Week 9: Thoughts after re-watching the game...

Giants weakness' are the running game on both sides of the ball. 28th on off. 25th on defense.

Originally posted by VaNiner540:
Giants weakness' are the running game on both sides of the ball. 28th on off. 25th on defense.

Lets just hope that Frank plays.

these analysis's are great, would like to read what we need to improve on.

Something that I thought was really impressive yesterday (and I think one of the Matts noted this) but Helu had 40 yards rushing midway through the 2nd quarter.

He finished the day with 41 yards.

Originally posted by Marvin49:
......Just noticed something else.....

Gore: 782 yards
Hunter: 217 yards

Thats 999 yards.....at MIDseason.

I hope Gore starts to get more rest in say weeks 13-16. I want his legs fresh in January.

Originally posted by Otter:
I hope Gore starts to get more rest in say weeks 13-16. I want his legs fresh in January.

So agree... we really are loading up Gore with carries, and that has to be a concern if looking ahead. Hopefully, we can put ourselves into position to rest him more, and we should be tapering back some carries from here on.

Originally posted by Marvin49:
1) Miller: Its hard to believe that this guy was rushing the QB at this time last year. He seems to have the body type, the speed, and the ball skills to be a natural FB. He still has things to learn, but thats a pretty impressive find for Harbaugh/Baalke.

2) Alex: Its kinda funny. This has happened a few times this season. I think he's not playing all that well (not badly, just not a great game) and then I look up and he has a 109 rating. To everyone who says tho that he is being "protected", look at John Beck. Wash is TRYING to protect him as well. Prior to the garbage time stuff, he looked like a High School QB.

3) Goldson: I freely admit that I am not a big fan of his. I've always though he was a big hitter, but too often was caught out of place in coverage. I'll admit tho that he is having a very good year. He's blowing people up more than ever (and getting flagged on BS calls) but is still playing well in coverage.

4) Refs: This isn't a "they hate us" kinda complaint. This is just saying that the officials better get on board here. The Niners shift. ALOT. They are ALLOWED to do so. There have been several occasions this year where they have been flagged for a LEGAL shift. The NFL needs to get with those refs and teach them the freakin' rules. Is it unconventional? Yes...but thats not excuse for screwing it up.

5) Willis/Bowman: I hate to quote Matt Millen, but in this case he's right. They are the best LB tandem in the NFL.

6) Crabtree/Edwards: Bit by bit, little by little....this thing is really coming together. They struggle at times. Sometimes everyone isn't where they are supposed to be. This is still a work in progress. Ya know what tho? This division is all but wrapped up and they have 8 more games to figure this thing out before they start playing in January. More on that later...

7) Culliver: This guy is starting to really play well. I think he may be a force in the future. Next year (assuming Rogers is extended), Rogers and Culliver may be your Game 1 starters.

8) Brooks: I really like this guy. Ya know what I like most? He makes a great play and then he just walks back to the huddle. He doesn't celebrate. He just does his job and moves on to the next play. Several weeks ago he hit Andy Dalton so hard his helmet popped off. He got up, rebuttoned his chinstrap, and got ready for the next play. Love it.

9) O-Line: Still playing well. Allowed two sacks....one each to their outside linebackers....but not bad. The first hit on Smith was as much Smiths fault as it was Davis' fault. Alex never saw the guy coming.

10) Team Progression: Something kinda struck me this weekend. Everyone has hammered Alex Smith for several years over his poor play. In many cases, it was justified. One of the most frustrating things tho as fans was that this team would tease us. They would suck badly early, then come on late and give us hope that NEXT year would be different. Alot of that can be explained by the fact that a New OC would be there every single year and by the time Alex and the rest of the team started to really get it down, they had too many losses to actually contend.

This year is different. The O is still struggling because they are still learning....but the team is winning anyway. This team is winning and that late season surge isn't here yet. I completely understand what Braylon Edwards is saying....this team is winning and they haven't really scratched the surface of what they can do.

I don't know if they will get it all figured out or not. If they are true to form tho and get it figured out late in the year, watch out in January.

Awesome post Marvin.

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by VaNiner540:

Giants weakness' are the running game on both sides of the ball. 28th on off. 25th on defense.

Lets just hope that Frank plays.

I hope so too but the great thing is: even of Frank doesn't play...we have Hunter and Dixon who can still make a formidable duo against the Giants. Obviously Dixon is no Gore but he is decent in the red zone. I fully trust Hunter to make it happen if Gore goes down for a game or two. And to be honest...Hunter would be a beast in the passing games. It would catch the Giants off guard.

Originally posted by Marvin49:

Originally posted by Memphis9er:
To be fair Millen knows a little about linebackers...great work as usual man.

