Week 15: Thoughts after re.....ok only watched it once because I was AT the game. ;-)

1) Aldon Smith: The guy sitting next to me was calling him "All Done" Smith. LOL. He's gonna be a premiere pass rusher on this team for a long time. He's got 13 sack playing primarily from the Nickel (although he was in the game ALOT last night). He was unblockable last night. He was CRUSHING Big Ben all night. They were double teaming him with a RB but he would just run a stunt and they STILL couldn't stop him. What impresses me with him more than anything is the POWER. He'll jack a tackle up off his feet. Even more impressive on one of his rushes was that he got around the corner and when the Tackle moved to block him he essentially stiff armed the tackle with those LONG arms and got to Ben right after the ball was thrown. The strength in those long arms is going to rack up sacks for many, many years. GREAT pick by Baalke and company. Just wait till he really knows what he's doing out here. He's only 21 years old right now. Yikes.

2) Alex Smith: I've supported Alex ALOT over the years, but I have to confess to a few four letter words last night. Those overthrows on the sideline are maddening. I'm not slamming him. He's playing well, but they could really be SOOOO much better if he could just hit some wide open recievers.

3) Stadium: Anyone still wondering why they need to move? SF hasn't lived up to the upkeep on that stadium for years. The biggest surprise last night wasn't that the lights went out. The surprise was that this hasn't happened before. Is the SC plan perfect? No, but I'm pretty sure they could keep the freakin' lights on.

4) Grant: I applaud the guy for doing his best, but he just ain't Patrick Willis. He played very hard, but it became pretty clear on a few occasions that we need to get Patrick back. Its not that Grant is bad. He's not. Its just that we are so used to WIllis being so good. When Patrick missed the tackle on the play he got hurt on, I remember being stunned that he missed a tackle. I like having a guy who surprises you when he DOESN'T make the play.

5) Rogers: I think Washington Redskins fans are looking for the nearest bridge to jump off.

6) Gore: I think he's still banged up. He isn't moving like he did in the middle of the season. He also seems to have lost all ability to catch the ball this season. Don't get me wrong, I love the guy, but something is up there.

7) Vernon: Good game for Vernon. I haven't seen the TV replay yet, but it really looked like he scored on the throw back play. Doesn't matter as he scored on the next play, but I'm curious if it was a bad call or if I just saw it wrong from the stands.

8) Goldson: Dude was driving me nuts last night. He missed several tackles. Gotta step it up going into the post-season. You can't miss tackles like that against the Saints or Packers.

9) Edwards/Williams: I'd say keep Edwards on the bench, but we dunno what Ginns status is yet. If nothing else, put Williams in at the #2. The Niners were taking that quick out to Williams all night. The next move would be to do the out and up and he could break WIDE open. Don't be surprised if this weekend some DB tries to jump that quick out and Williams breaks upfield and he's open by 10 yards.

10) Gameplan: I have to say I was frustrated last night. The Steelers played one deep safety most of the night and the Slant would have been open. All Night. The only tried once and it was to Swain. Crab can take those slants and do something with them. SLANT. PLEASE.

Good stuff, as usual.

Originally posted by Marvin49:

7) Vernon: Good game for Vernon. I haven't seen the TV replay yet, but it really looked like he scored on the throw back play. Doesn't matter as he scored on the next play, but I'm curious if it was a bad call or if I just saw it wrong from the stands.

8) Goldson: Dude was driving me nuts last night. He missed several tackles. Gotta step it up going into the post-season. You can't miss tackles like that against the Saints or Packers.

9) Edwards/Williams: I'd say keep Edwards on the bench, but we dunno what Ginns status is yet. If nothing else, put Williams in at the #2. The Niners were taking that quick out to Williams all night. The next move would be to do the out and up and he could break WIDE open. Don't be surprised if this weekend some DB tries to jump that quick out and Williams breaks upfield and he's open by 10 yards.

7. TV announcers noted that the wording "play stands as called" does not mean the same thing as "the play was confirmed." Meaning, there was not sufficient evidence to overturn it nor was there sufficient evidence to confirm the call as correct. Nit picky to me but the closeup on TV shown VD's foot on the very edge of where the white line went from very fuzzy to green. IMO, had the side judge called it a TD, the play would have stood.

8. Fully agree with you on Goldson. He still misses tackles and misses reads though he is playing better this year than in the past. Re-sign him if he doesn't want elite money but there are better safeties around the league.

9. I like Williams a lot but hope Edwards would get on the field. I want to see if he can make that high catch and use his body to shield the defender. We need to learn if he can be that player or do we need a draft pick.

49ers fans need to stop selling their tickets to where home games almost start looking like away games, WAY too many bandwagon Steelers fans in the crowd last night.

7) Vernon: Good game for Vernon. I haven't seen the TV replay yet, but it really looked like he scored on the throw back play. Doesn't matter as he scored on the next play, but I'm curious if it was a bad call or if I just saw it wrong from the stands.

The views they showed were super close and most likely just to iffy to switch it over. The down the line view was partially blocked by the pylon as well which sucked but it was a majorly close.

it's cool how you can see SO MUCH more stuff at the game live that you can't see on TV. I always wonder why they don't throw the deep ball more to the sidelines because it seems like the receivers would be playing one on one against a DB

Grant has played worthy of a starting job on most teams, really above and beyond what I expected him to do considering he was an old practice squader of ours and then couldn't land a starting job in St. Louis. He still made plays like that great tip where he jumped like 3-4 feet in the air to knock away a pass in coverage. He made some great tackles on mendenhall as well. Mendenhall had a long of 11 that I think got past grant but other than that he was solid through most of the game.

