While the 49ers did lose a tough one on Sunday, there were some fairly notable performances on the day. Cornerback Carlos Rogers was one such guy. Rogers was not spectacular on the day and notably took the blame for not playing deep enough on the final overtime pass to Jesse Holley. He got caught up in the play action and Holley blew past everybody for the easy catch and run.
While Rogers can be criticized for that play and some other hiccups during the game, he had an overall strong game. One of my favorite plays was when he cam in hard on Jason Witten to break up what seemed like a sure catch. Patrick Willis was the other part of that little sandwich, but Rogers did his share. I realize game balls don't go out after losses, but we're having this post every week so we'll try and figure out some bright spots for using it.
Thought the first two weeks of this season, Rogers has been a definite bright spot at the cornerback position. Against the Cowboys, the 49ers mixed up their use of Rogers, playing him on the left side, the right side, and even in the slot. He was playing man, playing zone, and he was even mixed in the blitzing.
The 49ers secondary has had some issues this season, but if you had to rank the areas for improvement, Carlos Rogers would rank pretty low on that list for now. The 49ers are hoping to get Dashon Goldson and Shawntae Spencer back this week. Spencer gets some crap at times, but he's shown at times that he can be a decent cornerback. He's not a spectacular corner, but Tarell Brown has appeared inconsistent enough that I think Spencer could be a bit more reliable opposite Rogers.
In spite of his solid play thus far, Rogers did also manage the most amusing play of the game. Redskins fans' biggest critique of Rogers was that he could never haul in interceptions. They felt he had awful hands and dropped numerous would-be interceptions. Head after the jump to view the play where we definitely can't blame his hands!
If the picture is slowing down the opening time of the page too much I'll just link to it. Let me know if it's slowing things down for you too much.
