Week 15: Thoughts after rewatching the game....

Originally posted by bzborow1:

Originally posted by 9erred:
You had to watch the game to come up with that master of the obvious commentary?? All tongue in cheek kidding aside, you re enforced what everyone else witnessed last night. I would add in the following.

1. LMJ went from webzone draft bust to making the most important play of the niners season. That kick return was the turning point of the game to shift the momentum to the Niners.
2. Randy Moss- How about him returning to his old team and catching a TD.
3. Donte Whitner and Dashon Goldson appear to be gelling at the right time.
4. Tom Brady makes some sick throw it in the bread basket where only the WR can catch the ball throws.
5. Ted Ginn- Not one, but two screw ups on punt returns. The commentator made a good point, the niners might want to put no one returning the ball and they would be better off.
6. CK7- confidence, saw the all out blitz, went to Crabtree being covered in man coverage and scored a TD in one play. Did not give the defense enought time to rest, but who cares. If the 9ers can score TD's on command, wow.
7. 41 POInts, 41 fricking points. wow

To be fair, even I saw that blitz coming. They were hoping to scare CK....

I also saw a New England team who devised an excellent strategy to nullify Aldon Smith. They put all their slot receivers on Aldon Smith's side of the field to create traffic in the area and to force him into coverage. The 9ers could have countered that by just putting Smith in a 3-pt stance but the defense would then be forced into predictable coverages.

This game gives me better confidence going into the playoffs because we now know the offense has the ability to light it up should the defense lay a turd from here on out.

was it NE great Strategy or did we take away their money maker pass away ?

Originally posted by PhillyNiner:
Here is the thing though. If you replace him, you need a guy who can do all the unsung things he does and that may prove tough to find. Yeah he has bad hands, but he is the straw that stirs the drink on a lot of blocking schemes both in the O and on special teams. Its his combination of athletic speed and strength that makes him tough to shed as a blocker. LMJ's kick return to begin the rally essentially followed Delanie right up the sideline. He really gets me worked up too...but he isnt an easy piece to replace. I think ultimatley we may have to keep him...god I hope they really work on his hands though.

Look how many years he's been in the league, it it hasn't happened by now, it won't happen later.

I'm glad he caught that touchdown pass.....and yet I'm also hoping that the 49ers look at tight-end sometime in the draft, a bigger taller TE that Kaepernick can go up top to.

Anybody else notice Aldon Smith was held nearly the entire second half?

I'm done with Delanie. And I used to be a big time supporter.

Solid post - once again.

My Thoughts:

1). Watching one of the commentators, I think Dilfer, who said if you look closely at Kap's hands under center, Kap doesn't have his hands together but apart and that is what causes the fumbles.

2). We left points on the field and I feel we could have beaten them by 3 touchdowns. I've been an Alex supporter from day 1 BUT JH made the BEST move for the team by making Kap the starter. He made throws that Alex couldn't do on his best day.

3). " Tale of Two Defenses". We owned them until Fangio went into tat bull-crap soft zone. To his credit he adjusted BUT I hope he & JH learned something moving forward. We can't rest when playing high-caliber teams. We have to put out feet on their throats and crush them. Never let up at all.

4). Ginn is becoming a liability and LMJ helped save the day. Smart draft pick.

5). Akers better see a hypnotist or get an enema.

6). MOST concerned about Justin. When will we know about him?

Thanks again for the excellent post.

Originally posted by jacklegniner:
1. Kaep's under center needs to fixed. Brady plays in those conditions all the time and is used to it. Even the NE running backs were coughing up the ball a lot. Still it's a good bullet to dodge.

2. I said it last week: In a team filled with Superstars, I think Crabtree is one of the team MVP's. He is having a ton of clutch moments. With CK at QB he has a good chance get 1000 yards as well.

3. I thought Aldon wouldn't get any sacks because Brady releases the ball so fast. Aldon last night was gassed and seemed to look blahhhhh without Justin. I fear the same situation with Seattle.

4. Zone defense in the second half was annoying.

5. Did it seem like NE was getting all the calls. Maybe I missed it but it looked like CK got his facemask grabbed and yet we got a call against us for hands to the face...

6. Akers... Love the guy, but at least bring someone in to compete with him and scare the bee-jezus out of him so he either plays better or we have another guy ready to go.

He was absolutely having the s**t held out of him on the regular. Go back through the game, they were grabbing on to him, latching on to him, at one point Solder basically lifted him up off the ground. Aldon's got tremendous natural physical talent, the downside is that's still really raw, I mean he came out as a sophomore and with time he'll be able to handle situations like that, if nothing else to draw the ref's attention to what is going on. New England also made some adjustments to move the slot guy to his side and started utilizing chip blocks..etc, to get him off his game, so they did a good job in that but the blatant holding was pretty ridiculous.

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:
Anybody else notice Aldon Smith was held nearly the entire second half?

