Woooo! Secondary Play Reminiscent of Days Past

Former San Francisco 49ers players love to  reminisce about the good old days. They remember when the team was winning Super Bowls and the crowds showed up to the games full of anticipation, waiting for the inevitable moments of triumph to rise up in unison and cheer with full hearts and loud voices. One particularly fond recollection that I've repeatedly heard the players talk about is the "woo" hits that Ronnie Lott was famous for doing.

If you don't remember, though I'd be surprised if anyone doesn't, a "woo" hit is where you see a defender hit the ball carrier so hard that everyone in the stadium and all the folks at home says "wooooo" at the same time. There is nothing quite so satisfying as a well executed, perfectly timed, precision strike on a ball carrier, especially when the hit separates the player from the ball. As my wife so eloquently stated to me while talking about this subject, the best "woo" hits are the ones where the ball stays where it was, but the player that had the ball is somewhere else, a few yards away.

Yesterday Dashon Goldson set his sights on Mike Williams attempting to turn upfield on a simple slant at the 1:07 mark in the third quarter. I thought there were new rules about player safety that would make what happened next impossible. Goldson executed a perfectly legal, perfectly timed hit on Williams just as he had gained full possession of the ball, and the results were spectacular. 

Someone watching the game with me came into the room because they heard the hit after they had been in the kitchen for a few minutes. That was how good this hit was. Wherever Ronnie Lott was, he was smiling.

With the emergence of the stellar play by Carlos Rodgers and with Goldson playing out of his mind, this secondary unit is really starting to emerge as a unit to be feared. Losing Tremaine Brock was a blow, but his injury has forced the coaches to rely on their 3rd round pick, Chris Culliver, to play an important role. Yesterday he showed that he's more than capable of playing his role in the defense, as he had his first career interception in an all around solid performance. 

Jim Harbaugh is proving to be a detail oriented coach, and it shows in the disciplined play that the secondary has displayed over the last few weeks. Even in the game against the Eagles, they played disciplined ball. You can't fault them for not being as fast as Desean Jackson, can you? Their red zone performances continue to be as close to perfect as is possible in the league, and our red zone numbers back that up.

I am becoming increasingly excited by what I continue to see from this team and this unit. Discipline and passion have been combined to form a unit that is learning to believe what they see and attack with conviction and fury. When this unit is on, I am reminded of the glory days of my youth. 

Detroit will provide ample opportunities for the secondary to prove it's improvement. Lately, it seems like every week provides a bigger challenge, and Calvin Johnson, Matthew Stafford and the Lions will be their biggest test yet.