Preseason Week 2: Thoughts after rewatching the game... | Page 3

Marvin49 · 2012-08-20T09:19:49-07:00

Hey all, 1) Bulletproof: Last week when it turned out it was just a bruise for Aldon Smith, Jim Harbaugh said they had "dodged a bullet there". He used the term again after fanfest with Delanie Walker. Well now the Niners are doing their best Neo from the Matrix impression dodging bullets left and right. After the hit, I though Jacobs was done. I thought James had broken his ankle. Now they have dodged two more bullets. Eventually though, I'm afraid one of those bullets is gonna hit the team between the eyes. They've been lucky so far. I just dunno if that luck will last. It also makes me wonder if the fact that these guys didn't get MORE injured than they were has something to do with the conditioning they have gotten with the 49ers...and I'm talking specifically about the Jacobs injury. That SHOULD have been a far more severe injury than it has turned out to be. 2) Gore: He only had 2 carries, but that first carry got my attention. He looked pretty damn quick. He looked like the Frank of old there, not the banged up Frank we've seen the past few years. If Frank can keep that quickness deep into the season with Hunter (who looks really good), Jacobs, and James spelling him, the playoffs could be alot of fun. Frank has worn down at the end of seasons lately....lets keep him fresh. 3) Pass Protection: Yeah, it didn't look so great when Alex was in there, but I think they'll be fine. First off, Houston is pretty good. Second, there was no game planning. Third, some of those were on Alex. He held the ball way too long on a few occasions. It bears monitoring, but I think they'll be fine. 4) Moss: Looked better, but still not super fast. As I said before tho, he may not need to be. Three plays stood out to me. On the drop by Vernon, Randy made a great move and was wide open for a TD. The second was a 3rd down catch where he essentially dove for the ground 1 yard short of the marker. Didn't like that, but it is preseason and perhaps he doesn't do that in the regular season. We'll see. The last was the drop on the pass from Kaep. Again tho, that probably doesn't happen in the regular season. IMO, the Niners need a redzone threat alot more than they need a deep threat. He has those "vet moves" that can get him by the defender and I can see him the endzone quite a bit this year. I think Randy is very happy not being "THE GUY" anymore. I think he just wants to be "A GUY" on a contending team. 5) Jacobs: He's looked far better than I thought he would (although the line has been giving him impressive holes to run through) so I was SERIOUSLY bummed seeing him get hit and drop like that. Dude looks like a train running through the line. He still runs high, but if he can get healthy here he could be an important piece in a limited role. You go from defending Gore, Hunter and James and then all of the sudden a 6'4" 260 lb monster who can run is trucking you. The move makes alot more sense to me now than it did when they signed him. 6) Run Game in general: Wow. I like what they are doing. They are running ALOT of those Wham plays where you allow the defender to run himself out of the play and bring the TE over to seal the hole inside. I love this run game. Its some of those wham plays. Its counters. It's basically every type of running play you can think of. Its a "diverse" run game were you can't tell presnap whats gonna be run because everything looks the same. We are in for a treat this year. They aren't going to set a scoring record or anything, but they are going to have a monster running game with a passing game that keeps teams honest. 7) LaMichael James: OK..I saw a little of what I was looking for. VERY small sample size again, but he had a run in there for 7 or 8 yards. What I liked about it most was the anti-Dixon attributes of it....he just GOES. What do I mean by that? When I watched him in college I saw something I really liked. It wasn't his speed or moves (I like those too). It was his decisiveness. When he makes a choice, he doesn't dance. He hits the hole HARD. It was only one run and had I not watched him in college it would have meant nothing to me, but I saw just a bit of what I liked about him in college. Hopefully he's not sidelined too long with that ankle. 8) RB Depth: It occured to me when I was thinking that both Jacobs and James might be lost for the year that the Niners would still be left with Gore, Hunter, and Dixon and that wasn't too bad a thought. WOW. That's some serious depth. 9) Backup QBs: Still not liking what I see from Kaep. Late on his throws. BIG windup, Slow release. Uber athlete but I just dunno if he fits. Johnson looked super smooth as usual and made some good decisions, but two pretty bad overthrows of what could have been AJ Jenkins TDs (who played pretty well BTW). Tolzien kinda came back to earth a bit in this game which was disappointing, but I still like him. 10) Starting D: We have no worries here. The starting D played ONE series in that game. ONE (EDIT: I thought it was one, but oldman9er corrected me with TWO drives...second was a 3 and out). I was watching the twitter feed from Houston reporters and they were all talking about how good Johnson was to defeat the double team and how Foster finally tore off that 24 yard run...so all was right with the world. Yeah....they both did that against 2nd and 3rd team players (I believe Johnson beat Trenton Robinson and Trumaine Brock). The starting D gave up just the one good pass play on Culliver and pretty much shut them down otherwise....and they did so without Aldon and Brooks. The D will be just fine. Even tho it was a first down, I was pretty impressed (though not all that surprised) to see that it was Willis who caught Johnson from behind on his crossing route. Most MLBs wouldn't have had a chance on that play and it goes for big yardage.

