PLAYOFFS Week 2: Thoughts after re-watching the game.....

Sproles got a TD against the defense but for most of the game the defense roughed up their RB. We hit Sproles hard every time he got the ball. It got to the point where during his run he wasn't really looking for that open hole but would be looking, getting ready for that hit. Then when he got in for a return he would be looking for the same thing from our special team. Sproles is quick and fast in the open field/secondary but he don't want any part of those linebackers and run support safety traffic from our defense. This is one of the reason Brees threw for ...what was it...63 attempts

I just checked. The Saints had total of 37yds rushing

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Sproles got a TD against the defense but for most of the game the defense roughed up their RB. We hit Sproles hard every time he got the ball. It got to the point where during his run he wasn't really looking for that open hole but would be looking, getting ready for that hit. Then when he got in for a return he would be looking for the same thing from our special team. Sproles is quick and fast in the open field/secondary but he don't want any part of those linebackers and run support safety traffic from our defense. This is one of the reason Brees threw for ...what was it...63 attempts

I just checked. The Saints had total of 37yds rushing

I saw the same thing with the receivers in the second half. Everytime they caught the ball, there football move was dropping to the ground. It was irritating, because I wanted to see more bone crushing hits!!!

Originally posted by NONAME:
Great read! Got me all pumped up again!!! Thanks!

Great job Marvin!

Originally posted by niner559:
I saw the same thing with the receivers in the second half. Everytime they caught the ball, there football move was dropping to the ground. It was irritating, because I wanted to see more bone crushing hits!!!

First rule of survival is self preservation .

Always a pleasure to read, Marvin.

Nice job as usual Marvin.

DEFENSE has room to improve -- there were some breakdowns. They played great for 56 minutes, and then gave up two quick touchdowns. I understand, they were no doubt exhausted trying to keep up with all the Saints weapons. And I understand, the Saints couldn't be bottled up all game. Granted, Sproles and Graham are impossible to stop 100% of the time. But I think the Saints showed the Giants how to beat the 49ers - deep middle is vulnerable. The Saints ran the top of the defense deep with outside routes, and then threw into the vacated deep middle to pick up chunk yards and ultimately score three TDs - Sproles, and Graham twice. Expect something similar from the Giants.

OFFENSE has to be productive in 2nd and 3rd quarter. You can tell that the 49ers scheme is limited by 2 factors - limited scheme installation and experience, and limited WR threats. The offense clearly didn't have a LOS adjustment available against certain defensive alignments. ASmith has been well coached that when the play is broken, throw it away or take the sack, don't risk the devastating turn-over. He doesn't scramble wildly around (a la Brees and Eli) to try and make something big out of a broken play.

We can fully expect the Giants run a conventional 4 man pressure and play coverage against our limited WR threats -- and double team VD this week. But also expect them to run similar overload blitzes to take away key offensive plays - key 3rd downs, and redzone downs. The offense has to have some answers for those all-out blitzes this week. They haven't had an answer for it all year, so maybe that is too much to hope for this week. The running game has to gouge the aggressive defensive front early and often.

If it rains, I give the advantage to the receivers -- they know where they are going, CBs have to make quick adjustments and are vulnerable in sloppy conditions. That also means OUR receivers have to take advantage too.

Originally posted by HearstFan:
Nice job as usual Marvin.

DEFENSE has room to improve -- there were some breakdowns. They played great for 56 minutes, and then gave up two quick touchdowns. I understand, they were no doubt exhausted trying to keep up with all the Saints weapons. And I understand, the Saints couldn't be bottled up all game. Granted, Sproles and Graham are impossible to stop 100% of the time. But I think the Saints showed the Giants how to beat the 49ers - deep middle is vulnerable. The Saints ran the top of the defense deep with outside routes, and then threw into the vacated deep middle to pick up chunk yards and ultimately score three TDs - Sproles, and Graham twice. Expect something similar from the Giants.

