Originally posted by kem99:
Originally posted by NCommand:
Thanks. A perfect example is last year...apparently, only having two 1,000 yard receivers was not enough so HaRoman got a pass on their offensive philosophy and scheme. So Baalke, said "Two? Screw that...I'll get you FIVE!" And here we are with the same exact excuses...Crabtree now suddenly blows, VD can't catch, Johnson is our only reliable weapon, McDonald can't catch, nobody has deep speed or is a legit threat save for Lloyd once in a while, CK can't read defenses, OL sucks, etc. Come on. Enough! There are plenty of things a coaching staff can do to scheme away from these "known" weaknesses week-in, week-out.
Well, if "Crabtree now suddenly blows", "VD can't catch", "McDonald can't catch", "nobody has deep speed or is a legit threat", "CK can't read defenses" and the "OL sucks" all at the same time, no, there is not anything the coaching staff can do to "scheme away" from these "'known' weaknesses". You can scheme around a known weakness but not 5.
Even if you think Fangio did not have the perfect game plan, it is difficult to criticize when for the entirety of the season, he has been game planning around "known weaknesses", most of which are the result of injuries to starters. On a short week, how are you supposed to scheme around not having 3/4 of the best LB crew in the NFL, one starting CB and you nickel DB (which against the Broncos is essentially a starting player). And, that doesn't even count anticipating Culliver playing and expecting Brock to come back after the bye week, only to find out late in the week that Culliver is also out and Brock is going to have to play after being out since the first half of game 1.
You might be able to do something drastically different if you had a veteran defense with all of its pieces that you knew could make changes on short notice without having breakdowns and miscommunications. That wasn't last night with Borland making his first start, Wilhoite calling the defensive signals for the first time, the secondary shuffling to deal with the injuries to Culliver and Ward, its on the road on a short week and you're facing Manning who is historically good at his pre-snap reads and putting his offense in the right play, not to mention that, in contrast to the 49ers defense, he had all of his receivers healthy.
Given the injuries and suspensions, Fangio had "schemed" the 49ers defense to a top rating and despite the difficulties faced, the 49ers stopped the Broncos on the first possession of the 2nd half, the offense had the ball after scoring on 2 consecutive 80 yard drives (both of which could have been TD's if Boldin doesn't drop the walk in TD) and Kap playing well under the circumstances. If the take it and score again, its probably a different game. Instead, Kap makes a bad read and throw for the INT and it snowballs from there.
At some point, you can't scheme around everything. Players have to play well to win and you are more likely to get that when you best players are available. The 49ers have admirable depth, but there still is a significant drop-off when you have whole units of injured (egs. LB's, CB's, OL).
Oh I very much agree...I've gone on record by stating my support for Fangio...while also listing his shortcomings as well and this is one of those games that unfortunately, highlight his weakness. As to weaknesses on defense coming in, we didn't have that many coming in given we were ranking #2 like you noted against some high powered and efficient offenses (Dallas, Eagles, Chiefs, Rams with nothing to lose, Chicago and Cards vertical attack) and being w/o the big boys. If anyone had told you we'd be the #2 defense coming in WITH all our starters after 6 games, we'd take it...but we did it with a mix of starters, youth and growth players getting a chance. Well done! So yes, I have given him a ton of credit.
Where I don't is with his game plan in this game (that's all)...and the fact that he has 5 press corners and has never once used them in that capacity. He also made very odd personnel changes and choices this game that didn't add up (like Rogers for Cox last year in the NFCCG). We had a couple losses coming into this game with Willis and Ward but Borland ended up leading the team in tackles with 8 so he had a pretty decent game off the bench against a passing team and and the Bronco's game plan was centered more around attacking the secondary anyhow. Wilhoite had his usual solid outing as well. The front 7 looked like it always did until late when they started getting shredded on the ground well after the game was in hand. We talk about how it s/h been 21-17 at half but what about the first 21 points to even be in that position...or their defense playing prevent defense at the end of the first half which backfired and got us the only real TD? Woulda, coulda, shoulda.
There wasn't a whole lot to cover up or scheme around on the defensive side of things IMHO...just better game planning around a well known offense. I do feel we had the personnel to really challenge them we'll never know. And one thing is for certain now...we can never play that scheme against them again in the future!