Game #6: The Good- Bad- Ugly

Condolences.

My condolences my man. So sorry! We got this for you. I might even start before kickoff. Haha. Safe flight and again, so sorry!

Condolences

sorry to hear that mate

Take care of your family and condolences.

Best wishes, Wally.

The Good:

• That's now 27 and 25 points on offense and if we had our #5 defense back, that's enough to win any game. The offense, even with this porous OL and Geep/Logan learning on the fly, appears to be doing their jobs. If they ever figure out the RZ, these points go into the 40's real quick.
• DL again, we played a great RB who had 120 yards rushing last week and 50 more receiving. They've held up very well overall against a lot of top backs now including Peterson, Williams, etc.
• CK esp. on ad lib plays. Got the deep ball going. Took advantage of some secondary weaknesses. 0 INT's again. This coaching staff seems to have him back on track again.
• Dawson. Thanks man!
• Refs were ball'n today and we still overcame them! Also, young teams have a tendency to FIND a way to lose. This time this young team found a way to win AFTER a crushing loss last w/e. That's character and encouraging. Two more take-aways.

The Bad:

• Can't hate on Acker too much. Nice little subtle veteran push-off but also got an INT as well. The bigger issue is that was a punt for the TD and Bethea was late again with zero over-the-top coverage. Bethea has really slowed down or is being exposed in this defense like...
• Wilhoite/Bowman. These two just can't cover at all underneath. The middle of the field is absolutely being exposed with passes behind them and in front of the CB/S's or out of the backfield (obviously). Someone needs to chart this sh!t. It's going to look insane.
• 1st down production in the second half; it was terrific in the first and then in the second, it sucked...constantly in 2nd and longs having to face big pass rushes and settling for FG's d/t sacks. Fortunately, CK had a couple epic ad lib plays to help.
• Love the fire of CK yelling at Davis and Hyde yelling at the OL (who always has 3 guys 3 yards deep in the backfield)...but that's also a serious cause for concern. Where was Tiller?
• Ravens a great team on 3rd down manufactured blitzes. Only saw one pressure-beater to Boldin.

The Ugly:

• Pinion's punts darn near costs us again at home. Heat seems to be making the ball stick to his cleats and they better hurry up and figure it out or it WILL cost us (like 10 points against GB last time).
• Mangini. This scheme really is square-peg/round-hole and it's obvious he's wearing our own defense out...not just physically late but mentally (see a dozen 12-men-on-the-field issues and wasted TO's and penalties). Players should NOT be confused this late into the season. He is our version of HaRoman's false start penalties.
• Pass rush...if the OLB's weren't too exhausted after chasing WR's and RB's 50 yards down field, they certainly had no answers for any type of pass rush including Harold when their number WAS called.

Yeah teams are killing us with passes over the middle. Anytime a team is in 3rd and 5 or so all they have to do is either hit the RB on a Texas route in the middle or really any pass in the middle of the field covered by the LB's.
Obviously the pass rush needs help as well, I didn't see many blitzes, especially blitzes with more than 5 guys. I did see a few times with AA and Tank rushing and it seemed like it helped collapse the pocket some forcing Flacco to roll out, but there were still several times Dorsey and Williams were rushing on 3rd and long which is frustrating.

On offense I still hate seeing Devey in the game. It's clear as day Tiller is better and has more upside. We couldn't get the run game going. I thought we should of passed more, especially to whoever Wright was covering cus he was getting beat all game. Our RZ needs some help, it seems like we only score TD's like 20% of the time which won't cut it if we want to turn our season around.
I loved seeing the long TD to Torrey, I think Kap is starting to build some chemistry with him and Torrey is getting more involved in the game. I think we need to attack that anytime he's 1v1 on anyone, just throw it up to him and let him do his thing. Also I really thing if Ellington could get healthy he could bring another dimension to our O, he's such a better slot receiver than Patton.

Good summary NCommand and I agree with the vast majority of your thoughts. I do think however the "blown" middle coverages are a result of the scheme Mangini is running. It is extremely frustrating to me and something I want cleaned up. If this defense could lock down those middle routes we're looking at a top 10 D easily.

