My thoughts on the game I've got to vent

[mufasa76]

My thoughts on this game, and the culmination of the past years... now that I've let my emotions subside.

I respect and support Alex Smith. I love his work ethic and his ability to fight through the disastrous situations of Nolan and Singletary as Head Coaches... but that doesn't mean I can't see his limitations. I don't feel as if he is the only problem with the offense, but the team can't win a Super Bowl with him... and knowing that, what is the point of keeping him if they can't get that far with him?

It is just crazy because it isn't all on him... for the most part, you pressure Smith and he won't beat you... that is why teams have no qualms with putting up the 8 man fronts on Gore. It helps contain Frank, and it takes away the easy passes from Alex. They have nothing to fear while leaving 3 guys deep... because even when Alex does beat the pressure and 8-man front to make the pass... guys like Ginn can't find the ball in the air, and guys like V.D. drop TDs in the endzone. And when those guys aren't dropping balls, Smith is completely missing the guy left wide open when the safety leaves his guy to anticipate a short pass, or he is throwing an inaccurate ball to someone in single coverage.

In the end, I just can't explain it. It seems as if there are two scenarios in which this team has fallen into... If the guy is open, Smith won't see him, and when Smith makes the perfect pass, the guy drops it. It is unreal, and it is just ridiculous...

The O-Line gets a lot of heat... but the deck is stacked against them too. Those guys have to deal with so many different looks and have to guess if it'll be 3 or 8 guys rushing. Not to say it isn't pathetic that a 6 man protection group gets beat by a 4-man rush... because it is... and they suck for that... I just think the O-Line gets screwed by having so much fall on them with a QB who doesn't have the knack for making the right decisions consistently... and the receivers who drop the balls when Alex Smith actually does make the right decision.

I'm not putting this loss on Alex Smith... because I'm not a retard who blames him for dropped passes. I'm just fed up with the combination of Smith not being able to make plays when it matters... and the receivers not catching the balls when Smith does the unthinkable of hitting them in the damn hands. I know that sounds crazy... but it'll be easier to gamble and replace the QB than it would be to replace an entire receiving corps.

Couldn't agree more-you hit the nail right on the head...

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

Was at this game, and watching them play live, I no longer harbor any illusions that this team can do anything in the playoffs. They are now almost assuredly lost the #2 seed and any hope we had of beating New Orleans.

The entire team struggled but the complete ineptitude of the offensive line was the killer. They couldn't open any holes for the running backs and could not protect the passer. It's one thing to be dominated by the Ravens but quite another to be dominated by the Cardinals. Smith is not the most accurate passer even with time and room to step up in the pocket but he was constantly under pressure before he could even set up back there and the resulting errant passes were predictable.

Being able to see the whole field, it was appallingly clear that none of the receivers can get seperation on their own. The only pass plays completed were the ones where the defender fell or was fooled by covering another route.

Three huge coverage mistakes by the secondary did them in but it was the line who killed them. How do you win the turnover battle 3 to nothing, get a have one of those turnovers set you up at the opponents 16 yard line and get a punt return that sets you up at the opponents 4 yard line and not score a TD?

The only bright side, and its not very bright, is that now that the #2 seed is gone they will get a chance to play a team that they can beat in the first round so that will be a playoff victory before they get decimated in New Orleans. A first round bye and having New Orleans come to SF gives them a first game loss.

Lastly, if John Skelton picks your defense apart, you know you got problems.

 

[CalamityX11]

Was at this game, and watching them play live, I no longer harbor any illusions that this team can do anything in the playoffs. They are now almost assuredly lost the #2 seed and any hope we had of beating New Orleans.

The entire team struggled but the complete ineptitude of the offensive line was the killer. They couldn't open any holes for the running backs and could not protect the passer. It's one thing to be dominated by the Ravens but quite another to be dominated by the Cardinals. Smith is not the most accurate passer even with time and room to step up in the pocket but he was constantly under pressure before he could even set up back there and the resulting errant passes were predictable.

