I think it's a mistake to go into "reload" mode

[tallglassofwater007]

Too funny, the one player I stacked my opinion up against before I posted it was Ware - That said, however, I would dump Brooks for Ware. I know, kind of a 'duh' statement there - right?

As for Haloti, I don't see him as a DE or an OLB, but as a NT and I would keep Sop over Ngata seven days a week.

I am pretty happy with our defense - there is not much I would change.

I agree that Justin Smith at DE and Sop at NT is better than Ngata at NT and some guy at DE. Justin Smith has been just as dominant as any defensive player at his position the last couple years.

Not sure what the bold means, but I think we would have won the SB if we had made it...IMO, we did not make it due to a mistake not lack of talent or having talent - I can't even make that make sense. What do you mean by the bolded part of the italicized comment?

I think he was saying that the fumbles were just a couple bad luck plays as apposed to them being fumbles because we lack the talent to beat the Giants. Just worded a little funny.

 

[MW49ers5]

I agree that Justin Smith at DE and Sop at NT is better than Ngata at NT and some guy at DE. Justin Smith has been just as dominant as any defensive player at his position the last couple years.

I think he was saying that the fumbles were just a couple bad luck plays as opposed to them being fumbles because we lack the talent to beat the Giants. Just worded a little funny.

Ahhh, got it - Thanks Brother!

As for J.Smith - there may be other players in the league comparable but no one IMO, can touch his intangibles and those intangibles have raised, significantly, the level of play of every player on the team - especially the defense.

I would bet, almost to a man, that if the entire team had to choose two players, beside themselves, for whom they feel the most upset for not making it the SB, Justin Smith would be on nearly every list - If I'm right, then you can't put a price tag on that kind of inspiration.

 

[CalamityX11]

Considering our defense wasn't close to being an issue? why can't our players get sum love for their performance this year?

 

[Kinzu]

You know if the Giants don't win the Super Bowl they need to just go full re-building mode. It will be clear at that point that Eli is not good enough to win a Super Bowl without a defense to carry him. The Giants have some good young receivers but need a better QB to throw them the ball. That Defensive line will also never play this good again. They need to think of their future 3-5 years from now and how much better it will be if they just release or trade all those guys.

Yup that's about how much sense this whole topic makes to me. Which is to say none.

 

[MHSL82]

Not sure what the bold means, but I think we would have won the SB if we had made it...IMO, we did not make it due to a mistake not lack of talent or having talent - I can't even make that make sense. What do you mean by the bolded part of the italicized comment?

What I mean is that Sickness said we were lucky to get the turnovers from the Saints. But the Giants weren't lucky to get our turnovers from Williams. It was a talented play at the ball, according to that logic, and we lack talent, according to him.

I'm instead giving credit to both the 49ers in the Saints game and the Giants in the NFC Championship for forcing the second fumble and noticing the first. Sickness repeatedly said we were lucky due to turnovers and lucky that the Saints played one-on-one on Davis (as opposed to us making them pay for it).

 

[NinerSickness]

Dude, you're not making any sense to me. Didn't we already cover that the Niners have the best roster in the league short of maybe a QB and a receiver or two???

And didn't I already state that the QB & WRs are part of the roster; hense the Niners' roster is weaker than the roster of teams like the Saints.

A quarterback alone doesn't make the team. The QB is ONE PLAYER in a team sport.

He's also the most important player on the team by a large margin.

I agree that Justin Smith at DE and Sop at NT is better than Ngata at NT and some guy at DE.

Just for clalrification Ngata plays LDE for the Ravens. I'm sure he moves inside sometimes, but he starts at LDE.

 

[MHSL82]

What I mean is that Sickness said we were lucky to get the turnovers from the Saints. But the Giants weren't lucky to get our turnovers from Williams. It was a talented play at the ball, according to that logic, and we lack talent, according to him.

I'm instead giving credit to both the 49ers in the Saints game and the Giants in the NFC Championship for forcing the second fumble and noticing the first. Sickness repeatedly said we were lucky due to turnovers and lucky that the Saints played one-on-one on Davis (as opposed to us making them pay for it).

