why do we never throw the ball down the field?

Alex Smith.

You dont need to defend Dallas's defense on this one. Look back to last week; better yey, go back to Alex's history with the team. His game is based on short, high percentage passes regardless of the playbook. Its just defendable this year bc the WCO calls for short, high percentage passes.

The truth is that Alex just doesnt think outside the box. You dont need 7 step drops to go deep. Look at what Dallas did with NY last week. Everytime the Jets blitzed, Romo aired it out for his receivers to go grab it. High risk high reward. We3 played a depleted secondary, and Im shocked that Alex barely attempted to expose a 2nd string secondary playing one on one coverage bc of the blitz. Someone better teach Ale the "it" factor, or else every team we play this year is gonna throw blitzes at us, and you're gonna see a lot of games where we lose with Alex throwing for 15/23 158yds. 1TD. May look good for the stat gurus, but certainly not a winning stat. Romo played horribly today; still put up over 250 yards passing and won his team the game. Thats the difference.

Originally posted by sacniner:

It's really obvious they don't trust Smith. From the entire game last week, the last "drive" to end the half, the 15 yard penalty decision... Ultra conservative.

I'm curious then, if the coaching staff doesn't trust him then why keep him?

It's pretty clear that the strategy shouldn't have been "f**k it, I'm going deep!" Rewatching the game film, you can clearly see that the Cowboys secondary was playing WAY off the receivers, even with our backups in. Remember that Ginn pick up? The corner was playing way off of him, like how the 49ers played in that BS prevent def last season.

The strategy should have been to exploit the midrange underneath routes to take advantage of these corners.

Originally posted by moe8092:
Alex Smith.

You dont need to defend Dallas's defense on this one. Look back to last week; better yey, go back to Alex's history with the team. His game is based on short, high percentage passes regardless of the playbook. Its just defendable this year bc the WCO calls for short, high percentage passes.

The truth is that Alex just doesnt think outside the box. You dont need 7 step drops to go deep. Look at what Dallas did with NY last week. Everytime the Jets blitzed, Romo aired it out for his receivers to go grab it. High risk high reward. We3 played a depleted secondary, and Im shocked that Alex barely attempted to expose a 2nd string secondary playing one on one coverage bc of the blitz. Someone better teach Ale the "it" factor, or else every team we play this year is gonna throw blitzes at us, and you're gonna see a lot of games where we lose with Alex throwing for 15/23 158yds. 1TD. May look good for the stat gurus, but certainly not a winning stat. Romo played horribly today; still put up over 250 yards passing and won his team the game. Thats the difference.

Good post!

Last week I wasn't impressed with Alex this week I liked what he did... This is on the coaching staff if they don't let him throw we will lose

Originally posted by 9rFan84:

Originally posted by sacniner:
It's really obvious they don't trust Smith. From the entire game last week, the last "drive" to end the half, the 15 yard penalty decision... Ultra conservative.

I'm curious then, if the coaching staff doesn't trust him then why keep him?

Still the best option, by far, on the team. They have no choice... the lockout didn't help either in terms of bringing in a FA.

Originally posted by forty9ers:
is it Alex Smiths vision?
The Coaches trust in smith?
The coaches trying not to turn the ball over?
Wide receivers unable to get open?

Can you say pass protection , guys were coming in untouched , therefor the better question should really be why not more quick developing plays like slants and maybe some roll outs. IMHO

Originally posted by BubbaParisMVP:
Actually, I'd like to know why we throw so few slants?

i was wondering the same thing throughout the entire game. i was like wow thats a lot of guys blitzing...here comes the slants...but no

Alex doesn't make quick decisions on the field. That's why we rarely make other teams pay for blitzing.

Originally posted by sacniner:

It's really obvious they don't trust Smith. From the entire game last week, the last "drive" to end the half, the 15 yard penalty decision... Ultra conservative.

It is not Smith they don't trust, it is the line.

Originally posted by 49ERwhiner:
Can you say pass protection , guys were coming in untouched , therefor the better question should really be why not more quick developing plays like slants and maybe some roll outs. IMHO

Exactley, when you have an Demarcus Ware comming in untouched after playaction that somehow hampers your chances to throw it downfield.

These routes require 5-7 seconds to develop, the O line can block in good times for 3, and even after a 3 step drop the QB gets hit.

Alex has been beaten up and then thrown under the bus by his coaches for beeing beaten up.

Harbaugh is working on that, but without sufficient protection opponents will still stack the box, knowing that if it´s a passplay they have a good chance of sacking the QB.

Originally posted by Ronnie49Lott:

Originally posted by moe8092:

Alex Smith.

You dont need to defend Dallas's defense on this one. Look back to last week; better yey, go back to Alex's history with the team. His game is based on short, high percentage passes regardless of the playbook. Its just defendable this year bc the WCO calls for short, high percentage passes.

The truth is that Alex just doesnt think outside the box. You dont need 7 step drops to go deep. Look at what Dallas did with NY last week. Everytime the Jets blitzed, Romo aired it out for his receivers to go grab it. High risk high reward. We3 played a depleted secondary, and Im shocked that Alex barely attempted to expose a 2nd string secondary playing one on one coverage bc of the blitz. Someone better teach Ale the "it" factor, or else every team we play this year is gonna throw blitzes at us, and you're gonna see a lot of games where we lose with Alex throwing for 15/23 158yds. 1TD. May look good for the stat gurus, but certainly not a winning stat. Romo played horribly today; still put up over 250 yards passing and won his team the game. Thats the difference.

Good post!

Good post if you consider Dallas lost that game to the Jets. The problem is the line is playing like crap, no run blocking and piss poor pass protection. Smith carried the offense yesterday, was the main reason we scored, yet some of you are seriously going to try to blame him for the conservative play calling and defensive breakdowns? Seriously?

Originally posted by moe8092:
Alex Smith.

You dont need to defend Dallas's defense on this one. Look back to last week; better yey, go back to Alex's history with the team. His game is based on short, high percentage passes regardless of the playbook. Its just defendable this year bc the WCO calls for short, high percentage passes.

The truth is that Alex just doesnt think outside the box. You dont need 7 step drops to go deep. Look at what Dallas did with NY last week. Everytime the Jets blitzed, Romo aired it out for his receivers to go grab it. High risk high reward. We3 played a depleted secondary, and Im shocked that Alex barely attempted to expose a 2nd string secondary playing one on one coverage bc of the blitz. Someone better teach Ale the "it" factor, or else every team we play this year is gonna throw blitzes at us, and you're gonna see a lot of games where we lose with Alex throwing for 15/23 158yds. 1TD. May look good for the stat gurus, but certainly not a winning stat. Romo played horribly today; still put up over 250 yards passing and won his team the game. Thats the difference.

I totally agree with you. Dallas weakness was their secondary and Alex should have taken advantage of that. Dallas took advantage of our secondary several times, most notably in OT. I mean c'mon...1st play of OT and Dallas throws deep.....we all saw that coming a mile away and the niners secondary wasn't ready for it?

It didn't help that Braylan and Crabtree were out, it could have made a difference.

Originally posted by nflguy49:

Alex doesn't make quick decisions on the field. That's why we rarely make other teams pay for blitzing.

He played very good except for the int, the oline has got to get its s**t together before we can expect the offense to open up.

How many times was Romo sacked? Most of the Time Romo had a clean pocket or one rusher.
I´m not saying that Alex is brilliant yet to throw deep you need time and we could barely get of quick passes.