Weakest Link on defense.....

Originally posted by sspiker:
Culliver and Brown are clearly the weak spots. There's no denying that our secondary is no where near as good as our front seven. Rogers is playing lights-out, and Goldson and Whitner are playing above average, but CB2, Nickel, and when Reggie Smith is on the field are easily exploitable by a good QB, and that's exactly what Manning did.

I'd like to see us draft a safety high up to replace Goldson, and continue Culliver's development. He had a great game against Detroit; he can chalk this game up to a learning experience.

Culliver's learning experience against a very good QB. He's only going to learn from that. So I think he will be fine.

Tarrell brown is terrible, Spencer must have pissed off the coaching staff if he hasnt sniffed the field much this year. Brown is hot trash.

Reggie smith, is not a good safety, he takes horrible angles, and looks really slow this year.




Culliver has an excuse, he is a rookie.

Man, you guys are harsh - I usually feel like I am too critical. Manning to Cruz, and Manningham are legitimate deep threats where Manning is willing to throw it over relatively tight coverage. He will make his plays against any defensive backfield. The key is not getting discouraged and staying tough against him. The coaches and DBs achieved that.

TBrown - yeah he struggled, but he's serviceable.
CRogers -- they are asking him to play tight coverage with help over the top on almost every play. Receivers are going to get open for a second and make receptions when you have a guy like Eli willing to throw it in there at the slightest opening. BUT, ultimately you have to make the QB pay for that willingness, and Rogers did with 2 INTs. Did his job well.
Goldston - he is playing center field really well. When he stays back, you don't see many QBs take a chance with the long ball.
Whitner - he is a bit of a liability in man coverage, but doing a good job with his responsibility in zone.
RSmith - haven't really noticed on way or another.

This defense is playing their assignments and schemes REALLY WELL. REALLY WELL. You don't see blown coverages with guys running free like we did last year. That is a huge accomplishment for the coaching staff.

As for off season priorities, I would still say we need a CB in the 1st or 2nd round. I'd say CB and WR are our biggest need. Can't say in which order though.

Originally posted by putangina:
I screamed NOOOOOO when I saw the safety blitz coming. Why would you do that? Takes forever for the guy to get there...especially when the QB is in shotgun and he sees you coming. Aside from T. Brown, the only real complaint from the game.

This. I instantly thought that Eli would throw it there.

But Troy Aikman was saying that the ball was snapped sooner than Goldson anticipated, so it threw off the timing of the blitz. The timing of the blitz is important. If the ball was snapped a second later, or Goldson came in a second earlier... it would've been a more effective blitz. But since it unfolded the way it did, we're sitting here in hindsight saying it was a bad call.

Originally posted by dhp318:

Originally posted by 190836:
I am not saying its Culliver, but they were picking on him all day yesterday. He gave up a TD and got burned a couple of times. He is a rookie though!! T. Brown and Smith are average at best.

Culliver needs to finish the play... he gave up on that throw to the endzone, even though he was in position to make a play on the ball, or at least play the receiver tighter.

for whatever reason culliver doesn't make plays on the ball. i don't know if it's because he worries about penalties or losing the receiver but i do think he has good cover skills. i think he will realize that in this league always finish the play because if you don't the opponent is going to make the play.

as much as you want to blame us getting beat you have to credit eli for putting 3 perfect passes out there. and when i say perfect i mean anywhere else at all and they are a different story, PERFECT. the pass to Nicks, to manningham, and the ball manningham dropped. we should have not allowed ourselves to get beat but you cant help when a QB throws the ball so good on those 3 plays. anyone would have been beat on those.

Culliver seemed lazy to me yesterday.

I think the db's on this team are a decent enough group and will get better with time.

Sure they get beat once in awhile but so does every db in the NFL. They are coming up with a decent amount of int's this year, which helps a ton.

I still say that our weakest link on D is not a player but a lack of a consistant pass rush. Eli had way too much time to throw those deep balls yesterday and if we are to be Green Bay or say the Steelers, we are gonna have to get better with this aspect of our D.

Originally posted by HearstFan:
Man, you guys are harsh - I usually feel like I am too critical. Manning to Cruz, and Manningham are legitimate deep threats where Manning is willing to throw it over relatively tight coverage. He will make his plays against any defensive backfield. The key is not getting discouraged and staying tough against him. The coaches and DBs achieved that.

