Dallas, coming off a dismal 6-10 season, and an embarassing loss to the J-E-T-S on Sunday night would seem to be ripe for the plucking. Tony Romo tossed a game-ending INT in the last minutes, and fumbled and stumbled his way (5-12, int, lost fumble) to an epic 4th quarter meltdown which led to Nick Folk’s game winning 50 yard FG with 27 seconds remaining after Romo get them to a 14 point lead to start the 4th.
Dallas gained 340 yards through the air, so this looks to be a huge indication of how well our newly formed defensive backfield has coalesced. Witten, Romo’s favorite target, should be jammed at the line constantly. Knock him off his routes early and often. However, it’s hard to double him when they have Dez Bryant and Miles Austin waiting to catch balls. Regardless of Romo’s meltdown, Dallas has a strong passing game, but did give up 4 sacks that caused two Romo fumbles.
Bringing the pressure is going to be key. The Niners were able to get away with a fairly vanilla defense vs Seattle. The Niners were just blowing their O line away for the most part, so blitzing wasn’t used much, or needed much. The hope is that they dial up some different looks (like say Willis getting some backfield action) and get some unblocked guys in the backfield. Romo gets as skittish as a kitten when under constant pressure, hitting him early would help. The last time these guys played, the Niners were able to get pretty consistent edge pressure, but AF had one of his weakest games in his time here, and couldn’t push Stepnowski back, so Romo was able to step up and hit passes downfield.
Safety work is aslo big. Whitner and Williams played pretty well most of the game. Rogers had a nice breakup of a pass in the end zone, and Williams was wrongly called on the hit he laid on McCoy to break up a pass down the middle. Don’t know if Goldson even gets back in the line up after what they showed. There were only a couple times that the coverages were blown, and one of them went for a 55 yard score.
Offense? Well, we’ll see. Dallas gave up a lot through the air, and the Jets didn’t run much anyway. Keeping DeMarcus Ware in check looks to be a tall order. Getting a decent run game going woukld go a long way to helping out the offense as a whole. As the Jets showed, these guys can be passed on. But Dallas WILL bring pressure. VD needs to get his ass open, and Edwards should get some shit thrown his way. Crabs should be passed up by Kyle Williams very soon. Morgan? He’s a strong 3.
All in all, this game is a strong test for this young Niner team. Win, and they’ll be the toast of the NFL, for a few hours anyway. Lose a tough one, and they’ll still gain some recognition. Lay an egg, and the little attention these guys get will fall off the map. This game, more than last week’s game, will be determined by the QB play. Give Smith some time, and crowd Romo, and these guys can win this.
Forty Niners Forever 
I’m not sure if this was a typo, but I just read that Crabtree is limited by “feet”. Not a foot, but “feet”. Fuck that dude. Once he actually does something at this level, other than cry like a girl at the back of the enzone, I will pay attention to him again. Otherwise, gimmie me some Joshua Moranua. And by the end of the year, should he steer clear of The Santa Rita Jail, Edwards is going to be a very cool story for us in 2011.
All of you are still bunching your wet panties about Smith and his deficits and Harbaugh and the vanilla offense. But, the same concern needs to be applied to the defense. It’s not like they were running any complicated shit. The Dallas O is infinitely more complicated than the Seattle…..whatever the hell that was. We can beat Dallas if Fangio goes crazy-aggressive-blitz-Ninja-kamakazi on those fuckers. Romo is in desperate need of a Jessica Simpson blowjob to calm his frailed nerves but that will not be coming his way. He’s fucked this weekend, as long as we put pressure on him.
And after the defense wins the game for us I can’t wait to read all about how Alex Smith was responsible for losing it for us. Except for the fact that we won the game……..
Flavor I’m with you regarding Crabtree at this point. How is a WR ever going to establish timing and chemistry with his QB if he’s constantly absent from the Pre Season slate?
He’s a perfect fit for a WCO because he’s got the ability to snatch and go. His issue is running the routes to perfection which he and Alex can’t seem to master.
It’s somewhat of a nice position to be in for Harbaugh & Fangio. No one knows what to expect.
All valid opinions here, (save the testosterone), but I think we all agree that this is a brand new system with new Staffers and live ammo.
