Weak link in the defense?

Originally posted by Empire49:

Originally posted by crabman82:
they gave up 10 points. at some point the O has to step up and do their part. in this league you aren't going to shut down everything defensively, its slanted towards the O being able to make some plays.

I said before the game that Brown has not been playing well this year. And he hasn't. He seems to be the least-feared and most-tested DB on the team. He doesn't give up huge plays at a time, but he does give up a bunch of shorter, drive-sustaining catches every game. As I said before, what really irritates me is the fact that he'll give up these catches, then he'll eventually break up ONE pass and make some stupid gesture as if he's been locking receivers down all day. Ridiculous.

Against the Panthers he was just awful and got abused on 3rd downs.

LMAO!!!! This is SO true...can't stop laughing.

Originally posted by kdogg:
Just because they complete passes against T Brown doesn't make him the weak link? His coverage is dependent on the defensive call. Fangio likes to call soft coverages and tackle people in front. We rely on the front 4 to bring pressure.

Which leads to OP question, I think the interior D Line is the weak link this year. They're playing good, but not great. That's why we're giving up way more rushing yards, not getting sacks (QBs just step forward in pocket), and why Willis is slipping this year. I think Cowboy and Ray Mac have slipped a little, but they play less and the other DL guys are a huge drop off.

Very astute...accurate. Nice post! I agree, fully.

Originally posted by JayT:
Again, I fully understand the arguments but if this team is going to contend with the upper echelon of the NFL, that cannot happen on 3rd and forever. At least not more than once.

dont think you understand anything actually. a defense is supposed to limit points so our offense can score.

just because you're a fan of the 49ers doesnt mean they stop every 3rd down play.. you know the panthers are trying to win too right? they executed and we didnt. our offense sucks.

I am of the opinion that the weak link in the defense is the offense.


How can we expect them to do their job when they spend their time running back and forth from the sidelines after 3 and outs? considering their playing time, the defense is like money.

Originally posted by denali22:
dont think you understand anything actually. a defense is supposed to limit points so our offense can score.

just because you're a fan of the 49ers doesnt mean they stop every 3rd down play.. you know the panthers are trying to win too right? they executed and we didnt. our offense sucks.

I do know that it's critical for defenses to get off the field on third downs. It's not it only happened once and at critical points in the game. Not arguing the offense was atrocious but the defenses job is to get off the field on 3rd down, regardless of what the offense is doing, that's what good defenses do. Look around the league and compare.

Originally posted by gold49digger:

The defense was NOT to blame, why are we even discussing this? Run out of things to talk about with the offense?

The thread is about Brown being the weak link on defense, not about whether the offense or defense is to blame.

It doesn't matter if the defense held the Panthers to 10 points, 3 points or even shut them out. The topic is still who is the weak link on defense, not how crappy the offense is.

Terrel Brown the weak link? That's silly. Both third downs were to SMith -- that was the key that wasn't read by Fangio. 2ble cover the money HOF receiver on third and must have. Fangio didn't. Brown played SMith soft. That's a crime? We should have had over under on the money man. The premise of this thread is weird.

I don't really have any complains on defense. If we lose because we can't score 10 points it's an offensive issue. Holding a team to 10 pts should win the game.

I'm way more concerned about the offense than TB. Brown for the most part has been solid this season.

Originally posted by 5times:

I'm way more concerned about the offense than TB. Brown for the most part has been solid this season.

This, when vernon comes out our offense completely stalls. When gore is getting them yards we stop running. Our power running game is a good tool to use against aggressive defences.
Mario knocking that rust off, vernon back we should def fair much better in the passing dept. Along with putting baldwin and gore in on some plays to catch n run as well. Maybe a few lamichael james as well. Our offense will not let us down a second wk in a row!
Saints here we come, and our defence is legit. Hopefully osgood is activated this wk as well. Beast on sp teams. Kyles gone we should see this as well. Aldon vs brees :)
Goniners

This year I don't really see a glaring weak link on defense.

Originally posted by crabman82:

they gave up 10 points. at some point the O has to step up and do their part. in this league you aren't going to shut down everything defensively, its slanted towards the O being able to make some plays.

I like how you worded that.

I think it is funny how the 49ers, the team who helped innovate NFL offenses, have never had a top offense in the past 5-7 years where the league has done everything in it's power to help the offense prevail.

two weakest links of the defense is

1. The offense.

2. When Fangio decides to Fangina.

Originally posted by SFrush:
This year I don't really see a glaring weak link on defense.

This. In my opinion, the defense has been outperforming last year's defense. The offense (outside of Gore) is the worst I've seen it since 2010.

4 defensive weakness:

1. Run Defense: esp. up the middle.
2. 3rd down stops: great defenses finds ways to get off the field, no excuses
3. Fangio's play call: sometimes esp. on 3rd and 8 plus yds, you see our CBs play sooo soft that they lineup past the 1st down mark, like wtf dude!!
4. T.Brown: already explained on my first post.


1 Offensive weakness: Everybody except Gore