NFC Championship Game: Thoughts after rewatching the game...

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by KEGster:
Disagree on Crabtree. I felt he was the only one that pressed and it almost cost us the game. Unlike the Falcons, we were exhibiting the quiet confidence. Then Crabtree started dancing/celebrating and then the inexusable fumble. We were running down their throats, how difficult would a 3rd and Goal at the 1 be to convert?

Dumb. I thought he pressed and let the Falcons get into his head. The only player on the roster to do so

TOTALLY disagree.

Ya know, those guys on the other team? They get payed too. That was one hell of a play by Robinson. Sometimes you gotta give them their due.

I think Crabtree's fumble helped to essentially extend the drive (they got the ball back on the 38 and scored the go-ahead touchdown) and keep the Niners' defense off the field in preparation for their final stand.

What I noticed:

Ahmad Brooks - He's been very active in Aldon's absence. Very solid player.

Tarell Brown - Early and often, they challenged Brown and won big almost every time. This was a terrible game for Brown. I think as the game went on they put Culliver on Julio Jones over Brown. Bad, bad game for him. The Ravens will try and get Torrey Smith on Tarell Brown if they can.

Carlos Rodgers - On the flip side, you barely heard Rodgers name called all day. A good sign.

Good officiating, I thought.

The team showed huge character. I wonder what sort of lead ATL need to be safe!

Frank Gore man of the match. And I don't hold the fumble against Crabtree. Great defensive play.

Go Marv!

Originally posted by bzborow1:
What I noticed:

Ahmad Brooks - He's been very active in Aldon's absence. Very solid player.

Tarell Brown - Early and often, they challenged Brown and won big almost every time. This was a terrible game for Brown. I think as the game went on they put Culliver on Julio Jones over Brown. Bad, bad game for him. The Ravens will try and get Torrey Smith on Tarell Brown if they can.

Carlos Rodgers - On the flip side, you barely heard Rodgers name called all day. A good sign.

Brown did have that awesome bat down of a deep pass that would have hurt us badly. Seems Fangio has the CBs playing OFF most of the day... so I find it hard to blame them for too much... Vic just played scared off their WRs.

Brooks has some crazy good hops for a big man. He's in much better shape than ever before. Now just needs to bat down passes and be ready to catch them on their way down.

Thanks Marvin! Good observations! The development of Kap reminds of Steve Young - erratic at beginning but then puts it all together to become a consistent qb.

Culliver should have been put on Julio from the start. Our shortest corner on their tallest wideout was a recipe for disaster and I was calling that from the start of the game. Ryan throws up two to three rainbows per game because he knows those guys will go up and get it. I also knew he'd throw us one or two. The mattural doesn't have a very strong arm contrary to what alot of people think because of the amount of big plays those receivers make. He finds a way to be accurate with those floaters though and have to give credit where its due. Those passes go straight up in the air but seem to come down on target. Those WR's are off the hook and I now have a whole new respect for that Falcons offense and I thought they were top shelf before this game. Their line surprised me the most and I think they're underrated pass protectors. All of them. Even IF you find a way to contain those two giants outside, Tony seems to do whatever he wants underneath. Credit to the defense for weathering the storm and clamping down allowing our offense to get us back in the game.

Couldn't agree more on Kaep. The kid is amazing and has both nerves and balls of steele! If you can't watch him play now and see how special he is then you don't know what you're looking at. To have the mental side of the game in your back pocket to go along with all those physical attributes is rare. REALLY RARE! Its easy to see in a game like this. Watching Ryan throw and then watching Kaep throw its night and day different and Ryan is no slouch. Kaep can put in anywhere he wants, on a freaking rope and doesn't need to float it to get it beyond 30 yards. He's also showing improvement every week, especially on his touch passes. Thats scary considering how good he already is. Gore said it best, "he's a different qb" and he really is. Golden arm, great head on his shoulders, and oh yeah. 4.4 speed!! WOW! Great time to be a Niner fan for sure. SF has an elite qb in the house once again and if what we've seen so far after only 9 starts is any idication of how good this kid is than buckle up Faithful!! Its going to be quite a ride! GO NINERS!!

One more thing to note. GO SMITTY!! What a class act. I was so happy seeing him celebrate in the locker room after the game. He deserves a ring as much as anyone on this team and I cannot say enough for the way he's handled himself during what had to be one of the most difficult situations of his career. You're still going to come out on top Alex and you deserve it!

Great post as always. I'll take on 4-7.



4) The "Pattern": let's hope the pattern isn't dead but harnessed. I think, as you pointed out below, we have slumped every third game and this game was no exception. The difference was that the Defense buckled down in the second half. Ideally we go back to beast mode for the superbowl as we should view the performance as poor on D and come out ready to conquer the world in two weeks.

5) Goldson/Whitner: They did a great job most of the game and figured things out in the second half. I wouldn't hang all the problems on the safeties as it was clear later in the game that we were trying to let them play up to help with Gonzo, the Run, and to blow up thier guys on crossing routes. The corners seemed mostly responsible to drop into the deep coverage. This may well have been the mistake early on it might have been the corner not Dashon who misplayed. The secondary had to deal with a tough draw from the officials who were clearly prepared to allow a very physical game as a different crew could have called a SLEW of offensive PIs. We were only out of position on one play. The other TDs and many big catches were just amazing timing, catches, etc. We one most of thos battles in the second half.

6) Aldon: Teams are doing alot to scheme out Aldon. formations, stunts, lots of stuff. One of the most used things sunday was the RB upending him when it seemed he was comming free. I think we need to use that to our advantage by letting the rush come more from Brooks, somehting we did towards the end of the game. I think two more weeks of Rest will help Aldon too. He generated a fair amount of pressure in the game and had several nock downs and hits on Ryan who was just unloading that ball so fast on timing routes. Our DBs winning the battle inside of five yards made some of Ryan's passes look pathetic as there was nobody there to catch a ball several times. He could not afford to wait on readsfor much of the game and when he could he had very tight windows.

Originally posted by Dr_Bill_Walsh:

Every time I looked up Tarrell Brown was the one getting beat and beat badly. I can only recall him making one play on a deep ball. Even that play he was out of position and if it were a better thrown ball it would have been a completion. Does anyone have the numbers on how many times they went after him and how many plays he gave up? I started to have Mike Rumph flashbacks.

He is definately the weak link on this defense and I expect Baltimore to go after him early and often.

Played much better in the second half. Dismal, dismal first half.

Yes, but in his defense... Julio Jones was pushing him off on just about all of those completions.

that corner TD by jones was indefensible. Just a great play by JJ. He made up for it on that long ball he batted away later in the game. Julio jones makes that grab, we might be talking about the probowl right now.

He had very tight coverage on a lot of those completions. I still think, for how much Brown gets thrown at, he does a damn good job.

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:
Played much better in the second half. Dismal, dismal first half.

Im not sure he played any better, but I did notice Culliver was playing outside more in the 2nd half. He even got his pick lined up outside.

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:

Played much better in the second half. Dismal, dismal first half.

And Jones played a blinder