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

I worry about defensive depth myself too.

Giedi

Who's the backup placekicker?

Originally posted by WeAreLegend:

Who's the backup placekicker?

Per interview with Harbaugh a couple of weeks back: Sopoaga

Originally posted by 49erCanuck:
Some follow up thoughts to last night:

1. The O-line was much better. One sack. I don't think there was a single holding call. There was a marginal hands to the face penalty against Boone. But overall Kaepernick had a clean pocket and the run game generated significant yards. It wasn't all perfect (snaps. Some stuffed runs later when we went conservative) but it was much better than last week and the week before.

2. Play calling: I think it was slightly better. We passed a lot more on first down. We came out firing to start the game and were able to get an early lead. I didn't like the pass happy series that led to the Walker fumble. And I don't think Kaepernick has the soft touch for fade patterns to Moss in the red zone just yet. I want more power, bootlegs, and play action down there. We also got too conservative with the lead. But that's been discussed quite a bit.

3. We need defensive depth. In fact, I think the first three picks in this draft should be on defence. We need more critical mass at end. We need more pass rushers. We need young legs to eat up snaps down the stretch. I love who we have. But we need some solid young future starters behind Justin Smith etc.

4. Looking ahead - could Kaepernick turn this team into a top 10 offence? It sure looks that way. The kid looks like nothing bothers him. He doesn't get down. He doesn't get discouraged. And he is an up-tempo player. I don't think Seattle will scare him anymore than New Orleans or New England.

The way this team is rounding out, it reminds me of the Steelers with Big Ben at QB. Kaep will make mistakes and have some errors. But he makes enough big plays to compensate for that. The defence is as tough as they come. And the running game is very efficient. I feel much better about this team heading into the post season than I did about last year's team. The biggest threat right now is a physical bruising team that can not only take the 49ers best punch, but counter punch. Seattle and the NYG still fit that bill. Outside of them, I think the NFC is pretty soft.

I think Big Ben with more speed is pretty close comparison. I can live with his mistakes and imagine next year after training camp as the undisputed starting Qb how much better he can be. In five games as an inexperience Qb he has shown that he has it. Alex whom I liked because he was a hard worker had never shown me that he had it.

Couple things:

4 TD's Just wow, the dart between two defenders to Crabtree was what we have been missing, the perfect NFL throws that can not be defensed. I also loved that 3 of 4 TD passes were throws into the End Zone, meaning they were shots going for the score. Not dump offs or perfect blocking downfield allowing a WR to get the extra 5 yards into the EZ. I loved that.

Im still pissed about the PI call on Brown that was most certainly not a PI, without that call i dont think they keep gaining as much momentum as they do. I give them credit for 3 of their TD's but after that PI call i knew the next play was a TD, refs handed that to em. Also they were hoding not just Aldon, but others on the line and get away with murder down there, i guess thats to be expected when playing NE @ NE.

The 3 and out 3rd quarter, i felt like the coaches should have called at least one bootleg or something that could turn into a Kaep running play, i feel he can pick up first downs when needed, especially if the D has to worry about Crabs int he flat and Gore/LMJ out of a loaded backfield from the Q or whatever. Would have been great to pick up some first downs there and possibly even get more points to extinguish the fire earlier, thats just me being picky though, because i wanted there to be very little criticism from anyone on our HUGE WIN.

Defense is still the best in the League, BB and Brady made some adjustments, along with Josh McDaniels who secretly filmed our practice back in London haha. But when we come to play aggressive you can see what we do, we hold Brady to 3 points, the best offense int he league with all those little shifty slippery turd weapons they have. I knew they would mount something of a comeback, didn't foresee that though, but the W counts the same, and we played impressive on both sides of the ball to get the Win, which is great to see our O put up 40 to get a win when our D cant hold the best O all game long.

Just awesome to get a Win, really want this next one @ SEA. I think when Harbaugh is highly motivated going against a coach he really wants to beat like BB, and Carrol, he delivers. I expect another really good game plan, but different than what we have seen. Really hope Justin Smith is back though

One interesting stat I saw is that in over 6 years, Alex Smith has led the offense to over 30 points just three times away from home, and never over 40 points away from home.

In just three road game starts, Kaepernick already has led the offense twice for over 30 points, one of which for over 40.

I guess that's why you trade the mistakes for the upside...

Too many fumbled snaps, Very nice passes deep to receivers. Conservative playcalling offensively and defensively nearly cost us the game AGAIN. Crabtree is awesome
VD disappears and doesn't lay out for a ball. The interception returns both should have been TD's. Akers needs to go. Frank Gore is a beast.
Aldon was almost shut out except for the interception. We were presented with a lot of short fields because of turnovers and good field position.
I want to see long sustained drives from the offense more consistently.

I said yesterday Carlos Rogers had his best game of the season. Most thought Welker would torch him. But he stepped up and played very well.

Something looks familiar here....

Very impressed with Kaepernick. Like a lot of you have mentioned, the dude has ice water pouring through his veins. Two things that aren't getting enough play and praise though; 0 delay of game/burned timeouts, and 0 holding calls on the O-line. Basically, we got to see how dangerous this offense can be when they don't beat themselves with the stupid drive killing penalties that have plagued us all year.

One of the most impressive things was LaMIkE carrying that defender for about 10yds on his 62yd kick off return b4 he got tackled...POWERFUL

Vernon and not laying out is beginning to piss me off.

Originally posted by communist:
Can anyone explain to me how we could give up 21 points in the 4th quarter? Don't want to watch the game because I would kill someone

It happens bro. We were going up against the best offense at their house. We relaxed a bit (both coaches and players) after getting up by 28 and they caught fire for 20 minutes. Our defense dominated them for 40 minutes though.

Once you relax, it could take a while to get that intensity back. Sometimes you never get it back during the game. The kickoff return by LeMichael James and catch and run for a TD by Crabtree was a shot in the arm that we needed.

Goldson fake punt run !

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
Goldson fake punt run !

gutsy!