Week 12: Thoughts after re-watching the game....

Well, obviously this one wasn't as fun. I'll tell you something tho...it wasn't as bad on second viewing.

1) O-Line: Struggled the entire game. Rachal CLEARLY blew assignments. Suggs beat Davis a few times (Suggs IS a monster tho....he can be forgiven). As Harbaugh said, it wasn't any one thing. It was the Ravens outscheming the protection for the most part. Hopefully, this isn't an indicator of things to come. The Niners found themselves trying to convert long yardage on multiple occasions. Thats just too much against that D.

2) Alex: I was actually pretty encouraged by his play. Outside of the the one INT that I think was just as much Edwards as him, he took a beating and just kep on going. He never really got scattershot and just kept fighting. He didn't have a great game, but I kinda respect him a bit more than I did before.

3) Edwards: I'm trying not to mutter 4 letter words under my breath. Its CLEAR the guy is hurt, but he seems to constantly be on a different page. I said a few weeks ago that I thought he was having trouble with his shoulder and it looks like he just reported it today.

4) Scheme: As I mentioned before, the 49ers were clearly outschemed in this one. That will happen from time to time tho. Its also a case of John knowing his brother REALLY well and John NOT being a coordinator to give Jim the same advantage. The Ravens seemed to know exactly howe the Niners would react to certain defensive looks...and exploited it.

I think this will be a learning experience tho and this loss may in the end be a good thing.

5) Defense: WOW. I actually think they are getting better. They had trouble stopping the Ravens on third down particularly in the second half, but the D played MORE than well enough to win. The reason the Niners lost was because they allowed 9 sacks. Period.

6) Thursday Night: The schedule was some BS. Plain and simple. The deck was stacked. If that game is on a Sunday, its a different game.

7) Bad calls: Both the Ginn TD and Brown PI were CORRECT calls, but still should not have been called. Its like the Holding that happens on every play and doesn't get called. The INTENT was not to chop block. Still, I applaud the 49ers for not complaining about it. Thats what good teams do. They just move on and try to make sure that the refs do not have the opportunity to hurt them. Its their job to overcome bad calls and win anyway. It shouldn't be close enough that two calls can hurt them like that. In addition, the refs weren't to good on the Raven penalties either. Costanzo was NOT hit in the back. It was just a bad night for the officials.

8) Crabtree: He's really starting to be the guy we all want him to be. He's gonna be a really good piece of the puzzle. That catch on 2rd and 17 was fantastic.

9) Raven Interviews: I watched all of the post-game and it was interesting how much respect the Ravens had for the 49ers. Ray Rice said the Niners were "by far" the best team they had played. John Harbaugh said the Niners had a legit shot at the Super Bowl (granted tho, its his brothers team). Finally, Suggs. He is a NOTORIOUS talker. This was no different...except that he said the Niner O-Line was very good. For Suggs to say something.....ANYTHING....positive....thats saying something.

10) Media: This one really has nothing to do with the game and is more about the way the Local Media portrays Jim Harbaugh. I hate it...particularly Murph and Mac on KNBR. I typically like those guys, but they REALLY don't get it. Harbaugh is very short with them and doesn't really give him the best answers. He is very often adversarial with them...and they don't like it. They keep hammering him about it after the interviews are over.

I heard last week they mentioned how good Walsh was with the Media. Thats is some SERIOUS revisionist history right there.

Walsh HATED the media. He CONSTANTLY instilled a "us vs them" attitude in the meeting room. "They want you to fail" he would always say. Harbaugh is doing the EXACT same thing. He keeps putting up these walls to show his team that say "they say you can't do it", and then they work hard and prove them wrong. Its not Harbaughs job to be nice to the media. Its his job to win. They want to use Harbaugh for their purposes, but he won't let it happen. He uses THEM.

End Rant.

Good to hear those things from the Ravens' players, especially Rice, who appeared to be very cocky yet comical in the Sound FX.

I still don't agree with that throw being half Braylon's fault. The WORST spot to throw a ball on a DB that has inside position is inside. That is nearly the most difficult spot for the receiver to make any play on a ball. The DB plays that ball as if he is the receiver. Braylon would have had to make an incredible catch that would have noted as one of the best catches of the year if he made that. It was a bad throw in a spot that allowed the DB to act as a receiver. Those are not even close to 50% on the WR.

