Week 12: Thoughts after rewatching the game...

Originally posted by dj43:
The biggest plus I took from the Saints game is how well the 49ers were putting pressure on Brees. They were not doing this as consistently earlier in the year. Now they seem to be coming into a new level. Others beside Aldon were bringing the heat. That is what the Giants do and that is why they are winning. When to opponents offense is stymied, the defense begins to press and becomes vulnerable. If even Drew Brees cannot find time to throw, others will have nightmares.

Brees is excellent at sliding in the pocket and avoiding the sack. IMO this game is a preview of what Brady can expect in a few weeks.

Great read marvin

Colin's second full game produced Alex like numbers but he did it in a different way. How often were we in third and longs? How often did we get backed up due to penalties? How often was a big play negated? How often was the crowd noise so loud that you see Colin having to use up more clock tying to instruct individual players on their assignment?
In his second career start in his second year, he overcame all of that and still scored points. We still win if all quick scores off turnovers are negated.

Our entire offense was not ready for this playoff type of crowd noise. Gore was lost a few times. In fact, the Saints were playing the run well early in the game. I am not worried about Colin's ability presnap after this game at all. In the past, when we have come out playing good teams and making big mistakes, we have lost.

This kid is only going to get better and consistent the more he plays. He was just in a playoff type of atmosphere. He also just played in a high pressure MNF game. He came in the Rams game when things were not smooth.

Originally posted by Joecool:
Colin's second full game produced Alex like numbers but he did it in a different way. How often were we in third and longs? How often did we get backed up due to penalties? How often was a big play negated? How often was the crowd noise so loud that you see Colin having to use up more clock tying to instruct individual players on their assignment?
In his second career start in his second year, he overcame all of that and still scored points. We still win if all quick scores off turnovers are negated.

Our entire offense was not ready for this playoff type of crowd noise. Gore was lost a few times. In fact, the Saints were playing the run well early in the game. I am not worried about Colin's ability presnap after this game at all. In the past, when we have come out playing good teams and making big mistakes, we have lost.

This kid is only going to get better and consistent the more he plays. He was just in a playoff type of atmosphere. He also just played in a high pressure MNF game. He came in the Rams game when things were not smooth.

Everything on earth was against us in that stadium. The fans, the noise, the Saints, the refs. We were dropping a bunch of passes and were penalized mercilessly. We were also pressured hard at times by the Saints defense, and it looked like Colin had to scoop half the snaps off the ground. Yet somehow it felt as if Colin was keeping it all afloat. He avoided all sacks, where there could have easily been 5 or 6. He only threw the ball away one time, where he could have easily thrown it away half a dozen times and no one would have questioned it. We had a special teams blunder that cost us control of the game at a critical time.
Despite all of this, we still throw for 230 yards (above average) and win by 10 points against a team that was desperate for a win at 5-5.

Originally posted by Joecool:


Our entire offense was not ready for this playoff type of crowd noise. Gore was lost a few times. In fact, the Saints were playing the run well early in the game. I am not worried about Colin's ability presnap after this game at all. In the past, when we have come out playing good teams and making big mistakes, we have lost.

yeah it looked to me that they were ready and geared up for a heavy run game instead we came out passing.

I mentioned in the game thread several times that we needed to get back to what we did best and that was run run and more run. But the Saints looked like they practice for every run formation in the last 30yrs to prepare for the match and we came out spinning it, it could have been a much more closer game if we went in as per usual with heavy run.

This could be another reasoning to coach starting Kapp, get the Saints on the back foot with the vertical game early and Gore will find the gaps later in the game.

great job

Originally posted by ace49ers:

Originally posted by Joecool:

Our entire offense was not ready for this playoff type of crowd noise. Gore was lost a few times. In fact, the Saints were playing the run well early in the game. I am not worried about Colin's ability presnap after this game at all. In the past, when we have come out playing good teams and making big mistakes, we have lost.

yeah it looked to me that they were ready and geared up for a heavy run game instead we came out passing.

I mentioned in the game thread several times that we needed to get back to what we did best and that was run run and more run. But the Saints looked like they practice for every run formation in the last 30yrs to prepare for the match and we came out spinning it, it could have been a much more closer game if we went in as per usual with heavy run.

This could be another reasoning to coach starting Kapp, get the Saints on the back foot with the vertical game early and Gore will find the gaps later in the game.

I think it may have had to do with the noise. Our line maybe was a split second slow. As we quieted he crowd a little more, we starred gashing them.

I'll just put one of my thoughts after rewatching this game. Apologies for hijacking this (excellent) thread, but I keep seeing comments about the refs. Actually I didn't feel we were penalised that badly by them, and neither were the Saints. They made one horrible call for each side: the Moss PI call, and the Crabtree "down by contact" one (and that was due to the usual whistle happy approach that all refs have - they never wait until the play is over). All our OL holding calls were unfortunately correct: in the negated Gore (sorru: Gire ) TD Iupati almost grabbed the opponent by the throat. The blow to the head non-call on the long pass to Walker was technically an error, but that's such a terrible rule anyway: the guy was obviously going to bat the ball. But OK, you could make a case that the letter of the law requires a flag there.

