SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS at DETROIT LIONS - 2021 Game 1

Shoulda been an easy win, but with a combination of letting off the gas (and asking them to pick it up), the emotional letdown of JV probably being done for the year, and the mistakes gave the Lions a chance they didn't really deserve. Losing Verrett is terrible, but SF rolled the dice on a known fragile guy.....hopefully Lenoir is the next 5th round gem in line and a somewhat smooth transition takes place. Disappointed that Sermon was a scratch, but Mitchell more than held his own - still haven't heard or read anything regarding Mostert. Honestly never heard that Aiyuk was in any doghouse, but I don't pay too much attention to pre-season - other than looking out for who gets injured.

Great to see Bosa and Ford back and doing what they do best....both looked ready to roll. The run defense was more than just suspect, and the late game 'collapse' was a bit troubling but I still believe they were also put in a bad position - pulling guys out and such. They say you can call holding on almost every play, so it's a bit frustrating to see several plays which coulda been called that go by the wayside.

Looking forward to Philly and what looks to be better competition.....or maybe the Falcons are just really THAT bad? Oh, and no more f**king injuries.

Originally posted by RickyRoma:
Shoulda been an easy win, but with a combination of letting off the gas (and asking them to pick it up), the emotional letdown of JV probably being done for the year, and the mistakes gave the Lions a chance they didn't really deserve. Losing Verrett is terrible, but SF rolled the dice on a known fragile guy.....hopefully Lenoir is the next 5th round gem in line and a somewhat smooth transition takes place. Disappointed that Sermon was a scratch, but Mitchell more than held his own - still haven't heard or read anything regarding Mostert. Honestly never heard that Aiyuk was in any doghouse, but I don't pay too much attention to pre-season - other than looking out for who gets injured.

Great to see Bosa and Ford back and doing what they do best....both looked ready to roll. The run defense was more than just suspect, and the late game 'collapse' was a bit troubling but I still believe they were also put in a bad position - pulling guys out and such. They say you can call holding on almost every play, so it's a bit frustrating to see several plays which coulda been called that go by the wayside.

Looking forward to Philly and what looks to be better competition.....or maybe the Falcons are just really THAT bad? Oh, and no more f**king injuries.

Very intelligible post. Thank you! I mean, indeed, it's 41-17 with less than ten minutes left - and still 41-17 at the two minute warning! Niners stop them on 4th down, Deebo drops the 3rd down pass inside their 40 (the pass by Jimmy could've been further in front, but Deebo had both hands on it) with just under six minutes left, the Lions finally get a garbage TD and conversion; not surprising, but Kittle had the onside kick easily! If you freeze the highlight video at 11:24 it's clear he had it, something a player has nine out of ten times!!! Just a fluke. Then they get a TD again with the conversion and Deebo fumbles. Crowd is going crazy and social media becomes rife 'Niners nearly suffered the worst collapse in NFL history'!! Every game unfolds with 'weird' situations. It could've easily ended up 41-17. I hope Kinlaw is ready to plug the middle next week.

The Verrett situation is very, very disappointing. 😔

https://youtu.be/jXriPs8KNZs

Originally posted by Spartan:

Originally posted by RickyRoma:
Shoulda been an easy win, but with a combination of letting off the gas (and asking them to pick it up), the emotional letdown of JV probably being done for the year, and the mistakes gave the Lions a chance they didn't really deserve. Losing Verrett is terrible, but SF rolled the dice on a known fragile guy.....hopefully Lenoir is the next 5th round gem in line and a somewhat smooth transition takes place. Disappointed that Sermon was a scratch, but Mitchell more than held his own - still haven't heard or read anything regarding Mostert. Honestly never heard that Aiyuk was in any doghouse, but I don't pay too much attention to pre-season - other than looking out for who gets injured.

Great to see Bosa and Ford back and doing what they do best....both looked ready to roll. The run defense was more than just suspect, and the late game 'collapse' was a bit troubling but I still believe they were also put in a bad position - pulling guys out and such. They say you can call holding on almost every play, so it's a bit frustrating to see several plays which coulda been called that go by the wayside.

