The Silver Lining Thread (positive people come on in!)

NCommand, your summary was a beaut. Not much to say after that. Well done.

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
NCommand, your summary was a beaut. Not much to say after that. Well done.

Thank you kind sir!

No more media BS about the strife between Harbaugh, Baalke, and Jed. That crap was tiring and it started before 2014 even kicked off. They had NFLN and ESPN all over it too. Everyone expects Tomsula to suck, and I like it better when the rest of the NFL doubts us instead of just waiting for us to fall on our faces.... just to sit back with a smug smile and say "I told you so"

Originally posted by SJniner7:
No more media BS about the strife between Harbaugh, Baalke, and Jed. That crap was tiring and it started before 2014 even kicked off. They had NFLN and ESPN all over it too. Everyone expects Tomsula to suck, and I like it better when the rest of the NFL doubts us instead of just waiting for us to fall on our faces.... just to sit back with a smug smile and say "I told you so"

This

I can't wait to yell This from the roof tops!

Originally posted by NCommand:
Listen, we saw what happened to Seattle when they lost just one WR in FA (Tate) and one Nickle CB (Lane) in the Superbowl. They ended up with Ricardo Lockette starting instead of Golden Tate and the Pats went right after that hole for a TD between the CB and S spot after Lane went out. Now, imagine how they'd do with 18 players on I.R.; starting players; significant players. The fact that we still ended up top 5 on defense and beat a playoff team in week 17 despite horrendous coaching to finish 8-8 is downright remarkable on many levels...players, literally, willing themselves to victories.

2015: Now add health. Now add the draft. Now add FA. Now add enthusiasm. Now subtract drama. Now add coaching specialists like Logan and so many others now who are best at teaching players and paying very close attention to details. Now add CK's off season work. Now add in-house coaches like Tomsula, Mangini and Geep who've been here the past 2+ years and who know our personnel and can learn from mistakes made by Harbaugh, Roman and even Fangio.

Remain close to top 5 on defense and raise the points per game from 25th to 15th? Look out! If this team catches momentum towards the end of the season and remains healthy, we're knocking on the door of the NFCCG and Superbowl again.

Nice post, NCommand... Couldn't agree more. I'll just say that many Zoners seem to be forgetting how deep and talented this roster is. Let us face facts, gentlemen (and hopefully ladies... :), everything that could have gone wrong for the Niners this season did...Mr. Command did a fine job of outlining all of that. One other thing that I would like to add is that the previous coaching staff seemed to lack the ability to make in-game adjustments...and I think this was the case on both offense and defense. The Niners simply s*cked in the second half of most games this past season and my goodness, I can understand the owners' frustration with not getting the damn plays in on time...after 4 years of that nonsense!

Admittedly, I didn't watch every play of every game but one thing really stuck out for me...the team lacked any sense of offensive rhythm. They simply took too much time between plays. If you look at the best offenses in the league, they don't waste a lot of time. They get their asses into the huddle, a play is called, they line up, the QB reads the defense, and then they snap the damn ball! All of this in 15 seconds usually. Hopefully, this new coaching staff will look at all of the areas in which the team struggled this past year and really work on fixing it.

One last thing....Kap needs to spend far less time in the weight room and far more time in the film room. It appears that he has begun that process this off season but really, if Harbaugh was such a QB genius, why can't Kap read defenses better, why can't he throw a screen pass, and why is his deep throw so inconsistent? Personally, I would like to see Kap spend some time with Jeff Garcia, who got the absolute most out of his physical abilities...

Cheers!

only 2 4th qtr td's? How we were even 8-8 is amazing. I don't think, and i certainly hope that Tomsula would not let those type of issues go on for a whole season!

The niners stopped putting it all on the field last year for Harbaugh . hopefully the guys can get behind Tomsula and we will see our guys playing like a team with a purpose again .

Originally posted by matthewabbit:

The niners stopped putting it all on the field last year for Harbaugh . hopefully the guys can get behind Tomsula and we will see our guys playing like a team with a purpose again .

