Couple of thoughts...

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
PatrickWillis HOF is spot on. Ravens were bigger, faster,meaner, stronger, smarter, and outcoached us. That said, this is a blessing in disguise, and
"laughsatyou"'s comment about opinions, if I understand it correctly, would have a better handle if it were "laughs-at-me". There was nothing to laugh about here, in that we just got an azzwhippin' out in the woodshed. Why the blessing in disguise?

At 9-1 and "2nd best team in nfl", a lot of us really believed that. Watching the official "best front 7 in football" destroy, demolish and demoralize our OL was a painful thing to see, yet this yr our OL has been amazingly resurrected from total futility to become a strong point on our team. Alex's improvements all went away once there was no OL to protect him. Watching Ngata eat Iupati's lunch, the RDE schooling Staley, the LDT and LE gaming Snyder and AD, the SS and CB blitzes along with the above, the resulting 8 sacks, 9 hits, 12 hurries on alex... man, we got a look at what a real "best D in the league" looks like. And , we were not up to the occasion.

I had said earlier that ravens lose even if they win, because of the short 3 day week with 1and1/2 days to prepare, plus the 3 time zone difference (on a Thurs nite? how stupid of nfl network), would all give a huge advantage to Ravens, and if they won, it would be a pyrrhic victory. Wrong. I didn't conceive of a bushwhacking like this, and Ravens left no doubt, depite their record, they are a vastly better team. It didn't hurt that their QB was perfect, we didn't get near him, no sacks(or maybe 1), and virtually on target all nite with no pressure. Wow! Forget about the short week and 3 time zones. We got stoned by a way better team, a much better coached team....a team with a much better O and D gameplan.

Fangio just got embarrassed. Coach Jim H got really embarrassed. ST got neutralized, tho there was one "c.s." call on Ginn's TD called back. So here are the lessons:

D game plan: playing off on receivers, with no pressure on passer was an open invitation to complete everything short and underneath. It was a disaster. No meaningful blitzing, nor putting any pressure on Flacco was inexcusable. Our run D did themselve proud, with still no running TD. But that was the extent of it. Pass coverage schemes were ineffective, and players executed poorly

O game plan. Once it became apparent that Ravens could blitz at will ,5,6-7 guys, the immediate coaching calls should have been for quick one step snap it and sling it. Instead, remarkably, Coach called for 3, step, 5 step, some 7 step drops that were doomed from the git go. Alex had no time to do anything except handoff, or throw quick. This was a game that shouted out, "49ers got outcoached". What Coach H was thinking , no one knows. But one thing for sure. He sure didn't take into consideration our Ol was getting its azz kicked on each snap of the ball. And that was pretty easy to see.

O play: alex had a bad game, but he had a shiddy plan to follow. After the first 4 downs, there should not have been a pass longer than 1-2 seconds after that. For what ever reason Coach didn't see it. Receivers as a group once again did not shine. I counted 6, maybe 7 really nice catches, and then we had the showpieces like at the end of the game with Ginn, hitting him in the stomach and falling incomplete. Our Run game was better with Hunter, not Frank, because they were looking for frank on every play. How he got any yds is a tribute to him. Our OL ground it out, but Ravens DL just beat them bad. Yet Coach never really gave Hunter many more carries.

ST play: Prior to this game we were #1 in field position with kicks and return exchanges. Ravens changed that, and THEY had best field position.

D play: Front 7 again looked great, but Not as good as Ravens, who were better. DBs laid off and let one pass after another get completed. The ones that were incomplete should have been caught. Give the D backfield an F.

Coaching: Offense F
Defense A for front 7 , F for D backfield . Overall C-

Game plan: Obvious F.

So how, then, could this be the blessing in disguise? Until this game, it looked like we were looking at a first rd bye, and ultimately end up playing in GB. If we played like in this game, we would have been demolished. This one Ravens game gave Coach H all the things he needed to know on what to work on. Obviously if our OL is getting beat, then throw quick 1 steppers until D backs off LOS. On D, if there is a great OL, and we are not playing close coverage, opponents will throw and complete passes on us all day long.

OL: Our OL has come a long way and I thot was one of the best in league. Wrong. They saw stunts last nite that rendered them useless, and alex got pulverized. Coach has done a fantastic job on OL. Now he needs to teach them how to play all the stunts that Ravens used...along the entire OL. Our game plan has to reflect that, and our individual OL players have to learn to recognize that. They have come a long way. Now they know they have another long hill of "D recognition" to climb.

DBackfield: If DL can't get passrush, then rush more guys(on occasion), esp corner and safety blitzes, and second, make coverage tight. Last nite all the 8- 10 yarders were gimmes.