Quoting myself because I ran out of time on the edit... Added part below...

He emphasized that we were REALLY lucky. If the fact that it could have gone another way makes it lucky, then most playoff games are lucky. Including the Giants. If the Saints are the better team, we didn't win because of luck we won because we overacheived. I had no problem with the overacheived opinion (though I disagree), I had a problem with the lucky part of it. You win because you put everything into it, if the Saints didn't, that isn't luck, it's that the better team won. I consider not showing up to be a negative trait of a team that affects how good they are. If the Saints didn't show up, enough for one guy to say we were lucky, then they weren't the better team - and that goes to stubbornness of Williams to stay aggressive with man-to-man and it goes to players not holding on the ball. That's why, with no matter how upset I am about KW, he's part of our team and our team lost, not luck.

For the Giants game alone, outside of KW we were the better team, including Smith and crew over Eli and crew. But we can't just take KW out, so the Giants were better that night. Perhaps if Alex threw as much and took as much risk as Eli did he would have had more INT/near INTs, but he didn't, which makes us who we are, and we should have won.

 

[NinerSickness]

What I mean is that Sickness said we were lucky to get the turnovers from the Saints. But the Giants weren't lucky to get our turnovers from Williams. It was a talented play at the ball, according to that logic, and we lack talent, according to him.).

There's a pretty big difference between 2 turnovers and 5 turnovers. Plus the Saints lost Pierre Thomas on the first drive. Kind of how the Niners lost Hearst on the first play against the Falcons in '98.

 

[MW49ers5]

What I mean is that Sickness said we were lucky to get the turnovers from the Saints. But the Giants weren't lucky to get our turnovers from Williams. It was a talented play at the ball, according to that logic, and we lack talent, according to him.

I'm instead giving credit to both the 49ers in the Saints game and the Giants in the NFC Championship for forcing the second fumble and noticing the first. Sickness repeatedly said we were lucky due to turnovers and lucky that the Saints played one-on-one on Davis (as opposed to us making them pay for it).

Perfect!...Thanks.

I might suggest, based on statistical evidence, that when we cause a turnover it is by design and luck has little or nothing to do with it. By contrast, and again based on statistical evidence, when our opponent causes us to turn the ball over, that can probably be defined as much or more as luck than anything else for the other team.

 

[MW49ers5]

And didn't I already state that the QB & WRs are part of the roster; hense the Niners' roster is weaker than the roster of teams like the Saints.


He's also the most important player on the team by a large margin.

I agree that Justin Smith at DE and Sop at NT is better than Ngata at NT and some guy at DE.

Just for clalrification Ngata plays LDE for the Ravens. I'm sure he moves inside sometimes, but he starts at LDE.

At 330+ pounds I would think moving Ngata to the end is more part of a strategy than a position. Yes?

 

[MHSL82]

There's a pretty big difference between 2 turnovers and 5 turnovers. Plus the Saints lost Pierre Thomas on the first drive. Kind of how the Niners lost Hearst on the first play against the Falcons in '98.

5, 2, 10, 6 it doesn't matter unless they dropped it to us. We caused those 5 TOs. We caused Pierre Thomas to leave the game, so that wasn't luck. We didn't try to injure him but we did try to affect him. So we were lucky that our attempt to affect him was more successful than we set out for. Great. I say we still won the game. We have backups on our team playing too. All they lost was time to prepare those backups. (If our starter was injured before the game, we'd have gone in ready with the backup, they weren't afforded that opportunity.) I will give you that Pierre Thomas is better than any guy we have sitting out, but I wouldn't take the game away from them or categorically call us lucky. What if he would have stayed in and later fumbled it again in an inopportune place? (I know, he could have also scored, but it goes both ways)

If we had lost the Saints game, people would blame Alex for not getting the most out of the 5 TOs. My point? Is that if we lost, it wouldn't have been luck to get those TOs, it would be the defense's skill and Alex falling again short. Winning and losing, regardless of how close or why, has a huge change of perspective. Imagine how it would have been if the Giants had fumbled when they were trying to get a better kicking position? Or if we had won on the possession that would have been if KW didn't fumble (or we landed on it)? On second thought, don't imagine that, I'm not one for torture.