I knew this once I saw Willis opt for surgery. He knew Jim wasn't all in so he figured CB50 could hold it down while he got to 100% for the next coaching staff. He played on that bum toe for years but he finally said not this year under this coach that has his mind on Michigan

I gotta say.....there are DEFINITELY some things i've been beyond upset about this offseason. Obviously getting rid of a coach of Jim Harbaugh's excellence I felt was devastating. The jury is out, no doubt. The Coordinator hires (I like our S/T hire): Chryst and Mangini...nothing that makes ya jump for joy. Now i dunno who is doing the hiring exactly, some say it's all Baalke, some say its Tomsula, but personally I like to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. HOWEVER, with that said......the position coaching hires= Knocked it out the park IMHO. Especially guys like Tim Lewis who are PROVEN commodities , as well as Sporano, Pendergast, etc. But to me the real "jump out ur seat and get excited" about our BRIGHT future (yes BRIGHT future) is the proven track record of Trent Baalke at finding gems in just about every draft (2012 Notwithstanding). Have we already forgotten how brilliant he was just a year ago? Some picky naysayers might say he swung and missed again at WR, well it remains to be seen but Ellington may still be the real deal and spark our offense like we had hoped his quickness and speed could. And that would just be icing on the cake. I'm excited about guys like Lynch, Dontae Johnson, Chris Borland, Carlos Hyde, Martin, and even past picks like Chris Culliver, who i felt had a marvelous bounce back year despite some who want him gone (tough, physical corner who was solid when we needed him to be). Aldon, Reid, Davis and Iupati have obviously been fantastic as well. But u add the infusion of Tom Gamble's genius to the mix and i truly feel we are just going to continue to stockpile young talent and make it so that we will win no matter who the coach is. Baalke is arrogant and may have given up the best coach we have had in years and yes that sucks, but he is GREAT at plucking talent, especially in the latter rounds. SO despite my still being upset at losing Harbs and some of the decisions Baalke/York have made this offseason, i still have much to be optimistic about.But that's just the way I feel. Just my opinion.

Originally posted by sdaddy101269:

Originally posted by insanemike27:

Originally posted by cciowa:

Originally posted by insanemike27:

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by cciowa:

maybe up the play a titch in special teams?

We play special teams?

I was thinking the same thing. Losing Ted Ginn jr. and then CJ Spillman and Boobie Dixon really hurt our ST.

i was just thinking that we missed so many tackles and then we had no stability with guys getting cut on monday and resigned on tuesday,, i am thinking our kick returns were decent considering injuries and i hope that and the punt return game will be better with no injuries and more experience from the kid who did it last year,,, also got hunter back who is more than a nice back up kick returner

We haven't had a true return threat since Ginn left which hurt our average starting field position over the past 2 years. Losing cover guys such as Spillman gave opposing teams more favorable field position this past year. I'm not sure why your bringing up the fact that Hunter is a nice "back up". We need a true return threat not just a serviceable back up. Point differential, starting field position and TO differential are the three most important stats in football. Over the past 2 years we began to lose in all 3 of those categories and directly led to our decline.

Read this and you will TRULY see how much field position affects us:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2015/quarterback-postseason-drive-stats

I went ahead and compiled regular season stats because those charts only refer to the playoffs.

YEAR/Record/Point dif/TO dif/starting field pos. Dif
2011/ 13-3/ plus 151/ plus 28/ plus 9.39
2012/ 11-4-1/ plus 124/ plus 9/ plus 6.25
2013/ 12-4/ plus 134/ plus 12/ plus 6.29
2014/ 8-8/ minus 34/ plus 7/ plus 0.38

From what I can gather from the stats is that our average starting field position has affected our point differential and essentially our overall record for the past four seasons.The turnover differential may have played a small role but as you can see in the chart above, it did not have as much of an impact as
our average starting field position. When you look at the difference between starting field position differential and point differential from 2013-2014 vs the difference between turnover differential and point differential from 2011-2012, it's not even close.
The thing is we lost significant players on special teams and it has greatly changed our points scored vs points allowed over the last 4 seasons with the worse coming after we lost our back up return man and the aces on our coverage units.

Just to add, our defense did not lose as much ground as our offense did as far as starting field position. Our defense went from averaging its starting field position at the opponents 24 yard line in 2011 to the opponents 26 yard line in 2014. While the offense went from averaging it's starting field position from their own 33 yard line in 2011 to their own 26 yard line in 2014. During this span the offense went from averaging 394 points a season to scoring only 306 points in 2014. The defense went from giving up an average of 258 points a season to giving up 340 points in 2014.

