49ers vs Cowboys Replay on NFL NETWORK- watch how we were not able to convert a single....

Originally posted by Afrikan:

Originally posted by dtcomposer:

Originally posted by Afrikan:

Originally posted by WillistheWall:
Of course we weren't able to convert a 3rd down in the second half, Alex played with a concussion that half. He threw 1 of his only INTs in the second half, completed only like 5 passes, and looked confused in general. In the first half he played really well.

he chose to disclose that from our coaching staff.....selfish if you ask me, but whatever....he was fine enough to throw a perfect pass to Walker for a TD.

did Alex have a concussion the rest of the season when he was still horrible at 3rd down conversions?

Actually his stats on 3rd down passes were average. I'm sure you already know that but somebody posted the numbers recently. What the niners were AWFUL at (like worst in the league awful) was converting 3rd down running plays.

average? no I don't know that, or else I wouldn't have been b***hing all season how he needed to improve in that area or else it would come back and bite us in the ass come playoff time......care to provide a link?

http://stats.washingtonpost.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?type=Rushing&range=NFL&rank=016 here is the rank on rushing on 3rd and short. I was a bit wrong on Alex. I think He was ranked 21st on 3rd down conversions which would put him right nearer the bottom. Somehow his percentage is 35.7%http://stats.washingtonpost.com/fb/leaders.asp?range=NFC&type=Passing&rank=098&year= (I read the NFC stats as full league, which was my mistake) but the teams is lower at around 30% http://stats.washingtonpost.com/fb/tmleaders.asp?type=Passing&range=NFL&rank=098... maybe Colin threw some incompletions on 3rd down? I agree that it needs to improve, but I think there are bigger issues than Smith. Simply put the team couldn't get separation, get push, and Alex didn't make enough throws on third down. All of those need to improve, but if it is a systemic issue ( and in fact Rushing was worse than passing) then I think you need to look at other issues as well.

I think that it is reasonable to think that with some better receiving weapons, and more familiarity in the system for the whole team that the passing numbers will increase. I thnk for the rushing numbers to get better it will take a different RB, and less obvious play-calling.

Originally posted by Afrikan:
3rd down conversion in the second half and overtime.......one 1st down conversion and we would have won the game.

it just started...
yes old news, but it was something that we struggled through out the season and was our true down fall in the playoffs....people can blame Kyle all they want (I blame the coaches for keeping him out there) but our inablity to convert 1st downs cost us that win.....

you would think we would've improved that important problem come playoff time.

No Kyle's inability to hold on to the ball cost us the win. We were leading 14-10 until he decided to Freddy Adu the football

The biggest missed opportunity on 3rd down against the Giants was Dixon choosing the wrong running lane on that 3rd & 1 in the 4th quarter when we were nearing fg range. 3rd down is obviously a big problem but it is not the end all, be all of football like it's been made out to be here. What's more important, that we go 6/12 on 3rd down or get 2 long td passes? NE went 6/12 on 3rd down in the SB and they didn't score any more points than us. GB went 6/12 on 3rd down in their loss to the Giants, and they only scored 3 more points than us (14 of which were assisted by horrid officiating).

The clear and decisive culprit for our loss was Kyle Williams. Has he gotten his SB ring from the Giants yet?

You know i thought we'd be done beating ourselves up about past games. What i noticed the most about it all, is that although the 9ers had a horrible 3rd down conversion percentage. They still managed to go 13-3, and win the first game of the playoffs against one of the best QB's in football.

Whatever the third down conversion was, and we have been talking about it all year. We managed to win most of our games, while overcoming that negative fact about our team.

with a full offseason, i believe that not only will we improve in this area, it will be one of our stronger points.

Even with A. Smith in the red zone. it was no coincidence, that Smith was always top 3 in red zone percentage before this year (for the past 2 years i think). This year, he was near the bottom. So with some more weapons he'll be back in the top 3 next season.

at least i hope soo:)

^^ like i said before our RZ offense got much better as games went on

since the steelers game we were 6.8 in terms of TD/FG ration in RZ and i dont believe we kicked a single FG in RZ in playoffs ( to i think 2 to 3 RZ TDs)

Originally posted by vaden:
The biggest missed opportunity on 3rd down against the Giants was Dixon choosing the wrong running lane on that 3rd & 1 in the 4th quarter when we were nearing fg range. 3rd down is obviously a big problem but it is not the end all, be all of football like it's been made out to be here. What's more important, that we go 6/12 on 3rd down or get 2 long td passes? NE went 6/12 on 3rd down in the SB and they didn't score any more points than us. GB went 6/12 on 3rd down in their loss to the Giants, and they only scored 3 more points than us (14 of which were assisted by horrid officiating).

