Game 2 Assessment:

Video 1 Comments: So, Pete wants to ask where Boldin is, cocky punk. Here Boldin is beating Sherman not once, but twice before Kap threw the INT. The first time Sherman and Pete the Cheat are just lucky that the passrush forced Kap out before he noticed that he might have had a TD. The very next play, Boldin trucks Sherman out of the way and Kap sees it but doesn't make the throw since the LB and Safety rush to help... personally, I think Kap could have made the throw for an easy TD... not sure why he hesitated.


Video 2 Comments: I don't like how Seattle exploits that 5 yard rule, but it is a rule so I have to accept it. One thing I cannot accept is how they also allow the Seattle DBs to make contact and prevent routes from being run well beyond the 5 yards. 2 examples here, 1st one is Sherman engaging Boldin at the top of the screen at around 7 yards and the other is VD having a safety dive into him past 5 yards too. Now, the exception would be if Kap left the pocket... but on these two plays as well as others in the game, Kap never left the pocket.



Video 3 Comments: The first play is Kyle Williams doing a nice job on the opening series 3rd down of beating the CB and with a good throw it could have been a completion. But, Kap was set on the short dump to Miller and threw a bad pass on that. The 2nd play, just our boy McDonald doing his thing... we really need to find a way to get that boy more involved. 3rd play, in my opinion the only missed opportunity in the game. Kap got flushed again so kudos to their pass rush, but even on the run I think he still could have hit Moore for a big gain and at least a 1st down.

Originally posted by Rascal:
I will go one up on you. I truly believe the Seahawks have our number disregard of playing location. I am just going to be totally honest from now on instead of pretending to be positive when I am not. I am quite sure they can beat us at the Stick based on what I have seen in the 2 previous beat downs.

I have nothing to lose and I really hope I am wrong. But, based on my own assessment, this is what I am seeing. The only thing that will be on our side is that some of our injured players will be back such as Mario, may be Tank, and may be Moody. Mind you, they will too, they didn't even have Irvin, Clemons and Harvin. I can't imagine what they will be like when they are at full strength.

There are many 49ers fans deluding themselves into believing the Seahawks are only good when aided by the noise at CLink. And to be fair, it IS a hostile place to play, and visiting teams are without question at a disadvantage. But to write off the Seahawks when they're on the road is ridiculous...first game of the season, home opener for Carolina, early game, it was ugly, but SEA found a way to win.
They are a very good team, and it's not like the 49ers had their way with them the last two times they played in SF. Ginn's 2 return TD's in 2011 and numerous dropped passes by SEA receivers (including at least one sure TD) in 2012 were the difference...not saying 49ers wouldn't have found other ways to win those games, but just illustrating that those games were close and not some clear-cut domination of the Seahawks.
All that said, I think the 49ers CAN dominate the Seahawks, but obviously will require changes in gameplan and possibly (some) personnel.

See below:

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

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.

Nobody wins in Seattle anymore. Nobody.

It looks like the hardest test coming up is the Saints on the road. Every other game is either at home or not as hard as our hardest games last year.

People forget that we beat the Patriots in Foxborough in December last year, something no one has done for 10 years. Harbaugh is competitive enough to change something that isn't working. I think he will realize that our running game is going nowhere, and will go back to what we did last year to be successful.

Difference with this "slip up" is, it occurred in their own division, and will have an impact in the playoffs, unlike the eagle game in 1994. This was the Niners one chance to give seattle a loss at home, instead of allowing them to potentially go 8-0 at home. Hopefully, seattle will choke on a few away games, as they are a different team on the road.

The Obvious: It felt like we were playing a superior team the entire game, I haven't felt that way since the before the Harbaugh era. The noise was a factor but not how most are acting like, that noise gets the seatle players so hyped its dawm near impossible to match, let alone trump. Kaepernick played bad, he made a number of bad passes and decisions, Hopefully he will be cognizant of the entire field from now on when he scrambles. Our defense kept us in the game as long as they could.

The Questionable: Nmamdi and Dahl are not as bad as people are saying, did dahl really look that bad? give the man a chance. Ill say nmamdi needs to do a better job tackling and the penalties being mentioned didn't effect the game as much as presumed. The players knew the game was over and that's why they acted like that. Kinda like.. ok, youre gonna win this game but Im not letting you get away with punking me, it was just a frustration thing and I think if We were in a position to win aldon and Anthony would have refrained. Oh and that PI call on Nmamdi was iffy.

The Confusing: Play calling, Kaepernick seems hesitant to run but that was going to happen when everyone in the world trys to say that it is dangerous and youll ruin youre career blah blah blah. I say leave it all out there for each game. if you get hurt then at least you tried but last time I checked, keep is a smart runner so wtf.
Why was kendall hunter not in there, he is a quick jab opposed to a slow soft haymaker. Vance and Davis will be deadly if Jim reaches back for us. Where is the creativity, Lets not go finesse which what we looked.

The End: Its hard not to talk s**t about your team out of spite when they look horrible and it could have been different. We know Jim is smart and has done wonders along with the entire staff so when we know they are competent but don't show it, its extremely frustrating .
Crabtree. get well soon. Kyle Williams sucks. he isn't that fast and he isn't doing anything a younger guy like QP cant do and one that hasn't lost us important games. Cuz everytime he doesn't produce signifigantly, I just remember his fumbles

ps hopefully jim reached back this week.......and pulls his head out

Originally posted by BrianGO:
Nobody wins in Seattle anymore. Nobody.

It looks like the hardest test coming up is the Saints on the road. Every other game is either at home or not as hard as our hardest games last year.

People forget that we beat the Patriots in Foxborough in December last year, something no one has done for 10 years. Harbaugh is competitive enough to change something that isn't working. I think he will realize that our running game is going nowhere, and will go back to what we did last year to be successful.

Don't forget the New Orleans game, and the playoff game in Atlanta, those were tough road games as well, and we won!

Originally posted by threelittlebirds:


Video 1 Comments: So, Pete wants to ask where Boldin is, cocky punk. Here Boldin is beating Sherman not once, but twice before Kap threw the INT. The first time Sherman and Pete the Cheat are just lucky that the passrush forced Kap out before he noticed that he might have had a TD. The very next play, Boldin trucks Sherman out of the way and Kap sees it but doesn't make the throw since the LB and Safety rush to help... personally, I think Kap could have made the throw for an easy TD... not sure why he hesitated.


Video 2 Comments: I don't like how Seattle exploits that 5 yard rule, but it is a rule so I have to accept it. One thing I cannot accept is how they also allow the Seattle DBs to make contact and prevent routes from being run well beyond the 5 yards. 2 examples here, 1st one is Sherman engaging Boldin at the top of the screen at around 7 yards and the other is VD having a safety dive into him past 5 yards too. Now, the exception would be if Kap left the pocket... but on these two plays as well as others in the game, Kap never left the pocket.



Video 3 Comments: The first play is Kyle Williams doing a nice job on the opening series 3rd down of beating the CB and with a good throw it could have been a completion. But, Kap was set on the short dump to Miller and threw a bad pass on that. The 2nd play, just our boy McDonald doing his thing... we really need to find a way to get that boy more involved. 3rd play, in my opinion the only missed opportunity in the game. Kap got flushed again so kudos to their pass rush, but even on the run I think he still could have hit Moore for a big gain and at least a 1st down.

^^^ nice analysis. These little clips show what I was saying in my Game 2 Assessment: thread. You could see our college offense with a one-receiver option with no other "real" outlets; watch Gore/Miller after the breakdowns.

First video: Gore just stops and never turns around. This is an all-or-nothing college offense. For instance, you can see how Boldin was the target but had 3 defenders on him and CK was done even after scrambling to buy more time. You could also see CK's hesitation with his receivers too and when he did have an outlet (ad lib with Gore/Miller), he didn't always take it. Also look how both Moore and Williams run into the exact same spot.

Second video: My God Gore was wide open. But again, it's a one-receiver offense and the play called was for Miller. That quick out and potential flare out to Gore was open all game long b/c we used the other receivers to run straight go, deeper routes. Sometimes the spy-LB would cover that up but for the most part, it was wide open; could have dinked and dunked it all night.

Third video: You can see how wildly inaccurate CK was this night (saw a lot of this in the GB game as well). Also, watch how open Gore is behind the DL on that first play. And I'm not sure why we continued to run so many WR deep all at the same time. You can can see Patton (at the top of the screen, 2nd play) get thrown to the ground well past the 5 yards. No call. I love the third play - pick-play and Moore was WIDE open from it but CK was already scrambling and didn't see him. He actually had a short and intermeditae WR open on that play but was clearly focused on the primary receiver (Williams) who was covered and he threw it out of bounds instead. McDonald seemed open all day.

Bottom line: We didn't play to our strengths here with play callng or pass blocking and CK looked gun shy and wildly inaccurate. Once again from 30 yards in our offense is pretty sad...this was a common theme last year as well. No McDonald in the RZ, tall WR's, slot WR's crossing patterns, only saw one pick-play, post patterns, double-moves, fades, etc. Just run one guy into the EZ, stop and turn and hope he's open or hope someone underneath is open! Very VERY poor game plan IMHO.

I think a lot of it has to do with Harbs not using Kaep at his strengths. The 49ers need to spread the LOS more with three and 4 WR sets. I think re 49ers need to pass to set up the run more instead of the opposite. Abandon the Pistol or use it less. Spread me out and run this offense Tom Brady style. The Niners have the QB and I think their receivers will have a bigger advantage spread out. That would open VD, Vance and Gore more underneath. Starting in the Read Option las week was borderline on stupidity.

Go Niners

Thanks for the post very good read. LETS GO NINERS!

Originally posted by ninerfan818:
I think a lot of it has to do with Harbs not using Kaep at his strengths. The 49ers need to spread the LOS more with three and 4 WR sets. I think re 49ers need to pass to set up the run more instead of the opposite. Abandon the Pistol or use it less. Spread me out and run this offense Tom Brady style. The Niners have the QB and I think their receivers will have a bigger advantage spread out. That would open VD, Vance and Gore more underneath. Starting in the Read Option las week was borderline on stupidity.

Go Niners

Bingo! It's difficult to use the words "Colin Kaepernick" and "run first offense" in the same sentence.

Originally posted by NCommand:
^^^ nice analysis. These little clips show what I was saying in my Game 2 Assessment: thread. You could see our college offense with a one-receiver option with no other "real" outlets; watch Gore/Miller after the breakdowns.

First video: Gore just stops and never turns around. This is an all-or-nothing college offense. For instance, you can see how Boldin was the target but had 3 defenders on him and CK was done even after scrambling to buy more time. You could also see CK's hesitation with his receivers too and when he did have an outlet (ad lib with Gore/Miller), he didn't always take it. Also look how both Moore and Williams run into the exact same spot.

Second video: My God Gore was wide open. But again, it's a one-receiver offense and the play called was for Miller. That quick out and potential flare out to Gore was open all game long b/c we used the other receivers to run straight go, deeper routes. Sometimes the spy-LB would cover that up but for the most part, it was wide open; could have dinked and dunked it all night.

Third video: You can see how wildly inaccurate CK was this night (saw a lot of this in the GB game as well). Also, watch how open Gore is behind the DL on that first play. And I'm not sure why we continued to run so many WR deep all at the same time. You can can see Patton (at the top of the screen, 2nd play) get thrown to the ground well past the 5 yards. No call. I love the third play - pick-play and Moore was WIDE open from it but CK was already scrambling and didn't see him. He actually had a short and intermeditae WR open on that play but was clearly focused on the primary receiver (Williams) who was covered and he threw it out of bounds instead. McDonald seemed open all day.

Bottom line: We didn't play to our strengths here with play callng or pass blocking and CK looked gun shy and wildly inaccurate. Once again from 30 yards in our offense is pretty sad...this was a common theme last year as well. No McDonald in the RZ, tall WR's, slot WR's crossing patterns, only saw one pick-play, post patterns, double-moves, fades, etc. Just run one guy into the EZ, stop and turn and hope he's open or hope someone underneath is open! Very VERY poor game plan IMHO.

I didn't even see Gore get open on that 2nd video where he locked in on Miller... good catch. I'm not really concerned about that because Miller was wide open too, should have been a 1st if it wasn't at his freakin knees. You're right though, they did miss a lot of chances to dump off to Gore. I think that play where Patton got thrown down did draw a flag, I'm pretty sure it did. That last clip where Moore was wide open is such a let down. Like I said, props to Seattle's pass rush for forcing Kap to escape... because Seattle's secondary screwed up and left him wide open. Even the deepest safety was running to the other side of the field. If Kap had just a little more time in the pocket or would have actually seen him when he rolled out, that could have gone for a TD. Not sure how fast he is so maybe the Seahawks could have covered the ground and got him inside the 10... but either way, can't leave plays like that on the field on the road.

I am a monster Kap fan, but it's true, he did not have a good game. He looked rattled.