OFFENSE has to be productive in 2nd and 3rd quarter. You can tell that the 49ers scheme is limited by 2 factors - limited scheme installation and experience, and limited WR threats. The offense clearly didn't have a LOS adjustment available against certain defensive alignments. ASmith has been well coached that when the play is broken, throw it away or take the sack, don't risk the devastating turn-over. He doesn't scramble wildly around (a la Brees and Eli) to try and make something big out of a broken play.

We can fully expect the Giants run a conventional 4 man pressure and play coverage against our limited WR threats -- and double team VD this week. But also expect them to run similar overload blitzes to take away key offensive plays - key 3rd downs, and redzone downs. The offense has to have some answers for those all-out blitzes this week. They haven't had an answer for it all year, so maybe that is too much to hope for this week. The running game has to gouge the aggressive defensive front early and often.

If it rains, I give the advantage to the receivers -- they know where they are going, CBs have to make quick adjustments and are vulnerable in sloppy conditions. That also means OUR receivers have to take advantage too.

After rewatching the game, Drew Brees had to throw some perfect throws when he had success. They weren't just perfect, they were very difficult plays to make. Even on the Graham TD in the 4th, it was a VERY risky throw. We missed our tackles on those two big plays in the 4th and that's why they scored.

As for the Giants, I don't think they go with only 7 in the box. No point in going max cover only for one TE. They will double Vernon and play our run game. They will force Alex, Crabtree and Kyle Williams to beat us. Alex is still not proven to be able to get the ball to our WR's on a consistent basis, especially if the Giants run-blitz.

LOL. i agree on the o-line.

Saints gave away all their secrets to the team that eventually eliminated them.

Originally posted by Joecool:
After rewatching the game, Drew Brees had to throw some perfect throws when he had success. They weren't just perfect, they were very difficult plays to make. Even on the Graham TD in the 4th, it was a VERY risky throw. We missed our tackles on those two big plays in the 4th and that's why they scored.

As for the Giants, I don't think they go with only 7 in the box. No point in going max cover only for one TE. They will double Vernon and play our run game. They will force Alex, Crabtree and Kyle Williams to beat us. Alex is still not proven to be able to get the ball to our WR's on a consistent basis, especially if the Giants run-blitz.

I think it would be perfect for Williams and Crabtree to win the game for us. Spread the love around.

Again Marvin, awesome!

Loved this line....Alex. I feel like a parent when his child graduates from High School.

That's exactly it! The Pride. Finally, the boy graduated!!!

Marvin, terrific high points summary. A note: Staley didn't block that CB, he RAN OVER him. Honest, it looked like a truck running over a dog. Wow! There was another running block too, but i couldn't see who it was. Whatever, it got alex into the end zone. What a time for a play we haven't seen here in a long time.

As for alex, I never got down on him, and just said " how could anyone judge him with no OL, no OC, and 2 worthless coaches? " There was honestly never a way to judge him good or bad. Well, we see the result with a great HC/OC. .It was just a matter of time for him to get a good coach here or elsewhere, and i am mighty glad it was here.

By the way, there were some big issues in the game I think the 49ers will have to correct to beat the Giants:

1. 12 men in the huddle after a Saints time-out? How could you let that happen. Luckily the next play was the QB end-around for a TD. If we had failed to convert that 3rd down due to that dumb mistake, it would have been very painful.

2. Dropped balls -- Crabs dropped 3-4 balls on slants and KW dropped one on a crossing route. These guys have to show up big this game, the Giants will be daring them to do so.

3. Despite the big hits and tough defense, the tackling in the secondary was sloppy on a few key plays, Colston's long catch, Graham's TD, and Sproles. Although, I will admit that Sproles has juked a lot of people, so hard to call out Goldson on that one too much.

Originally posted by mcbaes72:

Originally posted by SportsFan:

Originally posted by mcbaes72:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by mcbaes72:
8) Willis/Bowman: As expected. Played well in coverage but not perfect. DOMINATED vs the Run. It's too much to ask of them for a perfect day against that team, but they played very well.