Originally posted by 49erGlory:
I gotta say.....there are DEFINITELY some things i've been beyond upset about this offseason. Obviously getting rid of a coach of Jim Harbaugh's excellence I felt was devastating. The jury is out, no doubt. The Coordinator hires (I like our S/T hire): Chryst and Mangini...nothing that makes ya jump for joy. Now i dunno who is doing the hiring exactly, some say it's all Baalke, some say its Tomsula, but personally I like to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. HOWEVER, with that said......the position coaching hires= Knocked it out the park IMHO. Especially guys like Tim Lewis who are PROVEN commodities , as well as Sporano, Pendergast, etc. But to me the real "jump out ur seat and get excited" about our BRIGHT future (yes BRIGHT future) is the proven track record of Trent Baalke at finding gems in just about every draft (2012 Notwithstanding). Have we already forgotten how brilliant he was just a year ago? Some picky naysayers might say he swung and missed again at WR, well it remains to be seen but Ellington may still be the real deal and spark our offense like we had hoped his quickness and speed could. And that would just be icing on the cake. I'm excited about guys like Lynch, Dontae Johnson, Chris Borland, Carlos Hyde, Martin, and even past picks like Chris Culliver, who i felt had a marvelous bounce back year despite some who want him gone (tough, physical corner who was solid when we needed him to be). Aldon, Reid, Davis and Iupati have obviously been fantastic as well. But u add the infusion of Tom Gamble's genius to the mix and i truly feel we are just going to continue to stockpile young talent and make it so that we will win no matter who the coach is. Baalke is arrogant and may have given up the best coach we have had in years and yes that sucks, but he is GREAT at plucking talent, especially in the latter rounds. SO despite my still being upset at losing Harbs and some of the decisions Baalke/York have made this offseason, i still have much to be optimistic about.But that's just the way I feel. Just my opinion.

Damn fine post!

Originally posted by insanemike27:

Originally posted by sdaddy101269:

Originally posted by insanemike27:

Originally posted by cciowa:

Originally posted by insanemike27:

Originally posted by English:

Originally posted by cciowa:
maybe up the play a titch in special teams?

We play special teams?

I was thinking the same thing. Losing Ted Ginn jr. and then CJ Spillman and Boobie Dixon really hurt our ST.

i was just thinking that we missed so many tackles and then we had no stability with guys getting cut on monday and resigned on tuesday,, i am thinking our kick returns were decent considering injuries and i hope that and the punt return game will be better with no injuries and more experience from the kid who did it last year,,, also got hunter back who is more than a nice back up kick returner

We haven't had a true return threat since Ginn left which hurt our average starting field position over the past 2 years. Losing cover guys such as Spillman gave opposing teams more favorable field position this past year. I'm not sure why your bringing up the fact that Hunter is a nice "back up". We need a true return threat not just a serviceable back up. Point differential, starting field position and TO differential are the three most important stats in football. Over the past 2 years we began to lose in all 3 of those categories and directly led to our decline.

Read this and you will TRULY see how much field position affects us:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2015/quarterback-postseason-drive-stats

I went ahead and compiled regular season stats because those charts only refer to the playoffs.

YEAR/Record/Point dif/TO dif/starting field pos. Dif
2011/ 13-3/ plus 151/ plus 28/ plus 9.39
2012/ 11-4-1/ plus 124/ plus 9/ plus 6.25
2013/ 12-4/ plus 134/ plus 12/ plus 6.29
2014/ 8-8/ minus 34/ plus 7/ plus 0.38

From what I can gather from the stats is that our average starting field position has affected our point differential and essentially our overall record for the past four seasons.The turnover differential may have played a small role but as you can see in the chart above, it did not have as much of an impact as
our average starting field position. When you look at the difference between starting field position differential and point differential from 2013-2014 vs the difference between turnover differential and point differential from 2011-2012, it's not even close.
The thing is we lost significant players on special teams and it has greatly changed our points scored vs points allowed over the last 4 seasons with the worse coming after we lost our back up return man and the aces on our coverage units.

Just to add, our defense did not lose as much ground as our offense did as far as starting field position. Our defense went from averaging its starting field position at the opponents 24 yard line in 2011 to the opponents 26 yard line in 2014. While the offense went from averaging it's starting field position from their own 33 yard line in 2011 to their own 26 yard line in 2014. During this span the offense went from averaging 394 points a season to scoring only 306 points in 2014. The defense went from giving up an average of 258 points a season to giving up 340 points in 2014.

Good stuff guys!

