Week 2: Thoughts after rewatching the game...

1) Alex Smith running tally: Since 2010 Eagles game (Including Playoffs) - 27 Games, 761 Att, 460 Comp, 5526 Yards, 37 Tds, 8 INTs, 94.54 QB Rating. Just sayin'. I would like to see him throw the ball away a bit more instead of taking those 10-15 yard sacks after he runs backwards to avoid the rush. That really killed a few of those drives.

2) Drops: Driving me crazy. That game last night could have been blown wide open if not for several drops. Delanie Walker...I luv ya man, but CATCH THE DAMN BALL.

3) Aldon Smith: Not so much a criticism as just as a concern. He was a monster against the run last night. Very nice to see that he can play well in that role. What concerns me is that he doesn't seem to have the same explosion as I saw last year. It is very possible tho that it's because he's playing on every down, has more run responsibility, and they are running alot of 3 man rushes. Just something I'll be keeping my eyes on.

4) Crabtree: Starting to look like the guy we thought we were getting when he was drafted. Seems quicker, stronger, and more confident in his ole than I've ever seen him. On a side note, that catch and run in the final drive for a first down? The one where they were praising the Frank Gore Block? That was a DESIGNED block. If you watch Gore he never even looks back at the QB. He wheels out of the backfirld and targets the LB. He is on the verge of making the block BEFORE Crabtree makes the catch. INCREDIBLE. I LOVE the play design.

5) Run Game: Wow. Diverse. Innovative. Dominating. I'm running out of adjectives.

6) Staley/O-Line: Very nice bounce-back. They had a vew breakdowns in Pass Protection, but lets be real for a second...that D-Line is pretty damn good. I think Only the Giants are better. I had concerns about Boone when the season started but no more. Very good player at that position.

7) Vernon: Just more Vernon being Vernon. IMO the best TE in the league right now. Graham is a monster and IMO Gronk is overrated, but I'd take Vernon right now over both.

8) Culliver: Culliver is turning into a hell of a corner. That PI was total BS. When teams go 3 or 4 wide, they aren't finding a guy to pick on. The DBs in general are VERY deep (the Raiders would start Trumaine Brock as their #1 right now, and he's number FIVE on the Niners). I remember Mayock not liking the pick when Culliver was taken, but that guy has a bright future. He is playing VERY well.

9) Third Downs and RedZone: MUCH improved this year. The presence of Randy Moss makes them much better. Teams are going to get wise to that eventually tho and not give him so much space and not double or triple him in the endzone. Then we'll have to see how he plays when he is one-on-one.

10) What a difference: How quickly things changed. The Niners are 2-0, beat 2 playoff teams fairly easily, and when the game ended yesterday all I could really think about was how much better they COULD have played. Seven dropped passes. BS PI call. Fumbled kickoff. A few years ago I'd have been on cloud 9 after that game. I think we may have crossed over into being one of those teams that simply EXPECTS to win. Not a team thats confident it CAN win, but a team that EXPECTS to win and isn't satisfied with just winning. They see what they can improve on even when they dominate. Great time to be a Niner fan right now.

Great stuff as usual. Wanted to add a few observations...

TWO back-to-back pass pro fails by AD in the 2nd quarter so far vs Avril. Beaten badly on both, BUT Alex liked his first reads and got it out quick for completions.

The sack on that drive a play later goes to Alex though... wish I could see the coverage downfield though...

1st and 5 at DET 39 A.Smith sacked at SF 49 for -12 yards (N.Suh).
Timeout #2 by SF at 09:24.
Alex has his 3 seconds and had Miller open at right sideline short, but Alex looking deep middle... holds ball and stays in pocket a second too long... Iupati has his RDT, but does get beaten around right shoulder. Goodwin eventually gets shoved and disengaged from by Suh and Iupati had his back to Suh watching Alex shake the first sack attempt by his RDT.. Alex showing strength in refusing to be dropped to the ground, lolz..

Great review, albeit you're being tough on Aldon. He had 2 sacks last night (they didn't yet credit him for the review sack) and 3 on the year.

Agree with everything.

My biggest frustration with Smith is when the pocket collapses, he's not in that Roethlisberger/Romo league of throwing it away or not getting sacked. Very frustrating but I suppose it's a quality problem to have.

BTW, I think it's official that we cannot execute a flea flicker to save our life, LOL....either that or we have the worst luck calling it against the right defensive calls.

I think you're right about Aldon....but being that's he's no longer a situational pass rusher, he's playing pretty well. Loved that run tackle at the beginning of the game. And he still has more sacks than JPP so far.

The drops kept the game close. And if most of those drops were caught, man Smith would have looked EVEN BETTER. But you know, just for THIS GAME, maybe it was good that Smith had to earn the win at the end instead of coasting. Nice to see that growth.

Offensively, very nice. I want to see some attacking down the field. There's nothing wrong with showing stuff.....I mean Eli showed enough for 3 seasons in the 2nd half yesterday, lol.

We benefit from scaring teams at least. BTW, very, very few passes that were just plain incomplete from Smith so far in two games. We can afford a few incompletions just to test the waters.

I'd like to add that Manningham appears to be the fastest accelerating player on our offense. VD probably the fastest long stride burner, but man those swing passes to The Hammer really move the chains!!

Agree that we should feed the Moss more. Once we get Moss and MM involved on downfield throws....will be in bliss. I think the usage of Crabtree is perfect so far.