Harbaugh impresses me as a guy who like the challenge of being the underdog. He will rally his soldiers and give them each a set of marching orders to master. Alex as the Field General, will have Jim in his ear and around his neck, every step of the way. Something Alex has not had since his arrival.
I don’t sell our guys short, because I think they all feel the enegy Harbaugh is radiating.
I predicted a 6-10 Season, I’m looking for a competitive effort and, small steps each week as they attempt to master the vision Jim and Vic are teaching.
I want to see our guys wearing the same chip on their shoulders that Harbaugh is. Find matchups every week that you think you can win and attack them.
It’s a chess game. Calculate and execute.
Even though that ‘bring the house on every play’ on defense strategy sounds real good and probably works in Madden games more often, in the real world it’s risky and even reckless.
One of the tent poles of defense is don’t give up the big play. Real DCs play with realisitic expectations and recognize the risk of getting burned on a blitz that doesn’t get there. Especially when their offense is not the high-powered move the ball down the field in a hurry type.
We played a lot of man free defense against the ‘hawks and won most of those battles up front with our pressure guys.
The trick is in bringing the blitz when and from where least expected. A zone blitz here and there with the lineman dropping into shallow zone coverage. Some gaming with a lineman-linebacker, stunts up front but rarely twice in a row and always trying to minimize the risk.
Somebody should man Witten when he releases. Who is that man with Manny gone? SS? With Willis on the first guy out of the back field they could kill us with crossing routes in man and in the flat zone the blitzer vacated.
OLB? There goes the five man pressure. It almost demands more zone, at least underneath, but that seemed to slow us down against the Seahawks. Probably a situational mix works best here but are we proficient enough to make it effective?
A few misses and you’re too far behind without enough time to catch up and find yourself going to a bend-don’t break to prevent more scoring .
Let’s hope the front pressure guys can keep Romo contained and rattled without depending on too much blitzing. On his back a few times, too.
NoFear,
I agree with you to an extent about blitzing being reckless, but I also believe in being aggressive in every aspect of football. The minute you play conservative is the minute you’ve accepted a death of a thousand small cuts. To me, blitzing isn’t all or nothing, but more like good play calling of offense. When do you blitz? When do you sit back? and when do you go all man coverage?
I just re-watched the Niner / Seattle game again, and Navorro Bowman and Patrick Willis spied Tavaris Jackson a lot. The Niners rushed 4 with Willis or Bowman pretty much standing at the line waiting for TJ to commit to something. It was obvious they weren’t rushing because TJ was scanning the field in the pocket and our spies weren’t looking for backs – they were focused on TJ runs. Now if the Niners can defend Seattle with six, it doesn’t mean they can defend Dallas with six, but Dez Bryant is injured. If he doesn’t play, I’d double Witten and Austin and make Choice beat us. Make it a Frank Gore vs Choice game and we have a chance. The other scenerio that I think works is bring the house at Romo because of his recent failures. Either way, we have a much better chance if Dez Bryant is out.
It’s Felix Jones you mook.
You don’t pay much attention to detail. I bet you’re a wizard when it comes to following instructions. Move over Gandalf. For it is Spit — Lord of the Mooks.
We’ll see Fangio mix it up some, but with Dallas just having rebuilt its offensive line (2 rookies I believe), I’d expect the basic defensive game plan will be to try to get pressure on Romo rushing four straight up. If we do that, Romo will struggle, and we very possibly could win. I only see Fangio blitzing on every down if the front four in the nickel cannot get it done.
If we do not get pressure… well, I don’t like the odds of their Dez and Austin and Witten against our CBs and safeties. Our guys seem adequate, but both of those guys are pretty good.
the big problem coming up is the dallas pass rush ! harbaugh has done a good job so far with our 0-line ! imho we looked pretty good up front for the first time in years !
i hate to say it but don’t be surprised if we struggle protecting the QB this week . we still have a new center , two rookies from last year and raw rachal as four of our five starters! add a new system and it’s pretty early to have to face a front seven like dallas’!
