49ers Fancast #72 – Somewhere Bill Walsh Must be Smiling
Best intro ever in this one. The playoffs are upon us! Once again, the 49ers are taking part. I talk a little about the season thus far, and break down the matchup vs. the Saints, the 49ers’ likely opponent on the 14th.
January 8th, 2012 at 1:19 pm
Great to hear you still going strong Jim! We need your voice in this community.
People who think that Harbaugh is hiding Alex Smith, do not watch the games and just look at the stat sheets. This is the NFL and we are talking about the QB position. You cannot hide your QB to a 13-3 record! Our defense is outstanding, no doubt. But this is not the 85′ Bears. We aren’t winning in spite of Alex. To the contrary, we have won because of Alex in alot of games.
13-3. We beat the Giants, Lions, Eagles, Pittsburg, Cincinatti, etc. Alex tied Montana for fourth quarter comebacks in a season. The combination of no off-season and the system itself lends itself to the “pedestrian” stat line (although I don’t believe Alex’s stats are ped). This offense is built on ball control and no mistakes. Alex has pulled this off masterfully. And he will get better when he fully grasps this offense. Thats right, Alex has not even had a chance to learn this entire offense.
We live in a Fantasy Football world. But, if we judge our QB’s solely based on 300 yard games and td’s thrown, then we have lost sight of whats important. I will take a team playing together and utilizing all aspects, Defense-Offense-Special Teams, and a QB who understands his role in the Big Scheme of things…to Win the Game! Hello?! You PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!
January 9th, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Glad to hear you’re back on board on the podcast. I will be listening everytime it comes out. Harbaugh has got this team playing like a team, in every sense of the word. Alex Smith actually threw for over 3,000 yds while only throwing 5 int’s. That’s ball control at its finest. The Niners went 4-1 against current playoff teams this season and that beat 2 of them on the road. That has to account for something.
Now we have the redhot Saints coming to Candlestick for a barnburner. I watched the playoff game of Saints vs. Lions, and I have to tell you, the Lions played NO defense in that game, especially in the 2nd half. I saw a lot of blown assignments and their personnel didn’t matchup with them, especially their LB’s. The Niners will put pressure on Brees and try to force him to turn the ball over. The Lions had dropped 2 game changing interceptions and you can’t give Brees chances to carve you up multiple times.
I believe in this defense and the Saints on the road are not as formidible on the turf of the Superdome. I’m expecting a huge day from the running game, whether it’s Gore or Hunter, and a battle of field position. Andy Lee will be a factor in this game as he will pin the Saints consistently on their side of the field.
I’m calling it 27-24, Niners in a close game.
January 10th, 2012 at 2:40 am
All great points Kamara. I agree that the name of this game will be ball control. Alex and the offense need to sustain alot of 10 play drives that end up in Points (prefer td’s obviously). As long as the defense does not give up the two to three BIG plays, we will win this game: 49ers-31 Saints-20
January 10th, 2012 at 10:33 am
Happy and healthy golf-clap for this particular intro… really cool, Jim.
You can always try to get the draft/FA talk kicking in the offseason.
Now, we are at home for the Saints!!! Saints defense is a bit bipolar, but they sure got it up at home vs the Lions. My fear is that (1) we don’t have enough top-shelf offensive weapons to score enough. Crabtree has been very solid in the last several weeks… VD even caught most everything thrown to him lately… but I worry about our offensive weapons and their consistency. The other obvious fear (2) is that we will yet again get burned by our heavy pass rush pick-ups. Our OL simply must give Alex the 2.7-3 seconds needed to find a target or two.
On our defense, we have to use a lot of pre-snap movement to disguise our intent. Brees is excellent at reading defenses, and we can confuse him if we move defenders around pre-snap. The Saints are probably the best screen-team in the game. We have to use quite a bit of press coverage, and the DEs and rush LBs must always be aware of the screen.
Don’t know how this will end, but it must end well!!! I’m gonna be sitting here with two Saints fans in New Orleans ( yes, I live in this mud-hole ) and it’s gonna suck hard if the Niners get mauled. I don’t share your exact level of confidence for this weekend. Not at all saying we lose, but I feel sick just thinking about it. Most important, I want us to stand strong going toe to toe. Even if we do lose, our season and direction has been fantastic. Just don’t want us to get decimated.
As always, love what you do here, Jim. You really ripped apart “the haters/detractors” in here… good for you! LOLz at your impressions of Jaws and Gruden! GO NINERS !!!!!
( oh, and Alex is already better than Jeff…
)