Being able to see the whole field, it was appallingly clear that none of the receivers can get seperation on their own. The only pass plays completed were the ones where the defender fell or was fooled by covering another route.

Three huge coverage mistakes by the secondary did them in but it was the line who killed them. How do you win the turnover battle 3 to nothing, get a have one of those turnovers set you up at the opponents 16 yard line and get a punt return that sets you up at the opponents 4 yard line and not score a TD?

The only bright side, and its not very bright, is that now that the #2 seed is gone they will get a chance to play a team that they can beat in the first round so that will be a playoff victory before they get decimated in New Orleans. A first round bye and having New Orleans come to SF gives them a first game loss.

Lastly, if John Skelton picks your defense apart, you know you got problems.

Being at the game, do you feel different or the same as far as analyzing both the offense and defense vs watching them tv/comp?

and LOL @ the Skelton comment... freaking pass rush!

 

[h0ckeysk83r]

Being at the game, do you feel different or the same as far as analyzing both the offense and defense vs watching them tv/comp?

and LOL @ the Skelton comment... freaking pass rush!

Was at this game also. While its always nice going to the game and seeing the whole field. Ill admit i like watching on TV and actually getting to see replays. Helps analyze better IMO. Cant believe they couldnt punch the ball in the redzone. No excuses there! How can we be going to the playoffs or expect to succeed when we have the worse red zone offense. Blows my mind.

 

[DoobieKeebler]

A response to the general direction this thread has taken ( in smiley form. )






:ss:


I mean.... really.

 

[zman1527]

It is just crazy because it isn't all on him... for the most part, you pressure Smith and he won't beat you...

They are all like that pretty much. Not saying A smith is great, but I have seen Tom Brady look pretty bad when he is under serious pressure all the time.

Alex is limited but so is the receiving corp. Why do we have such a problem recruiting great receivers? Can we steal whoever has that job for Green Bay? They constantly add new guys who are big, tall, fast, and catch the ball. Meanwhile, we have Ted Ginn.

 

[Kinzu]

We could sign Jason Hill and release Edwards. It's a start.

 

[zman1527]

I could not watch the game yesterday so I just caught the highlights. Holy cow, did we have a bunch of failed opportunities.

The other key difference in the game: their receivers made big plays and ours, again, did not. Is Skelton a better QB than Alex or is the receivers?

A couple of weeks ago I was watching the halftime show for the early NFL games and they showed first half highlights from the 10 or so games in progress at that time. They showed at least 5 or 6 huge plays by receivers, taking short passes and breaking tackles and going all the way or else getting wide open for easy long TDs. When do our receivers do that? Almost never. Except for Williams doing that in the last game I cannot remember the last time an SF receiver did that. And it is not the QB. I am talking about guys taking any old easy pass from any QB and doing something special. Our receivers cannot do that.

 

[MW49ers5]

My thoughts on this game, and the culmination of the past years... now that I've let my emotions subside.

I respect and support Alex Smith. I love his work ethic and his ability to fight through the disastrous situations of Nolan and Singletary as Head Coaches... but that doesn't mean I can't see his limitations. I don't feel as if he is the only problem with the offense, but the team can't win a Super Bowl with him... and knowing that, what is the point of keeping him if they can't get that far with him?

It is just crazy because it isn't all on him... for the most part, you pressure Smith and he won't beat you... that is why teams have no qualms with putting up the 8 man fronts on Gore. It helps contain Frank, and it takes away the easy passes from Alex. They have nothing to fear while leaving 3 guys deep... because even when Alex does beat the pressure and 8-man front to make the pass... guys like Ginn can't find the ball in the air, and guys like V.D. drop TDs in the endzone. And when those guys aren't dropping balls, Smith is completely missing the guy left wide open when the safety leaves his guy to anticipate a short pass, or he is throwing an inaccurate ball to someone in single coverage.