It is not only the new guys who worry me. Joe Staley has been pretty erratic the last year. He looked pretty mediocre against the Texans, even their second stringers. Now he’ll be looking at DeMarcus Ware. Joe had better bring his A game Sunday.
i think staley will do ok. and at least with harbaugh as HC we’ll be smart enough to help account for ware and give joe as much help as we can against him . i would be surprised if staley doesn’t give up at least one sack to ware one on one … we just have to find ways to offset ware’s impact (sack/pressure) on the game !
Or he can bring his D game and get Alex killed. I’m okay with that.
Spit, only you would think that Bill “Ispit in your Face, steroid boy Romanoski, is great sports analyst. I would not give Bill’s opinion one grain of believability
dude what did you expect … his name is SPIT !
of course he like romanowski !
LOL
Romanowski’s the only dude not afraid to lose his job. All other guys are company men. I think the Green Room is designed to let players speak their minds. I think it’s a great idea. I think Eric Davis is a little compromised by his radio gig.
Well, a hallmark of the Nolanuskytary defense was the underneath zone. Sometimes it worked (see NO and Atl last year), other times, it was riddled by big TEs running drag routes and screen plays out of the backfield (see KC and the 1st Seattle game last year). The key to Witten is to hit him on the line and try to keep close. Allowing him to come clean off the line is usually a recipe for Dallas moving the ball down field with ease.
As far as the pass rush goes, McDonald was fairly impressive against Seattle. Haralson even looked good at times. Dallas retooled their line as well, so the hope is the Niners can get pressure from the front 4 (they usually go 4-3 in passing situations). Soap HAS to get a push up the middle to keep Romo from stepping up. Still and all, I’d love to see a couple surprise Willis blitzes. Preferably blind-side blitzes. The man coverage and safety work was good as well. BUT Dallas brings more weapons to the table, and a better QB. Dallas’ run game is fairly non-existent, so the focus should fall on Romo and pressure. Watch the screen though.
As has been said, this is a big challenge for Harbaugh and Co. A win, or even a close loss, would do a lot for vaildating these guys in a hurry. Our O line needs a great day to keep DeMarcus Ware under control, and at some point, the Niners need to get Gore going.
Comcast Sports Net had some interesting side bets:
Over/under on Ware sacks at 1.5.
Which team has more sacks?
Who would have more catches? Witten or VD?
The Niners are getting 3 points. Over/under is 42. That’s pretty high. The Niners need to hold up their end.
Dallas and the OVER and you can thank me later.
With my requisite 20% gratuity. But of course…
A close loss would do nothing except bring out the “same old” cries. I see it as a game they need to win.I don’t buy that Harbaugh has some extended honeymoon. It lasts as long as Smith plays well or until he dumps him.
Cool pics from the SF Gate
http://tinyurl.com/4xvtmmf
Very cool,Kevin. Thanks.
I had some of those guys on my old blog as past players of the day.
Guess I should restart that . . . .
Apropos of nothing, but the pic I found for McDonald (I have to link to those) is from the same game I took the pic of Brooks sacking Stanton . . .
I guess Pete Carroll thought that Jim Harbaugh had turned Alex Smith into a winner. But by halftime cooler heads prevailed and in the second half Pete started loading the box with 8 and 9 guys. Dallas won’t make the same mistake. The very first offensive Niner play will see 8 and 9 in the box, daring Alex to beat someone deep. Same old story…… Alex won’t and the Niners will score like six points when it counts. Tthen when the ‘Boys are up by 40 Alex will score a TD and celebrate like he won the Masters.
I don’t think Dallas scores 40 on us unless we start turning over the ball three or four times. 24 or 30 maybe, if Romo has one of his good days, but not 40.
The only thing Seattle changed at halftime was their approach on offense. They started throwing downfield more. Seattle was playing 8 in the box the whole game.
Criminy, yer getting as bad as Dennis at making shit up. 3 weeks ago you nunterstood why Smith was here and they’d make the best of it, and you had some amount of faith in the guy. Now you are in full troll mode. You and Dennis need to spend more quality time together.
Before it gets too late, Spitty, realistically, what do you think the 49ers record will be this year? The reason I ask is because this is a game that most people around the country would pencil it in as a 49er loss. Not solely because of our QB, but because this is a young team going through a pretty big transition. Dallas was 6-10 last year. As were the 49ers. Both underachieved. Dallas, at least on paper, has more weapons and more players than the 49ers. Dallas is picked to content for the tough NFC East. The Niners are supposed to be afterthoughts in a weak-ass division. Is Smith part of the percieved problem? Yes. Is it all on him? No.
