347-7GO-9ERS

• The offensive line was struggling to contain the Raiders pass rush.  The coaches were struggling to get the plays in quickly.  Alex Smith was visibly frustrated.  Despite this his stat line read: 9/15 for 113 yards, 7.5 YPA, 1 TD and a 105.7 rating.  It seemed like Smith had to escape pressure nearly every time he dropped back.    His touchdown pass to Josh Morgan came on an overload blitz to his left, he rolled right and slung it over the defender to Morgan in the endzone, then promptly went to the infield dirt underneath a couple Raiders players.  He has to feel confident after being able to adjust, and knowing he can be even better when Crabtree and Davis come back.
• Gore and Westbrook proved how much better the 49ers run game will be when they are in for the regular season.  Gore took his first handoff of the game and ran behind Mike Iupati, breaking two tackles and going for 49 yards.  His second carry went for 9.  He dropped a pitch that would have been a big gainer, so it’s nice to see Raye at least thinking about running outside more.  Westbrook showed he still has good speed and moves.  He made three nearly imperceptible shifts as he took a delay handoff 17 yards on a 3rd and 6.  Dixon is an impressive rookie, but the two veterans are much, much better.
• I was really disappointed in the defensive secondary in this game.  They gave up three big pass plays, one a touchdown to Louis Murphy after he got behind Reggie Smith.  I don’t know if it’s the scheme, as they seemed to be running a loose zone and leaving a lot of people open.
• I was really impressed in the defensive front 7 in this game.  They are extremely active, stout against the run, and pressured Jason Campell plenty.  In fact, Travis LaBoy may have earned his roster spot with a big hit on a sack of  Campbell that sent him to the locker room with a stinger in his neck.  Patrick Willis also hit Campbell a couple times on A-gap blitzes.
• 7th-round draft pick Philip Adams may have earned his roster spot when he returned a punt 83 yards for the 49ers’ first touchdown of the game.  He displayed great speed and a compact running style that special teams coaches love.
• David Carr struggled to do much of anything, biggest play was a two-point conversion pass to Nate Byham.  Nate Davis did not play.

Discussing the preseason win over the Vikings, and other related news.

 

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Discussing the 49ers’ 37-17 preseason victory over the Indianapolis Colts, as well as recent roster moves.  Talking about the signing of Brian Westbrook, the retirement of Glen Coffee, the release of Brandon Jones, and the inglorious end to Kentwan Balmer’s tenure.

 

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We’re finally back to postgame reaction posts!  Hooray, Football!

I was at the game in Indianapolis, so it’s a much different experience from watching on TV.  The good: you can see the entire field and watch plays develop.  You can see exactly what happened on any given play.  The bad: you can’t hear the analysis from the announcers, and really it seems more dramatic on TV.  I had the privilege of joining the standing ovation as Peyton Manning received his 4th consecutive MVP award, and as Bill Polian received another Executive of the Year award.  Both are men well-deserving these honors, and have been great for the NFL.

