What we have learned so far...

The pash rush will be fine, Denver has one of if not the top O-lines in the league. Denver had 12 sacks total last year ... with a rookie LT! Just like Denver's run defense isnt the greatest barometer for how good we ran the ball, dont use their O-line and say we cant rush the passer. It was great for the club to see a top line and know that they will need to be better to get pressure on those elite lines.

Originally posted by diehard68:
Liked the Coffee kid. Was actually disappointed they drafted him because I thought they should have gone after an O-lineman but he stepped up. I see a lot of Ricky Waters in him... explosive off the ball, reads the holes & blocks well and when he gets hit he drives the defender back. Good power for his size. I'd like to see what he can do coming out of the backfield on pass patterns more.

What I liked about Coffee was that he kept two hands on the ball, especially when he got past the line and into traffic. I remember how his fumbling was an issue coming out of college. Glad to see the coaches made it a point to him to not let the ball hang out there, like Ricky Watters occasionally did.

Korey Sheets had the same issue in college, I think. Did he protect the ball when he ran? I didn't get to see him.

Originally posted by TexasNiner:
All offseason people have been optomistic about how we will improve because 2nd/3rd years players will suddenly develop, low impact FAs will somehow make a big difference and/or rookies, especially late round picks and UDFAs, will contribute quickly.

And frankly, most, if not all, of that needs to happen for us to improve our areas of weakness.

Granted, it's only one preseason game, but does anyone see any real signs that there is any difference between this team and last year's?

Pass rush? Still none.

QB Situation? Still exactly unsettled. Hill looks more solid, but limited and not dynamic. Smith has more talent, but does not look overly comfortable or stable.

Oline? - RT a question mark.

Disipline? Fumbled the first play, missed blocking assignments, general poor execution often. And Vernon (though looking better with his playmaking) still can't make a first down without screaming to the heavens like a fool.

Overall? Solid run D and decent secondary that can still get burned by the big play, 3rd down conversions and no pass rush. An O that will move the chains some, but will struggle to get more than field goals and maybe one TD a game.

Man, that sounds familiar. Again, it's very early. But this sure looks a LOT like what we've seen before.

Anyone disagree? Anyone see something that makes them think we've addressed any of the key issues we all knew existed going into the off season last year?

I disagree.

1- We finally have an O-Cord whose style works for the players we have rather than against. Our best offense in the last couple years was in 2006, and its not like we had a ton of talent that year. It was that we had a good o-cord whose style fit our players. I can't yet say whether Raye is a good o-cord, but at least his style fits our players.

1a- We will have the best QB play since Garcia left. Our best QB of the last couple years was either Smith in 2006 or Hill beating up on garbage teams in the last two years. Either should be improved this year, especially with a O-cord that fits their styles. Therefore whichever wins the starting job will be the best we've had in the last couple years. (I'll admit this may be marginal, but its still true)

2- Against Denver, we had 2 units (ol and dbs) that looked better than last year and none that looked worse.

3- Overall, in the Denver game we did look like the 2008 niners. However we were missing Bruce, Willis and Gore. Which means we looked like last year with our 2 best players and a starting WR sitting.

Granted, none of these points add up to much more than .500, but we have improved since last season. Last year we overachieved to get to 7 wins.

Originally posted by dobophile:
It's the first week of preseason, people. That's what I learned.

you will be saying the same thing after week 10 when we're 2-8. its just week ten guys.

Not much. New head coach after extended tryout last season, new OC, no Crabtree (had to add that), and only one lackluster preseason game. Like I said, not much.

Originally posted by Memphis9er:

Originally posted by susweel:
Yesterday looked a lot like last season, but I will wait to hold final judgment because its ONLY THE FIRST preseason game. Here are MY observations.


Hill is clearly the starter

Alex still sucks

Oline does not look much different, Snyder is a back up. Marvel Smith will be the starter soon.

Coffee is a good back, a lot better then I thought would be. Sheets also looked good hopefully he can make the roster.

Morgan should be the best WR on the team. Spurlock looked good last night, might be the end of the road for Battle.

Keasey is terrible, and injury prone. I like Britt Miller, he looks like a keeper.

Pass Rush is just like Sing says "non existent".

Manny Lawson cannot effectively rush the passer, the dude just dont have the strength he gets blocked way to easily.

Reggie Smith might actually have some talent.

Please explain to me how after the limited plays between the two QB's you think you know better than the coaches and experts who the starter should be. From what the coaches said,as well as all of the beat writers, neither QB did anything to separate themselves from the other. I agree with the rest of what you posted except the Manny thing, his technique needs work,but that is something he can be coached. Of course being stronger wouldn't hurt though.

Alex Smith still has "happy feet" and looks nervous in the pocket...he just has no command.

The rest of the team looked like they had better chemistry and were trying hard to play together in their first game. They had a bit of a spark I did not see the past few years.

And, I love having Tom Rathman back...the running backs all looked pretty good. They will have his toughness and determination.

These are intangibles but might win them a few more games this year...