Great time to be 49er fan. Let's win these next few games with solid play!

the lions are who we thought they were.pray vernon davis does not get hurt forcing walker in there, get ginn back asap

#1 I somewhat agree but if the OL sticks with their blocks Alex could have scrambled and made a play. You don't want sacks that lose that many yards but would you rather have the Alex (or other QBs) that hit the dirt the 2nd they see someone coming after them? Alex has saved many sacks with his great scrambling ability these past few years. He can't really help it if he beats one guy and all of a sudden another is on top of him. Still, I like how new Alex managed to throw away the bad snap where a few years back against Philly that turned into a disaster. Anybody have flashbacks?

#6 never was worried about Boone... he could be our best OL soon... he might be a bit behind Iupati but Davis will have something to say about that.

#7 If we take into account that Graham has Brees and Gronk as Brady who can make anybody good I probably take Vernon over both. Those 2 are great but some of it is their QB and high flying offenses.

#9 not happy about the 3rd and 1 we didn't convert and we have a ways to go on 3rd downs yet but getting Jacobs back should help those 3rd and shorts

#10, tell me about it... it kind of sucks that we have such high expectations we win these games and there is a thought in the back of our minds that hey we could have done better. I remember back in the dark era the wins were few and far between so it probably meant more.

Everything else I won't comment on because I agree. About to re-watch the game myself. Good as always Marvin.

Edit: Missed calls... I think the PI on Culliver although I didn't get to see it again. The forearm to Alex, the pick play that would have ended the game I believe and not given them the last TD... any others? For the Lions possibly bowmans hit on sliding Stafford although that was much less severe than Alex's non call. I can see why it wasn't call. I think Crabtree had a push in the back on Vernon's shake of a couple of defenders. The running into the kicker was the right call although it's unfortunate.

Originally posted by Nuns:
Great review, albeit you're being tough on Aldon. He had 2 sacks last night (they didn't yet credit him for the review sack) and 3 on the year.

True.

BTW, nobody is commenting that offensive holding is not being called much league wise. Watching the Giants games, they're not getting anymore push than we are.

Everything is fine guys.

On point #1 -- Smith did tried and got away from the first defender getting to him a couple of times to try to extend the play, but couldn't avoid the second defender coming in. Judgement call on Smith on how he would handle that. But at least he tried to extend it to give his receiver more time to get open. Those are more of coverage sacks. The couple of roll out where he got Suh in his face I can't explain those....

Originally posted by Gore_21:

#9 not happy about the 3rd and 1 we didn't convert and we have a ways to go on 3rd downs yet but getting Jacobs back should help those 3rd and shorts

3rd and 1 at SF 32 W.Tukuafu and L.Davis reported in as eligible. F.Gore left guard to SF 32 for no gain (S.Tulloch).
short answer is Joe Staley screwed up. For some reason, he turns right to give the RDT a push in the arse, but there was no need to and what it did was allow the THREE Lbs to converge into the gap to make the run stuff. Staley has to plow forward and help clear out some of that

Alex Smith is the toughest Quarterback in the league.

I too am thinking maybe Aldon MAY not be AS explosive as last year due to the fact he's playing practically every defensive snap now. But I'll bite my tongue and re-visit the subject in about 10 weeks.

Originally posted by defenderDX:
But I'll bite my tongue and re-visit the subject in about 10 weeks.

Agree with this.. just too soon to tell for me.

Awesome.

Agreed...OL did better on pass protection; Staley had a couple big whiffs (1st one of the game = hit/incomplete rush passed), Davis had a couple as well, Suh splitting Boone, 3rd and short still sucks even with an overload to one side, etc. but like you said, this is a good "penetrating" DL.

Aldon, I tried to warn everyone that Aldon's sack numbers, QB hits/pressures would go down once he started; BUT I also noted that he would start to become a "complete" WILL and that is better for the team. Yesterday, if you watched our OLB's, they were freaking everywhere...Brooks, knocking down a key 3rd down pass (from the RDT position - think about that for a second), a PD covering Megatron (again on 3rd down), dropping back even more (deep down the middle of the field)...sacks, hits, pressures, TFL (as good as a sack) but Aldon is REALLY starting to get it. Playing off defenders to stuff runs, sealing the edge, dropping back (1 blunder), etc. I'd argue right now, we have THE two best complete OLB's in the game...team game! These guys are lined up everywhere!

Culliver/Fangio, props to Culliver and esp. Fangio for "getting it." He played his secondary up tight and physical, aggressive (no clean releases this game), moved Brooks/Culliver to cover Megatron, mixed up coverages, played Brooks/Aldon together almost the entire game (unlike GB), etc. And the result was a 5,000 yard QB and all-world WR with nothing to show for it in the end (few FG's and a give-me TD).

Miller is effing awesome - unsung hero, no doubt.

Agreed on dropped passes are unbelievable. We were horrendous last year, even worse so far this year (esp. when you look at the circumstances). And let's make things VERY clear here...every single one has been a catchable ball.

Manningham may end up being our best addition...absolute stud!

BTW: We haven't even tapped James/Jenkins/Ginn/Jacobs yet!

Originally posted by JTsBiggestFan:

I'd like to add that Manningham appears to be the fastest accelerating player on our offense. VD probably the fastest long stride burner, but man those swing passes to The Hammer really move the chains!!

Boy did Manningham look quick. 29 yard run and 3 for 28 receiving. Doesn't sound like much it still helped a lot... he will become more of a threat as we go along. I'd like to see more jet sweeps or reverses with Manningham/AJ Jenkins. Maybe even Ginn... no more with Delanie or Vernon

Originally posted by defenderDX:
I too am thinking maybe Aldon MAY not be AS explosive as last year due to the fact he's playing practically every defensive snap now. But I'll bite my tongue and re-visit the subject in about 10 weeks.

I am more than pleased with his progression in the run game. Dude was straight out beasty. As you said, hopefully around week 10 he should be putting it all together and combining both dominant pass rush and run support.

I wonder if he's still hampered by the injury as well?!