Was our defense overrated last year? Interesting Read:

True but can't we say this about every defense...every year? You can only play so many elite QB's with elite offenses and so any really poor QB/Offense's and a bunch of average ones or worse d/t injuries, changing of the guards, etc. We did give up a ton of yards which should be a concern, no doubt. But we did play straight up almost the entire year (re: the front 7), had no depth at OLB, dropped Willis in coverage for most of year, no off-season, etc.

This year, I'm expecting the front 7 will be much more aggressive and creative and the secondary should benefit greatly from this. There is or will be more depth at key positions and it will be year 2 of Fangio's defense where he SHOULD start opening up the playbook and dictating more. If we can continue to win field position and score some points, I would expect Fangio to release the hounds a bit more. There is a plethora of options when you have the front 7, esp. the LB's, that we have!

But to your point, we still have some areas that we seriously need to address...like playing vanilla, too much Willis in coverage, not creatively attacking, playing our secondary WAY off, S's taking MUCH better angles and helping out more over the top, etc. Lots of areas to improve esp. when the odds are stacked against us re: getting that many sacks/QB pressures/hits and TO's again.

Originally posted by cciowa:
ask big ben is we are over rated, ask percy from the saints, please, they were and are the real deal

Big Ben was hurt and shouldn't have played.

Nope, not over-rated at all. The one thing we had in our favor that probably won't happen again is turnover ratio. What were we? +29 or something? That will be next to impossible to sustain.

Sunday Ticket,

You need to look at all the stats not just passing yards. Points allowed is a big deal. In this day and age, the league is a passing leauge, so good QB's are going to have a lot of yards. It matters if you hold them to 3 or you allow 7. Even with those decent teams being able to throw the ball, they still couldn't sneak in a good run, beacuse our D was solid. Once again look at all the stats., For example, points per quarter, points allowed on opening drives, points allowed in the red zone turnover ratio. The Niners were among the best. I Just wanted to point that out. Go Niners 2012.

Niners D should be better this year. I think newly signed Cox is going to step up and play in nickel and dime by mid-season.

how did we let zona beat us...

Oh Crap! here it comes... I actually think it is kind of true. Don't get me wrong because our defense is one of the best in the league but I do think that we were a little over-rated last year. Against some of the better QB's on our schedule we seemed to give up a ton of big plays. From watching the games, Philly had no problem moving the ball in the first half, Dallas had the big plays all game, Detriot did well, and the saints shot themselves with all the TO's, etc... AGAIN WE HAVE 1 OF THE BEST D'S IN THE LEAGUE... but I think everyone just assumes that we will just pick back up where we left off. We lived and died by the Turnovers and field position. I think we need to be more solid in the secondary and not give up the big play so much. Even if we won alot of those games the QB's we played still moved the ball and won or made it a close game. We will see more good QB's on the schedule next year with Eli, Brady, Rodgers, Bree's, Cutler, Stafford, etc... We can't expect that the game will always go in our favor or that we will get a TO.

Not bashing but I hope the secondary tightens up on the big plays and the Offense gets more TD's than FG's... If we break their will with points than we don't have to rely on the D so much

Originally posted by SundayTicket:

Originally posted by Black24Razor:
And in those 4 games where the teams did well against "us", we won three of them and should have won all 4....Bad thread.

Maybe our offense deserves more credit than they are getting perhaps?

NO.
Just stop.
Fail.
Free thread.

Originally posted by 49ers57:
Sunday Ticket,

You need to look at all the stats not just passing yards. Points allowed is a big deal. In this day and age, the league is a passing leauge, so good QB's are going to have a lot of yards. It matters if you hold them to 3 or you allow 7. Even with those decent teams being able to throw the ball, they still couldn't sneak in a good run, beacuse our D was solid. Once again look at all the stats., For example, points per quarter, points allowed on opening drives, points allowed in the red zone turnover ratio. The Niners were among the best. I Just wanted to point that out. Go Niners 2012.

Nice post

Originally posted by jreff22:
how did we let zona beat us...

I've thought alot about that, and I believe it has alot to do with the fact the niners had just won the division, and losing a game did not mean they would lose first round bye in the playoffs. Not I'm saying they took it easy on purpose, but at the time the Cards were on a roll, they had won 4 out of 5 and were still alive in the playoff hunt but had to win out. They absolutely NEEDED to win, the niners did not, that leveled the playing field. They simply got us at the right time in the season.

The Seahawks were in a similar position, but losing to them DID mean we'd lose the bye. Man, that game almost made me blow a gasket because had we lost that game, we had to go to New Orleans and play an extra game.

Originally posted by KowboyKiller:

Originally posted by jreff22:
how did we let zona beat us...

I've thought alot about that, and I believe it has alot to do with the fact the niners had just won the division, and losing a game did not mean they would lose first round bye in the playoffs. Not I'm saying they took it easy on purpose, but at the time the Cards were on a roll, they had won 4 out of 5 and were still alive in the playoff hunt but had to win out. They absolutely NEEDED to win, the niners did not, that leveled the playing field. They simply got us at the right time in the season.

The Seahawks were in a similar position, but losing to them DID mean we'd lose the bye. Man, that game almost made me blow a gasket because had we lost that game, we had to go to New Orleans and play an extra game.

we didnt tackle well

Ask Alex if our D is over rated, it put him in a position to reject signing his contract offer.

You didn't account for our offense. What I mean is because of our offense these teams got way more oppertunities against our defense. Eli Manning got so many oppertunities in the Championship game because we couldn't convert on third down! Our defense was on the field a lot this year and in terms of points they didn't break.

Did you just describe your own post as an interesting read?

Originally posted by crabman82:

Originally posted by KowboyKiller:

Originally posted by jreff22:
how did we let zona beat us...

I've thought alot about that, and I believe it has alot to do with the fact the niners had just won the division, and losing a game did not mean they would lose first round bye in the playoffs. Not I'm saying they took it easy on purpose, but at the time the Cards were on a roll, they had won 4 out of 5 and were still alive in the playoff hunt but had to win out. They absolutely NEEDED to win, the niners did not, that leveled the playing field. They simply got us at the right time in the season.

The Seahawks were in a similar position, but losing to them DID mean we'd lose the bye. Man, that game almost made me blow a gasket because had we lost that game, we had to go to New Orleans and play an extra game.

we didnt tackle well

i also remember grant missed a tackle willis wouldve made in his sleep, and goldson misjudged the ball and tried to take the ball away from the wr who has the best and strongest hands in the game. im hoping we play skelton again because hes garbage and all he does is stare down fitz, cant believe we lost to his garbage ass