In the end, I just can't explain it. It seems as if there are two scenarios in which this team has fallen into... If the guy is open, Smith won't see him, and when Smith makes the perfect pass, the guy drops it. It is unreal, and it is just ridiculous...

The O-Line gets a lot of heat... but the deck is stacked against them too. Those guys have to deal with so many different looks and have to guess if it'll be 3 or 8 guys rushing. Not to say it isn't pathetic that a 6 man protection group gets beat by a 4-man rush... because it is... and they suck for that... I just think the O-Line gets screwed by having so much fall on them with a QB who doesn't have the knack for making the right decisions consistently... and the receivers who drop the balls when Alex Smith actually does make the right decision.

I'm not putting this loss on Alex Smith... because I'm not a retard who blames him for dropped passes. I'm just fed up with the combination of Smith not being able to make plays when it matters... and the receivers not catching the balls when Smith does the unthinkable of hitting them in the damn hands. I know that sounds crazy... but it'll be easier to gamble and replace the QB than it would be to replace an entire receiving corps.

Great Post, Three!

It will be interesting to hear what Smith & Harbaugh have to say about the deep pass to Ginn. I have watched the play several times now and it does appear as if the hit on Smith did affect the pass.

If not, and this is a simple matter of a WR running a pattern and just flat out losing the ball, then it may be time to remove Ginn from the passing game. I'll reserve judgemnt until I hear from Smith & Harbaugh on what exactly happened on the play.

If Ginn just lost the ball, that would be too bad as Ginn appeared to have made a lot of progress between last year and earlier this season. Not to mention, once again like last week, Ginn had blown the defender (Jefferson) away and was wide open.

 

[iHATEdodgers]

Great Post, Three!

It will be interesting to hear what Smith & Harbaugh have to say about the deep pass to Ginn. I have watched the play several times now and it does appear as if the hit on Smith did affect the pass.

If not, and this is a simple matter of a WR running a pattern and just flat out losing the ball, then it may be time to remove Ginn from the passing game. I'll reserve judgemnt until I hear from Smith & Harbaugh on what exactly happened on the play.

If Ginn just lost the ball, that would be too bad as Ginn appeared to have made a lot of progress between last year and earlier this season. Not to mention, once again like last week, Ginn had blown the defender (Jefferson) away and was wide open.

I don't think you can see it any other way than that he just lost the damn ball. That was a great pass would have hit him in stride tacking towards the inside. Ginn looked straight up he looked over his right shoulder he looked at his feet, I mean WTF dude why don't you look for it where it's designed to be? Boneheaded. To be fair he just lost it somehow but damn dude it's not like you don't so this shit every fucking day! The football usually comes out of the fucking air from the direction of the QB fuckin find it you asshole!

 

[Jikkle]

The it was a total loss for the offense as all areas contributed to the loss.

I think Roman overall is doing a fantastic job but once again he has questionable play calling in the red zone. It just feels like he's being too "cute" with his play calling instead of keeping it simple and getting the ball in your playmarkers hand.

The offense line for some reason looked like they didn't even want to touch the Cardinals D line like they had cooties or something. Granted Smith could've gotten the ball off quicker but our offensive line could've blocked much better. Compare that to Skelton who was actually frequently pressured but because the offensive line blocked solidly he was able to move around and make a few plays.

Smith didn't play well but he wasn't horrid either. He could've gotten rid of the ball a bit quicker and he didn't make any critical plays but nobody around him stepped up and made critical plays when they had the chance either which leads me to......

Our WR and TEs completely lack in the dynamic big play department. They miss on big plays they should make and it seems like they can't make a difficult catch to save their lives. It seems like unless Smith hits them perfectly (and sometimes even when he does) they can't make anything out of it. I don't want to sound like I'm giving Smith a free pass because it's not my intention but I don't think enough blame goes to his weapons.