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by 49erGlory:
I gotta say.....there are DEFINITELY some things i've been beyond upset about this offseason. Obviously getting rid of a coach of Jim Harbaugh's excellence I felt was devastating. The jury is out, no doubt. The Coordinator hires (I like our S/T hire): Chryst and Mangini...nothing that makes ya jump for joy. Now i dunno who is doing the hiring exactly, some say it's all Baalke, some say its Tomsula, but personally I like to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. HOWEVER, with that said......the position coaching hires= Knocked it out the park IMHO. Especially guys like Tim Lewis who are PROVEN commodities , as well as Sporano, Pendergast, etc. But to me the real "jump out ur seat and get excited" about our BRIGHT future (yes BRIGHT future) is the proven track record of Trent Baalke at finding gems in just about every draft (2012 Notwithstanding). Have we already forgotten how brilliant he was just a year ago? Some picky naysayers might say he swung and missed again at WR, well it remains to be seen but Ellington may still be the real deal and spark our offense like we had hoped his quickness and speed could. And that would just be icing on the cake. I'm excited about guys like Lynch, Dontae Johnson, Chris Borland, Carlos Hyde, Martin, and even past picks like Chris Culliver, who i felt had a marvelous bounce back year despite some who want him gone (tough, physical corner who was solid when we needed him to be). Aldon, Reid, Davis and Iupati have obviously been fantastic as well. But u add the infusion of Tom Gamble's genius to the mix and i truly feel we are just going to continue to stockpile young talent and make it so that we will win no matter who the coach is. Baalke is arrogant and may have given up the best coach we have had in years and yes that sucks, but he is GREAT at plucking talent, especially in the latter rounds. SO despite my still being upset at losing Harbs and some of the decisions Baalke/York have made this offseason, i still have much to be optimistic about.But that's just the way I feel. Just my opinion.

Damn fine post!

Really like that one Glory!

Originally posted by 49erGlory:
I gotta say.....there are DEFINITELY some things i've been beyond upset about this offseason. Obviously getting rid of a coach of Jim Harbaugh's excellence I felt was devastating. The jury is out, no doubt. The Coordinator hires (I like our S/T hire): Chryst and Mangini...nothing that makes ya jump for joy. Now i dunno who is doing the hiring exactly, some say it's all Baalke, some say its Tomsula, but personally I like to think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. HOWEVER, with that said......the position coaching hires= Knocked it out the park IMHO. Especially guys like Tim Lewis who are PROVEN commodities , as well as Sporano, Pendergast, etc. But to me the real "jump out ur seat and get excited" about our BRIGHT future (yes BRIGHT future) is the proven track record of Trent Baalke at finding gems in just about every draft (2012 Notwithstanding). Have we already forgotten how brilliant he was just a year ago? Some picky naysayers might say he swung and missed again at WR, well it remains to be seen but Ellington may still be the real deal and spark our offense like we had hoped his quickness and speed could. And that would just be icing on the cake. I'm excited about guys like Lynch, Dontae Johnson, Chris Borland, Carlos Hyde, Martin, and even past picks like Chris Culliver, who i felt had a marvelous bounce back year despite some who want him gone (tough, physical corner who was solid when we needed him to be). Aldon, Reid, Davis and Iupati have obviously been fantastic as well. But u add the infusion of Tom Gamble's genius to the mix and i truly feel we are just going to continue to stockpile young talent and make it so that we will win no matter who the coach is. Baalke is arrogant and may have given up the best coach we have had in years and yes that sucks, but he is GREAT at plucking talent, especially in the latter rounds. SO despite my still being upset at losing Harbs and some of the decisions Baalke/York have made this offseason, i still have much to be optimistic about.But that's just the way I feel. Just my opinion.

I think this off season proves that Baalke is in charge and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The guy is focused like a laser beam on personnel, schemes, scouting, etc. and he's obsessive to the Nth degree. And I think he and Tomsula really get along well which could lead to a lot less drama, a lot more focus, possibly an easier time making needed adjustments and a more comfortable environment for everyone.

Originally posted by Pillbusta:

Originally posted by matthewabbit:
The niners stopped putting it all on the field last year for Harbaugh . hopefully the guys can get behind Tomsula and we will see our guys playing like a team with a purpose again .

I knew this once I saw Willis opt for surgery. He knew Jim wasn't all in so he figured CB50 could hold it down while he got to 100% for the next coaching staff. He played on that bum toe for years but he finally said not this year under this coach that has his mind on Michigan

i knew it once i saw the second seattle game and saw no urgency from the coaches then the players, the chargers game sealed the fate of jh for me. i believe there is a renewed sense of enthusiasm in the team, they can go back to us vs them, they can go back to one locker room. they can go back to having fun playing the game. sure we may see new faces in lineup, there is a good chance some of our favorites will no longer be on the team but that does not diminish the feeling of a fresh start and renewed enthusiasm for the upcoming year. there is no dark cloud hanging over us like it seemed there was most of last year. there is no crying in football.. there is no crying