Looking forward to Philly and what looks to be better competition.....or maybe the Falcons are just really THAT bad? Oh, and no more f**king injuries.

Very intelligible post. Thank you! I mean, indeed, it's 41-17 with less than ten minutes left - and still 41-17 at the two minute warning! Niners stop them on 4th down, Deebo drops the 3rd down pass inside their 40 (the pass by Jimmy could've been further in front, but Deebo had both hands on it) with just under six minutes left, the Lions finally get a garbage TD and conversion; not surprising, but Kittle had the onside kick easily! If you freeze the highlight video at 11:24 it's clear he had it, something a player has nine out of ten times!!! Just a fluke. Then they get a TD again with the conversion and Deebo fumbles. Crowd is going crazy and social media becomes rife 'Niners nearly suffered the worst collapse in NFL history'!! Every game unfolds with 'weird' situations. It could've easily ended up 41-17. I hope Kinlaw is ready to plug the middle next week.

The Verrett situation is very, very disappointing. 😔

https://youtu.be/jXriPs8KNZs

This game had a chance to be an even worse version of what happened to us vs Atlanta in 2019 when Kittle had it won but fumbled before getting the first down and then our beat up secondary couldn't get the stop to close it out.

I think it's kind of funny that Lions fans are happy with the result. Had one of their fans tell me Lions outplayed the 49ers at the end…ok. Here we feel like it was almost a loss and obviously the injuries play a part in that but they lost Okudah and still celebrating making it close.

Week 1 is crazy. We all know this. We have our own history to see this when we smoked a Vikings team that went on to make the playoffs. Jags beat the Colts last year week 1 then lost 15 in a row.

All we can hope for is this game is used to reinforce never taking your foot off the gas and not overlooking any opponent. A less better learned in a win.

Obviously the biggest issue moving forward is CB health/depth. Lions will be the worst WR group we face all year. Eagles with Smith/Reagor and some of their other guys will not be as easy, let alone our NFC West competition. Hope the guys left step up and the pass rush does their job.

Offense will have to eliminate any mistakes because we'll have to lean on them this year if we want to take this division.

Originally posted by genus49:
This game had a chance to be an even worse version of what happened to us vs Atlanta in 2019 when Kittle had it won but fumbled before getting the first down and then our beat up secondary couldn't get the stop to close it out.

I think it's kind of funny that Lions fans are happy with the result. Had one of their fans tell me Lions outplayed the 49ers at the end…ok. Here we feel like it was almost a loss and obviously the injuries play a part in that but they lost Okudah and still celebrating making it close.

Week 1 is crazy. We all know this. We have our own history to see this when we smoked a Vikings team that went on to make the playoffs. Jags beat the Colts last year week 1 then lost 15 in a row.

All we can hope for is this game is used to reinforce never taking your foot off the gas and not overlooking any opponent. A less better learned in a win.

Obviously the biggest issue moving forward is CB health/depth. Lions will be the worst WR group we face all year. Eagles with Smith/Reagor and some of their other guys will not be as easy, let alone our NFC West competition. Hope the guys left step up and the pass rush does their job.

Offense will have to eliminate any mistakes because we'll have to lean on them this year if we want to take this division.

I somewhat agree, but it took almost a miracle of mistakes by SF for the Lions to even have a chance at the end, relying on fumbles and such. They certainly didn't overlook the Lions given the 24 point lead midway through the 4th quarter. The problem lies in asking the guys who you took out, to go back in and rev it up once again.

