49ers @ Cardinals: Scouts Inc preview

by David Fucillo on Nov 23, 2007 11:45 PM PST in San Francisco 49ers News

I'm heading back to San Francisco bright and early Sunday morning, so I'll probably have an open thread up by 11am or noon pacific time. In the meantime, here's some more Scouts Inc preview, and feel free to use this as an open thread for Saturday college football. There are some HUGE matchups including Kansas-Missouri, Virginia-Virginia Tech and West Virginia UConn. The national title game is up for grabs and anyone from Kansas to Ohio State could end up in the New Orleans come January.

When the 49ers have the ball
Passing: The 49ers entered last week dead last in passing offense. The good news is that they did throw the ball for 212 yards versus St. Louis last week. The bad news is that it took them 42 passing attempts to amass that low total...

Arizona is an attacking front seven and Pendergast will use multiple fronts and looks. He will also bring a lot of zone-blitz pressure. The best thing you can do to an offense that is the worst in the NFL is to keep them guessing from down to down. The Cardinals' defense has seen a lot of risk-reward type of situations this season. They will risk a lot and sell out a lot this week because the 49ers just don't have any playmakers on the outside that strike fear into anyone. The 49ers average less than five-yards per pass completion and their long pass play of the year is 47 yards. Those are not numbers that inspire a defense to play on their heels and the Cardinals will be on full attack mode this week.

I think it makes all the sense in the world for the Cardinals to just bum rush Trent Dilfer and let their corners take their chances one-on-one with our receivers. Even if Dilfer gets time to throw, most of our receivers seem to be likely to drop the ball anyways.

When the Cardinals have the ball
Rushing: The Cardinals' run offense is not much better than the 49ers. Starting RB Edgerrin James has only one 100-yard game this season and that came way back in Week 2.

The 49ers are solid in the front seven and have done a good job versus the run, for the most part. Rookie ILB Patrick Willis is vying to be the defensive rookie if the year based on how many tackles he has this season. However, Willis can get out of position at times, which has resulted in some big runs this season. Arizona does not have much of a big-play element in the run game, so look for San Francisco to pretty much play the Cardinals straight up in this game with a seven-man front. The Cardinals do an excellent job of spreading the field with multiple receiver sets but San Francisco should still be able to contain James with six in the box, if the Cardinals try to attack via the run versus the 49ers' sub-packages.

I can see how Willis can get out of position as he overpursues on occasion. Thankfully he has the speed to get back into position. That is definitely one area he needs to work on, and one more reason I'm glad Mike Singletary will be around for a little while longer.

Passing: The Cardinals will use a lot of high/low routes, which are designed to open up the other receiver...Warner at times will still hold the ball too long, so look for the 49ers to do a lot of shifting and throw multiple looks at the veteran QB in an attempt to get him to hold the ball a split second longer than he would like.

The 49ers did a good job versus the pass last week in a loss to St. Louis, but the key was getting pressure as they sacked QB Marc Bulger six times. The 49ers have to get pressure this week if they are going to slow down Arizona's pass offense. They are not good enough to defend in the backend without pressure, which would allow Warner to pick apart this defense.

The 49ers secondary looked great in Week 1 against Leinart and Co. Does anybody sense a repeat performance against Warner and Co?

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A repeat performance...

is highly unlikely.

I figure by now many of you think that I have abandoned ship because of my criticism of the Niners. I assure you I have not, just a LITTLE discruntle. How could I/we not be?

Most of us remember that the win from week 1 against the Cards was a lucky one. If it were not for D-Jack falling on the loose ball in the endzone it would have been curtains for the Niners.

I am not sure what the hell is going on. It is as if the opponents are spending every waking second studying film on the Niners. Obviously, that is not the case. The way I see it, oppenents could study film from week 1 and not even have to look at film from the other 11 weeks, really. Nolan and Hostler have talked about change, but I have not seen it. I mean, if you want to call throwing in a few gimmick plays change then sure there has been change. But that is not change at all if you ask me. More like desperation.

The Niners will lose this game because little is going to change. Here is why:

-Receivers will continue to drop passes
-Receivers will not get seperation
-Receivers will not get any YAC/RAC
-Dilfer will miss some throws
-Dilfer will get sacked, often
-Gore will pout
-Gore will pout some more
-Gore will re-aggravate ankle injury
-Nolan will mismanage the game
-Niners will get 5 first downs in the first half
-Niners will not use the hurry-up offense until
it is to late
-Niners don't understand the idea of a QB sneak,
have not ran one all year
-Niners will try gimmick plays at inoppurtune
times
-Hicks or whoever is returning kicks will fumble
-The Disease and others will be penalized several
times on otherwise successful plays
-Niners will shift formation on offense and not
even confuse the defense
-The Niners are the Niners

That about covers it.

Hostler the Horrible

by jfainsf49 on Nov 24, 2007 7:03 AM PST reply actions

Tollner to the rescue

Tollner, in observing the the Niners this last week, has discovered a few minor details that should swing the team onto the road to victory.

For example, he has discovered that Hostler hadn't shown the players that using hands and fingers helps receivers to "catch" the "ball." This alone should add five or six more completions this week.

Also, he has reintroduced the concept of blocking to the offensive line.

After practice he and Dilfer have been seen together swigging out of the same bottle of Geritol.

Help is on the way!

by Bob In Pacifica on Nov 24, 2007 8:22 AM PST reply actions