What is more concerning to me is the lack of pass rush. Flacco is not a top 10 QB and he had all day back there. Any legit playoff QB will tear this defense apart. I can only hope this rush stays disciplined against Seattle next week because lil' Wilson loves to run around behind the line of scrimmage.

Kaepernick had another good game and looked very comfortable. That is a great sign and I love seeing him confident and on time. Hopefully he can continue this progression on Thursday night against a much better secondary.

The last point I want to make is that the o-line played fairly well today. I didn't really chart it but I know Tiller got some time. If he's helping to solidify the RG position he needs more playing time. This is two weeks now where Kap didn't look under siege the entire game and I think that is a big part of why he's playing better.

All said it feels good to have a win finally despite some red zone issues. Had the Niners converted two of those field goals into TDs this would have been an absolute blowout. The Niners played a good game despite some issues that need cleaning up.

The good-we won I guess

The bad- the isn't even half way over

The ugly-this win to me feels more about sharecce wright's bad CB' play than an all around good offensive day. But a W is a W, go niners.

Originally posted by JoeBart324:
Good summary NCommand and I agree with the vast majority of your thoughts. I do think however the "blown" middle coverages are a result of the scheme Mangini is running. It is extremely frustrating to me and something I want cleaned up. If this defense could lock down those middle routes we're looking at a top 10 D easily.

Thanks dude...yeah, covered that in my Ugly points. Sooooooo

It's pretty much playing Prevent-A-Win-Defense all game long. And as soon as guys start to get tired in the second half, the flood gates open esp. if the offense goes to a hurry up where we can't substitute.

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:
Sorry guys I had a death in the family and have to fly back to NYC.

Please keep the ball rolling.

Thanks!

Keep your head up LVW.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Thanks dude...yeah, covered that in my Ugly points. Sooooooo

It's pretty much playing Prevent-A-Win-Defense all game long. And as soon as guys start to get tired in the second half, the flood gates open esp. if the offense goes to a hurry up where we can't substitute.

I keep thinking an offense like New England's would absolutely shred this defense. It's pretty soft and unorganized. As much as I disliked Harbaugh, him and Fangio ran an absolutely phenomenal defense. Harbaugh is showing is defensive chops with Michigan too. If only he could have put together a dominating offense too...

In any case, I'm happy to see progress. This team will likely need at least a season to completely gel after all the turnover (which honestly should have been expected). Kap is a good QB who may not be a hall of famer, but he's definitely good enough to keep a team competitive. It was nice to see some explosive shots to Torrey and Boldin. That's Kap's strong suit and it needs to be a more focal point of the offense.

Originally posted by JoeBart324:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Thanks dude...yeah, covered that in my Ugly points. Sooooooo

It's pretty much playing Prevent-A-Win-Defense all game long. And as soon as guys start to get tired in the second half, the flood gates open esp. if the offense goes to a hurry up where we can't substitute.

I keep thinking an offense like New England's would absolutely shred this defense. It's pretty soft and unorganized. As much as I disliked Harbaugh, him and Fangio ran an absolutely phenomenal defense. Harbaugh is showing is defensive chops with Michigan too. If only he could have put together a dominating offense too...

In any case, I'm happy to see progress. This team will likely need at least a season to completely gel after all the turnover (which honestly should have been expected). Kap is a good QB who may not be a hall of famer, but he's definitely good enough to keep a team competitive. It was nice to see some explosive shots to Torrey and Boldin. That's Kap's strong suit and it needs to be a more focal point of the offense.

Sorry, but I'd say BAALKE and FANGIO were an excellent defensive duo...a perfect pair...Baalke could find dudes off the streets such as Cromartie, Brock, TJE, Fadden, Moody, etc. and Fangio, Tomsula, Leavitt and Donatell could coach the sh!t out of them and remain a top 5 defense every year no matter who had to play.

Harbaugh had zero to do with the defense as confirmed by Fangio himself. But yeah, Harbaugh can pick some good DC's!

Suddenly, you change DC's in SF and we're 31st. Suddenly, you take Baalke's personnel out of the mix and Fangio's defense has given up the most points in the NFL (179 through just 6 games).

Together, they were a very good marriage...that was a lose-lose for everyone.