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• Going into this game I wasn’t expecting a blowout.  As I said before, this is not a team of whom we can demand a blowout performance.  Just like the Lions, the one thing the 49ers proved is you can come in against the Rams completely lifeless, and still win going away.  The entire team seemed to come out lifeless in the first half, like they were running plays just to see what would happen.  The defense was stout, if only enough to hold the Rams to their two field goals, but the offense was simply nonexistent.  It didn’t seem like Alex Smith or Jimmy Raye had a cogent plan.  They woke up in the second half, however, and instead of trying to run out a 14-6 victory, they actually kept the offense going for a couple more scores.
• Alex Smith finished the game with a respectable stat line after that 73-yard touchdown to Vernon Davis.  He was much better in the 2nd half, even if the offensive line was not.  This isn’t a performance to write home about, but it wasn’t like Smith was sitting back there with time.  The Rams kept up the pressure, seeming to channel their inner Philadelphia Eagles defense.  On the season, Smith finishes with 60.5% completions, 18 touchdowns and an 81.5 rating, all career highs, and 15 of those came in nine starts.  It is a step in the right direction for Smith, whose career was much in doubt after he spent the last two seasons rehabbing injuries.  At the very least, he’s earned himself a full offseason–fully healthy, I might add–without a quarterback competition dominating the team’s focus, going into 2010.
• The thing that will, and ought to, dominate the offseason is just what can Jimmy Raye do with Alex Smith?  I go back and forth on Jimmy Raye, and the only way to answer the questions surrounding him is to allow 2010 to unfold.  The good: he’s gotten more out of Alex Smith than a lot of people expected; he continued to try and find ways to get Gore his carries; he did a fantastic job with Vernon Davis, who had his first Pro Bowl season; he took a very raw Michael Crabtree, who had missed out on a ton of time, and was able to utilize him on a game-by-game basis.  The bad:  He didn’t seem to know how to gameplan to exploit the weaknesses of an opposing defense; he continued to force plays that didn’t work (Morgan motion-stop formation); he struggled to call plays that led into the next to move the ball consistently; many times his strategy induced great head-scratching (draw plays on 3rd and 22).  Jimmy Raye must find a way to use this offense to go on the attack, and really gameplan to beat the opposing defense.
• What can Scot McCloughan do with two first round picks?  The 49ers absolutely must address the right tackle and outside linebacker positions.  It has once again become clear that Adam Snyder is overmatched at right tackle.  Ahmad Brooks has come on strong, but the jury is still out on Manny Lawson, and Parys Haralson to some extent.  If they cannot find an explosive pass-rusher in the middle of the 1st round, then in my opinion they should go offensive line with both.  Offensive line and pass rush.  To me these are the two primary targets for the draft.  Also, I’d like to see them pick up a standout corner.  If they can find a really good one in the second or third round, I’d like to see them make the pick there.  Scot McCloughan must have a good draft class in 2010, or else I will be campaigning for his departure.

This is a different Postgame Reactions post.

The most readily apparent thing about this 49ers team is how incredibly inconsistent they are from top to bottom.  The first thing I noticed is how easy it seemed for 3rd-stringer Drew Stanton to move the ball against this defense.  Yes, the 49ers gradually became more opportunistic as the game dragged on, but it was yet another example of how this team plays up or down to its competition.

The other microcosm of inconsistency was this: Alex Smith play fakes and drifts to his right.  Michael Crabtree breaks wide open downfield with no safety help.  Imagine seeing a tree uproot itself and walk, and you might understand how rare an occurrence this is.  Crabtree does not have game-breaking speed, and Jimmy Raye’s offense does not produce many long balls.  I can imagine Smith’s overriding thought: “Don’t screw this up.”

Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis are both in the top 5 in drops in the NFL right now.  So imagine Michael Crabtree, so wide open he’s probably thinking that they’ve crossed into another dimension.  He’s a rookie, and he’s probably thinking, “Don’t screw this up.” Remember Josh Morgan with a Shaun Hill pass falling into his arms and dropping it?  He said it was like a punt.  Smith’s ball to Crabtree was hardly a punt, and yet when Crabtree brings it in, the ball pops out of his hands, and he has to catch it again.

Whatever happened on the play, the route worked, and Crabtree was wide open.  The 49ers are not accustomed to plays working the way they’re supposed to.  The 49ers of old knew which plays would work, when they would work, and how to execute them.  But those teams had a lot of time together.  The 49ers of now are starting to figure out what works, they don’t quite know when it’s going to work, and when it does work, they can’t quite execute it just right.

Therefore, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.

It ain’t sexy football talk, and it’s not going to be a locker room slogan any time soon.  I can’t see the 49ers PR department signing off on that going on a billboard.  But it is the truth about this team.  As for the current PR slogan, “Don’t tell me, Show me,” the 49ers have definitely seemed to stop telling us.  But somewhere along the way, they forgot to show us.