Similarly, none of the defensive PI non-calls the Aints fans are moaning about were actually PI. I actually like to see refs letting the players play.

Originally posted by paulk205:
I'll just put one of my thoughts after rewatching this game. Apologies for hijacking this (excellent) thread, but I keep seeing comments about the refs. Actually I didn't feel we were penalised that badly by them, and neither were the Saints. They made one horrible call for each side: the Moss PI call, and the Crabtree "down by contact" one (and that was due to the usual whistle happy approach that all refs have - they never wait until the play is over). All our OL holding calls were unfortunately correct: in the negated Gore (sorru: Gire ) TD Iupati almost grabbed the opponent by the throat. The blow to the head non-call on the long pass to Walker was technically an error, but that's such a terrible rule anyway: the guy was obviously going to bat the ball. But OK, you could make a case that the letter of the law requires a flag there.

Similarly, none of the defensive PI non-calls the Aints fans are moaning about were actually PI. I actually like to see refs letting the players play.

I agree with your point; but how about the call that called back Crabtree's huge gain down the right sideline? It was VERY slight holding. The type of holding that happens every single play. Perhaps he had to call it, but it had nothing to do with the play and killed a HUGE momentum swinging gain.

I think the bigger point is that these penalties could have just as easily been missed. Luck has a lot to do with whether or not a ref see's a holding penalty happen in front of him.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
Nice read, good post, one thing I've noticed is the number os sacks Kap takes, as opposed to Alex. Kap seems to have a better sense of when to slide, or move away from pressure. In his first two starts he faced two very different styles of defense, the Bears rush 4 and cover, mixing in a few well disguised blitzes, and the Saints seem to blitz almost every down in just about every direction, and Kap handled it well, and as I recall took very few...any sacks. Alex as brutally efficient, and consistent seems to swallow the ball and take the sack when he deems it safest, Kap keeps the play alive and keeps fighting.

It sucks when you have two very good QBs!

That just reminds me of something I keep reading that drives me nuts. This isn't targetted at you...

...but everytime I read that the Bears played "vanilla" against the 49ers and thats why he had success...I want to freakin' scream. Of course they played vanilla. They play vanilla in EVERY game and still beat the crap out of people. Thats simply what the Bears do and what they have been doing to have one of the best D's in the league.

Its not like they said..."ya know what? This kids a rook...lets simplify it for him!". No. They did what has worked against almost every other team they have played...and it didn't work.

I called it vanilla, or you might say "very basic," and yes, it is. And yes, the Bears play it very well...until someone takes the time to structure a game plan around that very basic approach...which is what Harbaugh/Roman did. Kaepernick said in a post game interview that all he did was follow the game plan. "Bears did what we expected them to do."

Not everyone, (very few) are as creative and thorough as Harbaugh. When any team lets the opponent know what they plan to do, it gives opponents an edge. The Bears may have some quality players but when you become predictable, an opponent will work you. In this case, it made throwing down the field a much easier proposition because it was easy to predict what the Bears would do. So while that takes nothing away from the throws Kaepernick made, it did make the reads much easier.

To follow that up; the age/wear and tear on Urlacher and Briggs was exposed in that game. They no longer have the foot speed and agility they once had. The still play downhill very well but do not cover well anymore. That left the mid-to-deep range areas much more available. Again, nothing against CK, it is just that the Bears were not the mighty monsters some purported.

Two ways to foil a QB, blitz like crazy and cover on the back end for 3-5 seconds, or play "vanilla" up front and cover the crap out of the back end, Kap has seen both in a two game span, and beaten them both...

Originally posted by dj43:
The biggest plus I took from the Saints game is how well the 49ers were putting pressure on Brees. They were not doing this as consistently earlier in the year. Now they seem to be coming into a new level. Others beside Aldon were bringing the heat. That is what the Giants do and that is why they are winning. When the opponents offense is stymied, the defense begins to press and becomes vulnerable. If even Drew Brees cannot find time to throw, others will have nightmares.

The Saints were down three or their top four OTs, which made a big difference. I hope the DLine can continue this level but against a healthy, good OLine I don't see them being as dominant.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by sfninerfanMax:

would the Niners trade Alex Smith in the offseason? I remember Jimmy Johnson drafting two QB's--Aikman and I forget the other QB's name--but he was traded eventually and that kept Dallas well stocked with good players in their last SB era.

If Kaep remains the starter and the 49ers can't negotiate Alex to a much smaller "backup" number (very unlikely they would be able to do that), he will be released. Other teams know he has a timebomb in his contract so won't trade for him. They'd just wait until Feb and sign him outright.