Good to see you pinning the loss that hasn’t happened squarely on one guy.
For the bullshit you’ve been spewing recently, 4-12?
If Dallas scores 40 points, doesn’t some of that fall on the defense?
Gawwwd, yer shit is getting stale.
When shit gets stale, it just dries up and gets blown away by the wind.
My shit’s stale? Fuck, Unca, you’ve been the most boring read in town since, well, forever.
If Dez Bryant plays in the this game, the Cowboys could hang 40 on us.
I’ve said it all along – I think the Niners are 8-7 headed into the Rams week 17. The sooner Harbaugh makes Kaep the starter, the better the Niner chances of winning the division. And yes, I’m aware Kaep isn’t ready. But defenses need to respect his arm and it will open up things underneath for Gore and Hunter. Alex always has and always will see 8 and 9 in the box. No coach can change that.
So, the Niners are going to be above and beyond expectations, yet we have the worst QB in 49er history?
Got it, fucknut (do you see a disconnect there?)
Barring injury, Cappy doesn’t see the field this year. Nor should he.
Christ, that’s the dumbest thing coming out of you all preseason. Putting him in unprepared does no one any good. For every Elway or P Manning, there are fifty Tim Couches. Trial by fire ruins careers more than it helps. Is our line good enough to block for Cappy? No. Tolzein looks better as the interim should it come to pass. He’d absorb the punishment better anyway.
I’m holding to 7-9 for now. I do not expect to win this game – this is a young team, which will make the few mistakes / failures to execute that *should* open the door for a good (though flawed) team to win. Of course, anything can happen once the game starts. The Cowgirls could fall on their faces. Gore could have a couple of his pinball “happy accidents” where he gets into the secondary and goes for six. If we played them ten games, I’d expect to only win 2 or 3 – but in one game, you never know.
I’m more curious to see how Harbaugh approaches it than the result. Will he open it up? How will he and Fangio scheme it up this week?
Who knows what’s going to happen. The more games we put together, the more we know how much Harbaugh trusts Smith. Right now, on a scale of 1-10, I’d give the Harbaugh / Smith trust factor a 2.
Well, everyone seems convinced that these guys need to air it out more. From the talking heads out there to most of those in bloggo-land. Spitty’s convinced we’ll stick with the tried-and-true Nolantary offense. I think we’ll see a bit more blitzing than we did last week.
Ease into this more aggressive offense and defense.
Guess that’s why they play the games. I’m looking forward to a reenactment of the 45-14 game in 1981 (stupid me, it was one of the games I didn’t go to that year). Who’s with me?
Chuck says I’ve been “making shit up.” I respectfully disagree. I’m not that clever. I steal all my material from Rob.
Here’s something no one needs to make up. Unca’s Army is going down this week at the hands of yours truly. Not just my hands, but the rt. arm of Tony Romo leading my fantasy team to another victory. I figure Tony’s good for 330 and 3 TDs vs us on Sunday.
If you steal all your material from Rob, you should use lower case and exclamation points correctly (which btw annoys me to no end for some reason). Your post should have read, “here’s something no one needs to make up ! my squirrel is a geneous ! i’m afraid to trade with spitblood ! talk about a geneous ! that guy could pull a ‘triple king me bitch’ jump on anyone ! e-gads !
no true geneous forgets an end quote !!!!
One thing that could work in our favor is that Dallas may be looking past SF to their game with Washington next week.
They may come in with the game already won in their heads.
Their home opener no less . . .
Some drunk and disorderly blogger in Dallas who loves the ponies and picks up free WIFI at the local Starbucks is probably ending all of his posts with, “SAN FRANCISCO IS A MUST WIN!”
His name’s probably Dallas Dan, or something stupid like that….
No joke, my brother’s name is Dan.
I wonder if he moved to Dallas?
Your brother like twinkies? Did he play QB?
The whole Dallas team takes it up the shorts. “f” Dallas.
hot pocket?