Coaching: Coach got stuck in a mindset, and didn't translate what was happening on field with what needed to be changed. Eg, at end of half, we had Ravens on their heels, with the 2 minute drill, and were beating them. Come 2nd half, we should have run the 2 minute drill exclusively to prevent Ravens from making personnel changes.
Finally, Coach needs to teach OL, individually on how to read and pickup blitzes, from DL that fooled them virtually every play. He isn't ready for the bigtime...yet.

Silver lining: this game just may, give us the extra oomph to get ready for the playoffs. Looking at this game, we were NOT close to ready. We can beat NFC East, and hopefully Saints, but we were not ready for Packers,(who also would have lost to Ravens last nite.) Now maybe Coach can work on our severe deficiencies, and maybe, just maybe , if we get to GB we can match them.

Unh, playing Ravens again...ummm...I don't know if we can beat them without a major overhaul in game philosophy.

With all due respect, The D and Fangio did not get embarassed. They gave up 16 points. Flacco passed for 161 yards. Ray rice got almost nothing. The Ravens' total offensive output was way less than 300 yards.

We lost because of 9 sacks, 97 yards in penalties (versus 20), and an unfortunate chop block call on Ginn's TD.

ITs all a case that Balt was more hungry and felt disrespected by the coverage that our D was getting over them. Suggs said it best in his interview with the NFL crew.. and When Synder started limping and then Seeing Chilo was like sharks seeing blood in the water.

I didnt see any screens to Hunter or Gore, or any draw plays. Those are plays you usually run under heavy pressure.

I noticed the dline had been playing with less pep the last few games. I really think the need to get more of a rotation in to keep them fresh. Mc donald is a little slowed by his injury and lets face Justin Smith has been playing his arse off for alot of years. Would like to see more rotation early in the game so those guys would be fresh down the stretch.

Originally posted by SJniner7:
As much as I wanted to win, this loss was built into our schedule from day 1. Playing a division game at hme, then traveling accross the country to play in Baltimore on Thanksgiving night?

The great part about it? His brother showed him what style of play can beat him. They basically played Niner football as we had been all year. Mistake free, slow-moving offense with a stingy defense. Other teams will attempt to replicate what Baltimore did last night, but none have the personnel to do so. Jim will use this game as a tool to build for the rest of the season.

Agreed. I thought the 49ers would have lost a few more games than they have. But even going into the lead-up for this game, I still wasn't confident that we would win.

I agree that this was a good loss and probably planned. Now that John has layed out all the cards and Jimmy hasn't shown everything, there's a good chance we could play again in the SB and we know what to expect and they don't

Tough Loss

But we played on 3 days rest

had to travel cross country with a tired and beaten up team, but we didnt get blown away, despite the OL having the worst game of the season

But we will learn from this, I bet our coaching staff is working on ways to improve the team as we speak.
and another positive ..a LOT of bandwagon jumpers JUMPED OFF the bandwagon last night ...SEE YA !!!!!

Not worried at all. NFL screwed us on this game, most of our guys looked slow, especially the vets. Did they even get 2 days off since Sunday? Our OL and DL were just to beat up from last game...these are 300+ lb men, I'm just glad we came out of this game with no big injuries.

Missing two of our best blockers and on a short week on the road to the east coast in a hostile atmosphere against a good team, we battled that entire game and were a missed tackle and a ticky-tack call away from winning that game. Not to mention the PI call on Brown which gave them another 3 points; Brown had good coverage and it looked like his arm accidentally became entangled with the receiver's.

I liked what I saw from Smith. He made a lot of good throws under extreme pressure, compared to only a few bad ones, and he never lost developed happy feet. I like his pocket presence, but he barely had time to complete his drops, let alone scan the field. The O-line was obviously terrible, but I have to put some of that on having Rachal and Norris in there. The line was noticeably better in the first half with Snyder starting. This line has done well against some formidable pass-rushing teams before, and I'm honestly not worried.

The Defense played great. I would've liked to see some blitz schemes to better pressure Flacco, but honestly we were close to holding them to 3 points. PI call=3 points. Whitner missed tackle=7 points. D being gassed from being on the field all second half=3 more points at the end. Their offense really didn't do much of anything. Even Rice acknowledged our D is the best he's seen all year.

All in all, I think we have a damn good football team. This team handles the road very well, and our D will keep us in every game. If our O-line can get healthy quick and we get a bye week, we can be dangerous in the playoffs.

I'm calm, I just think Fangio's conservative play-calling will get this team in trouble against elite teams. Take Flacco who had 5-6 seconds to sit back and pick his targets and replace him with Aaron Rodgers and now this team is losing by 20 or 30 points.

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:

Originally posted by monsterzero789:
This game probably killed Jim. It's gonna piss him off losing to his brother on a national stage like that. I feel sorry for opposing teams from here on out :)

Did you see Jim's face after the game he was pissed. I feel sorry for the rams.

I will never fell sorry for the Rams!!!!! EVER!!!!

Some good film to watch to prepare for the steelers. Need to shore up against those zone blitzes.

Yes

This thread is giving me the bubble guts.