Donte Whitner cost us the game. If he makes that tackle on 3rd down the Ravens dont go down the field and score. He also had s**tastic coverage on the TD play. He cost us both of our losses

Originally posted by valrod33:
Donte Whitner cost us the game. If he makes that tackle on 3rd down the Ravens dont go down the field and score. He also had s**tastic coverage on the TD play. He cost us both of our losses

Agreed, never liked the signing.

Originally posted by valrod33:
Donte Whitner cost us the game. If he makes that tackle on 3rd down the Ravens dont go down the field and score. He also had s**tastic coverage on the TD play. He cost us both of our losses

I thought Williams cost us the Dallas game?

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by valrod33:
Donte Whitner cost us the game. If he makes that tackle on 3rd down the Ravens dont go down the field and score. He also had s**tastic coverage on the TD play. He cost us both of our losses

I thought Williams cost us the Dallas game?

Williams, Whitner. Tomato, Potato.

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by valrod33:
Donte Whitner cost us the game. If he makes that tackle on 3rd down the Ravens dont go down the field and score. He also had s**tastic coverage on the TD play. He cost us both of our losses

I thought Williams cost us the Dallas game?

Williams, Whitner. Tomato, Potato.

lol

Originally posted by Marvin49:
Well, obviously this one wasn't as fun. I'll tell you something tho...it wasn't as bad on second viewing.

1) O-Line: Struggled the entire game. Rachal CLEARLY blew assignments. Suggs beat Davis a few times (Suggs IS a monster tho....he can be forgiven). As Harbaugh said, it wasn't any one thing. It was the Ravens outscheming the protection for the most part. Hopefully, this isn't an indicator of things to come. The Niners found themselves trying to convert long yardage on multiple occasions. Thats just too much against that D.

2) Alex: I was actually pretty encouraged by his play. Outside of the the one INT that I think was just as much Edwards as him, he took a beating and just kep on going. He never really got scattershot and just kept fighting. He didn't have a great game, but I kinda respect him a bit more than I did before.

3) Edwards: I'm trying not to mutter 4 letter words under my breath. Its CLEAR the guy is hurt, but he seems to constantly be on a different page. I said a few weeks ago that I thought he was having trouble with his shoulder and it looks like he just reported it today.

4) Scheme: As I mentioned before, the 49ers were clearly outschemed in this one. That will happen from time to time tho. Its also a case of John knowing his brother REALLY well and John NOT being a coordinator to give Jim the same advantage. The Ravens seemed to know exactly howe the Niners would react to certain defensive looks...and exploited it.

I think this will be a learning experience tho and this loss may in the end be a good thing.

5) Defense: WOW. I actually think they are getting better. They had trouble stopping the Ravens on third down particularly in the second half, but the D played MORE than well enough to win. The reason the Niners lost was because they allowed 9 sacks. Period.

6) Thursday Night: The schedule was some BS. Plain and simple. The deck was stacked. If that game is on a Sunday, its a different game.

7) Bad calls: Both the Ginn TD and Brown PI were CORRECT calls, but still should not have been called. Its like the Holding that happens on every play and doesn't get called. The INTENT was not to chop block. Still, I applaud the 49ers for not complaining about it. Thats what good teams do. They just move on and try to make sure that the refs do not have the opportunity to hurt them. Its their job to overcome bad calls and win anyway. It shouldn't be close enough that two calls can hurt them like that. In addition, the refs weren't to good on the Raven penalties either. Costanzo was NOT hit in the back. It was just a bad night for the officials.

8) Crabtree: He's really starting to be the guy we all want him to be. He's gonna be a really good piece of the puzzle. That catch on 2rd and 17 was fantastic.

9) Raven Interviews: I watched all of the post-game and it was interesting how much respect the Ravens had for the 49ers. Ray Rice said the Niners were "by far" the best team they had played. John Harbaugh said the Niners had a legit shot at the Super Bowl (granted tho, its his brothers team). Finally, Suggs. He is a NOTORIOUS talker. This was no different...except that he said the Niner O-Line was very good. For Suggs to say something.....ANYTHING....positive....thats saying something.