Of course he's no P.Willy, but he's not the weak link of our backfield like I thought he was going to be.

Aldon's power is really starting to show! He knocked Max Starks right on his a@@! 6'8 - 340 pound Max Starks!

Not only is Gore incapable of making a catch, it seems like most of the time when he gets the ball - he's looking to get down on the ground as soon as possible. He isn't breaking tackles or picking up extra yards. He sees a defender closing in, and he's on his way down as the guy hits him. I said at the start of the year giving him a big extension would be a big mistake, and my opinion has yet to change.

It's hard to say anything against Grant. Of course he isn't as good as Willis, that's why he is the back up. But he made some solid tackles last night and had several big deflections. Very solid game from him!

The VD sideline catch was tough. From the front angle, it did lok like he foot was on the line. From the side view, it looked like his foot was just barely grazing it, if anything. Even in slow motion, withe frame blown up - it was really hard to tell. Had it been called a TD, it would have stood.

Goldson made some good tackles last night. By good, I mean wrapping up and tacking the man down - not the highlight reel hits he seems to try and make a lot. He still missed some, but I do think he is showing some improved technique.

Great insight Marvin...

...although I somewhat disagree with you about Grant. The commentators were singing his praises several times during the game last night and replays showed he made a number of nice plays. No Patrick but certainly a quality backup. Nice pick-up in the off-season.

The guy that drove me crazy last night was Haralson. The guy has a really hard time making plays in the open field. His misses cost the Niners several times during the game.

As far as Alex is concerned, I thought he was pretty tight in the first half, missing several open receivers. However, in the second half, he made some absolutely perfect throws. The other thing I noticed is that he doesn't get a lot of help from his receivers. They don't come back very well when he gets in trouble and when was the last time you saw a great catch by any of the Niners pass-catchers?

To me, Alex is still an enigmatic work-in-progress... It is still really hard to determine what his ceiling is. It is going to be really interesting to see if he progresses next season after a complete off-season with the Niner coaching staff and perhaps the addition of a real red-zone threat. At this point however, it is clear the Niners are keeping him on a very low-risk leash, which, if you look at wins and losses, has been a very effective strategy.

After watching a few Seahawks games this year (l live in the Seattle area now), I've got to say that the Niner safeties are well-coached but don't compare with Seattle's combination of Chancellor and Thomas. That is a position that they need to address in the off-season.

Agree about Kyle Williams being a nice slot guy for this team moving forward... He has some skills. Actually, I was impressed with Swain's one catch. He caught the ball and got upfield very quickly. I like decisive players like that.

Great call on the Vernon TD... Roman needs to have more calls like this in the red-zone...

I actually thought the Niners played a really good game last night. The DL hassled Ben all evening and the OL gave up zero sacks against a very aggressive, blitz-happy team. Impressive.

I thought Grant had a really good fame. Couple of excellent tackles. Commentators were joking as to how Willis is going to get his place back!

I think the Davis stop on the one yard line was clearly a td but can't win them all.

O line looked better this week.

Vernon had a decent game but dropped another ball and does not break enough tackles in the open field. For a tight end, he goes down way too easy and almost never beats a one on one with a db. How about blowing up one of those db's once in awhile?

Gruden loved Grant.

Alex did miss some open wr's again, but his wr's dropped 4 balls also.

Totally agree with Frank, very on and off again this year. Must be more hurt then letting on!

Thought the O played really well considering the D they played against.

Williams is coming on very strong and I predict will overtake Crabs in production next year, way quicker and faster and equal hands.

D was great all night and put a hurtin on the Steelers!

By the way, if at the game you thought the pass to Gore at the endzone was a bad one you need to take a look at the endzone replay (cause on 1st look, I thought it was a bad pass too). It showed perfectly that the Troy came scott free and was directly in front of Alex and coming on fast with his hands up, the ball passed within a foot to the outside of his hands (at pick level). If Alex tries to hit Frank in stride, the ball is batted down or picked for 6.

Would have been fun to be there for such a big game, I bet you had a blast.

How was that screen pass?...I know most of us in here was begging for another one huh?...

Originally posted by GSeef49er:
7) Vernon: Good game for Vernon. I haven't seen the TV replay yet, but it really looked like he scored on the throw back play. Doesn't matter as he scored on the next play, but I'm curious if it was a bad call or if I just saw it wrong from the stands.

The views they showed were super close and most likely just to iffy to switch it over. The down the line view was partially blocked by the pylon as well which sucked but it was a majorly close.

The problem was the ruling on the field was that he stepped out, which means the video has to clearly show that he didn't. It was too close to the edge of the line to completely reverse the ref's call. Oh well, our offense needs the redzone practice anyway, that fake to anthony dixon was genius, their defense totally bought it.

Great as always. A few comments.

Maybe it was just me, but I thought Grant outplayed Bowman last night. Don't know what's up with all the missed tackles. Maybe wearing the headset and all the added responsibilities with Willis out are hurting his focus.

Goldson is going to get payed. I'm just not convinced it should be by us. But if we don't re-sign him we need to bring in someone else in FA because Reggie Smith scares me. The guy is always making plays in practice but when the games starts he either is taking poor angles, missing tackles or just plain getting burned.

During the post game show Eric Davis mentioned that missed tackles are starting to creep into the defense. The missed tackles have been noticable the past two games so I hope they fix this problem asap...I would hate to see Lynch have a good game on Saturday.