Now that I have rewatched the game...

Ya know, its amazing what can happen when you rewatch a game and alot of the tension is removed. You see things quite a bit differently. I think you end up seeing things the way fans of other teams see them.

Anyway....many things stood out.

1) The play of Alex Smith
2) The playcalling of Mike Johnson
3) The Play of Michael Crabtree
4) The problems on D.

1) Alex: This is well covered territory and I know I'm not breaking any ground here, but I watched him very closely when I watched the game again. I know this won't be popular, but he actually played pretty damn well even before the argument with Singletary.

I was on the verge of calling for the Yorks to blow the team up and waive goodbye to Alex, but now I'm not so sure.

He made 2 mistakes. One was the INT on the deep pass to Ginn. Ya, it wasn't a great pass, but those things are low % throws so I can't blame him for taking the shot we have been wanting him to take all season. It would also help if Ginn made more of an effort on the ball, but it was still not a great throw and was Alex's fault. The theres the fumble. No excuse. Horrible. He'd be the first to tell you that. That simply can't happen. Period. The final INT of the game tho was really Anthony Davis fault. If you watch, Alex makes the decision to throw the ball BEFORE the DE breaks free of Davis. Alex didn't have a chance.

Other than that tho....he looked GOOD. I mean REALLY good. If you don't believe me, watch the game again. The drives that stalled did so because of turnovers. The Niners punted only ONCE until there were 5 minutes left in the THIRD quarter. Alex was hitting passes on third down. He was hitting passes for 15 and 20 yards, so they weren't just checkdowns. He was hitting Crabtree, Ginn, Davis, Morgan, Gore....he was getting EVERYONE involved. He hit Ginn for almost 20 yards on a 3rd and ONE. He hit Davis for about 25 yards on 3rd and 15.

After the confrontation with Sing, he was even better.

Smith is everyones favorite scapegoat. To be fair he has at times made it easy to scapegoat him. Sunday tho....he played pretty damn well. If you don't believe me, watch the game again.



2) Johnson: I was reading yesterday that there were peeps here who were critical of MJs playcalling. WATCH THE GAME AGAIN. He was AGGRESSIVE. The Niners punted ONCE until 5 min left in the 3rd quarter and only punted 3 times in the entire game. One of those punts came after three consecutive incomplete passes. EVERY SINGLE ONE of the turnovers happened on a drive in which the 49ers had gotten a first down. They were moving the ball. The second Gore fumble was after back to back playes of 25 yards (pass to Davis) and 17 yards (run by Gore).

After watching this game again, I am not concerned at all about the playcalling.


3) Crabtree: Crabtree started to look like the guy who played at Texas Tech. The attribute of his game that has been missing so far is his run-after-catch ability. He showed it on some nifty plays down the sideline. He also ran a great route and made a great catch on his TD. What strikes me the most tho are the length of his arms. LOL. Serously...he looks like a freak. Watch him when he puts his arms up after scoring the TD...I swear to got he could fly with those things...lol.


4) The D: This is the one that concerns me. They to often find themselves out of position and have a reciever running through the secondary with nobody within 5-10 yards of them. Kolb looked good, but when a guy is that open, its pretty hard to miss them. The run D has also been showing some cracks of late. Some have said that WIllis may be hurt, but I don't think thats it. I think he's getting covered up by lionemen more than in the past. He hasn't been able to run free. I dunno if thats something offenses are doing or if its the D not protecting him. I just hope they fix it.

I'm also concerned about Mays. Its not that he played poorly. He just seems a step slow right now (although he caused the fumble that the Eagles recovered). Its not about his potential...I'm just not sure he was ready to play. We'll see and I hope he proves me wrong.

[ Edited by Marvin49 on Oct 12, 2010 at 09:38:25 ]

good post. I always re-watch the games and it's true, you see so much more than you did while watching live. I thought alex smith played the best game of his career this past Sunday, minus that fumble debacle.

Agreed on all points.

Mays is a rookie so being a step behind in his reads is to be expected for now. He's still doing better than Lewis had been.

Alex is a good quarterback and great in the RZ. those who can't see that are blinded by their hatred.

I too have rewatched the game and I have come to the same conclusions but I do not think this will save anyones job in the end. Alex had his moments of bad but the majority was good, or something to build off of but I think there lies the problem; we should not have to wait for the building process. I do believe Alex will be a good QB and Sing will be a good HC but I don't think either will be with the 49ers.
Our biggest problem is Jeb and until he hires someone that actually knows football we are all screwed and this decade might be spent floundering around again like the last.

I am still saying the 49ers win the division title One game at a time.

Good stuff, thanks. Im optimistic.

On the deep INT to Ginn, the wind pushed the ball towards the sidelines.

I was sitting in the south endzone and just seen the ball start curving to the right.

the wind was blowing in every direction that night

Good post..... I'm gonna watch it again, maybe it'll make me feel better. I don't know what's happening to our Defense. I thought it was better than they are playing right now.......

Originally posted by boast:
Alex is a good quarterback and great in the RZ. those who can't see that are blinded by their hatred.

Alex Smith in the Red Zone this season...

17 Att, 21 Comp, 100 Yards, 81.0 Comp %, 6 TDs, 0 INTs, 126.1 QB Rating

agreed on all points

Originally posted by kemp_j:
Good post..... I'm gonna watch it again, maybe it'll make me feel better. I don't know what's happening to our Defense. I thought it was better than they are playing right now.......

our D is overrated. before the season, i was of the opinion we had a top 5 D. sadly, that's just not the case.

In order to play "smashmouth football" like Singletary wants to do. you MUST have a dominate Defense, which we don't.

Our coach is either too stupid to know this or too d--n stubborn to admit it!!!

Originally posted by 49AllTheTime:
On the deep INT to Ginn, the wind pushed the ball towards the sidelines.

I was sitting in the south endzone and just seen the ball start curving to the right.

the wind was blowing in every direction that night

Good information. Wind is something you can't factor while watching T.V. from Colorado.

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by boast:
Alex is a good quarterback and great in the RZ. those who can't see that are blinded by their hatred.

Alex Smith in the Red Zone this season...

17 Att, 21 Comp, 100 Yards, 81.0 Comp %, 6 TDs, 0 INTs, 126.1 QB Rating

The San Francisco 49ers jumped from 15th to fourth in red zone touchdown percentage after scoring on all three chances Sunday night. The 49ers have scored touchdowns on their last five red zone trips spread across three games. The team has scored touchdowns on eight of nine over its last four games.