 

[Crimsoncrew]

Haven't read the entire thread, but if Baltimore was a contender going into last season, then we are undoubtedly a contender going into this season. Our front seven was the top unit in the league by the end of the season. They were completely unstoppable in the playoffs. So long as we've got that, we're a contender. Obviously we need a couple upgrades on offense, but frankly I thought the playcalling was as much to blame as the talent for our offensive struggles in the loss to the Giants. Despite making great headway on the ground, we went virtually one-dimensional late in the game.

 

[NinerSickness]

At 330+ pounds I would think moving Ngata to the end is more part of a strategy than a position. Yes?

Well he can collapse the pocket from LDE pretty well. Every D has a different scheme;

Let's put it this way: if Ngata played for the Niners I would have no problem putting him at LDE on 1st & 2nd downs at least.

Either way Justin Smith played the best of any RDE in the league last year, and he's consistently at least top 3 with Nagata & Richard Seymour (who''s playing in a 4-3 at this point).

 

[imac_21]

There's a pretty big difference between 2 turnovers and 5 turnovers. Plus the Saints lost Pierre Thomas on the first drive. Kind of how the Niners lost Hearst on the first play against the Falcons in '98.

Is it anything like how we didn't have Ted Ginn against the Saints? Do those two turnovers happen with Ginn at PR?

 

[imac_21]

And didn't I already state that the QB & WRs are part of the roster; hense the Niners' roster is weaker than the roster of teams like the Saints.

Sorry, is it part of the roster, or is it the whole roster? You're giving the Saints the advantage at QB and WR and therefore declaring them the better roster overall?

 

[NinerSickness]

Sorry, is it part of the roster, or is it the whole roster? You're giving the Saints the advantage at QB and WR and therefore declaring them the better roster overall?

The Saints have a better overall roster based on the combined value of all 53 players. But Brees gives them the biggest INDIVIDUAL bump. It's pretty significant.

I don't think the game would've even been close if it were in New Orleans. They never play NFC teams on a neutral field, but hypothetically I say the 2011 Saints beat the 2011 Niners 7 or 8 times out of 10 on a neutral field.

 

[NinerSickness]

Is it anything like how we didn't have Ted Ginn against the Saints? Do those two turnovers happen with Ginn at PR?

A little. Yes. But it's different if you have the entire week to prepare without him VS losing him all of a sudden.

 

[imac_21]

The Saints have a better overall roster based on the combined value of all 53 players. But Brees gives them the biggest INDIVIDUAL bump. It's pretty significant.

I don't think the game would've even been close if it were in New Orleans. They never play NFC teams on a neutral field, but hypothetically I say the 2011 Saints beat the 2011 Niners 7 or 8 times out of 10 on a neutral field.

Okay. You're wrong, but okay. If the neutral field is Indy or Detroit and they play on turf, maybe. If the neutral field is GB, Chicago, KC or a grass field then probably not.

But I understand that you have to tear down the current Niners to justify your quest to once again rebuild.

 

[NinerSickness]

But I understand that you have to tear down the current Niners to justify your quest to once again rebuild.

Why does having faith in their realistic ability to win a SB have to be tearing them down?

An NFC Cmapionship game appearence doesn't change my mind about how I feel about the roster. Could they win a SB nect year? Of course! Do I think the Ravens, Pats, Steelers, Saints, etc have a much better chance? Yes.

Oh and you're wrong about the 2011 Niners VS the 2011 Saints. We could go around in circles like this, so I'll digress.

 

[Flyingiguana]

our d matches the saints on o for talent. going into 2012 we should be able to make improvements on offense while the saints have been regressing since their super bowl win.

ravens aren't winning with cam cameron. steelers are gonna be there as usual, but i think it's a wash between us and the steelers. only other complete team in the afc is houston who i think is the early favorite for the super bowl next year. pats just aren't good on d, i don't think they have much of a chance vs a healthy steelers or texans team.

with better blocking and some actual talent at wr i think our offense can make big strides. at that point we'll get a better view of what smith can do.