There is no question Rodgers is a awesome QB but how many times does the guy chuck to the sidelines and let Jordy Nelson go up and grab it and he tips his toes inbounds for a 30+ yard gain. That happens multiple times in just one game for the Packers and I can't even think of one time it's happened all year for us. Heck I'm having a tough time thinking of just one play our WR had to make a difficult catch and make a big play. Most of our big passing plays come from busted coverage or Smith laying a perfect pass on the receiver.

I'm not completely down on the team because I do take heart in the fact we do at least have opportunities to score and not just stuck on our side of the field for all of the game going 3 and out punting the ball. If the play calling improves and we execute a little better than those FG turn into TDs and the offense doesn't look too bad and has a chance to be competitive in the playoffs.

 

[iHATEdodgers]

My thoughts on this game, and the culmination of the past years... now that I've let my emotions subside.

I respect and support Alex Smith. I love his work ethic and his ability to fight through the disastrous situations of Nolan and Singletary as Head Coaches... but that doesn't mean I can't see his limitations. I don't feel as if he is the only problem with the offense, but the team can't win a Super Bowl with him... and knowing that, what is the point of keeping him if they can't get that far with him?

It is just crazy because it isn't all on him... for the most part, you pressure Smith and he won't beat you... that is why teams have no qualms with putting up the 8 man fronts on Gore. It helps contain Frank, and it takes away the easy passes from Alex. They have nothing to fear while leaving 3 guys deep... because even when Alex does beat the pressure and 8-man front to make the pass... guys like Ginn can't find the ball in the air, and guys like V.D. drop TDs in the endzone. And when those guys aren't dropping balls, Smith is completely missing the guy left wide open when the safety leaves his guy to anticipate a short pass, or he is throwing an inaccurate ball to someone in single coverage.

In the end, I just can't explain it. It seems as if there are two scenarios in which this team has fallen into... If the guy is open, Smith won't see him, and when Smith makes the perfect pass, the guy drops it. It is unreal, and it is just ridiculous...

The O-Line gets a lot of heat... but the deck is stacked against them too. Those guys have to deal with so many different looks and have to guess if it'll be 3 or 8 guys rushing. Not to say it isn't pathetic that a 6 man protection group gets beat by a 4-man rush... because it is... and they suck for that... I just think the O-Line gets screwed by having so much fall on them with a QB who doesn't have the knack for making the right decisions consistently... and the receivers who drop the balls when Alex Smith actually does make the right decision.

I'm not putting this loss on Alex Smith... because I'm not a retard who blames him for dropped passes. I'm just fed up with the combination of Smith not being able to make plays when it matters... and the receivers not catching the balls when Smith does the unthinkable of hitting them in the damn hands. I know that sounds crazy... but it'll be easier to gamble and replace the QB than it would be to replace an entire receiving corps.[/QUOTE]

Joe Montana could hit Ginn in the hands and the result would be the same. Why would it be easier to gamble and replace the QB than to replace the WR corps? I mean yeah there's only 1 QB and there's a whole WR corps, so it might take longer to find 4 dudes instead of 1...

Anyway we don't need to replace the entire corps, Crabtree is solid Morgan can hopefully come back - man do I miss that guy He actually fucking catches the goddamn football - Williams is looking like a very good player. I mean VD geezus he's gonna have his drops no matter who is throwing it to him. Ginn though come on, even when they use him right he loses the ball, in the meantime no more fades please.

Anyway I'm down to strangthen the QB position, but that's not easy to do and there is no one out there who has been available recently or who is going to be avaiable next season (that I am aware of) that equates to an upgrade if you ask me. So in the meantime I'd really just like to see everyone play better, catch the ball better, throw the ball better, block someone sometimes, run it better, runblock better. At the same time we're 10-3. We need to get better to become the elite team we could be but at least we don't suck.

 

[Jikkle]

Great Post, Three!