10) Media: This one really has nothing to do with the game and is more about the way the Local Media portrays Jim Harbaugh. I hate it...particularly Murph and Mac on KNBR. I typically like those guys, but they REALLY don't get it. Harbaugh is very short with them and doesn't really give him the best answers. He is very often adversarial with them...and they don't like it. They keep hammering him about it after the interviews are over.

I heard last week they mentioned how good Walsh was with the Media. Thats is some SERIOUS revisionist history right there.

Walsh HATED the media. He CONSTANTLY instilled a "us vs them" attitude in the meeting room. "They want you to fail" he would always say. Harbaugh is doing the EXACT same thing. He keeps putting up these walls to show his team that say "they say you can't do it", and then they work hard and prove them wrong. Its not Harbaughs job to be nice to the media. Its his job to win. They want to use Harbaugh for their purposes, but he won't let it happen. He uses THEM.

End Rant.

Totally agree.

Originally posted by valrod33:
Donte Whitner cost us the game. If he makes that tackle on 3rd down the Ravens dont go down the field and score. He also had s**tastic coverage on the TD play. He cost us both of our losses

Maybe the 9ers should restrict him a bit in the media . . . dude was all over the place on the radio, on NFLN leading up to the Ravens game.

10) Media: This one really has nothing to do with the game and is more about the way the Local Media portrays Jim Harbaugh. I hate it...particularly Murph and Mac on KNBR. I typically like those guys, but they REALLY don't get it. Harbaugh is very short with them and doesn't really give him the best answers. He is very often adversarial with them...and they don't like it. They keep hammering him about it after the interviews are over.

I heard last week they mentioned how good Walsh was with the Media. Thats is some SERIOUS revisionist history right there.

Walsh HATED the media. He CONSTANTLY instilled a "us vs them" attitude in the meeting room. "They want you to fail" he would always say. Harbaugh is doing the EXACT same thing. He keeps putting up these walls to show his team that say "they say you can't do it", and then they work hard and prove them wrong. Its not Harbaughs job to be nice to the media. Its his job to win. They want to use Harbaugh for their purposes, but he won't let it happen. He uses THEM.

End Rant.

This is one reason that I don't want to go into sports journalism. I feel like I love my teams too much and I wouldn't be able to write objectively and say what needs to be said.

And plus, I don't want to be viewed as the bad guy who's rooting for the team to fail. But then you have wonder how many of the team's beat writers were actually fans of the teams they write for.

Great post, Marvin. I think your appraisal of the D is spot on and your analysis of what went wrong with the offense is excellent. Since you were a bit laconic on your sixth point, I think it's worth amplifying just how disadvantageous the scheduling was. I'm under the impression that the big fellas really don't get their legs back until three or four days after a game and spending one of those days on an airplane did them no favors. So I strongly agree (without taking anything away from the Ravens outstanding D) that the scheduling was a primary contributor to the offense's dud game.

I seldom read anything that I entirely agree with on this board, your nice wrap up was an exception.

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by HessianDud:

Originally posted by valrod33:
Donte Whitner cost us the game. If he makes that tackle on 3rd down the Ravens dont go down the field and score. He also had s**tastic coverage on the TD play. He cost us both of our losses

I thought Williams cost us the Dallas game?

Williams, Whitner. Tomato, Potato.

Rogers was the one who bit on the play action

Great post Marvin, as usual. And yes, revisionism is a wonderful thing.

3) Edwards:


Edwards said he was trying to set the cornerback up with an inside move and then go outside. Smith said he thought Edwards had committed to the inside and threw the ball there. "He saw one thing and I saw another," Edwards said. Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archives/2011/11/edwards-says-hes-been-dealing-with-shoulder-sprain-for-three-weeks.html#ixzz1f2e4HZSJ

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
3) Edwards:


Edwards said he was trying to set the cornerback up with an inside move and then go outside. Smith said he thought Edwards had committed to the inside and threw the ball there. "He saw one thing and I saw another," Edwards said. Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archives/2011/11/edwards-says-hes-been-dealing-with-shoulder-sprain-for-three-weeks.html#ixzz1f2e4HZSJ

this is a Crabtree situation all over again, rest Edwards this week and play Williams