he makes us too predictable. With Hunter in there, there is that extra bit of hesitation in the opposing defense which is good for us to sustain WCO type ball control drives.

Alex has had three decent performances in a row even with the degree of difficulty going up. We haven't seen "Killer-Mistake" Alex (so far) and while he's not lighting up the scoreboard, he's working within the offense efficiently enough to be the kind of QB that may give us a 9-7 season. Will still need an upgrade if we are to progress to 11-5 and 13-3 level and go deep in the playoffs.

David Akers is a game winning weapon. Holy Cow. May be the best kicker ever in 49ers history if he keeps this up.

I think you make some excellent points. I think the coach is focusing on the fundamentals. And trying to slowly bring it along. Most people seem to have forgotten the lack of an off-season. I guess Gore hurt his ankle, but I have never seen him so un-motivated. I wonder if the Miami drama is not getting to him....

I thought VD was going to be another TO, but boy has he turned it around. He didn't cry and go to the media when he wasn't getting involved. He went where he should have gone. And to me, he was the main offensive difference in this game.

Originally posted by Archie:
Alex Smith is a sorry quarterback. I mean 124 yards in year 7? Harbaugh is trying to win with Alex and inspite of Alex. 15 completions for 124 yards with an almost 70 percent completion rate tells me that Smith takes the shortest pass as quick as possible. I think what Jerry Rice said is true that the team will have to make A Smith look better and not the other way around. What has changed is that we seem to have better safety play and better pass rushers and the o line seemed to pass block better yesterday.

Agreed, Alex is pretty weak. He is VERY limited sorry to say. The O-Line is just terrible. Staley is a big disappointment and Chilo is just plain "ole" bad. So there you have it..Alex and the O-line just aren't good, but hey...we got out of there with a "W"......"This time".

I'll give this post the same reply as another one similar to it...and that is do you remember a guy named Joe Montana? Word has it he won some games for the Niners, even some Super Bowls. Based on that, and the fact he learned the WCO from the master himself, Bill Walsh, gives him a lot of credibility in my book. Anyway, here's the link to an article in which he talks about that...for all you doubters out there, it should be mandatory reading. Pls give it a look...and read every word.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/sports/Montana-Preaches-Patience-For-49ers-128324703.html

What's changed.

with goldson and spencer in, we didn't look so stupid and useless on defense.


With Miller in, our Fb actually looked athletic caught the ball, and made some actual blocks in the running game. With snyder in, Alex Didn't take anymore terrible shots, like he did last week or at the beginning of this game.