I'm absolutely blown away by how many people just blame Alex. Wow...it's already been stated in this thread.
oldman9er and I did a side-by-side analysis of the pass protection of the first string OL against the Texans (good measurable) on the first drive which is a nice microcasm of our issues last year against good DL's or defenses that can dial up good blitz schemes:
Post #964
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/125790-offensive-line-play-most-important/page65/
And we didn't even touch the run blocking but it sounds like Oscar/oldman9er saw a few blown blocks in the running game as well.
And after you read/watch, you can SEE why Alex (or any QB) would not be looking high-to-low with the type of beating he is getting under 3 seconds. He's lucky to even get to a second read or if his first (hot read) option is open for a modest gain. That said, it was quite remarkable we were able to move from our own 25 to their 27 and got a 50-yard FG out of it.
This line is FAR from flawless and if your QB isn't given at least 3 seconds, he isn't going to do squat on a regular basis (proven with the "elite" QB's when facing excellent pass rushing in the Superbowl, as an example). I had Alex as the 4th reason why we struggled on that drive.
Therefore, I challenge someone to refute our objective analysis...anyone. It's just one drive and only the passing plays. What do YOU see?
[ Edited by NCommand on Aug 22, 2012 at 5:34 PM ]