Week 13: Thoughts after rewatching the game...

Originally posted by Jakemall:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by Jakemall:
What was the reason that we made Kaep the starter? IF it wasn't that he gives us a better chance to win now, it was a mistake.

I don't think he did that this game.

He DOES give them a better chance....but that doesn't mean they are going to win every game. Alex would have been crushed under that rush. He wouldn't have converted half the third downs that Kaep did. I like Alex, but Kaep gives the 49ers a better chance to win. He's going to make mistakes, but he's also going to make big plays to make up for them.

That was a blitz...Alex does well with Blitzes.

I do believe that Kaep is the future and I think he has a heck of a lot more ceiling than Alex. I am just not sure he gives the 9ers the best chance now. He certainly has big play ability that Alex has not demonstrated..

Again, I'm commenting on this game specifically...we'll see how it turns out.

Yeah....but I don't think he escapes and runs 50 yards.

I know what you're saying because I had the same thought after the first Rams game. I think it's clear tho that this game notwithstanding, the seam is much more dynamic when he's in there and he is capable of creating when the play breaks down. That's something Alex has never been able to do.

Originally posted by susweel:
Also I can't remember a team playing farther off our wrs then they did in this game. Also seen more slants in this game than I have all season.

Yeah...they were definitely concerned with Kaep hitting receivers deep.

Originally posted by SanFranFanfrmVa:
Should've never come to Walker not making a catch on that drive. Ball should've been run 3 times,using the Rams last 2 timeouts and then running 40 more seconds off the clock after a 3rd down run. Akers makes a field goal and the Rams have about a minute left to get in field goal range with no timeouts. Coaching plain and simple lost this game today. I'm a big Harbaugh fan but today they dropped the ball. This coaching blunder may very well cost us the division and the 2nd seed.

This is a fair point. The play-calling was nonsensical at times.

Marvin, good job on your posts! I was going to write a bunch of comments but I erased my first 2 and instead will just summarize by saying this loss will have me bummed all week.

Your points about Kaep, Play-calling, Penalties and Crabtree are spot on and my big take aways from the game.

People need to chill out about Kaep. It wasn't a perfect game but we had plenty of opportunities to win the game. Kaep should still start next week. We just need to be more consistent on offense with less penalties and more plays that suit Kaep's strength's. Because if we are going to stay with the run, run and pass on 3rd down, then yeah, just bring Alex back, he is good at that.

The Rams seem to be built to handle us. They played us tough for 2 games now.

My other rant would be that Crabs was having a good game and many times I would see him out on the field when we were in the redzone or needed a big 3rd down.

Thanks for rewatching it for me...I'm going to watch it later...i didn't know if I wanted to rewatch it. Just watching us running up the middle over and over was disappointing.

If anything I wanted to watch it to see all of Kaep's 3rd down conversions... at one point I think we were 8/16...can't remember the last time we converted 8 third downs.

Also surprised at the final stat about Kaep being 21/32 passing... I believe he threw the ball away on a number of occasions...as well as that pass out of bounds to run off 2 seconds to end a QTR. He also had that pass that Crabtree seemed to catch, but they called it incomplete. He had a few running first downs. Usually he has good gametime awareness on the field, but he messed up not falling on the run by the sidelines. So yeah most of his mistakes this game are very fixable.

the Rams did what many expected, they used previous game film and tried to "figure" him/exploit him. But he seemed to adjust pretty well with what they were doing with their defense after the snap...but it just seems like our coaching didn't do a good job adjusting themselves with the playcalling.

You are right and we should've relied more on his arm....mainly with regular looking passing plays...no gimmick stuff. THEN a couple of spread shotgun draw plays would've helped the running game. This is what teams like Detroit, Packers, any good passing team with no running game do.

One of the few bright sides I seen was Bruce Miller continuing to catch and run hard after the catch. Give it to him instead of Walker. But yeah, fed up with Walker. 6 tds in 7 years... only way I take him back is if he takes a pay cut and returns as the #3 TE who mainly is a blocker.

But like you said Roman did a horrible job. Conservative at the wrong times... I mean yeah Jenkins is playing off 10 yards and giving up free 1st downs but lets run it 3 times and make Akers kick a 50+ yarder to win it. Also, whether it was suppose to be Kap audibling out of the plays or it was Romans calls the constant bashing of our heads against the wall when they had 10+ in the box reminded me of the Singletary days. Pathetic. Penalties like you said; we are so undisciplined at times. Oh, Crabtree continues to be a bright spot as well.

Originally posted by Marvin49:
So, I was too annoyed to wait until later to rewatch the game. Watched it again immediately.

1) Kaepernick: Lets everyone chill out for a sec. Nobody thought he was going to be perfect in every game this year. That's not the reason he was made the starter. First, the Intentional Grounding WASN'T intentional grounding. The ball started on the far hash and he was outside the tackle box. He threw the ball beyond the LOS. Lets not put a clear missed call on him. Second, the lateral. Bad play. No defending it, but lets be real here for a sec. Harbaugh/Roman NEVER should have called that play to begin with. The pitch itself was a "young QB" mistake and he's going to make those. He did enough tho to make up for it and if Delanie Walker can catch the damn ball he wins the game. Kaep STILL made plays that Alex could never make...and I say that as an Alex FAN. He escaped the rush on what would have been sacks several times...including the 50 yard run. He made throws Alex would never make (the outs to Crabtree and Manningham come to mind). It looks like the Rams were very concerned with Kaep completing passes deep down the field and were playong off for most of the game. Thats why the Niners were having success underneath. Kaep (just has he has in his last 2 starts) played very well on third down.

