Game 2 Assessment:

Anyone feel like the offensive play calling was oversimplified because Haroman and company wanted to keep the offense hidden for later in the season? I realize the crowd noise was the primary reason for what looked like vanilla play calling, but it was almost comical in the second half.

1st. Very good write up. Please keep hem coming.

2nd. It seemed to me they had an answer for everything we did on offense. Excellent coaching and preparation on their part.

3rd. Agree w/many of the posters here. If we had made those scores, there would have been less pressure and we'd have played our game and not fallen into theirs.

4th. I absolutely HATE their guts but - Their secondary is dynamite. We still need a BIG, fast WR.

5th. It seems like they've drafted just to beat us. I'm probably wrong but it seems that way.

6th. EVERYONE on our team, especially the coaches, better use this a learning experience. We failed to make adjustments and figure out how to beat the 8 men in a box. Every team we'll be playing will be studying this game film as "Beating the Niners 101". This is really on our coaches.

Last - IMO, they beat us and had more help than the 12th man. It seems that we beat ourselves. We helped them w/stupid penalties, missed opportunities and deficient coaching. I feel, that Roman holds back things we can do and tries to do just enough to win. That worked last season especially against the Packers in the playoffs but this is a new season.

I'm hoping our coaches get back to basics and use less of cutie formations and goes to the Bill Walsh Vault and finds some WCO plays to get us back n track.

Originally posted by boast:

the sky is not falling. last week's game was not really a dominating performance by the Seahawks. i really think the delay affected the Niners more than the home team. this was a slip up.

I agree with they didn't dominate by any means. We were the more dominating defense before delay and kaps bad pass to Vernon which would have quieted the crowd. Kap and offense let the crowd and seaf*gs get into their head. It's only week two better now than later no we know what to fix.

Originally posted by NeeJ49er:
even when we are a dominant team , we seem to have one horrible game a season ...reminds me when we took an ass whipping from the eagles in 94 , but still went on to win the superbowl,,,,,,,,we will get this ship back on course....I have faith in our squad

I'll never forget that game as a kid. Steve Young getting benched by Seifert and getting PISSED. Deion and the rest of the guys tried to calm him down and it wasn't working. Even Steve's bff Brent Jones couldn't calm him down. Then getting that TD at the end, and the two pointer was huge for the team. Started something that carried into Detroit. And the Detroit game changed our season.

Man, I heart the f**k out of the 94 squad.

The Hawks have one of the best secondaries you have ever seen? f**k no. The only guy in their secondary that has true talent is Earl Thomas. All the other guys are mediocre to solid players, but they aren't elite. What they are is elite at holding and getting away with it.

I went back and watched the coaches film of our game and their game against the panthers. Richard Sherman and Walter Thurmond are great at tugging on the jersey to bring the wideout closer to them when he makes his break. They're also great at grabbing and holding the guys jersey up top when pressing at the line of scrimmage. Props to them for cheating so blatantly and getting away with it, but the reality is that their talent level is vastly overrated.

Sherman is slow, lanky, and doesn't have great change of direction or very fluid hips. He has pretty good ball skills though.

Brandon Browner is another guy that is huge for a corner and thus his fluidity and change of direction is poor. Also lacks speed. Another guy that is great at mugging wideouts though.

Kam Chancellor is just a big ass slow safety than can hit pretty good. He doesn't have very good coverage or ball skills.

Walter Thurmond is their most talented corner. Yup that's right. He is way more fluid than these other guys and has pretty good ball skills. However, Sherman and Browner excel more in that defense because of their size and length. It helps to be big with long arms when your defensive tactic is to reach out and grab and hold jerseys.

Earl Thomas- The only true stud (within the rules) in their secondary. A ball hawk.

In a defensive secondary that concentrates on mugging wide receivers as opposed to legally covering them, basically all you have to do is go out and select guys in later rounds that are big and not as talented. You don't need to worry about drafting defensive backs early because they don't need to be very good cover guys. Wait a second guys! That's exactly what Seattle has done! Genius! You have an undrafted free agent and a fifth round pick starting at your corner positions and another fifth round pick at the safety position. All of whom became all stars within a year in the pros. That's amazaaaaziiiing!

I give us a pass this past week.


IT WAS the mother of all storms, so much that the game was DELAYED. Before that, Seattle was winning 5-0.

IT WAS slippery and hard to run on. Bowman was slipping and sliding. Boldin, VD, Gore, and most importantly KAEP could not run as fast as they usually do.

IT WAS the loudest crowd in the history of mankind.
These niccas needed a record broken in order to beat us.


The week before this game, Seattle payed the lowly Panthers and did not score one TD THE WHOLE GAME.