Aug 20, 2012 at 1:49 PM

#31

LasVegasWally
Veteran
Posts: 24,886

Fine article as always.

I thought Hunter played excellent. He had some fine blocks protecting Alex & missed one. He hits the hole fast and hard. When the announcer said that what he did at Oak. was no fluke - he was spot on. This guy is good - real good.

Aug 20, 2012 at 1:51 PM

#32

Marvin49
Hall of Fame
Posts: 16,506

Originally posted by dtcomposer:
In response to Hohbie (didn't want the huge quote)

1) Watched live and thought Alex played pretty crappy. Watched again and he did fine.

There is an interesting phenomenon in the audio world known as psychoacoustics. The main idea is that your state of mind and stress level does directly affect what you hear and what you perceive. It is a well-researched human response, and is a major problem for audio engineers.

I think that this happens quite a bit while watching Alex Smith play (or while critiquing any player). Whatever you think you saw in the heat of the moment, with the emotion and stress of the game taking place, there is almost a 100% chance that your emotions are distorting reality to some extent. That is why it is essential to watch a replay or 5 when the stress level are much lower. In that way you get a much clearer picture of what happened.

EXACTLY.

Thats why I go back and re-watch every game at least once. Thats why I title this these threads "after REwatching the game". Thats why I've seen the NFC Championship game 3 times.

Aug 20, 2012 at 1:52 PM

#33

Marvin49
Hall of Fame
Posts: 16,506

Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
Stop making so much sense, Marv. This is Niner Talk. There is no place for that here ;).

LOL! ;-)

Aug 20, 2012 at 1:53 PM

#34

JTsBiggestFan
Veteran
Posts: 7,758

Originally posted by Marvin49:

EXACTLY.

Thats why I go back and re-watch every game at least once. Thats why I title this these threads "after REwatching the game". Thats why I've seen the NFC Championship game 3 times.

Anything you care to share about the NFCC that wasn't obvious to most watching it live?

Aug 20, 2012 at 1:55 PM

#35

Marvin49
Hall of Fame
Posts: 16,506

Originally posted by KowboyKiller:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by Ninefan56:
Marvin how did the Oline look?

Pass Protection...questionable. Run Blocking...outstanding.

Alot of what makes the run blocking look good tho is scheme. The RB have HUGE holes to run through on a somewhat regular basis. It's one of the reasons I'm pretty excited about the run game. I love that they are creative in the run game and don't just run into a brick wall down after down like another coach who shall remain nameless.

And also sometimes pantless.

LOL!

Aug 20, 2012 at 2:01 PM

#36

Marvin49
Hall of Fame
Posts: 16,506

Originally posted by JTsBiggestFan:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

EXACTLY.

Thats why I go back and re-watch every game at least once. Thats why I title this these threads "after REwatching the game". Thats why I've seen the NFC Championship game 3 times.

Anything you care to share about the NFCC that wasn't obvious to most watching it live?

Not much that we don't already know. The D DOMINATED the game after halftime. The only points the Giants scored were off of the famous special teams blunders. Eli Manning was getting pummeled.

I've read several times how "heroic" Eli was in that game. Heroic my a$$, he got crushed down after down and only threw a TD to Manningham after Brown got hurt.

The real reason the Niners lost tho was an inability to even put up a single point on 4 or 5 possessions to finish the game. If Dixon can convert 3rd and 1, the game might be over. Williams gets all the grief, but even with those turnovers the defense bailed them out time after time and they simply couldn't take advantage of it.

I feel bad for Williams sometimes. He screwed up....no question....twice. However, on the last one...it was well into overtime catching his 11th punt of the night (if I recall) ona wet night at Candlestick of all places. We need to give him a break. I think it was Ann Killion who said it best.

As overtime went on it become more and more clear that neither team was going to "Win" the game. It was just a matter of time before one of the teams "Lost" it. That's what happened.