2) Play Calling: I am a Greg Roman fan. I've defended him time after time on this site. This game pissed my off from beginning to end. Ya know what Greg? Good things happen when Kaep gets to throw the ball. The pitch was a HORRIBLE call. Horrific. Almost as bad was the playcalling in overtime. They got the ball at the 50 and never took a shot. They have a QB now who can make those throws. You gotta use him. I also saw it in the red zone....2 runs that go nowhere, Kaep throws it to convert. Maybe try throwing it earlier.

THESE

I, like you, am someone who wanted to see Alex hoist that Lombardi more than anything after the s**t he's been put through with the 49ers organization, but nothing about today changed my opinion that Kaep is the right guy for the job now. It wasn't Kaep that lost the game for us, it was the ridiculous gameplan and play calling.

Kaep made some errors for sure, but that was not a safety and that pitch call should never have been made in that situation, I mean holy hell what were you thinking Roman? Kaep also made some absolutely electric plays today, completing very some clutch 3rd down throws with a lot of pressure, and after the fumble return for the TD, he responded as good as he possibly could, throwing what should've been the clinching TD pass after making the longest run by a 49er QB ever.

O-Line had a very rough game today, and I think losing Hunter might be a bigger loss than we realize.

Originally posted by SanFranFanfrmVa:
Should've never come to Walker not making a catch on that drive. Ball should've been run 3 times,using the Rams last 2 timeouts and then running 40 more seconds off the clock after a 3rd down run. Akers makes a field goal and the Rams have about a minute left to get in field goal range with no timeouts. Coaching plain and simple lost this game today. I'm a big Harbaugh fan but today they dropped the ball. This coaching blunder may very well cost us the division and the 2nd seed.

generally this is what we always do...but even with Armadillo out, they were still moved the ball when they needed to.

I think trying to go for the win was fine....on any other forum, the Rams kicker is named MegatronLeg or something like that...and rightfully so... the guy had extra distance on his 50+ yard fieldgoals. So even if they had a minute with no timeouts, they might've made a 60+ yarder. but you are right usually conventional wisdom says make the team use all of their timeouts and kick a FG.

Bad call on the pitch, but horrible execution. Terrible. Are we going to blame the call for every Kaep mistake? It is what it is. Lets not forget that JH created this. We are not 3 and 8 and trying out our future QB to get experience. We are a SB ready team. The expectations are high. So the excuses on inexperience etc don't fly with me

Originally posted by HornedToad10:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by Jakemall:
What was the reason that we made Kaep the starter? IF it wasn't that he gives us a better chance to win now, it was a mistake.

I don't think he did that this game.

He DOES give them a better chance....but that doesn't mean they are going to win every game. Alex would have been crushed under that rush. He wouldn't have converted half the third downs that Kaep did. I like Alex, but Kaep gives the 49ers a better chance to win. He's going to make mistakes, but he's also going to make big plays to make up for them.

You have to be realistic. THIS game, Alex would have given a better chance. Kaep was a net 3 points since he gave up 10 points to the Rams. This is a game where the 1st year starter made mistakes to cost the game. Hopefully next week he'll be better and make plays to win games we wouldn't win with Alex. Kaep is classic higher highs and lower lows style of quarterback right now....

I call BS on that one.

First off, that wasn't a safety BAD call. Kaep did the right thing. Second, while the pitch was horrible, they never even would have called that play had Alex been in the game...IE, bad play call to start. The Rams would have played Alex far differently because they wouldn't have feared the deep pass. I seriously think this game would have been worse had Alex played. The Rams almost seemed to have the offensive gameplan for most of the game.

Kaep is able to create. Alex is not.

I don't know if I'm the only one who thought this/noticed this.

but on that play to Walker in the endzone....I'm pretty good at reading people's actions to put together what they were really doing.

but I might also just be reading too much into it.

but it seemed like the main defender who was guarding Walker, only turned his attention to Walker because he was Pissed off and wanted to go after him. Walker blocked low, and the defender immediately turned around to go after him and noticed that he was running out for a pass..lol.

again that is what I initially thought I saw.

Originally posted by UKNiners:
Bad call on the pitch, but horrible execution. Terrible. Are we going to blame the call for every Kaep mistake? It is what it is. Lets not forget that JH created this. We are not 3 and 8 and trying out our future QB to get experience. We are a SB ready team. The expectations are high. So the excuses on inexperience etc don't fly with me

Of course not. Kaep made a youg QB mistake. He was gonna make them. There was no excuse for that play and he said so after the game.

That said, it is on the coaching staff to put their players in a position to succeed. That was a horrific call to begin with. WAY too big a risk...esspecially with a young QB.

Sorry Marv, but #5 has got to change. You cannot have a 70% conversion rate as a kicker with an even worse rate outside of 40 yds. This is the NFL not college. Akers has cost us one tie and now a loss in the division. This guy should lose his job due to performance AND injury. Pathetic!

Originally posted by Afrikan:
I don't know if I'm the only one who thought this/noticed this.

but on that play to Walker in the endzone....I'm pretty good at reading people's actions to put together what they were really doing.

but I might also just be reading too much into it.

but it seemed like the main defender who was guarding Walker, only turned his attention to Walker because he was Pissed off and wanted to go after him. Walker blocked low, and the defender immediately turned around to go after him and noticed that he was running out for a pass..lol.

again that is what I initially thought I saw.

LOL...I'll have to watch it again...

Originally posted by m_brockalexander:
Sorry Marv, but #5 has got to change. You cannot have a 70% conversion rate as a kicker with an even worse rate outside of 40 yds. This is the NFL not college. Akers has cost us one tie and now a loss in the division. This guy should lose his job due to performance AND injury. Pathetic!

I'm not there yet.....but I'm getting there....