Originally posted by truekingcarlos:
I said it in the offseason, I'm saying it now. We. In. Trouble.

You love to bash the Niners. Especially our QB.

I'm waiting for you to say something and back it up with some logic, which is always missing.

Are you really a Niners fan?

Originally posted by pwillis52beasty:
Sherman is slow, lanky, and doesn't have great change of direction or very fluid hips. He has pretty good ball skills though.

Kam Chancellor is just a big ass slow safety than can hit pretty good. He doesn't have very good coverage or ball skills.

Walter Thurmond is their most talented corner. Yup that's right. He is way more fluid than these other guys and has pretty good ball skills. However, Sherman and Browner excel more in that defense because of their size and length. It helps to be big with long arms when your defensive tactic is to reach out and grab and hold jerseys.

Earl Thomas- The only true stud (within the rules) in their secondary. A ball hawk.

I think you're partially right. Apart from the not so subtle biased that wants to minimize all of their skill and label all but Thomas as a mugger, I agree with a lot of what you're saying.

I think a big part of what you're overlooking though is intelligence. Watching Sherman in particular. He gets beat all the time. He is not fluid, has slow hips, and is not quick. He is however nearly a genius at route recognition, and understanding the game and the other teams concepts, route trees, etc. If you watch him get beat, he will often break to a spot to recover before the WR does. This is probably the best part of his game. Talent wise, as I said he's not quick, but he is a long strider, and has enough ability to make up ground, and can make very good plays on the ball in the air as well (his pick when covering Davis he showed both).

Thurmond does probably have the best skill set of a traditional corner, which is why he was starting in front of Sherman 2 years ago until he was injured. He is however a better fit in this defense in the nickel than he is playing man press like they ask Sherman and Browner to do.

People can continue to try to minimize it, but the bottom line is they are a very well coached, intelligent, physical, sure tackling secondary as a whole, without a lot of weaknesses.

Originally posted by TheChozen:
This happens every year. Every year we lose a game and somebody freaks out and starts crying "we've been exposed."

I'm over it.

Exactly. I remember last year when we lost to MINN on the road the narrative was. "oh no we're exposed, the way you beat the 49ers is by using a power run game along with short passes". Christian Ponder exposed the Niners! Oh no.

Last weeks game was bizarre from the start...Get over it.

Originally posted by sacniner:

Originally posted by NeeJ49er:

even when we are a dominant team , we seem to have one horrible game a season ...reminds me when we took an ass whipping from the eagles in 94 , but still went on to win the superbowl,,,,,,,,we will get this ship back on course....I have faith in our squad

I'll never forget that game as a kid. Steve Young getting benched by Seifert and getting PISSED. Deion and the rest of the guys tried to calm him down and it wasn't working. Even Steve's bff Brent Jones couldn't calm him down. Then getting that TD at the end, and the two pointer was huge for the team. Started something that carried into Detroit. And the Detroit game changed our season.

Man, I heart the f**k out of the 94 squad.

Yeah and that DET game started out pretty brutal as well. Once they were able to right the ship and pull that one out it was smooth sailing.

Originally posted by TheChozen:

This happens every year. Every year we lose a game and somebody freaks out and starts crying "we've been exposed."

I'm over it.

Exactly

Originally posted by Rascal:
That is a very interesting analysis. That suggests to me Kap had a big part to play in our demise. From what I have seen of Kap to date, yes he can get rattled, but to miss open receivers like that tells me he was seriously rattled just like he was in the last game.

So, all in all, I would say it was a combination of factors that led to both blowouts, the noise might have rattled Kap a bit, but I would say it was more likely because of the violent pass rush together with the tight secondary coverage. I think Kap is intimidated when he plays the Seahawks. But, apart of Kap, there were still many other issues such as game-planning, playcalling, O-line to name a few.

Just these clips provide some good perspectives...this is why I encourage people to take advantage of whomeam's video to do one's own analysis. It's amazing what you can see. It's a typical Niner loss. When we lose, we lose big and fail on every single level.

BTW: This is a very good audio analysis of what happened as well: Who's to Blame for the Dismantling in Seattle? (71:32)

http://www.49erswebzone.com/podcasts/

Originally posted by NCommand:
BTW: This is a very good audio analysis of what happened as well: Who's to Blame for the Dismantling in Seattle? (71:32)

http://www.49erswebzone.com/podcasts/

Yes, I was about to say. I listened to it, quite revealing actually. I wasn't aware the O-line was that disastrous.

Originally posted by Rascal:
Yes, I was about to say. I listened to it, quite revealing actually. I wasn't aware the O-line was that disastrous.

Agreed...I will listen to anyone who watching the coaches tape, notes patterns (i.e. bunch formations), addressed all aspects, etc. Good stuff!