Aug 20, 2012 at 2:32 PM

#37

Afrikan
Veteran
Posts: 23,670

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by JTsBiggestFan:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

EXACTLY.

Thats why I go back and re-watch every game at least once. Thats why I title this these threads "after REwatching the game". Thats why I've seen the NFC Championship game 3 times.

Anything you care to share about the NFCC that wasn't obvious to most watching it live?

Not much that we don't already know. The D DOMINATED the game after halftime. The only points the Giants scored were off of the famous special teams blunders. Eli Manning was getting pummeled.

I've read several times how "heroic" Eli was in that game. Heroic my a$$, he got crushed down after down and only threw a TD to Manningham after Brown got hurt.

The real reason the Niners lost tho was an inability to even put up a single point on 4 or 5 possessions to finish the game. If Dixon can convert 3rd and 1, the game might be over. Williams gets all the grief, but even with those turnovers the defense bailed them out time after time and they simply couldn't take advantage of it.

I feel bad for Williams sometimes. He screwed up....no question....twice. However, on the last one...it was well into overtime catching his 11th punt of the night (if I recall) ona wet night at Candlestick of all places. We need to give him a break. I think it was Ann Killion who said it best.

As overtime went on it become more and more clear that neither team was going to "Win" the game. It was just a matter of time before one of the teams "Lost" it. That's what happened.

how come no mention of alex on those last 2 drives skipping the ball to our recievers....or justin smith missing his block that got a defender in the backfield to stop dixon?

[ Edited by Afrikan on Aug 20, 2012 at 2:34 PM ]

Aug 20, 2012 at 3:04 PM

#38

Marvin49
Hall of Fame
Posts: 16,506

Originally posted by Afrikan:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by JTsBiggestFan:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

EXACTLY.

Thats why I go back and re-watch every game at least once. Thats why I title this these threads "after REwatching the game". Thats why I've seen the NFC Championship game 3 times.

Anything you care to share about the NFCC that wasn't obvious to most watching it live?

Not much that we don't already know. The D DOMINATED the game after halftime. The only points the Giants scored were off of the famous special teams blunders. Eli Manning was getting pummeled.

I've read several times how "heroic" Eli was in that game. Heroic my a$$, he got crushed down after down and only threw a TD to Manningham after Brown got hurt.

The real reason the Niners lost tho was an inability to even put up a single point on 4 or 5 possessions to finish the game. If Dixon can convert 3rd and 1, the game might be over. Williams gets all the grief, but even with those turnovers the defense bailed them out time after time and they simply couldn't take advantage of it.

I feel bad for Williams sometimes. He screwed up....no question....twice. However, on the last one...it was well into overtime catching his 11th punt of the night (if I recall) ona wet night at Candlestick of all places. We need to give him a break. I think it was Ann Killion who said it best.

As overtime went on it become more and more clear that neither team was going to "Win" the game. It was just a matter of time before one of the teams "Lost" it. That's what happened.

how come no mention of alex on those last 2 drives skipping the ball to our recievers....or justin smith missing his block that got a defender in the backfield to stop dixon?

...kinda the point. It wasn't any ONE thing. The punt return issues get all the pub, but they lost that game for a number of reasons.

Aug 20, 2012 at 3:16 PM

#39

tohara3
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Posts: 30,815

Great job Marvin! So ready for the season to start!

Aug 20, 2012 at 3:35 PM

#40

dtcomposer
Veteran
Posts: 1,417

Originally posted by Marvin49:
EXACTLY.

Thats why I go back and re-watch every game at least once. Thats why I title this these threads "after REwatching the game". Thats why I've seen the NFC Championship game 3 times.

Yep you have the right idea for sure. I can't and won't ever watch that NFCCG though... too painful.

Aug 20, 2012 at 3:40 PM

#41

Marvin49
Hall of Fame
Posts: 16,506

Originally posted by dtcomposer:

Originally posted by Marvin49:
EXACTLY.

Thats why I go back and re-watch every game at least once. Thats why I title this these threads "after REwatching the game". Thats why I've seen the NFC Championship game 3 times.

Yep you have the right idea for sure. I can't and won't ever watch that NFCCG though... too painful.

I have to admit....that game was tough. I usually spend the off-season making Niner vids, but this year it was just too damn hard to spend that much time on them. I kept beginning to start grabbing highlights, but it just wasn't in me because I knew how it all ended.

[ Edited by Marvin49 on Aug 20, 2012 at 3:45 PM ]