Review of every single Drop back Alex took tonight

Originally posted by 49erRider:
So, basically, nothing (or very little) is Alex's fault, as usual.

Great post.

yea...bc I have never ripped Alex apart before, oh wait, i do that all the time.

I'm gonna love going through this when I can find time to re-watch. Thanks for doing this... looks solid.

Did not read

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Awesome. Thanks for taking the time to write that up.

Its obvious this loss was on the o-line. I don't know how some people are putting this on Alex. No, Alex didn't play particularly well. But can you blame him considering he had defenders draped all over him the entire night? The guy literally had no time to set his feet and make the read. It was a jailbreak on almost every snap. One of the worst o-line performances I have ever seen.

You know what, one of the early plays where Alex got pressure and it looked like he made a bad decision - I admit I said "Here we go, same old Alex". My issue with him has always been his inability to think under pressure. I would see him on one play avoid a sack and scramble for 15 yards, and 2 plays later he'd get the deer in the headlights look and forget he was allowed to run. But seeing the tremendous amount of pressure he was under last night, and just how fast it was coming - really made me see how much he has improved. He bought some time by moving in the pocket, he made some plays with his feet, and sometimes there was just nothing he could do.

BUT, if that game had come two years ago? Let's be honest, he would have had 2-3 INT's and 3+ fumbles...and we might have lost 35-6. He took a LOT of hits last night, but for the most part he protected the football. One INT because Edwards didn't feel like fighting for the ball, and one fumble that was near the sidelines - and at a time when they needed to make something happen or it was over anyway. By not losing the ball, he at least kept us in the game - and with the pressure he was facing, I think that more than anything else this year shows how he is finally improving.

Originally posted by RDB4216:
and one fumble that was near the sidelines -

.... and even this one, I feel sure that Alex was down just before the ball was ripped loose and went out of bounds. Wasn't really worth challenging though at that point.

Originally posted by RDB4216:
You know what, one of the early plays where Alex got pressure and it looked like he made a bad decision - I admit I said "Here we go, same old Alex". My issue with him has always been his inability to think under pressure. I would see him on one play avoid a sack and scramble for 15 yards, and 2 plays later he'd get the deer in the headlights look and forget he was allowed to run. But seeing the tremendous amount of pressure he was under last night, and just how fast it was coming - really made me see how much he has improved. He bought some time by moving in the pocket, he made some plays with his feet, and sometimes there was just nothing he could do.

BUT, if that game had come two years ago? Let's be honest, he would have had 2-3 INT's and 3+ fumbles...and we might have lost 35-6. He took a LOT of hits last night, but for the most part he protected the football. One INT because Edwards didn't feel like fighting for the ball, and one fumble that was near the sidelines - and at a time when they needed to make something happen or it was over anyway. By not losing the ball, he at least kept us in the game - and with the pressure he was facing, I think that more than anything else this year shows how he is finally improving.

Dude, no. Edwards ran the wrong route.

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2011/11/25/alex-smith-braylon-edwards-in-costly-mix-up/

Originally posted by oldman9er:
.... and even this one, I feel sure that Alex was down just before the ball was ripped loose and went out of bounds. Wasn't really worth challenging though at that point.

I don't know then, I didn't realize it was that close. I was looking more to see what options he had at the time. That seemed to be the one play (to me, at least) where Alex wasn't aware just how close the defender was to him. I thought he did a great job of recognizing the pressure and being aware of the time he had - and that awareness is one of the QB skills that a lot of fans (myself included) have been saying he lacks.

Originally posted by truekingcarlos:
Dude, no. Edwards ran the wrong route.

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2011/11/25/alex-smith-braylon-edwards-in-costly-mix-up/

Regardless of the route, Edwards was still in position to make a defensive play on the ball to prevent the INT, and didn't fight for it. My point was I put that INT on Edwards, not Alex.

Originally posted by nvchamp9ers:

Originally posted by 49erRider:

So, basically, nothing (or very little) is Alex's fault, as usual.

Great post.

yea...bc I have never ripped Alex apart before, oh wait, i do that all the time.

What I find fascinating is that the Anti-Smith is just looking at his performance vs the overall play of the whole unit. While I agree that there were maybe 2-3 sacks on Smith, the rest were in the crappy play of our O-Line. Smith played as best as he could with what was given to him. Could he have played better? Absolutely. But not under those circumstances.

- 98

Two of the sacks were Alex's falt sure but he saved the o-line from about 3-4 other sacks they would have given up if it wasnt for alex getting out of them by scrambeling and escaping the clutches of the D.

Originally posted by RDB4216:
Regardless of the route, Edwards was still in position to make a defensive play on the ball to prevent the INT, and didn't fight for it. My point was I put that INT on Edwards, not Alex.

When you have a jump ball WR you expect him to make some type of effort. Absolutely disgusting that Edwards appeared to make no effort on that play.

Similar thing happened between Rivers and Jackson a week or so ago. Blame falls on the WR in that situation.

Originally posted by 49erRider:
So, basically, nothing (or very little) is Alex's fault, as usual.

Great post.

Obviously you didn't read the entire post.

Originally posted by Tigerlaw:

Originally posted by RDB4216:
Regardless of the route, Edwards was still in position to make a defensive play on the ball to prevent the INT, and didn't fight for it. My point was I put that INT on Edwards, not Alex.

When you have a jump ball WR you expect him to make some type of effort. Absolutely disgusting that Edwards appeared to make no effort on that play.

Similar thing happened between Rivers and Jackson a week or so ago. Blame falls on the WR in that situation.

yep that's not a wrong route though it was just the wrong read alex thought braylon would take inside leverage and instead he went outside nothing alex could do he had already let the ball go but edwards has to make some sort of effort and not just let it fall into the DB's hands

Originally posted by RDB4216:

Originally posted by truekingcarlos:
Dude, no. Edwards ran the wrong route.

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2011/11/25/alex-smith-braylon-edwards-in-costly-mix-up/

Regardless of the route, Edwards was still in position to make a defensive play on the ball to prevent the INT, and didn't fight for it. My point was I put that INT on Edwards, not Alex.

My point was the int was less Edwards not fighting for the ball than it was Edwards screwing up the route. But I agree that Edwards was most definitely in position to defend that int. He just has plain sucked this year.

Originally posted by kidash98:
What I find fascinating is that the Anti-Smith is just looking at his performance vs the overall play of the whole unit. While I agree that there were maybe 2-3 sacks on Smith, the rest were in the crappy play of our O-Line. Smith played as best as he could with what was given to him. Could he have played better? Absolutely. But not under those circumstances.

- 98

That was exactly my point - and coming from someone who has been very anti-Smith (Although I prefer AA - for Anti-Alex. Or does that get confusing with Alex Anonymous?). This game showed me the biggest improvement from AN (Alex Now) to AT (Alex Then). Sensing the pressure and protecting the football, while getting knocked into next week and getting zero protection from the O-Line - instead of being careless, is what kept this game close.