If Smith took some Xanax before his games, I think he would be ten times better. He overthinks things way too much. On the short pass to the FB for the TD he had 3 open receivers and still took over 3 seconds to make his decision.

Denver's break down in coverage assured Smith the TD but he should have thrown it to the TE or WR on the play who was already in the endzone rather then checking it down... but hey at least he didn't tuck and run so thats some improvement.

Everyone calm down. OK now Denver has TERRIBLE DEFENSE, so you cant really judge what the offense did. That offense was good but now they have a terrible QB, so cant really judge the Defense. What did we learn.....Not a dam thing besides that white FB is pretty fast

Originally posted by nannite:

Originally posted by TexasNiner:
All offseason people have been optomistic about how we will improve because 2nd/3rd years players will suddenly develop, low impact FAs will somehow make a big difference and/or rookies, especially late round picks and UDFAs, will contribute quickly.

And frankly, most, if not all, of that needs to happen for us to improve our areas of weakness.

Granted, it's only one preseason game, but does anyone see any real signs that there is any difference between this team and last year's?

Pass rush? Still none.

QB Situation? Still exactly unsettled. Hill looks more solid, but limited and not dynamic. Smith has more talent, but does not look overly comfortable or stable.

Oline? - RT a question mark.

Disipline? Fumbled the first play, missed blocking assignments, general poor execution often. And Vernon (though looking better with his playmaking) still can't make a first down without screaming to the heavens like a fool.

Overall? Solid run D and decent secondary that can still get burned by the big play, 3rd down conversions and no pass rush. An O that will move the chains some, but will struggle to get more than field goals and maybe one TD a game.

Man, that sounds familiar. Again, it's very early. But this sure looks a LOT like what we've seen before.

Anyone disagree? Anyone see something that makes them think we've addressed any of the key issues we all knew existed going into the off season last year?

I disagree.

1- We finally have an O-Cord whose style works for the players we have rather than against. Our best offense in the last couple years was in 2006, and its not like we had a ton of talent that year. It was that we had a good o-cord whose style fit our players. I can't yet say whether Raye is a good o-cord, but at least his style fits our players.

1a- We will have the best QB play since Garcia left. Our best QB of the last couple years was either Smith in 2006 or Hill beating up on garbage teams in the last two years. Either should be improved this year, especially with a O-cord that fits their styles. Therefore whichever wins the starting job will be the best we've had in the last couple years. (I'll admit this may be marginal, but its still true)

2- Against Denver, we had 2 units (ol and dbs) that looked better than last year and none that looked worse.

3- Overall, in the Denver game we did look like the 2008 niners. However we were missing Bruce, Willis and Gore. Which means we looked like last year with our 2 best players and a starting WR sitting.

Granted, none of these points add up to much more than .500, but we have improved since last season. Last year we overachieved to get to 7 wins.

Well, you're agreeing more than not.

Sure, we have some improvement in the secondary and other depth places, but all our key problems look pretty much the same. We might be a legit 7-8 win team, instead of a lucky 7 win team.

I know it's early, but I was really hoping to see us look better than that. We'll see what we look like against Al Davis on Sat.

we will have a pretty interesting season either way it goes, and don't forget we have 2 first round draft picks!!!!

Originally posted by TexasNiner:

Originally posted by nannite:

Originally posted by TexasNiner:
All offseason people have been optomistic about how we will improve because 2nd/3rd years players will suddenly develop, low impact FAs will somehow make a big difference and/or rookies, especially late round picks and UDFAs, will contribute quickly.

And frankly, most, if not all, of that needs to happen for us to improve our areas of weakness.

Granted, it's only one preseason game, but does anyone see any real signs that there is any difference between this team and last year's?

Pass rush? Still none.

QB Situation? Still exactly unsettled. Hill looks more solid, but limited and not dynamic. Smith has more talent, but does not look overly comfortable or stable.

Oline? - RT a question mark.

Disipline? Fumbled the first play, missed blocking assignments, general poor execution often. And Vernon (though looking better with his playmaking) still can't make a first down without screaming to the heavens like a fool.

Overall? Solid run D and decent secondary that can still get burned by the big play, 3rd down conversions and no pass rush. An O that will move the chains some, but will struggle to get more than field goals and maybe one TD a game.

Man, that sounds familiar. Again, it's very early. But this sure looks a LOT like what we've seen before.

Anyone disagree? Anyone see something that makes them think we've addressed any of the key issues we all knew existed going into the off season last year?

I disagree.

1- We finally have an O-Cord whose style works for the players we have rather than against. Our best offense in the last couple years was in 2006, and its not like we had a ton of talent that year. It was that we had a good o-cord whose style fit our players. I can't yet say whether Raye is a good o-cord, but at least his style fits our players.

1a- We will have the best QB play since Garcia left. Our best QB of the last couple years was either Smith in 2006 or Hill beating up on garbage teams in the last two years. Either should be improved this year, especially with a O-cord that fits their styles. Therefore whichever wins the starting job will be the best we've had in the last couple years. (I'll admit this may be marginal, but its still true)

2- Against Denver, we had 2 units (ol and dbs) that looked better than last year and none that looked worse.