The 49ers don’t field a team that gives us the right to demand a blowout of anyone, even if it is the Lions.  As Mark Purdy of the Mercury News has stated in his most recent column, “the 49ers could get away with being less than perfect.”  They couldn’t get away with that this season.  The fact that the 49ers won by two touchdowns is a testament to how bad the Lions are.  Imperfect and inconsistent teams can still walk out with a win.

• Alex Smith had a rough outing, going 20/37 for 177 yards, 1 touchdown and 3 picks.  A lot of people want to sell short the Eagles defense, but this is a unit that has allowed opposing quarterbacks 214 yards per game, 22 touchdowns, 23 interceptions and a rating of 74.7.  Their secondary creates the same coverage problems as the Green Bay Packers, a team whose secondary the 49ers had already faced.  It simply proved to be too much for Smith.  This should come as no surprise, as his relative inexperience came out on Sunday, against a defense that is known for its aggressive blitzes and complex coverages.  The Smith-critics are, of course, out in force, but the only throw that was inexplicable was the one at the end of the first half, where he was in the grasp and should have thrown it away.  The other two interceptions were simply throws where Smith thought he had someone open that he didn’t.  This is not a sky-is-falling emergency, this is a lack of experience.  In the 2nd half he made adjustments, throwing it away when he had no one open, and he stopped trying to force it.  Unfortunately, he didn’t start out the game that way.
• Frank Gore broke a streak of 23 games in which Philadelphia has not allowed a 100-yard rusher.  The offensive line seems to be figuring out how to hold its blocks in the run game, and sometimes hold, as Chilo Rachal negated a 36-yard scamper by Gore that would have had the 49ers in the Eagles red zone.  Despite this, Jimmy Raye seems to be getting a handle on what this team does well in the run game.
• Turnovers are the story again for the 49ers, and along with three Smith interceptions came a Delanie Walker fumble in the midst of a drive where the 49ers were moving the ball effectively through the air.  Walker had the ball poked out around the Philadelphia 15-yard line, a spot that would have set up a 3rd down and short.
• The defense did an admirable job, but it is once again clear that they need help in the secondary.  They just do not have the speed to counter today’s blazing track stars playing slot wide receiver in the NFL.  Desean Jackson burned the 49ers all day long, to the tune of 6 catches for 140 yards, a 23-yard average.  They also struggle against the Tight End, as Brent Celek had 4 catches for 73 yards, an 18-yard average, and unacceptable for an opposing Tight End with half the speed of Vernon Davis.  Nate Clements has already been exposed to be less than a shutdown corner, unfortunately our two current starters and nickel backs are all no better than #3 corners right now.  This is a position of need I hope Scot McCloughan addresses in the draft.