#49ers offensive snaps
RBs
Mostert 4 (hurt knee)
Mitchell 35
Hasty 16
Sermon DNP
WRs
Deebo 46
Sherfield 27
Aiyuk 26 (0 targets)
Sanu 20
Jennings 6
QBs
Garoppolo 51
Lance 4
TEs
Kittle 52
Dwelley 14
Woerner 9
FB
Juszczyk 20
Starting OL: 55 (100%) pic.twitter.com/LLprqWQKeV

— Cam Inman (@CamInman) September 13, 2021

Sherfield just split snaps with Aiyuk, not a big drama

Originally posted by asvidzinski:
Sherfield just split snaps with Aiyuk, not a big drama

Sounds like Aiyuk might have a small hammy issue…no need to press it.

Not exactly in the doghouse, yet

There's actually a ton of positives to take away this game.

We are on to Philadelphia!

My take away is not all of the players are in true game shape yet. That's what happens when players don't get reps in pre season. On the other hand, there weren't a lot of off sides and false start penalties that you often see in early season games. I was worried that we might see a lot of flags thrown because of the new penalty against blocking below the knee on the outside but I didn't see any.

Originally posted by NCommand:
There's actually a ton of positives to take away this game.

Yep. I have to look at it this way. To early for me to go off the deep end. I'll probably have plenty of time to lose my mind later if we can't get the corner back situation fixed relatively soon.

Originally posted by PA49ersfan:

Originally posted by NCommand:
There's actually a ton of positives to take away this game.

Yep. I have to look at it this way. To early for me to go off the deep end. I'll probably have plenty of time to lose my mind later if we can't get the corner back situation fixed relatively soon.

Yeah, the entire secondary is a big concern. Ward talks a big game but was running backwards and scared of hell of T.J. and giving up the big play and still, gave up the big play. Tartt made it through the game but is very meh and is as much of a conservative non-playmaker as Ward is and also gives up TD's. Johnson just stinks. Period.

Verrett is done which is absolutely heartbreaking. Crushing.

We're on to the rookies and Norman now after game 1.

The good news is Lenoir got a ton of real-game snaps. Hufanga got some snaps too.

But a team with any kind of quality TE and WR group, should feast on this unit pretty easily even with our pass rush (which is always neutralized by holding).

Originally posted by NCommand:
Yeah, the entire secondary is a big concern. Ward talks a big game but was running backwards and scared of hell of T.J. and giving up the big play and still, gave up the big play. Tartt made it through the game but is very meh and is as much of a conservative non-playmaker as Ward is and also gives up TD's. Johnson just stinks. Period.

Verrett is done which is absolutely heartbreaking. Crushing.

We're on to the rookies and Norman now after game 1.

The good news is Lenoir got a ton of real-game snaps. Hufanga got some snaps too.

But a team with any kind of quality TE and WR group, should feast on this unit pretty easily even with our pass rush (which is always neutralized by holding).

pass rush did a great job but got gassed late in game imo

we had a lot of defensive snaps that game which wont be the case in most games not saying secondary isnt a concern but its still good enough

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by PA49ersfan:

Originally posted by NCommand:
There's actually a ton of positives to take away this game.

Yep. I have to look at it this way. To early for me to go off the deep end. I'll probably have plenty of time to lose my mind later if we can't get the corner back situation fixed relatively soon.

Yeah, the entire secondary is a big concern. Ward talks a big game but was running backwards and scared of hell of T.J. and giving up the big play and still, gave up the big play. Tartt made it through the game but is very meh and is as much of a conservative non-playmaker as Ward is and also gives up TD's. Johnson just stinks. Period.

Verrett is done which is absolutely heartbreaking. Crushing.

We're on to the rookies and Norman now after game 1.

The good news is Lenoir got a ton of real-game snaps. Hufanga got some snaps too.

But a team with any kind of quality TE and WR group, should feast on this unit pretty easily even with our pass rush (which is always neutralized by holding).

Agreed. My concern is that we're going to have to get used to the constant holding which isn't a major deal against a statue like Goff but our division has 2 ping pong balls that will be headaches if they don't call more evenly. Heck, Hurts could be a bit of a challenge next week for the same reason. Still think we dominate but he can scramble and make the secondary run around for a bit to find holes.