His MO in Jacksonville was that he was non-functional under pressure, but I didn't see that yesterday.
I am in no way suggesting he's the long term answer at QB, but I have to admit these last two games have me intrigued.
2) Droughn: I'll say this for the guy. He plays HARD. Two games now. His statline wasn't stupendous but that guy worked for every inch he got. Again, not saying he's starting material or anything, but I'm intrigued.
3) Tomsula: Yeah...I'm kinda done. I love the guy, but he isn't a HC (not that this is exactly earth-shattering news). WAY too conservative at the end of the game, and this wasn't the first time. My fear is that Jed will blame this season on all of the offseason losses and give Tomsula another year. I have never bought into the "York won't fire him because of his ego to admit his move failed", but I DO buy into the fact that Jed has liked Tomsula for a long time and doesn't want to pull the carpet out from under a guy he loves. As many others have suggested in the past, Dave Campo in Dallas is who this reminds me of.
I think Tomsula could have been a decent caretaker of a great team that was still intact, but he's just not the guy to rebuild it.
4) Bowman: My heart stopped for a moment watching the game. Bowman is powering through it, but he's not the same guy yet. There was a play there where he was one on one with Rawls in the hole, Rawls made a cut and Navorros knee just buckled. I thought he'd torn it all over again. I think what it really showed though was just that the knee isn't all the way back. I hope he'll be more himself next year.
5) Armstead: Really hard to have praise for anyone on a line that gave up over 200 yards rushing to single back, but Armstead flashed several times yesterday. Yes, there were times that he got walled out of a play and times that he could have played better, but there were also times that he showed off that power, tossed guys aside, made some good swim moves AND got pressure on Wilson. I hate to see Dorsey go down, but the silver lining is that it may get Armstead more experience to be a starter next year.
6) Tackling: Woah...did the entire defense just suddenly forget how to tackle yesterday. Even usually sure tacklers were missing them yesterday. Environment? Effort? No idea, but that was some of the worst tackling I've seen from a Niner team in some time.
7) McDonald: Was really nice to see him make a couple big plays. Makes you wonder if the QB made the difference, but hard to say that with the number of times the ball just bounced off his hands in the past. Still though, if he can continue that then perhaps a McDonald/Celek TE combo might be their long term future. Only one game though, so way too soon to tell.
8) Boldin: I hate to say it, but the dude needs to go on IR. There is no reason for him to be out there. He played well when he played, but you can't rush a hamstring. All he's doing is prolonging the injury by playing. I know he want to be out there and that's commendable, but playing a few snaps and missing a few more weeks isn't worth it. I know he's said he wants to come back and I hope he does, but he needs to take care of that leg. There's nothing left to play for this year.
9) Lynch: Dude still keeps getting pressure. I kinda wondered last year if he was a flash in the pan. I was even more concerned when it seemed he was out of shape prior to camp and then injured...but dude has been the only real force in the pass rush all season. Pairing him up with another good pass rusher should be a priority this offseason (Aldon, Irvin, Draft Pick?).
10) Kap: I hadn't commented on the Kap situation before because I really didn't know what to make of it all. Now that he's on IR, I figured I'd comment. To me, the whole situation is a great big waste. Say what you want about Kap making reads, missing open receivers, etc, the dude is talented. HUGE talent. Maybe nobody is capable of utilizing it and maybe it requires somebody the 49ers haven't hired. I don't know. What kills me the most though is that I can see hgim going someplace else and becoming the QB we all want him to be. I'm not saying that's a guarantee, but that would drive me nuts.
What's more is that he's not a Michael Vick who was too lazy to improve. He's not a Randall Cunningham who fell in love with the celebrity and wouldn't work at his craft. Kap WORKS...but SOMETHING just isn't clicking. He isn't that same QB who wowed us all in 2012 and I don't know what happened. Did the league catch up? Did he regress? Was he never as good as we thought? Maybe all of those and maybe none of them. Dunno.
What I do know though is that if his time is truly done in SF, its a bummer. The guy really wanted it and worked for it.
Moreover, it means we are all the way back to pre-2011...one of the 20+ teams in the league who have a big ? at the most important position in professional sports. That's a crappy spot to be in.
[ Edited by Marvin49 on Nov 23, 2015 at 8:20 AM ]