...and in particular about Penn St Linebackers...

And the Penn State coach was molesting little boys in the shower at Penn State

4) Refs: This isn't a "they hate us" kinda complaint. This is just saying that the officials better get on board here. The Niners shift. ALOT. They are ALLOWED to do so. There have been several occasions this year where they have been flagged for a LEGAL shift. The NFL needs to get with those refs and teach them the freakin' rules. Is it unconventional? Yes...but thats not excuse for screwing it up.

What was up on that delay of game where the refs kept the clock going and slowed down our play? That was totally stupid for them to call us on a delay of game when for some reason the ref just kept waving his arms while the clock was still ticking leaving us only a few seconds to snap the ball!!!

The league needs to look into this one

Look forward to this read every Monday. Nice job Marvin

I really hope we retain Brooks in the offseason

Originally posted by Chico:
4) Refs: This isn't a "they hate us" kinda complaint. This is just saying that the officials better get on board here. The Niners shift. ALOT. They are ALLOWED to do so. There have been several occasions this year where they have been flagged for a LEGAL shift. The NFL needs to get with those refs and teach them the freakin' rules. Is it unconventional? Yes...but thats not excuse for screwing it up.

What was up on that delay of game where the refs kept the clock going and slowed down our play? That was totally stupid for them to call us on a delay of game when for some reason the ref just kept waving his arms while the clock was still ticking leaving us only a few seconds to snap the ball!!!

The league needs to look into this one

The dude was standing in the middle of our freak'n line signaling. Then he ran off and left Smith with 10 seconds left on the clock. WTF! I wanted to beat the sh*t out of him when he threw the flag and came back to call a delay of game. How is that 'delay of game' when the ref is the one delaying the f*cking game!

Hessian, I hope you are right that the toughest part of the schedule is behind us. That said, NYG, Ravens, and Steelers (we already took the measure of Cincy), look pretty tough to me. After watching all 3 this weekend, I am not so sure we win more than 1 game, hopefully this one on Sun. I do know that all 3 games will be interesting and exciting to watch, but all 3 games look like toss ups to me. On any sunday....

Only other thot, Marvin, on your excellent summary , was that for 2nd week in a row JH decided to play prevent D in the second half, with us up by a couple scores. I am not saying this is wrong, as we won both games. Also as has been discussed, resting guys is not such a bad idea. Still, turning a D on and then turning it off, sometimes makes it difficult to turn the D back on again. Obviously I don't know what Coach is doing, but if playing prevent D when up by 2 scores is his way of resting our guys, then hey, I'm all for it. My only worry is that we have played prevent D for 8 yrs under noln, BM, ericson, and "prevent D" just seemed to prevent us from winning. Just a thot.

As for your surprise that alex seemed to have it on "glide" and then see his stats, is remarkable. I know he took one sack where he should have thrown it away. The other was a flat out SACK-SACK,and nobody was going to escape that one. Yet as you mentioned , at end of game, his stats are terrific. So what's the deal? I think back to his coach Urban Meyer , who when asked about alex and the pros said, "If he learns the system he can play pretty well" . Well, there have been 6 different systems for him and finally the HC is also a QB coach, an OC, an OL coach, a TE and WR coach, plus a RB coach. It now seems that Urban had it right. Alex got his coach, and as HC, the OC is never going to leave, so there is continuity. The other thing is, JH brot alex along, not asking for more than he could do, and most importantly, he a) got the right guys playing the OL, and b) where there were deficiencies, JH coached around those. Coach H has made it way easier for alex, adding new stuff all the time, but starting off really vanilla, (remember the PS games?), and adding more as alex was ready. Honestly he doesn't look a whole lot different than last yr, yet he obviously is. Surrounding him with a terrific OL was key, so kudos to Baalke there, but alex also has real talent to throw to, something we haven't had in yrs past.

Most important, however, has been alex getting a real professional has HC/OC. That one item, a HC who was a qB, and taught Qbs, is the thing that has transformed alex from being the goat, to being , well....one of the top half dozen best qbs in the league...and he is just getting started.

Overall biggest difference this yr from last is not seeing the box 8 or 9, maybe 10...which alex was unable to defeat. That is a coaching error, plain and simple, and after first the Saints, and then the Texans, JH got busy on getting 9 D guys off the LOS. It was a simple fix, but our three previous bozo HCs, had no idea how to do it with just simple 1 step drops and sling it. Now we rarely see the box 8 and when we do, alex eats it up with quick slants or outs. Funny thing? As soon as those guys backed off LOS, all of a sudden Frank regains his form...and that was not an accident or by happenstance. It was just the HC doing what should have been done all along.

Well done, Marvin

EXCELLENT past! Please keep `em coming.