TBrown - yeah he struggled, but he's serviceable.
CRogers -- they are asking him to play tight coverage with help over the top on almost every play. Receivers are going to get open for a second and make receptions when you have a guy like Eli willing to throw it in there at the slightest opening. BUT, ultimately you have to make the QB pay for that willingness, and Rogers did with 2 INTs. Did his job well.
Goldston - he is playing center field really well. When he stays back, you don't see many QBs take a chance with the long ball.
Whitner - he is a bit of a liability in man coverage, but doing a good job with his responsibility in zone.
RSmith - haven't really noticed on way or another.

This defense is playing their assignments and schemes REALLY WELL. REALLY WELL. You don't see blown coverages with guys running free like we did last year. That is a huge accomplishment for the coaching staff.

As for off season priorities, I would still say we need a CB in the 1st or 2nd round. I'd say CB and WR are our biggest need. Can't say in which order though.

Agree with basically all of this. Good post. People should learn to grade players on their performance during the play, not the play result. If they did, the entire secondary would grade out pretty good yesterday. You can't guard against perfect throws.

For example: On the first TD, Culliver got beat outside on the fade for the TD. He has solid outside position to start, and probably anticipated an inside route as a result. Eli instead threw it outside, which technically is a poor presnap read. But he threw it perfectly, and the WR made a perfect catch. (I also think Culliver lost the ball in the sun slightly when he peeked in, causing him to slow for a second.) All in all, not a bad play for 29.

Or the 4th and 6 call - we had Whiter, our strong safety, playing man up against a tough receiver in Manningham. Tough assignment, yet he had pretty good coverage on a nasty route and against - you guessed it - another excellent throw. Another bad result but not a bad performance.

One last point on Roger's excellent play - anyone else noticed how he manages his gambling? It's all on long fields - when the opponent is backed up. When they're pinned deep, Rogers will undercut routes and try for big plays. When they cross midfield, he plays much more conventionally and soundly. It's a very savvy way of playing the position.

Originally posted by Wubbie:

Originally posted by putangina:
I screamed NOOOOOO when I saw the safety blitz coming. Why would you do that? Takes forever for the guy to get there...especially when the QB is in shotgun and he sees you coming. Aside from T. Brown, the only real complaint from the game.

This. I instantly thought that Eli would throw it there.

But Troy Aikman was saying that the ball was snapped sooner than Goldson anticipated, so it threw off the timing of the blitz. The timing of the blitz is important. If the ball was snapped a second later, or Goldson came in a second earlier... it would've been a more effective blitz. But since it unfolded the way it did, we're sitting here in hindsight saying it was a bad call.

i dunno. goldson was pretty far off the LOS. Even if he timed it, there seem like way too much field between him and eli-who was in the gun. it happens. they dialed up the right play and eli recognized the blitz and knew where to go with the ball.

Originally posted by dhp318:

Originally posted by 190836:
I am not saying its Culliver, but they were picking on him all day yesterday. He gave up a TD and got burned a couple of times. He is a rookie though!! T. Brown and Smith are average at best.

Culliver needs to finish the play... he gave up on that throw to the endzone, even though he was in position to make a play on the ball, or at least play the receiver tighter.

For a rookie, he is playing very well. He is learning and doesn't appear to make the same mistake twice. The fact he is even on the field at that point in the game and at that place on the field says that the coaches have a great deal of confidence in him.

Reggie Smith. He Brown had tight coverage on that deep ball but Reggie Smith was late.

i dont think its fair to blame one person

they all sucked ass yesterday

We needed to get pressure as well

I don't why people are giving the 49ers secondary such a hard time.

You can't discredit the way the Eli Manning as well as his ENTIRE offensive line, played lights out yesterday! Niners couldn't produce consistent pressure as they normally do, and when you have Eli throwing to Nicks, Manningham, and Cruz, ANY secondary can be burnt. But still....49ers won the game.

Originally posted by sspiker:
Culliver and Brown are clearly the weak spots. There's no denying that our secondary is no where near as good as our front seven. Rogers is playing lights-out, and Goldson and Whitner are playing above average, but CB2, Nickel, and when Reggie Smith is on the field are easily exploitable by a good QB, and that's exactly what Manning did.

I'd like to see us draft a safety high up to replace Goldson, and continue Culliver's development. He had a great game against Detroit; he can chalk this game up to a learning experience.

Agree...Brown is susceptible to deep passes, WR's with speed and he has a size disadvantage (which is perhaps why some want Spencer to reemerge). Some of it is also scheme - letting WR's run completely free off the LOS is killing these guys and it seems like we always have very late help (if you can call it that) over the top. And this is the second week we've seen Culliver picked on and he is not finishing the plays and is getting beat; seems more mental then physical (concentration?).

Keep in mind too that Rogers and Whitner got beat on a few big plays as well.