• The story of this game is the defense.  When the lights come on at Candlestick, the defense flat shows up to play.  Kurt Warner was on his way to doing his best Jay Cutler impersonation, but it wasn’t because he was terrible in this game.  The 49ers pass rush harried Kurt Warner all night long, and the Secondary was consistently in a position to make a play on the ball.  Whether it was Ahmad Brooks and his burgeoning pass rush skills, or Dashon Goldson figuring out how to hit and tackle, the defense discovered who they are last night.  The 49ers took advantage of Left Tackle Mike Gandy going out of the game, and they haven’t exactly made a habit of taking advantage of an opponent’s weaknesses.  Did I mention Ahmad Brooks?  He chimed in with 3 sacks, and really seems to be coming along as one of our quickest and most athletic rushers, plus he knows how to knock the ball out of the Quarterback’s hands.
• Alex Smith didn’t have his best game of the year, obviously, but he was better than Kurt Warner last night, and that says something.  Against this Cardinals defense, he seemed at least as comfortable as Brett Favre last week.  It helped that Gore had 165 yards rushing to Adrian Peterson’s 19, so Smith didn’t have to throw it all over the field.  He did have 35 attempts, though, and those 16 incompletions really brought down his average per attempt.  However, it’s difficult to complete passes when you have 2 balls picked, 4 tipped at the line of scrimmage, 5 dropped, and 1 deflected by the secondary.  The only thing Smith can’t fix is the drops, and he needs to get in a better rhythm with his receivers.  The biggest thing to me from last night is the tips at the line.  Darnell Dockett really seemed to know Smith’s rhythm, tipping a ball up and picking it off in the 1st Quarter.  Plus, Arizona safety Adrian Wilson read a seam route to Delanie Walker perfectly.  That’s why Wilson is a Pro-Bowler.  All in all, I thought Smith was adequate considering the strength of the Cardinals defense, and he did throw two touchdowns.  He was also seen rallying the offensive line on the bench in the 3rd Quarter.  He’s really starting to grow into his role.
• Frank Gore probably had one of, if not his best game of this season.  He has had more yards and touchdowns, but from an overall performance, moving the chains, converting on 3rd and short, and just pounding away, this was his best.  The Cardinals managed to hold Minnesota’s beefy line and stud running back to 19 yards last week, but Gore broke out for 167 yards and 1 touchdown.  I question the 49ers substitution practices, however, as Gore going to the sideline seemed to telegraph a passing play to the Arizona defense.  I would have preferred more early runs to Glen Coffee to keep the defense guessing.
• The Offensive Line deserves a lot of credit for this victory, rising to the challenge that they’ve been given.  They had a lot of push in the run game, and held their own against Arizona’s pass rush.  Joe Staley was still inactive, but I’d expect him back for Philadelphia if he’s comfortable.  However, unless Staley feels absolutely 100%, I think the 49ers should keep playing Barry Sims, who is just outstanding right now.
• Vernon Davis and Michael Crabtree still need to work on catching the football.  Yes, Davis had a TD grab and a nice open-field catch late in the game, but early on he still struggled to bring it in.  Crabtree had one of his better games with 5 catches for 67 yards and a TD, but he should have had 8 catches.  Needless to say, the 49ers still need more consistency from these two, who promise to be team leaders in the passing game for years to come.

Apologies for the late nature of this post.  I wanted to take a day to get past the emotion, and make sure I was looking at the result logically before posting my reactions.

