The gamble?

Originally posted by KegBert:
Well TB was arguably the best overall CB on one of the best defenses in the league so yeah, not as big a stretch as you are making it out to be.

I agree. Brown is a very good CB. Underrated player on an elite defense. Any CB will look average to bad with no pass rush, and that is what we had with Justin and Aldon playing with injuries that most guys would sit with. We all like Brooks and Ray Mac, but they are all around players and if they are the most efficient pass rushers a team has, that team will struggle to stop the pass. Especially vs playoff caliber QBs.

This is an open/shut case IMO - right when Cowboy and Aldon get hurt our pass D dropped like a rock. Our corners didn't just forget how to cover, nor were they "exposed". 13 1/2 weeks of excellence then 5 1/2 weeks of nothing but struggles - it was clearly a lack of rush. Both guys were still playing but they clearly weren't healthy enough to dominate and opposing offenses were more and more aware of this as the playoffs went on.

Don't worry both guys will be back. IMO the football world panics way too much after even brief stints of ineffectiveness. MJD was # 98 and Polamalu was # 91 on the top 100 countdown and it's only because they were injured for most of last year. Both will be back in a big way next year. Remember last year when Peyton was #50? That was because half of the players didn't vote him on the list at all, but the ones that did voted him in the top 5, where he clearly belongs. Our secondary struggled because we had no rush yet Fangio refused to blitz even late in games when it was clear we couldn't get to the QB. We were 7 yards from winning the SB with 2 of our better defenders badly injured last year. Our secondary and our D overall will be awesome again as long as we're healthy. And if we get banged we're better equipped this year to deal with it with Tank and Haralson coming back. We need to stay somewhat healthy, but who doesn't? The D will bounce back big time.

Gf packers super bowl win.... defensive player of the year clay matthews, that defense had a strong pass rush.... the next year ny giants win superbowl with their corners and safeties injured. how did they stop aaron rodgers and tom brady? just look at bradys feet in the super bowl.

Originally posted by valrod33:
Matt Maiocco ‏@MaioccoCSN 34m First 13 1/2 games, 49ers allowed 183 pass ypg and 74.6 opposing QB rating; after that, 300 ypg and 102.1. rating. http://bit.ly/ZXS1kq

Yeah the second half against New England really threw things out of whack for the secondary. Brady caught fire and wore our defense down. We all know what happened the next week.

You have to remember that this is what Lowell Cohen does and has always done. He likes to provoke. When people are fired up about his articles, he clearly thinks he's succeeding. Even during the "golden era" while Cohen was working for the Chronicle, he would write an article about how Joe Montana was finished or Bill Walsh was out-coached in a given game just fishing for outrage.

In this case, he's not completely off base - the strength of this Niner defense is and always has been the front seven - but he's overstating the problem. Yes, Culliver has problems finding the ball, but if coaches figure out how to solve that problem, he'll be one of the best corners in the league. He was always right on his guy. Yes, T Brown is short, but he's also got an awesome vertical leap and he's very quick. Yes, Rodgers is not as fast as he used to be, but he's very savvy. And, who knows what Nnamdi will bring to the table. Reid, in my opinion, will make the coverage in the secondary better than it was with Goldson. There might not be as many ferocious hits, but there also won't be as many drive lengthening unnecessary roughness calls either.

Originally posted by valrod33:
Matt Maiocco ‏@MaioccoCSN 34m First 13 1/2 games, 49ers allowed 183 pass ypg and 74.6 opposing QB rating; after that, 300 ypg and 102.1. rating. http://bit.ly/ZXS1kq

Hmmm.....what happened in that 14th game that drew the numbers off so badly..............hmmmmmmmmmmmm