3- Overall, in the Denver game we did look like the 2008 niners. However we were missing Bruce, Willis and Gore. Which means we looked like last year with our 2 best players and a starting WR sitting.

Granted, none of these points add up to much more than .500, but we have improved since last season. Last year we overachieved to get to 7 wins.

Well, you're agreeing more than not.

Sure, we have some improvement in the secondary and other depth places, but all our key problems look pretty much the same. We might be a legit 7-8 win team, instead of a lucky 7 win team.

I know it's early, but I was really hoping to see us look better than that. We'll see what we look like against Al Davis on Sat.

Yeah I suppose your right.

Anyway, I think our offense has some talent. The biggest problem has been that no one since Norv has been able to utilize that talent. If Raye can do that, I wouldn't be surprised if a couple guys broke out on Offense. Hell, if Gore and Vernon have good seasons, thats a pretty good offense by itself. If Hill can win against good teams and Coffee and the WRs step up...

But I am going to temper my expectations since there are to many 'if's in that last paragraph.

The defense is still pretty solid. But the fact that we have no pass rush and our rush D is soft around the edges will hurt us.

I would be happy if the niners had a season like the (baseball) Giants: playing above expectations, hanging around on the edge of playoff contention, but overall just showing good youth development and a reason to be excited for the future.

Until the Niners get a QB and a pass rush, all the talk on this board means nothing. This is a train wreck again. Sorry for the pre season negativity, but it is what it is.

Originally posted by jogr49:
Until the Niners get a QB and a pass rush, all the talk on this board means nothing. This is a train wreck again. Sorry for the pre season negativity, but it is what it is.

That is exactly what I am saying. Train wreck is harsh, but it might be accurate depending what your expectations are. Hence why I posted the same thing, until we get both we are just mediocre at best. We should not be happy with our current status. Until we have a kick butt QB to lead us and a Pass rush we are completely useless against the big boys and should be a ashamed at our complacency with being average/poor team.

Originally posted by FriscoKid220:
I know it's just pre-season, and I know that it's just the first game. Having said that, lets quickly go over what was good, bad, and in between.

Offense

-The qb competiton is still quite open up until this point. I think that both qb's did things that you expected them to do, as well as do some things that would show us that they haven't proved anything as far as deserving the starting position. However, I do belive that no matter who the qb eventually is, they are going to do a fine job and will give us a chance to win.

-The O-Line still has to improve on pass protection. I know that the qb's held the ball for a long time, but what I also saw was our linemen getting over powered and beat off the line. We also need to do a better job of blitz pick-up.

-Overall, the offense seemed to find a quick groove and was able to move the ball, even though our D helped them out some.


Defense

-I think I speak for everybody when I say..."Where the hell is the pass rush??" I still haven't seen any kind of pressure on the qb that would suggest that we have improved in this area. This also leads me to think that we should have used that second round pick on a pass rusher/d lineman. The only thing I saw was Justin Smith still being consistent and making plays. Oh and by the way, where was Kentwan Balmer at??? It might seem too early to make this statement, but I think that he is a for sure BUST!. Maybe I'm being too critical of him, but I call it like I see it.

-Just singling somebody out, I thought that Takeo Spikes did an outstanding job tonight. This guy was everwhere making plays and stepping up his game. It looks like he started off just where he left off from last season.

-The secondary looked much improved with the additoins of Dre Bly and Dashon Goldson. Nate Clements made a play with an endzone interception that saved us from maybe losing this game. Our secondary looks like it can be one of the top units in the league if we can somehow stay a far from those zone coverages.


Special Teams

-Just think we need to focus on holding onto the ball during the kick/punt returns. Thank god that kicker isn't our starter, LoL.



Rookies

-With the exception of Michael Crabtree (I hope he signs soon), I think our rookie class looks like they can contrinbute and be good/solid picks for us.

-I was extremely impressed with Glen Coffee and his running. He seemed to find holes and run with that power that we drafted him for.

-Scott McKillop did a fine job also with this sure tackling and work ethic. Rickey Jean-Franscois did ok in limited action and I though Curtis Taylor did some nice things as well.

-I thought Nate Davis looked ok. He seems like he has the ability to be a good contributer later on in the coming years. Oh by the way, he kind of looked like a fat a**, but I guess that's just how he's built, ha!



Overall, I think we have made some improvements and showed that we can be a comptetitive group. We still have some players, good quality players at that, that can do some real nice things for us this coming years. Most of all, I'm just glad that Football is here and that Niners are gonna have one hell of a season!


Yeeeeeeeeeeahhh Boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

You do know that we played against the Bronco's, right? They no longer have J. Cuttler! I wouldn't use that last game as the measuring stick for any single unit on our team!

Originally posted by ninerlifer:
From what I saw of Balmer, I saw him double teamed a few times...wwhich is what his job calls for. Cant say he is a bust for drawing double teams. Go back and re-watch the game.

I totally forgot to pay attention to him. That's good...that means he's doing his job and people are looking out for him!!!