Didn't Willis give up the first TD to TE Graham and got turned around and fell down which led to Graham's second TD? If I'm correct on both, I wouldn't say he played well in coverage at all. Side note: I don't like Graham at all...see his two TDs, he staring down the crowd like he's gonna fight them, and after the second TD, he punches the "Niners" logo on the goal post. F*** that SOB! VD just out-shined his performance and he was humble, too.

BTW, saw that game with my dad and nearly cried when Saints scored their last TD. I really thought we were gonna lose, but ended up being being tears of joy and I screamed at the top of my lungs and hugged my dad when VD hugged Harbaugh. Great moment and one of the best playoff games ever!

Dude....

Patrick Willis is all world, but he's a 6'2" Inside Linebacker. Jimmy Graham is a 6'7" Athletic freak of a player.

Both of the passes you are talking about are indefensable, up in the air where the 6'7" guy had to go UP to get it.

You need to adjust your expectations.

Jimmy Graham has been doing that to the entire league all year long.

Umm...he allowed the catch, didn't break up the pass, then fell down and didn't make the tackle...and I need to adjust my expectations when Willis is in coverage? C'mon! I love PW just like any Niner fan. But he didn't break up the pass nor make the tackle. Once again, that's NOT good coverage, but whatever, I won't push it any further.

Delusional. The first TD was a perfect throw high in the air to a 6'7 guy. What do you want Willis to do there?

The second pass was high and thrown to the back shoulder in which Graham had to twist around to even come up with it. In that case Willis had perfect coverage and made Brees throw it to that location. Brees did and it is up to Whitner to break it up, not Willis.

I could see your arguement, but since im delusional, even agreeing with you wouldn't make any sense.

On that td to Graham Willis had great coverage but Brees put it up high enough where only Graham can catch it.Besides being 6' 7" he's a former basketball player who can really get up there.Whitner went for the pick instead of the tackle and in the process took out Willis when he came down.
But hey,it worked out great because it gave the Offense more than enough time to do that historic drive for the winning td!

Yeah the Saints fans were crying & whining (among other things) about the monster hit Whitner put on Thomas but the former vice president head of NFL officiating Mike Pereira took a look at it and said it was a legal hit,
nuff said



gO Niners!

Originally posted by HearstFan:
By the way, there were some big issues in the game I think the 49ers will have to correct to beat the Giants:

1. 12 men in the huddle after a Saints time-out? How could you let that happen. Luckily the next play was the QB end-around for a TD. If we had failed to convert that 3rd down due to that dumb mistake, it would have been very painful.

2. Dropped balls -- Crabs dropped 3-4 balls on slants and KW dropped one on a crossing route. These guys have to show up big this game, the Giants will be daring them to do so.

3. Despite the big hits and tough defense, the tackling in the secondary was sloppy on a few key plays, Colston's long catch, Graham's TD, and Sproles. Although, I will admit that Sproles has juked a lot of people, so hard to call out Goldson on that one too much.

1.12 men in the huddle- it seems that's happened a lot in recent NFL games,what's up with that?
2.Crabtree- the guy has had a very good season this year after starting off slow,he definitely needs to pick up his game and I have no doubt he will.
3.Disagree on this- the pass to Colston:pefect,I believe it was Culliver(?) had pretty tight coverage,nothing you can do about that.
Sproles:deadly in the open field.He wasn't breaking tackles like him and Thomas did against DET.When the 49ers did get their hands on him they were wrapping his ass up.
Graham: Whitner went for the int instead of the tackle and took Willis out in the process,that's not sloppy tackling that was a mistake.

Brees at times morphed into captain checkdown (Sproles had 15 receptions!) because the Niners D were pressuring and/or had excellent coverage in the secondary.Great game and now onto another great game!



gO Niners!!!