I never thought the secondary was an issue other than Whitner at safety, the problem was that the injury to Justin Smith as well as Aldon being injured basically let the floodgates open and QB after QB had all day to sit back in the pocket and pick the defense apart. I'm still amazed that they beat Atlanta after Matt Ryan had 3 quarters of the game where the pass rush was largely non-existent.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by valrod33:
Matt Maiocco ‏@MaioccoCSN 34m First 13 1/2 games, 49ers allowed 183 pass ypg and 74.6 opposing QB rating; after that, 300 ypg and 102.1. rating. http://bit.ly/ZXS1kq

Hmmm.....what happened in that 14th game that drew the numbers off so badly..............hmmmmmmmmmmmm



I never thought the secondary was an issue other than Whitner at safety, the problem was that the injury to Justin Smith as well as Aldon being injured basically let the floodgates open and QB after QB had all day to sit back in the pocket and pick the defense apart. I'm still amazed that they beat Atlanta after Matt Ryan had 3 quarters of the game where the pass rush was largely non-existent.

Can you imagine how good we are going to be now that we have pass rush depth. We were a couple plays a refs screwing us from winning the superbowl, all with a banged up pass rush. Our team has only gotten better, and in my biased opinion our team has improved more so than any other team. We finna take the league by storm and f**k everyone up! especially Seattle

Originally posted by pwillis52beasty:

Can you imagine how good we are going to be now that we have pass rush depth. We were a couple plays a refs screwing us from winning the superbowl, all with a banged up pass rush. Our team has only gotten better, and in my biased opinion our team has improved more so than any other team. We finna take the league by storm and f**k everyone up! especially Seattle

Barring injury

If they can teach Culliver to find the ball when it's in the air, he'll be as good as anyone. How many times was he just blanketing a receiver only to have the receiver jump up at the last second and make the catch anyway. He fixes that and he'll be an elite corner.

Save yourself some brain cells and never read anything written by a Cohn.

Loudmouth idiots who have an overdeveloped sense of their own importance and knowledge.

Originally posted by SFrush:

Originally posted by valrod33:
Matt Maiocco ‏@MaioccoCSN 34m First 13 1/2 games, 49ers allowed 183 pass ypg and 74.6 opposing QB rating; after that, 300 ypg and 102.1. rating. http://bit.ly/ZXS1kq

Yeah the second half against New England really threw things out of whack for the secondary. Brady caught fire and wore our defense down. We all know what happened the next week.

Even that was about the pace of the game by NE and a pass rush that was non-existant due to injury and stamina. They had no depth.

Originally posted by Marvin49:
Save yourself some brain cells and never read anything written by a Cohn.

Loudmouth idiots who have an overdeveloped sense of their own importance and knowledge.

And very little actual football knowledge.

The PD needs to hire Marvin to take over the lil cohns blog. Your game reviews are better than anything he's ever written.

Whitner is the worst. If they cut him right now I'd have a cigar. ATM he's the only weak link in the chain.

Ugh I can't wait til he's gone.

Maybe trade him to KC for a 2nd round pick

Originally posted by 5280High:

Originally posted by Marvin49:
Save yourself some brain cells and never read anything written by a Cohn.

Loudmouth idiots who have an overdeveloped sense of their own importance and knowledge.

And very little actual football knowledge.

The PD needs to hire Marvin to take over the lil cohns blog. Your game reviews are better than anything he's ever written.

Thanks....

....but that's a low bar to clear.

Originally posted by xtm059:
Whitner is the worst. If they cut him right now I'd have a cigar. ATM he's the only weak link in the chain.

Ugh I can't wait til he's gone.

Maybe trade him to KC for a 2nd round pick

I'm not a huge Whitner fan....but we don't have anyone better right now.

For a little while on Friday before the second round started I was thinking they might want to take Cyprien and replace both safeties...

....but then I realized that was just crazy talk and Jacksonville made it impossible anyway.

Originally posted by GNielsen:
If they can teach Culliver to find the ball when it's in the air, he'll be as good as anyone. How many times was he just blanketing a receiver only to have the receiver jump up at the last second and make the catch anyway. He fixes that and he'll be an elite corner.

Very true. For the most part he is always right there with the wideout. Improve his ball skills and he's a legit corner.