In spite of ourselves

by wader251 on Sep 15, 2008 6:32 AM PDT Comment 3 comments

I know everyone is really fired up about the win in Seattle yesterday, but after watching the first half a question ran through my mind. Are the Niners a team that is going to have to win games this year in spite of themselves? Thats how I would have described last years team. And last year with that offense they weren't able to win very often. Here is where this thought really comes from. After the Niners first touchdown of the day with just under a minute left in the half Nedney kicks the ball out of bounds on the kickoff, setting up a Seattle field goal. So instead of going into the locker room down four with some momentum they go in down seven.

Now this years team looks like it has more offense which means they will likely win more games than last year, but when the above scenario played out I looked at my fiance and said this is the niners don't win as many games as they should. Good teams don't do these types of things. So I guess I would like to hear what you guys think. This year, are we a team that has to win in spite of ourselves, or are we a team that will eventually be able to go out and impose our will on our opponent?

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.

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Game Plan and coaching

I think it’s entirely possible we will be able to impose our will on folks eventually. Obviously Nedney is to blame for that bad kickoff but I think that was a rare, one-time type of thing.

We definitely won yesterday in spite of ourselves but if the defensive game plan can be improved, things “appear” to be coming together otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of ugly mistakes yesterday that need to be handled. The primary one being pass protection. The blocked punt turned into a first down? Bad luck. However, the pass protection is not a question of luck. JTO is a tough guy who sticks int he pocket, but at the rate he’s being sacked, he’ll be too sore to throw the ball downfield.

I’ve mentioned the defense as being an issue but I think the bigger issue is that pass protection. The defensive problems are more game planning, which can be improved on a game-to-game basis. The offensive line problems could be schematic in nature, but I don’t have a lot of answers yet.

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by Fooch on Sep 15, 2008 8:59 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Sacks

I think more than half of the sacks given up by the 49ers offensive line could have been avoided by JT letting go of the ball. There were times where he could have stepped up and out instead of retreating. There were times where he was already out of the pocket and just failed to unload the ball. JT’s got to give his offensive line a little more to work with.

As for Nedney’s kick, I think he does one of those at least a couple of times a season. He’ll just completely botch a kick off. Considering his age, it’s probably something to be expected now, as he’s probably not going to improve upon it.

I don’t think the 49ers problems are in schemes. It may have to do with coaching, but in the sense that the players are not executing and maybe there are ways the coaches can work with them toward achieving that.

For example, I think that the entire defensive gameplan going into Seattle was to just minimize any big plays. They’ve employed the same exact defense for the Seahawks throughout Nolan’s regime, so they aren’t keen on changing it, obviously. I think the thought is that you can let them run all they want, as it’s tougher (and more time consuming) to get to the other end of the field gaining 5 yards at a time. The pass defense was fairly solid, despite the fact there was no pressure. WRs never really got to run with the ball, which is good. Thanks to the aggressiveness of Walt Harris and Nate Clements, WRs didn’t always get a clean shot at catching the ball either. The only thing I disagreed with was keeping Spikes in the game instead of a guy like Lawson. I think Lawson may have done and infinitely better job than Roman in covering a rookie tight end, but what do I know.

Biggest thing from me this game was JT holding onto the ball too long. Those kinds of sacks are deflating to an offensive line unit because they DID give him time to throw, he just didn’t throw (even if it would only be incomplete).

by sfgfan on Sep 15, 2008 9:50 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Based on the first couple of weeks...

… from this season alone, I think this team will definitely need to win “in spite of” themselves. There are just way too many mistakes, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The defense does a pretty good job of negating mistakes by the offense early in the game (we saw this early last week as well as this week), but they get tired down by the time the second half rolls around.

There’s always the hope that the mistakes will be minimized as players settle in and get more comfortable with the game, themselves, and their teammates. But you’re absolutely right wader, this team’s mistakes will be their primary undoing.

by sfgfan on Sep 15, 2008 9:42 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs