2013 - Week 8: Thoughts after rewatching the game.

Originally posted by GORO:
Quick Passing Game

It was clear that Chad Henne (-2.5) and the Jaguars' offense thought they had their best chance of winning with a short, quick passing game. His average depth of target was 5.3 yards, 2.9 yards lower than his season average heading into the game. Henne would target as many passes behind the line of scrimmage, 11, as passes that traveled over 10 yards in the air. His 2.31 average time to throw was also by far his quickest of any start this season.

They ran into multiples problems along their way. The first was that the run game wasn't able to regularly provide favorable down and distances. Then Henne was just too inconsistent to sustain a drive. He completed just 64% of his passes from 1-10 yards whereas the league average is over 70%. It wasn't just the incompletions though, there were many times Henne limited YAC possibilities with throws behind receivers or slightly off-target.


From Pro Football Focus and may be the reason the 49ers got little pressure and no sacks yesterday.

Probably a big factor why we applied little pressure. 2.31 second release is very quick, but the throws were mostly ineffective. 49ers knew this, so we didn't bother manufacturing more pressure with the blitz. Just let Henne dink and dunk ineffectively and watch them punt.

Originally posted by smithgdwg:
Should the 49ers just incorporate the no huddle offense? They always seem to be changing the play at the line but by huddling up they don't have a lot of time to work with. I would like them to give the no huddle a shot to stop all those wasted TOs.

Won't work. The 49ers rely HEAVILY on substitution.

They can do it here and there, but they just aren't built like those no huddle teams. Its also completely against what they are trying to accomplish.

I posted this in the game thread but I think it's worth bringing up.

One of the reasons we are doing better is we have cut down penalties. 39 in the 1st 4 games and only 16 in the last 4.

4 Jags, 5 titans, 4 Cards, 3 Texans...... Rams 10, Colts 6, Seattle 12, Packers 11

It's one of the main things we have struggled with under Harbaugh. That and the play clock.

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by smithgdwg:
Should the 49ers just incorporate the no huddle offense? They always seem to be changing the play at the line but by huddling up they don't have a lot of time to work with. I would like them to give the no huddle a shot to stop all those wasted TOs.

Won't work. The 49ers rely HEAVILY on substitution.

They can do it here and there, but they just aren't built like those no huddle teams. Its also completely against what they are trying to accomplish.

Good point about how the 49ers rely on personnel packages to get mismatches.

The second play of the game was pretty much a trick play using substitution to deceive the defense. Miller jogs out of the huddle before the play is called in the huddle, making it look as though he was coming off the field for a substitution. Instead he lines up way wide and the ball is snapped before the defense can react. The defense did see it, but they didn't react in time. Miller for a big gain.

Originally posted by Gore_21:
I posted this in the game thread but I think it's worth bringing up.

One of the reasons we are doing better is we have cut down penalties. 39 in the 1st 4 games and only 16 in the last 4.

4 Jags, 5 titans, 4 Cards, 3 Texans...... Rams 10, Colts 6, Seattle 12, Packers 11

It's one of the main things we have struggled with under Harbaugh. That and the play clock.

Excellent point!

Originally posted by Gore_21:
I posted this in the game thread but I think it's worth bringing up.

One of the reasons we are doing better is we have cut down penalties. 39 in the 1st 4 games and only 16 in the last 4.

4 Jags, 5 titans, 4 Cards, 3 Texans...... Rams 10, Colts 6, Seattle 12, Packers 11

It's one of the main things we have struggled with under Harbaugh. That and the play clock.

This is still a pretty troubling area. We burn TO's like they do in Basketball. I'm not sure it's ever gonna get better because it hasn't ever gotten any better. We've had the same issue since Singletary. Luckily we haven't really needed the TOs but eventually we will.

Originally posted by Antix:

Originally posted by Gore_21:
I posted this in the game thread but I think it's worth bringing up.

One of the reasons we are doing better is we have cut down penalties. 39 in the 1st 4 games and only 16 in the last 4.

4 Jags, 5 titans, 4 Cards, 3 Texans...... Rams 10, Colts 6, Seattle 12, Packers 11

It's one of the main things we have struggled with under Harbaugh. That and the play clock.

This is still a pretty troubling area. We burn TO's like they do in Basketball. I'm not sure it's ever gonna get better because it hasn't ever gotten any better. We've had the same issue since Singletary. Luckily we haven't really needed the TOs but eventually we will.

I made the argument a while back that this issue was never going to get fully fixed because the 49ers intentionally use up almost the entire play clock before snapping the ball. It's just part of their offensive philosophy and is not going to change. The problem with that of course, as we've seen, is that you always risk burning timeouts or getting a delay of game penalty. I wouldn't compare this issue now with what it was under Singletary. At that time it was due more to incompetence than to offensive philosophy.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by smithgdwg:
Should the 49ers just incorporate the no huddle offense? They always seem to be changing the play at the line but by huddling up they don't have a lot of time to work with. I would like them to give the no huddle a shot to stop all those wasted TOs.

Won't work. The 49ers rely HEAVILY on substitution.

They can do it here and there, but they just aren't built like those no huddle teams. Its also completely against what they are trying to accomplish.

Good point about how the 49ers rely on personnel packages to get mismatches.

The second play of the game was pretty much a trick play using substitution to deceive the defense. Miller jogs out of the huddle before the play is called in the huddle, making it look as though he was coming off the field for a substitution. Instead he lines up way wide and the ball is snapped before the defense can react. The defense did see it, but they didn't react in time. Miller for a big gain.

And the trick play works because the Niners' bench is adjacent to where the line of scrimmage was on the field. When Miller was standing over near the sideline, he blended right in with the huge mass of guys on the bench. But he was in bounds.

Marvin, I didn't think there was much to say about that game. But you still said it well, as usual. You gonna take a bye next week? You could do a mid-season summary.

Originally posted by GORO:
Quick Passing Game

It was clear that Chad Henne (-2.5) and the Jaguars' offense thought they had their best chance of winning with a short, quick passing game. His average depth of target was 5.3 yards, 2.9 yards lower than his season average heading into the game. Henne would target as many passes behind the line of scrimmage, 11, as passes that traveled over 10 yards in the air. His 2.31 average time to throw was also by far his quickest of any start this season.

They ran into multiples problems along their way. The first was that the run game wasn't able to regularly provide favorable down and distances. Then Henne was just too inconsistent to sustain a drive. He completed just 64% of his passes from 1-10 yards whereas the league average is over 70%. It wasn't just the incompletions though, there were many times Henne limited YAC possibilities with throws behind receivers or slightly off-target.


From Pro Football Focus and may be the reason the 49ers got little pressure and no sacks yesterday.

I think just like last season when we had no idea how badly Aldon was hurt down the stretch, we really don't know how badly Iupati, Cowboy and a couple others are hurting now. This bye week is perfect both in the sense that reinforcements are coming and these guys get to rest their bodies. I'm excited for the 2nd half of the season because I expect a lot of them, Iupati included to play much better with rested bodies.

Great write up Marvin49. So ready for this team to get healthy & keep rolling in the 2nd half!

Marvin, ya should keep these up every week. I understand the intrest of the first 16 games, but i enjoy reading your takes as well as others! You should keep it up :D
Goniners

We hit the bye 6-2 no added injuries with reinforcements coming and our guys healing and resting up.
Gotta love it

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by Ninefan56:

Good points as always Marvin, I really enjoy your posts.

My comments on the game are similar but less intricate. I think that Cowboy is on the last legs of his game. Hopefully Carradine will come out and learn from Cowboy before he retires. Saw a little of Dial in the second half and he is still trying to figure out where and what to do. So far he just takes up space and has offered nothing important for us but hopefully he is getting some reps and learning. I thought I saw some pressures and some hits on the QB. Bowman is an awsome pass rusher when he is focusing on the QB and not on the RB. Lemonier is still learning and looks like he will be a great number two pass rusher at least for this year. Brooks did not seem interested in getting to the QB. None the less the Niners took care of business, not as polished as we would like it but got it done.

I thought the play to Miller said just about the whole game - creative, successful, and kept people aware of the other players besides Davis and Boldin. I did not see McDonald get any throws to him. Davis and Boldin are wonderful receivers. Hopefully Manningham and then Crabtree will solve some of these peripheral WR problems. Williams is not a NFL caliber player. I would suspect that we will see him gone by the time the bye is over.

I though the run game was very consistent and was firing on all cylinders including Hunter. Gore played well in all phases and Kaep got some good runs in and we got four touchdowns out of the running game.

Special teams again focused on Williams. I think Dixon would be better than Williams as kick returner and punt returner especially if the goal is to get fair catches. It will be interesting to see how Harbaugh solves the punt returning issue before dealing with Carolina.

Defense over all handled their business. Pass rush is a concern but with the opponent they had they just had to contain enough and win the game - mission accomplished and no one got hurt.

Backfield got the job done. I still like Brock's aggressiveness but he got burned but still hopefully he learned. Almost had another interception and again overall they got the job done.

Final Observations - Still not enough screen passes to people like Hunter which I think would be great. Did not get McDonald into the passing game. Poor pass rush but Lemonier is getting reps which is good for us in the long run. Lots of unsettled people do to the people coming back. So lots of changes in the next two weeks. Still looking to get us fully jelled and ready for the final push. Lots of difficult games coming up especially Carolina, New Orleans, and Seattle. We will make the playoffs unless Kaep get hurt and then all bets are off.

I disagree with that one.

1) He's playing with a bum shoulder
2) He only had 3 sacks LAST year.

He's never going to be a double digit sack guy...that's not his game. I think he'll be better after the bye and when Aldon comes back.

This along wit glenn dorsey, and hopefully ray mac can gain lil health. Is he still nursing ankles?
Marvin keep up the good work. Really enjoy these posts ya do. As well as other posters, who add on. Which adds for great knoweledge n convo! Good stuff marvin n peeps

When the Niners are up go 4 TD's in the 4th quarter, the following players should see the bench

CK7
Boldin
VD
Willis
Gore.
Justin Smith

Give back ups valuable game experience. Rest starters to avoid injury. Games outcome has been decided.

Tonight's MNF signifies the importance of pass rush. Something we've been missing for a couple of weeks now, not just last game but a couple of games. I know we blew out teams for the last couple of weeks but those teams had below average QBs. Imagine Brees having all day to throw on us, it wouldn't be pretty. Hopefully Aldon and Tank will give us a boost on that department. We went from #2 to #6 in pass defense, were still in the top 10 but it shows that we regressed, and it all starts from pass rush and pressuring the QB.