The Preseason Games Will Show Where We're At

Last year's preseason was a good indicator of how the season would go offensively. The first team offense couldn't do squat, Kap almost got killed in the Chargers game and lo and behold, that was a harbinger of the season to come. At the time most of us dismissed it as the coaches holding back the playbook and that it was "just preseason". But the team looked broken on offense and that carried into the season.

So we'll know right away where the team is offensively on Saturday. My view of the season will be shaped by the preseason. I dismissed it last season, but never again.

Agree. Whether or not we win the games doesn't matter but we will get a good feel to how good they are.

To a degree. Like practices, sometimes they attempt things just to see where they're at rather than because those are their best plays.

Disagree. Pre-season is rarely an accurate indicator of how the team will do in the regular season. You reference only last year. We looked awful every year under Harbaugh, and had 3 very good seasons. We looked great every year under Singletary, and were terrible.

Pre-season is only good for evaluating individual players, not what the team's performance will be once the real games start.

I agree with both you and SofaKing...it should be somewhere in between this year.

Why? B/c we are installing new offensive and defensive systems and need to get sharp with those. In short, we should see lots of stretch runs, short passes out of the backfield, a few deep bombs, TE's targeted and some pressure from the defense and lots of nickel and dime sets.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Disagree. Pre-season is rarely an accurate indicator of how the team will do in the regular season. You reference only last year. We looked awful every year under Harbaugh, and had 3 very good seasons. We looked great every year under Singletary, and were terrible.

Pre-season is only good for evaluating individual players, not what the team's performance will be once the real games start.

Also disagree. Last year was a continuation of previous Football philosophy, so preseason was a good indicator of how the regular season would unfold.

This year: New HC, New OD, New DC, New Players all over the place.

In other words: CHANGE.

There will be a learning curve. If the preseason starts out poorly but improves a bit each repetition/series/game, then there is hope. If there is no visible sign of everybody coming together and improving, then there will be problems.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Disagree. Pre-season is rarely an accurate indicator of how the team will do in the regular season. You reference only last year. We looked awful every year under Harbaugh, and had 3 very good seasons. We looked great every year under Singletary, and were terrible.

Pre-season is only good for evaluating individual players, not what the team's performance will be once the real games start.

Agree

We'll be seeing guys who are on the bubble to make the team.

Usually the last preseason game we put the starting team in for a whole quarter.

I do think we'll see some glimpses of things to come but not much.

lol. The 0-16 Lions sure did show what they had when they went 4-0 in the preseason.

I don't know I think if the starting OL looks bad against starters, that's a bad sign

right now we're not really sure if they look bad because they're bad or because our DL is good

Only the first quarter or less of every preseason game. Other than that nothing else shows any signs as to how good we will be. Preseason sucks.

Originally posted by Escobar:
I don't know I think if the starting OL looks bad against starters, that's a bad sign

right now we're not really sure if they look bad because they're bad or because our DL is good

Good point.

Originally posted by luis1985:
Only the first quarter or less of every preseason game. Other than that nothing else shows any signs as to how good we will be. Preseason sucks.

I'm a fan who watches the depth very closely...depth is critical (as we saw last year with 19 players on I.R.). So to me, I almost don't even consider them secondary to the 'starters' who many or may not get many snaps.

I think this preseason means a lot to the franchise. We have to figure out what kind of team we have been left with. We have to figure out our identity. We need to figure out what we are good at and what we need to work on before the games start counting. There is so much that needs to be settled. What's the O line gonna look like, what kind of defense are we best suited for, how is the tempo of the offense, where do we have depth. Lots of serious questions that need answers.

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
I think this preseason means a lot to the franchise. We have to figure out what kind of team we have been left with. We have to figure out our identity. We need to figure out what we are good at and what we need to work on before the games start counting. There is so much that needs to be settled. What's the O line gonna look like, what kind of defense are we best suited for, how is the tempo of the offense, where do we have depth. Lots of serious questions that need answers.

For sure. None of this "holding our cards" for the regular season. Remember that garbage under HaRoman?

I don't think they'll hold their cards, but I suspect their handful of best ran plays in practice may not get attention in the preseason games.