Defense: Your Thoughts

Originally posted by Jakemall:

Our 2ndary was okay until Justin was hurt and our pass-rush suffered. Give a legit qb 5 seconds to throw the ball and he will make a pass 9 times out of 10.

I think that's the issue here. Justin is getting older and isn't going to play much longer. Gotta get some help in th secondary & d-line.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Whitner wasn't nearly as good as he was last year.

When QB's threw at him, they completed 79.1 % of passes, had a 128.5 QB rating, and scored 8 TD's. All three ranked dead-last among safeties.

Is that from PFF?

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:
Is that from PFF?

Nope.

I have a feeling our Defense will get more INT's in 2013. We will be so good on offense that teams will press.

Originally posted by fister30:
Justin Smith skews the level of play of the D Line. Soap is sub par, Mcdonald can be a starter but probably should be depth behind somebody more dynamic. I can't think of one non starter D lineman I am excited about.

I am hoping for somebody to push McDonald or Soap for playing time. Those guys are serviceable but the d line needs a face lift. Another situational pass rushing OLB would help during the season also to rest Aldon and Brooks.

I really don't have too many complaints about the lb's or the secondary.

I disagree with this, McDonald is one of the better 3-4 DE's in football. He got it done this year, maybe not as well as last, but he's a legit starter and a good player that I think is the most underrated on the 49ers defense.

Soap on the other hand, as I've been saying, really drags the rest of the DL, and defense in general down because he gets blown off the ball and allows himself to be controlled by the guard or center a tad too often for my liking. Him unable to occupy multiple blockers makes things difficult, in a 3-4 you don't want every guy on your DL only occupying a single blocker, that's bad news.

Pass Rush - there was little to no pressure in the playoffs

Almost every mock draft has the Niners selecting all defensive players. It's always either a D-lineman or a D-back.

Originally posted by eonblue:
Your partially right on Cullivers bite but Whitner was supposed to trade off with the corner that had the deep route and let Culliver help with the underneath route. Disastrous. I think we need a smart safety because Whitner just doesn't react quickly enough and he makes bad reads. The pass rush was the major issue.

We were screwed either way. Whitner isn't fast enough to run deep with Jones.

I'm still trying to figure out what Cully was thinking leaping over Jones instead of touching him when he was down.

Culliver had a horrible game. And, in the defense that was called, Whitner wasn't supposed to be back there. Whitner was supposed to be behind Boldin on that play. At least that's the defensive set Whitner said was called. That was Culliver's mistake. He was not supposed to let Jones get behind him on that play

Originally posted by grizzlyadams:

Originally posted by Jakemall:
Our 2ndary was okay until Justin was hurt and our pass-rush suffered. Give a legit qb 5 seconds to throw the ball and he will make a pass 9 times out of 10.

I think that's the issue here. Justin is getting older and isn't going to play much longer. Gotta get some help in th secondary & d-line.

That's how football works on the defensive side my friends. You can hide a lesser secondary with a good rush or hide a lesser rush with a good secondary. The prior usually is easier. The NFL stacks the deck against the secondary with rules. The same rules Seattle gets around somehow.

NT, DE/DT, Secondary

We can dance around the issue; the Ravens went after Cully and Whitner. The two weakest links in our secondary. That's football.

Originally posted by ElephantHaley:
Sign Osi Uymenyari as a situational pass rusher to give Aldon & Ahmad breathers and keep the rotation fresh. Justin, Ray & Aldon and Ahamd were spent all year they were exhausted. I would literally spend out of our 14 picks, i'd use 10 on defense and 2 for Oline and WR

I like it, Osi can get after the quarterback. Using him in pass rush situations and spelling Aldon sounds good.

The defense will be better this year than last year. All three levels should be expected to play better. Reid will become a better safety than Goldson. More depth at OLB and the D line will be invaluable this year.

Originally posted by BadgerHawk:
We can dance around the issue; the Ravens went after Cully and Whitner. The two weakest links in our secondary. That's football.

Whitner was the main guy they went after, especially in the first half when they scored most of their points and moved the ball. Cully was not picked on. He was covering their best WR and the QB always goes to his best guy when he is in trouble. Boldin just ended up winning most of those. Cully did make one mistake on the deep post.

Being picked on is not what happened to Cully. He just had a bad game. The Ravens literally picked on Whitner throwing to any target who Whitner was responsible for in that first half.

I'm still concerned about the Whitner in 2013. Cully will be fine.