The clear and decisive culprit for our loss was Kyle Williams. Has he gotten his SB ring from the Giants yet?

Alex converted 0 meaningful 3rd down attempts. The only 3rd down attempt he converted was one where he should've thrown it to the endzone before halftime, but threw a 20 yard pass that was meaningless.

blame Dixon if you want, but Alex also had Crabtree (one of the only passes completed to a WR)..but he had Crabtree open for a key 3rd down conversion late in the game, but no....Alex threw it HIGH, to which Crabtree had to break stride and leave his feet...and with that the defender was right there to stop that key 1st down......

I can't believe some still want to brush off how important it is that your QB does a good job completing 3rd downs...especially if your QB is one who likes to check down alot, BECAUSE HE IS GOING TO BE IN ALOT OF 3RD DOWN SITUATIONS.

how can some around here think this team will be ready to pay a QB $20mill+ guaranteed if he had this type of issue all year, and still had that same issue in the Championship game. How can you trust that he will improve in that regard, enough to be worth that amount of investment?

What pisses me off about this game is that Dan Bailey would surely miss the game tying FG if Harbaugh went for the TO before the FG

Originally posted by JerryRice1848:
What pisses me off about this game is that Dan Bailey would surely miss the game tying FG if Harbaugh went for the TO before the FG

growing pains

Originally posted by Afrikan:

Originally posted by vaden:
The biggest missed opportunity on 3rd down against the Giants was Dixon choosing the wrong running lane on that 3rd & 1 in the 4th quarter when we were nearing fg range. 3rd down is obviously a big problem but it is not the end all, be all of football like it's been made out to be here. What's more important, that we go 6/12 on 3rd down or get 2 long td passes? NE went 6/12 on 3rd down in the SB and they didn't score any more points than us. GB went 6/12 on 3rd down in their loss to the Giants, and they only scored 3 more points than us (14 of which were assisted by horrid officiating).

The clear and decisive culprit for our loss was Kyle Williams. Has he gotten his SB ring from the Giants yet?

Alex converted 0 meaningful 3rd down attempts. The only 3rd down attempt he converted was one where he should've thrown it to the endzone before halftime, but threw a 20 yard pass that was meaningless.

blame Dixon if you want, but Alex also had Crabtree (one of the only passes completed to a WR)..but he had Crabtree open for a key 3rd down conversion late in the game, but no....Alex threw it HIGH, to which Crabtree had to break stride and leave his feet...and with that the defender was right there to stop that key 1st down......

I can't believe some still want to brush off how important it is that your QB does a good job completing 3rd downs...especially if your QB is one who likes to check down alot, BECAUSE HE IS GOING TO BE IN ALOT OF 3RD DOWN SITUATIONS.

how can some around here think this team will be ready to pay a QB $20mill+ guaranteed if he had this type of issue all year, and still had that same issue in the Championship game. How can you trust that he will improve in that regard, enough to be worth that amount of investment?

Again, Alex was only 1-2% behind Eli, Stafford and Cutler in 3rd down conversion rate. He was slightly ahead of Cam. He wasn't good, but also wasn't that bad. No one is brushing off the importance of converting 3rd downs, but rather putting it in context. It is not nearly as important as it's made out to be, as evidenced by the aforementioned fact that NE converted 50% of their 3rd downs (except for the Saints, no team averaged 50% for the season) in the SB and didn't score any more points than we did. Alex's 2 long tds were probably worth about 6 3rd down conversions.

It wasnt Alex's fault that we lost the Cowboy's game, but I firmly believe a better QB, we would have won the game. This game was a glaring example of how Harbaugh and Co. didnt trust Alex.