This. I was absolutely raging, going back through the game, the Patriots 2nd half strategy was either to get Aldon into coverage or just flat out hold the s**t out of him.

Well put , Marvin. Unnnhh....the answer to fumbles and drops of the snap from C to QB is pretty simple in the rain and slop. Just put him 3 yrds back in the gun for every play. The pistol still works well for frank with kap 4 yds back. And there was no getting around the fact that each snap under C was liable to be muffed. Next time that happens, get out from under C.

1st half play calling , O and D, may have been best in 9er history. It was matched by 25 mins of the worst play calling in 49er history in the second half. Four 3 and outs, conservative, no passes, D lays off, plays loose zone, and rush disappears. Result, 4 TDs and a tie game. It was only the spark by LMJ's spectacular punt return, that relit our fuse. Then with game tied, Coach H reverted to play calling of O and D in first half, Kap hits Crabs, and its over. Oh, the D returned to smoothering the WRs, Brady got bullrushed, and with 4th and 2, the game was over. But Coach almost turned a silk purse into a sow's ear. He was darned lucky we won that game after he opened up the 2nd half with "playing not to lose"...on both O and D.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:
Anybody else notice Aldon Smith was held nearly the entire second half?

This. I was absolutely raging, going back through the game, the Patriots 2nd half strategy was either to get Aldon into coverage or just flat out hold the s**t out of him.

Wouldn't it be yours?

Originally posted by bzborow1:
Wouldn't it be yours?

As long as I knew the refs wouldn't call it, then yeah.

Oh, One other thing. RJF played well, which is encouraging.

We went into THEIR house, with them playing their BEST ball of the season, in THEIR weather, and beat them. We CAN win anywhere, against anyone.

My 2 cents Marvin

1. Goodwin was responsible for the majority of the snapping issues, he has shorter arms then you'd want from a center and he was intent of getting off the ball quickly to attack Wilfork. CK shares the blame as I recall one replay showed a snap hitting him right in the hands.

Colin just told the rest of the league that he is one of the best QBs period(not just young but off all 32 teams) in the whole league with that performance.

2 & 3 & 4. This game better have reinforced it into Harbaugh's head that you can't let off the gas, if were up by 28 points you just call the exact same plays, why the switched to that zone scheme is beyond me, Fangio f***ked that up. Same with the offense, Roman screwed the pooch going conservation. Harbaugh needs to assert his will/the will of the team and crush any hope a team has and never let off the gas.

5. Crabtree is amazing, if anyone noticed during the course of the game we were actually using Crabs in a variety of intermediate to deep routes throughout the game and it paid off with that huge TD and the PI call on Aqib Talib, etc.

6. See point 2, 3, and 4 lol. 65 pass attempts? the league likes to measure by pass ATTEMPT and not completion so we held Brady to a mere 6.81 YPA compared to Colin's 8.64 YPA!!!!!!

7. Walker --- Sorry but he is gone, he's had several critical screw ups, drops CK's perfectly thrown potential game winning TD against STL, either caught and fumbled or dropped a catch that was "wrongly" ruled a fumble depending on who you ask AT THE FIVE YARD LINE!!!!!!!! There are several other and and and and that offset the few and moments that he has had over the past 2 seasons that show that he is far more trouble then he is worth. Maybe we keep him as #3 TE? But there is no way Harbaugh can justify keeping him as our #2 TE next season.

8. I've never been so excited about watching kickers' pro days and combine performances in my whole life. That 63 yard FG was fantastic but man your "Pelvis injury" is getting annoying. Can't wait to see who we draft to replace him.

9. I was helping my family with a window( I know right? WTF?) when Justin got hurt and didn't see it but I pray to football god's that he is ready next week and for the playoffs. It only emphasizes the need to draft 3-4 DE in the 1st this year. A player like Arizona State Junior Will Sutton fits the bill as a great 3-4 DE, hopefully he declares!!!!

10. BACK TO BACK PLAYOFF BERTHS!?!!?!?! Next week we need to make it back to back NFC West Championships!

CK7 was money last night 4 tds hasn't been done since Jeff Garcia. Yes the snaps did piss me off and he has to get fixed ASAP. But for a kid who has only started 5 games the dude is money. I think we may have finally found a franchise type QB to build around.


The game plan was great to start but did get a bit conservative but thats just the way JH coaches. The defense was balling in first but those dudes made adjustment they are pretty good also.


Big props to Crabs I have been down on him since he held out but they dude is stepping up lately and is finally living up to that draft status.


Akers I think they should dump him before the playoffs because he just cant be trusted.


Also the refs were just horrible the punt play took forever to sort out. The PI on Brown was complete BS and the Walker fumble was not a fumble.

Originally posted by OKC49erFan:
Anybody else notice Aldon Smith was held nearly the entire second half?

Yes, Under the shoulder pads all night...