It will be interesting to hear what Smith & Harbaugh have to say about the deep pass to Ginn. I have watched the play several times now and it does appear as if the hit on Smith did affect the pass.

If not, and this is a simple matter of a WR running a pattern and just flat out losing the ball, then it may be time to remove Ginn from the passing game. I'll reserve judgemnt until I hear from Smith & Harbaugh on what exactly happened on the play.

If Ginn just lost the ball, that would be too bad as Ginn appeared to have made a lot of progress between last year and earlier this season. Not to mention, once again like last week, Ginn had blown the defender (Jefferson) away and was wide open.

I would have to watch it again to be sure but I'm almost positive he lost the ball because it seemed like Smith was laying it out to a spot he though Ginn was going to be and Ginn seemed a little lost towards the end there and didn't seem like he was running a confident route.

 

[tzill]

Being at the game, do you feel different or the same as far as analyzing both the offense and defense vs watching them tv/comp?

and LOL @ the Skelton comment... freaking pass rush!

You had to know Nolan would run right to the computer to empty his diaper.

Just like fucking clockwork.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

Being at the game, do you feel different or the same as far as analyzing both the offense and defense vs watching them tv/comp?

and LOL @ the Skelton comment... freaking pass rush!

Much easier to judge when watching it live and seeing the whole field and how each play is developing instead of just seing what the camera shows you on TV......at least for me.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

We could sign Jason Hill and release Edwards. It's a start.

Unfortunately Edwards, though he played a lot, was invisable out there. Just couldn't get oppen.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

Great Post, Three!

It will be interesting to hear what Smith & Harbaugh have to say about the deep pass to Ginn. I have watched the play several times now and it does appear as if the hit on Smith did affect the pass.

If not, and this is a simple matter of a WR running a pattern and just flat out losing the ball, then it may be time to remove Ginn from the passing game. I'll reserve judgemnt until I hear from Smith & Harbaugh on what exactly happened on the play.

If Ginn just lost the ball, that would be too bad as Ginn appeared to have made a lot of progress between last year and earlier this season. Not to mention, once again like last week, Ginn had blown the defender (Jefferson) away and was wide open.

That is exactly what it looked like to me. Ginn should be restricted to the return game. he made a nice punt return but he is prety bad as a receiver. When he does see the ball, chances are he's going to drop it anyway.

 

[Ray_Dogg]

QB is very low on my list of those to blame for this loss.

 

[Mozart'sGhost]

QB is very low on my list of those to blame for this loss.

Agreed. He had no time to throw and the running game was no threat. Peyton Manning couldn't have won it behind that offensive line.

 

[MW49ers5]

I would have to watch it again to be sure but I'm almost positive he lost the ball because it seemed like Smith was laying it out to a spot he thought Ginn was going to be and Ginn seemed a little lost towards the end there and didn't seem like he was running a confident route.

The route was a simple sprint to the Blue Buick, break toward the Red Celica (go-post) which Ginn runs beautifully. He breaks it off at ~25 yards and looks back for the ball but the ball is not in his line-of-sight. He then looks forward to see if the ball is beyond him - nothing, He then looks back toward Smith - still nothing. So that is the explanation I am waiting to hear/read.

Is that end of the stadium open with natural light? Did Smith getting hit cause the ball to float? Did the ball just squirt from Smith's hand (at one point the ball is fluttering so badly the ends of it look almost parallel to the 45 yard line). Did Ginn break his route too shallow? Did Alex throw the ball too deep? Is Ginn involved in some kind of point shaving scam? You get the message.

There is an explanation that goes beyond the usual 'it was miscommunication' bs, but hopefully one of the three (Harbs, Smith or Ginn) will add a little more color than dishing out that answer. And, as previously mentioned, if the only explanation is that Ginn simply doofused the play, then my confidence in Ginn will be on the same level as it was with Crabtree last season.