Examples:

-The end of the first half. Do you think with almost 2 minutes and timeouts remaining that any coach would choose to run out the clock if they had an above average QB under center? Im not exactly sure of this, but going off of memory, we only would have needed like 40 yards for a field goal attempt. With almost 2 minutes and timeouts, it should have been a time to go for a score. But Harbaugh chose to run out the clock. Could you imagine Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady running out the clock in this situation? Hell, could you imagine Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco or even Matt Hasselbeck running out the clock there? Would never happen.

-The keeping the field goal instead of the first down in the redzone. Ridiculous IMO. I have been watching football all my life, and I cant think of a specific time where a coach chose to do this in that situation. Clear evidence of a lack of trust. There is simply no other explanation for this.

These two situations should have led to more points than they did. We shouldnt have gone to overtime.

nit picking a random early season loss that didnt cost us anything?? i love it, the expectations are back baby

Originally posted by 80sbaby24:
It wasnt Alex's fault that we lost the Cowboy's game, but I firmly believe a better QB, we would have won the game. This game was a glaring example of how Harbaugh and Co. didnt trust Alex.

Examples:

-The end of the first half. Do you think with almost 2 minutes and timeouts remaining that any coach would choose to run out the clock if they had an above average QB under center? Im not exactly sure of this, but going off of memory, we only would have needed like 40 yards for a field goal attempt. With almost 2 minutes and timeouts, it should have been a time to go for a score. But Harbaugh chose to run out the clock. Could you imagine Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady running out the clock in this situation? Hell, could you imagine Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco or even Matt Hasselbeck running out the clock there? Would never happen.

-The keeping the field goal instead of the first down in the redzone. Ridiculous IMO. I have been watching football all my life, and I cant think of a specific time where a coach chose to do this in that situation. Clear evidence of a lack of trust. There is simply no other explanation for this.

These two situations should have led to more points than they did. We shouldnt have gone to overtime.

Of course he didn't trust him, Smith was a QB who most people looked at as a bust with fragile confidence and still learning a new system. Harbaugh had only actually been coaching him for like 6 weeks, and he had barely begun on the Smith reclamation project. But even if we win that game it doesn't matter, we still end up at home vs the NY Giants and lose in the NFCCG so oh well.

watched basketball instead of the replay of this game. just gave them the game, sucked. cowpukes got so lucky.

Originally posted by 80sbaby24:
It wasnt Alex's fault that we lost the Cowboy's game, but I firmly believe a better QB, we would have won the game. This game was a glaring example of how Harbaugh and Co. didnt trust Alex.

Examples:

-The end of the first half. Do you think with almost 2 minutes and timeouts remaining that any coach would choose to run out the clock if they had an above average QB under center? Im not exactly sure of this, but going off of memory, we only would have needed like 40 yards for a field goal attempt. With almost 2 minutes and timeouts, it should have been a time to go for a score. But Harbaugh chose to run out the clock. Could you imagine Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady running out the clock in this situation? Hell, could you imagine Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco or even Matt Hasselbeck running out the clock there? Would never happen.

-The keeping the field goal instead of the first down in the redzone. Ridiculous IMO. I have been watching football all my life, and I cant think of a specific time where a coach chose to do this in that situation. Clear evidence of a lack of trust. There is simply no other explanation for this.

These two situations should have led to more points than they did. We shouldnt have gone to overtime.

Actually, conventional knowledge always says to take the points. Warren Sapp told a great story on the DP Show - he was playing for the Bucs and they had gotten a field goal but Gruden decided to take the points off the board. Warren told Gruden, "You're angering the football gods!" Two plays later, their QB throws an interception.

Originally posted by WillistheWall:
Of course he didn't trust him, Smith was a QB who most people looked at as a bust with fragile confidence and still learning a new system. Harbaugh had only actually been coaching him for like 6 weeks, and he had barely begun on the Smith reclamation project. But even if we win that game it doesn't matter, we still end up at home vs the NY Giants and lose in the NFCCG so oh well.

Correct....the loss had no impact on how we finished the season. I was simply responding to the thread.

Originally posted by 12b6demurrer:
Actually, conventional knowledge always says to take the points. Warren Sapp told a great story on the DP Show - he was playing for the Bucs and they had gotten a field goal but Gruden decided to take the points off the board. Warren told Gruden, "You're angering the football gods!" Two plays later, their QB throws an interception.

Id love to know the situation in which your story played out. Because chances are, they were not the same.