• Alex Smith came to play, and the rest of the offense failed to show up.  He was 27/45 for 310 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a passer rating of 95.6.  Last time Smith had 45 attempts, he had three picks.  This time he proved he has the command of this offense, and unless he absolutely bombs the last four games, has cemented himself as the 2010 starter.
• Sure, Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree and Josh Morgan each had six receptions, but how many more could they have had?  Some people want to point to Smith’s three throws toward the end of the 4th Quarter and suggest he bears responsibility for this loss.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  If this game came down to one play, it comes down to Vernon Davis, with both hands on the ball, on a route that has gained him nine of his ten touchdowns, letting it slip through his hands and bounce off his helmet.  All the other miscues aside, Vernon Davis had a chance to cement himself as perhaps the best Tight End in this league, and win this game for his team.
• In large part, the 49ers defense played very well.  They continued the pass rush they showed against Jacksonville, and the secondary held its own for a while.  Two players, however, were overmatched.  New acquisition #20 Keith Smith, who was acquired due to injuries, should not be expected to cover Deon Butler downfield.  That kid is fast, and I was hoping the 49ers could have drafted him.  That said, Smith is no more than a dime back, and had the misfortune of having no safety help over the top.  The other is Mark Roman.  If there was ever a time that it was clear Mark Roman should finally see the door, it was after this game.  He gave up the Brett Favre miracle TD, and he gave up two big plays against Seattle.  The secondary as a whole needs a significant upgrade in the offseason, beginning with returning a healthy Nate Clements to the lineup.  Dashon Goldson does not cut it at all.  His reputation as a practice ballhawk has not translated to the real thing.  They also need a rusher who can challenge the opposing offense on any down.  It may be time to go to a 4-3.
• The offensive line continues to befuddle me.  Their pass protection has really improved, while their run blocking is still… less than effective, to say the least.  I doubt that returning Staley to the lineup is going to drastically improve that aspect of the unit’s play.  My guess is that two guys that are not long for the 49ers are David Baas and Adam Snyder.  Both seem to be giving a stalwart effort, but they just aren’t talented enough to be well-rounded players, it seems.  If they are talented enough to do the job, then Offensive Line coach Chris Foerster needs to see the door at the end of the season.  He was Mike Martz’s hire last season, and maybe he is the problem.  Frank Gore is an incredibly valuable player, but if the line can’t open holes, his carries will drop off, as they did Sunday.
• Lastly, the team as a whole, from the players to the coaching staff, bewilder me with the things they do.  All the mistakes would have been less glaring if Vernon catches that TD.  Little mistakes become huge when those little mistakes lead to big consequences.  This team is not yet capable of overcoming those things.  They may not be one of the youngest teams in the league, but they play like it.  They seem like a group of players not yet ready to compete on the biggest stage.  I don’t know when that’s going to change.  It seems like once someone commits a dumb penalty, they all try to one-up the guy.  When someone drops a pass, they all try to see who can drop the easiest and biggest play.  When someone fumbles a ball, someone else tries to fumble one more spectacularly.  I guess they just don’t have the talent to overcome the mistakes, and that could reflect badly on Scot McCloughan.

• Alex Smith had perhaps his most convincing win as a 49er today.  65% passing for 232 yards and 2 Touchdowns for a 96.8 rating.  It is clearly his best win this season, and makes one forget the mistakes of the Titans game and the slop of the Bears game.  Singletary mentioned in his postgame presser the offensive players taking ownership this week, and it showed.  Without a good run game, Smith took the team on his shoulders and just played outstanding.  He threw before receivers broke on their routes; he made multiple reads and looked off defenders; he bought time with his legs and shifted in the pocket; he altered his delivery to throw around the defense.  It was Smith’s most complete game as a 49er.
• Vernon Davis tied Brent Jones with 9 TDs, the most by any 49er Tight End in a season.  Odds are that Davis is going to surpass that, and clearly Davis has taken the next step into the upper echelon of NFL Tight Ends.  Long have we watched Davis struggle to make catches over his shoulder, and now he makes it look routine.  He has put in the work, he has swallowed his pride, and he is backing up his play on the field, making him well-deserving of a contract extension.
• The Defense played a very good game today.  The pass rush was much improved, and in fact, was the best we’ve seen all year.  The defensive secondary continues to be a disappointment without Nate Clements, but Shawntae Spencer held his own, and Dre’ Bly stepped up.  Dashon Goldson, however, continues to show he’d rather try and make a hit, rather than wrap and tackle.  He whiffed on a WR screen at the line of Scrimmage, giving up a big First Down.  If he had slowed down, squared his shoulders, and driven his legs, it would have gone for negative yardage.  The Defense really came up big on 4th Downs, and got much-needed turnovers.  Justin Smith, Parys Haralson and Manny Lawson all came up big today when they needed to.  And how glad are we to see Takeo Spikes back?
• This is the game we’ve been waiting for.  The 49ers demonstrated today their ability to put together a complete game, where the Offense, Defense and Special Teams all did their jobs.  It was a clean game by the 49ers, with 1 penalty for 5 yards, no turnovers, and 50% 3rd down conversion rate.  They’ve discovered their way to win, and that’s by attacking early, and putting their faith in Alex Smith as their Quarterback.  It remains to be seen, now that they know who they are, whether they will keep it up.  But Jimmy Raye certainly figured a few things out this week.  I think it’s going to continue.