I'm not sure the 49ers will need to work him back down to a lower number, or want to do so. Just look at Chicago and Pittsburgh. Neither have a decent backup and the subs have put them behind in the playoff scenario. I would bet that Baalke will try to re-sign Smith for something close to what he is getting now, perhaps even a small raise. After all, running QBs have a tendency to get injured. Assuming Kaepernick is the starter from here on in (I believe so), having Smith ready as a sub will guarantee a continued run into the playoffs. We all know how close we were last season with Smith at QB, no reason we won't go beyond that this season with more weapons.

There is no way the Niners keep a 9 million dollar backup

mbrock, "Talent should win out in QB competition", unless one Qb has lots of experience, and the other is all talent and little experience . I was thinking of guys like Cam Newton, for example. Lots of talent, little experience. Right now we have but 5 games left before the playoffs, and we have an experienced hand like alex, or an incredible talent like Kap. Harbaugh has seen it all, both as QB, and as HC/OC/QB coach. He appreciates experience, especially against teams like NYG, Vikes, PATS, ATL, Texans. Any team that faces us towards the end, will undoubtedly have the BIG RUSH. And that is where the experience comes in . Awful easy to get addled when 5 300 pounders are in your grill. And that is where alex excells. We have seen Kap in that situation earlier in yr, and he didn't handle it well. Now he is better, but he lacks experience going into playoffs. My bet is Coach goes with alex.

Maybe he kept him out of Saints game because he wasn't sure alex was over his concussion symptoms. I think he made the right choice. Now, 2 weeks after the concussion, my guess is he goes with experience. If alex falters, Kap is always there. Kap will do much better with another full TC and PS in his memory bank. Right now, he is really short on experience, and at game 12 in the season, changing Qbs seems like a dicey proposition, and Coach Harbaugh is very aware of that.

Originally posted by 49erJim:
Posting about being worried about Justin Smith getting old is ridiculous at this time. Thats the only thing I have a problem with in your rant. Justin is having his very best season. Lets get through this season and worry about Justin Smith gettting old at the end of this season......I see him and Aldon being around for a few more seasons at this point in time........

Well, #1) I wouldn't exactly call it a rant. #2) I'll post about anything I want. #3) I only mention it because he simply doesn't come out of the game. Ever. He plays with such a high motor. The 49ers don't have the makings of a title run. They have the makings of a potential DYNASTY. The only things that can derail that is having players that are so vital that you can't live without getting old or getting hurt. Justin is one of those guys.

We need to look at that position HIGH in the draft next year. We can't be looking for it after he declines. We need to have that answer before it becomes an issue.

Originally posted by dj43:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by GolittaCamper:
Nice read, good post, one thing I've noticed is the number os sacks Kap takes, as opposed to Alex. Kap seems to have a better sense of when to slide, or move away from pressure. In his first two starts he faced two very different styles of defense, the Bears rush 4 and cover, mixing in a few well disguised blitzes, and the Saints seem to blitz almost every down in just about every direction, and Kap handled it well, and as I recall took very few...any sacks. Alex as brutally efficient, and consistent seems to swallow the ball and take the sack when he deems it safest, Kap keeps the play alive and keeps fighting.

It sucks when you have two very good QBs!

That just reminds me of something I keep reading that drives me nuts. This isn't targetted at you...

...but everytime I read that the Bears played "vanilla" against the 49ers and thats why he had success...I want to freakin' scream. Of course they played vanilla. They play vanilla in EVERY game and still beat the crap out of people. Thats simply what the Bears do and what they have been doing to have one of the best D's in the league.

Its not like they said..."ya know what? This kids a rook...lets simplify it for him!". No. They did what has worked against almost every other team they have played...and it didn't work.

I called it vanilla, or you might say "very basic," and yes, it is. And yes, the Bears play it very well...until someone takes the time to structure a game plan around that very basic approach...which is what Harbaugh/Roman did. Kaepernick said in a post game interview that all he did was follow the game plan. "Bears did what we expected them to do."

Not everyone, (very few) are as creative and thorough as Harbaugh. When any team lets the opponent know what they plan to do, it gives opponents an edge. The Bears may have some quality players but when you become predictable, an opponent will work you. In this case, it made throwing down the field a much easier proposition because it was easy to predict what the Bears would do. So while that takes nothing away from the throws Kaepernick made, it did make the reads much easier.

To follow that up; the age/wear and tear on Urlacher and Briggs was exposed in that game. They no longer have the foot speed and agility they once had. The still play downhill very well but do not cover well anymore. That left the mid-to-deep range areas much more available. Again, nothing against CK, it is just that the Bears were not the mighty monsters some purported.

Do you think no other team knew they were going to be that basic? Do you think no other team is capabale of taking advantage of that basic defense.

The Bears play basic but are good enough to dominate anyway.

Ya know who else is fairly basic on D because they have superior personel? The 49ers.