1) Kap: All in all, I thought he played well. There are still times that he gets pressured and instead of stepping up and looking downfield he looks to run, but he's improving. He was getting through progressions. He was throwing the short passes that people have been saying he couldn't do. He was running a hurry up offense. He was finding Stevie Johnson (more on that later). He was moving the ball efficiently. I was arguing with some peeps postgame and it amazes me how many people watched that game and came away with "Kap sucks"? Huh? I've heard of the "QB gets too much of the credit and too much of the blame" saying, but if you want to use THIS game as an example of why he sucks, you are way off base. 103 rating. Completed 78% of his passes. He was converting 3rd downs until the second half when those third downs increasingly were becoming 3rd and 20+ due to the real culprit in why they lost (more on that later as well). He did nearly throw a pick and that was a bit concerning, but all in all I didn't have a problem with Kap in this game. Oh BTW, he was ALSO the teams leading rusher. By a lot. 318 total yards of offense and 299 came from Kap.
2) Roman: Watching the game, even if they had won, I could already hear what the argument was going to be. Where is the run game? Why are we passing it? The answer was quite simple. The Cards were defending the run and the Niners were taking the passing looks they were given. It's not rocket science. I'm sure others will break down the film, but I really didn't see too much of a problem from a gameplan perspective because THEY WERE MOVING THE BALL until they got hammered with penalties.
3) Penalties: Wow. I don't even know where to start. I don't know what to make of it all. I would love to throw the refs under the bus and point at them and say "Right there. That is the reason the Niners lost". I just can't. Were there bad calls at crucial times? HELL YES. No question. The problem though is that there were also calls at crucial times that were really bad decisions by 49er players. Boldins call to me was the worst of the game...and he deserved it. He's been riding that fine line for a long time now and he finally got popped for it. I hope he learns something from it. No, Skuta shouldn't have been flagged. No, Willis shouldn't have been flagged. Yes, the Cards got away with movement on 4th and 1. I saw it all. I'm not a conspiracy theorist...I just have to hope that at some point it all evens out.
4) Stevie Johnson: It was nice to see Kap develop a rapport with him. Stevie can be a third down machine out there. He doesn't have speed and that was evident on one of his plays, but he can find an open spot better than anyone.
5) Lloyd: He does NOT have a rapport with Kap. They just seem to be on different pages.
6) Carradine: 2 weeks in a row now I'm saying they need him in the game. The pass rush is becoming a HUGE problem and that's the one thing we know he does well. He needs to get a chance to get in there and get after the QB. I mean seriously...I was watching Ian Williams in there on 3rd down. Really? I like the guy, but come on now...pass rushing is not his forte. If the 49ers are going to let guys sit there all day in the pocket it's going to be a very long season. We still have 6 more games before Aldon returns. If they don't do something, the season will be all but over before they get him back.
7) Gore/Hyde: Many people make a big deal out of the limited Carries for Hyde and Gore. I would counter by saying many of Kaps runs were read options where he kept the ball. I'd also counter that the pass game was working because the Cards were defending the run. I'd also counter by saying that the Cards have excelled at STOPPING the run this year so why attack the strength of the defense. I really think the run/pass ratio is a red herring. The few carries by Gore/Hyde aren't the reason they lost. They lost because they couldn't get to Stanton and because they had their foot squarely in their sights in just about every crucial situation.
8) Jimmie Ward: Another rough day. Come on rook...keep yer head up. He did make a nice play in the back of the endzone though.
9) DBs: I really don't know what to make of this. Are the DBs playing poorly in crucial situations? Is it ALL lack of pass rush? Maybe a combination of the two? I'd say Brock not playing might be a factor here, but it's appeared to me that Cox has actually played pretty damn well.
10) NFC West: As of this moment, I'm not longer sweating what the rest of the division does. They lose, Great. They Win. No biggy. Why? The Niner need to get their own house in order before worrying about the rest of the division. Obviously I still want those teams to lose, but I'm no longer glued to my screen seeing how Seattle did. It doesn't matter. Until the Niners can stop making stupid mistakes and killing themselves, it won't matter how many games the rest of the division wins because the Niners won't be in the picture anyway.
[ Edited by Marvin49 on Sep 24, 2014 at 3:07 PM ]