Defensive post-game analysis (Week 1)

Correct me if i'm wrong, and I very well may be, but I believe Fitz didn't catch one single ball while he was being covered by Spencer. If memory serves, his 1st catch didn't come till he was covered by Nate.

I have always liked Spencer and thought he was surely a #1 corner in the making before he ran into a string of injuries. I like most of you was honestly suprised when he was named starter. If Spencer continues to play the way he did yesterday, our defenseis going to be top 10 and maybe even better then that.......

[ Edited by WINiner on Sep 14, 2009 at 05:16:08 ]

Spencer played very well as did our defense as a whole. Lets see what happens next week.

[ Edited by hklar17 on Sep 14, 2009 at 05:15:04 ]

Yea Spencer is a great CB to play the outside. I can kinda understand why he starts because he's got a bigger and more physical frame than Bly who seems better suited for the slot.

He had an amazing game...no passes were thrown his way for the longest time and we all know that's a great thing.

Lets also give props to our safeties Lewis, Roman, and Goldson. They were really never out of position and I can only remember one play in which they really got beat (pass to Morey).

Originally posted by WINiner:
Correct me if i'm wrong, and I very well may be, but I believe Fitz didn't catch one single ball while he was being covered by Spencer. If memory serves, his 1st catch didn't come till he was covered by Nate.

I have always liked Spencer and thought he was surely a #1 corner in the making before he ran into a string of injuries. I like most of you was honestly suprised when he was named starter. If Spencer continues to play the way he did yesterday, our defenseis going to be top 10 and maybe even better then that.......

Spencer did play very well. In fac the secondary played lights out all game yesterday. Fitz and boldin were held under 100 yrds total lol

Originally posted by Leathaface:
Yea Spencer is a great CB to play the outside. I can kinda understand why he starts because he's got a bigger and more physical frame than Bly who seems better suited for the slot.

He had an amazing game...no passes were thrown his way for the longest time and we all know that's a great thing.

Lets also give props to our safeties Lewis, Roman, and Goldson. They were really never out of position and I can only remember one play in which they really got beat (pass to Morey).

Yeah I was impressed with Goldsons 1st start, and being demoted seems to have put a nasty streak into Mark Roman. Also Bly played very well and Nate was Nate. Lewis had a few nice stops as well. Honestly, our entire defense played very well. I was very impressed with our defense in light of what I expected.

The O - line was the only unit, which played poorly. Gore was being abused at the line of scrimmage. Really would like to know what was going on.

Shawnte pleasantly surprised us all.

Originally posted by RogerCraig:
The O - line was the only unit, which played poorly. Gore was being abused at the line of scrimmage. Really would like to know what was going on.

Shawnte pleasantly surprised us all.

the right side of line (snyder and baas) got completely manhandled

Originally posted by 49ersalldaway126:

Originally posted by RogerCraig:
The O - line was the only unit, which played poorly. Gore was being abused at the line of scrimmage. Really would like to know what was going on.

Shawnte pleasantly surprised us all.

the right side of line (snyder and baas) got completely manhandled

Bring in Pashos please and Wragge please.

Remember, Spencer went to the University of Pittsburgh with Fitz. When he was drafted, I remember them talking about how he guarded Fitz in practice everyday.

Originally posted by 49ersalldaway126:

Originally posted by RogerCraig:
The O - line was the only unit, which played poorly. Gore was being abused at the line of scrimmage. Really would like to know what was going on.

Shawnte pleasantly surprised us all.

the right side of line (snyder and baas) got completely manhandled

Wasn't the right side of the line Rachal and Snyder?

Originally posted by bzborow1:

Originally posted by 49ersalldaway126:

Originally posted by RogerCraig:
The O - line was the only unit, which played poorly. Gore was being abused at the line of scrimmage. Really would like to know what was going on.

Shawnte pleasantly surprised us all.

the right side of line (snyder and baas) got completely manhandled

Wasn't the right side of the line Rachal and Snyder?

yea baas was playing left guard the line just got overpowered which wasn't good considering we want to be a power running game.

I'll admit that I had written Spencer off, and Roman too, and both had very good games, especially Spencer, which is very, very exciting. If Brown continues to develop and Spencer keeps it up, that would be awesome.

Bly has more big-time playmaking ability than any of our DB's right now, but I think we have him in the perfect role at this stage of his career, to be a nickel corner. He has chances to make plays without being exposed for big portions of the game.

Goldson was very solid, and this was a big test for him. The only time he seemed like he made a mistake was on the Urban catch. I think once he's even more used to the defense and starting we'll see him making some big plays.

We should give some props to bly as well. Great point about him playing well in the slot. To be honest with Spencer stepping up and with Clements showing he was bagging it in preseason adding Bly as the nickel guy is awesome. I think we may have one of the best secondaries in the league. Hopefully we'll find ourselves in the run game soon.

Originally posted by bzborow1:

Originally posted by 49ersalldaway126:

Originally posted by RogerCraig:
The O - line was the only unit, which played poorly. Gore was being abused at the line of scrimmage. Really would like to know what was going on.

Shawnte pleasantly surprised us all.

the right side of line (snyder and baas) got completely manhandled

Wasn't the right side of the line Rachal and Snyder?

Yeah Rachal had a bad game, and Snyder looked like garbage.

Rachal had a few nice plays, but too many bad plays negated the few good plays he had. Baas from the LG position also had a bad game. Seemingly each time he pulled he was either late to the block, or whiffed completely. Snyder was abused the entire game.

It seems like after this huge victory, many of the 49ers fans got carried away and have set too high of an expectation for the 49ers secondary. The Cardinals' running game was not a threat for the 49ers and the Niners had just 7 man in the box in the most of the game. The team had double coverage on both wideouts all game long, which allows the Hightower to ben open underneath in almost every play. That is fine because Hightower is not a real threat. It was a good defensive game plan for Singletary and Manusky.

However, that scheme will not work for all teams. Teams with better running game will force the Niners to use 8 man in the box. And teams with a real threat with tightend, running back, full back as a receiver will force the Niners defense coverage to mix a little. The Niners defense is simply not a cover 2 based defense. You will see a lot of Michael Lewis close to the line of scrimmage in other games.

I still doubt Clements or any other corner's abilities to cover receivers one on one.

[ Edited by littleken on Sep 14, 2009 at 10:20:02 ]