49ers-Seahawks: Nickel and Dimeing ourselves too death

by Fooch on Sep 15, 2008 3:00 AM PDT in News

After such a wild game, I like to take some time to take a breath before looking back at the performance. A win is a win is a win and even more so when it's a divisional opponent who has won that very division four straight seasons. As long as they've got Holmgren and Hasselbeck, Seattle is a dangerous opponent, as they showed today.

However, after this kind of win, it's important to look back at the mistakes. I can't make the team make adjustments, but hopefully they recognize what we recognize and adjust accordingly. I'd been pondering a column on the defense for this week and Bob On The Coast's comment in the recap combined with something in one of the beat writer recaps pushed it up to the day after, instead of later in the week.

Simply put, what was up with all the nickel and dime defense? During the game it felt like we were seeing a lot of nickel and dime defense and a lack of pass rush. Turns out there was a reason. The team played pretty much the entire game in a nickel or dime defense. One piece of fallout from this, aside from a 5.0 ypc from Seattle running backs? Manny Lawson didn't play a single defensive snap. Lawson spent the entire game on special teams as he is not a member of the nickel or dime defense.

Coach Nolan felt going into the game that Seattle would not change their offensive scheme in light of all the injuries, so Nolan figured why change the defensive scheme. Two season ago when the 49ers beat Seattle on the road they used this same style of defense and pulled off the upset. They felt they could get enough of a pass rush from the defensive line and contain Hasselbeck. In regards to the results, Nolan had this to say:

Seattle's got an outstanding offensive scheme. It would be foolish for them to change and try to go to something else because of some injuries. What I thought they did do effectively was use their young tight end (John Carlson) several times over the middle. We had had him covered, but he still did a very good job.

I have numerous questions about this strategy and the results. Obviously the win is important so clearly something was working. At the same time, wouldn't adjustments on defense have made this a little bit easier of a win? When John Carlson was catching all sorts of passes over the middle and Julius Jones was gashing the 49ers at 4.9 a pop, wouldn't something go off in your head hinting that maybe a change is necessary?

Would using a more traditional 3-4 or 4-3 have contained Carlson a bit more? This is just speculation, but would an extra linebacker across the middle have kept Carlson in check while bringing more pass rush at the same time? The team talked about how they used this kind of defense two years ago, but I really understand why you'd play the same way against a beaten down offense like we saw today?

In two games now, the 49ers have employed what might qualify as bend, hopefully not break, but likely will break on occasion style of defense. While running their nickel and dime defenses, they've been absolutely nickeled and dimed to death by Hasselbeck and Warner. Hasselbeck struggled in the passing game, but he was still able to make enough plays to make for a long afternoon. And after an impressive pass rush in the first half last week, the 49ers pass rush has looked abysmal in the six subsequent quarters.

This all comes across as rather negative. Considering how snake-bitten the 49ers have seemed at times this season, 1-1 is as good as I could expect. I actually figured they'd have won last week and lost this week, but I won't quibble with where they're at right now. I just think with some of the offenses they'll be facing this season, the defense will need to perform much better.

Considering the talent in the division, the NFC West remains very winnable for all parties involved, except probably St. Louis. Seattle will be getting back Branch and Engram and is probably at rock bottom in terms of injuries. Considering the Three Stooges nature of the 49ers performance last week, it's hard to tell where Arizona stands, aside from 2-0 and in first place. Considering all the turnovers, the 49ers defense was not all that bad against the Cardinals. However, repeat performances like today do not win division titles.

I'm awaiting some additional info from Nolan via the 49ers PR people so I certainly hope to bring you more solid info in the coming days. As the offense stepped up today, the defense took a bit of a step back and needs to figure out what's up exactly. The Lions come to town next week with a big time air attack behind Calvin Johnson and Roy Williams. They will definitely not nickel and dime us to death. The 49ers offense is improving, but I'm not sure if they're ready to compete in a track meet with the Lions.

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Pass Rush

Well the niners defense actually played better then the 30 points say. First of all, came from an defesnive TD. Then another 7 game from a really really really unlucky play. And 10 points can when P-willie was on the sidelines. So with a little more luck we should have given up 13-23 points. The pass rush was non esistant other than 3 plays, the michael lewis sack, the walk harris int, and the play before the michael lewis sack. A lot of people say how JTO needs to learn when to throw the ball out of bounce, but I like his persona of fighting to avoid sacks and keeping the play alive. Detroit next week. They have a bad defense, a one demensional offense, and a frusterated group of guys. Now if this game was in Detroit, I would expect them to come out hot with all their anger. But in the Stick, I think it the niners will win. The only thing that does consider me is running that nickel and dime packages. They have 4 guys that can catch the ball. What we need to do is make John Kitna make mistakes by getting in his face a lot more. Seriously, Parys Haralson is so underrated. Watching him yesterday, the few plays he was in, he was really giving Walter Jones a lot of trouble. And Deroit doesn;t have anyone like Walter Jones. I’d like to see Lawson blitz more and see more of these wierd packages we saw against Arizona. I think poeple are forgetting that those 15 and 18 play drives did not lose the game for us. 5 turnovers did. And the secondary was not nearly as aggreessive as it was against Seatlle. So come sunday, let get to 2-1!

According to the comminsioner of the nfl, 104 people retired last year. 7 due to age, and the rest because of Patrick Willis

by montasmob69 on Sep 15, 2008 4:43 AM PDT 0 recs

Is this why there are so many D-backs on the roster?

As you would guess, Fooch, I agree. I’m not even saying that they shouldn’t have used the nickel as a base. Just mix it up. The problem with “bend don’t break” is that if you are on the field too long you do break. You run the real possibility of wearing down your defense and allowing your offense to get out of sync sitting around.

It was a weird game. I thought the Niners should have pounded Seattle yesterday but, at least when the defense was out on the field, they seemed to be outcoached. This is the second week I’ve felt that. With the exception of the D-line, I think that the talent on the defense should be playing better. Then again, they did come away with a win.

The offense has been a joy. It’s like having a kid learning to play the violin, suffering through years of screeching and squealing, and then suddenly one Sunday the kid is knocking out a Beethoven concerto. O’Sullivan played with poise, threw with accuracy, and had the body language of a leader. Instant respect. People who blathered about his resume predicting his talent will be swallowing their words today.

by Bob On The Coast on Sep 15, 2008 7:40 AM PDT 0 recs

DBs and defensive performance.

I think your question has a lot of validity in it. Aside from the 49ers, every team in this division is known for their multi-wide sets. Having the extra DBs allows for flexibility in gameplan and injury shuffles.

While I definitely agree with you in that the “bend but don’t break” defense will wear down a defense, I disagree with the idea that the defensive performance was because of lack of coaching. I think the players are just as guilty in their performance (or lack thereof). I think the secondary is pretty solid. Aside from Romans coverage of Carlson, which was an absolute FAIL, the defensive backs were really good at forcing a tough catch as well as preventing any kind of run after the catch. They were there when the ball was there. Naturally, you’d like for a little more of a pass rush, but it says something when a QB of Hasselbeck’s stature (in terms of accuracy) is held to a completion percentage of of 50% with two interceptions.

I think the team definitely could have done a better job of adjusting to Carlson, but I can’t really complain about the rest of the coverage. I don’t think they had to leave the nickel/dime packages, but I definitely think someone other than Spikes (whether or be Lawson OR Haralson) should have been playing the linebacker spot next to Willis.

On a closing note, I think O’Sullivan’s play was pretty awesome. He has that innate ability to want MORE out of every play. While that proved to be very good on a couple of plays today, it also proved to be very detrimental to the offense on a couple of others. I don’t remember for sure, but it seems like at least half of the sacks he took were probably because he held onto the ball for too long. It’s a timing offense, if you don’t see it, it’s not going to be there. He’s gotta get rid of the ball in those kinds of situations, especially those like the one where he was already out of the pocket and he took a hit by the sidelines.

by sfgfan on Sep 15, 2008 10:13 AM PDT up 0 recs

sfg, points well taken

And, of course, there’s always the proviso that I’m sitting at home watching a tv and am hostage to what the cameras show us, which is usually not the defense at the snap of the ball. And I don’t know what’s happening on the sidelines.

There are two ways to defense a passing game: more coverage or more pressure on the quarterback. In the first game the Niners lost, in large part, because in the second half the offense couldn’t get on the field. The problem wasn’t so obvious yesterday, and the Niners actually had a time-of-possession advantage counting the four minutes they had the ball in overtime.

I think you’re on to something because of the offenses in the NFC West (and let’s not forget New England is on the schedule). Statistically, Hasselbeck didn’t have a very good game (his passing rating was less than half O’Sullivan’s). Still he almost beat the Niners, in much the same way that Warner did beat them last week. We shall see. I still think a couple of blitzes would have done a world of good.

by Bob On The Coast on Sep 15, 2008 4:13 PM PDT 0 recs

Hasselbeck

I think that Seattle’s defense, whether it be players, scheme, or a combination of both, almost beat the 49ers. The fact they were able to shut down Gore almost completely is somewhat amazing. If you take away the dump offs to Gore in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter, I think his all-purpose yards would have been below 75 yards, and that’s amazing.

It’s kind of a stupid way to look at things, but if you take away that Gore fumble for defensive TD and the ridiculous play that resulted from Manny Lawson’s blocked punt, the score would probably be drastically different. Nevertheless, the game was a lot closer than it should have been, in my opinion. The coupling the 49ers mistakes, while there really weren’t any big ones, with the run-smothering defense that Seattle ran resulted in a very close game.

It’ll be interesting to see how the offense does against a fairly lowly Detroit defense next week. As long as Shawntae Spencer is okay, I think that the 49ers defense matches up very well with the Lion offense. Their offensive line isn’t as good as the Seahawks, so maybe the front 3 or 4 can generate a little more pressure by themselves, or at least make it so that the 49ers coaching staff doesn’t abandon the blitzing too early. Gore should have a fairly big day against them, as they can’t really cue on him as much as people have in the past.

by sfgfan on Sep 15, 2008 4:54 PM PDT up 0 recs