I think one of the big problems that I see with the SF Niners right now is that they don’t have a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball. When we think of Gore, Crabtree, Vernon and Edwards we think of explosive players, but they really aren’t. I think Gore has lost a step. I think Crabtree, at the end of the season will either be cut or accept a huge pay decrease. Braylon Edwards is smoking crack if he thinks that lawsuit is legit. He was an average receiver for the Jets who was out-shined by Holmes and rightly found a soft market for his level of talent. Braylon had one great year with Cleveland. That’s it. Our highest offensive draft choice in years, Crabtree, isn’t a total bust, but his foot injury could limit his career and I just don’t see the guy ever making a Pro Bowl. Vernon Davis isn’t what a TE should be – a possession safety blanket for the qb. How valuable is Witten to Romo? I think this is one of Alex Smith’s problems. I loved the idea of Conrad Reuland because Smith needs a Novachek-type to move the chains. When Eric Johnson was here, Johnson and Smith had good chemistry early on. Josh Morganua is below average. Don’t even get me started on the qb.
Sando recently wrote, “The O line is better on paper than grass.” This is because they are young, and time heals, but if you put the entire equation together, this offense will never be dynamic – especially if they keep the same players together while the O line matures. What the Niners need to do is start changing the parts. They need to start trading players and give the qb opportunity to other guys like Tolzien and Kaep. Change is a good thing, even during the season, and even during a season hampered by a lockout.
Another problem I see is that the skill position players aren’t cerebral enough and they don’t talk to each other about situational football. I used to love watching Marvin Harrison and Peyton Manning talking on the field about how they were setting up a defensive back – when both were young.
For the Niners, the offensive parts just aren’t there – whether it’s intellect, ability, maturity or drive, it’s just not there to truly compete. It might be there to beat a team like Seattle in rebuilding mode, but it’s not there enough to have a dynamic offense, even when the O line matures. Change the skill position players on O and Harbaugh will start doing what he loves – competing.
Gore has always been more power than speed… he is not going to beat many people to the edge, but he might well break three tackles and pop into the secondary for a long gain. Edwards is still not back to where he was before he got hurt, but he is pretty good. He has near T.O. speed/strength combo. He needs to develop more chemistry with a QB – which means not getting shuffled from town to town because of off-the-field issues. Crabtree is a very good possession type talent who simply does not care enough about football to be better than average so far. Zeigler got more out of less, but no one is invested in him and so he got cut, while Crabs collects five mil this year for half assing it. Morgan is an okay third or fourth WR who can help the team, but if he is your starter, you know you need to get better. Williams should be getting more chances – he is the quickest guy we have (Excluding Ginn, who simply has unreliable hands and no idea how to play WR). VD has game breaking speed but is not a natural TE, he makes every catch look harder than it is. Its not the worst group in the NFL by any means, but it does indeed need to improve.
If the individual line players are good, they will get better with time. However, seeing Staley and Iupati and the rest continually get beaten one on one is pass pro and then fail to get low enough and under the defenders pads in short yardage makes me wonder. These guys just fundamentally seem very shaky, like they have never been coached at all. As several different people have tried, you have to raise the unpleasant possibility that it’s the players.
I have more faith in Edwards than you do, Spit. Regardless of his numbers elsewhere, he’s by far the #1 here. Crabs should be dropping down the depth chart, and KW should be flying up it. Williams has better speed than Crabs and better hands than Ginn. I truly hope he gets a lot more playing time as the season progresses. Morgan is Morgan. Good for a couple catches a game.
As duly noted, all this is contingent on the QB getting the ball to these guys. Whether through a deep seam to VD (something that should happen at least 2x a game) to a go route to KW (first play), these guys need to work on more of a vertical passing game. VD may not be the prototypical TE, but he brings a skill set that can be exploited. Especially coverage by an LB. The way you do this is by engaging WR 1 and 2 into the passing game, so they can’t double up on VD.
Daunting at best. But they need to take the training wheels off the offense at some point.
I just don’t think much of our offense. My favorite offensive players on this team are Kyle WIlliams, Bruce Miller, Conrad Rueland (and he’s on the practice squad), Chilo Rachal (yeah, you read that right), Kendal Hunter……. oh yeah, and David Kilgore and Tolzien.
Vernon Davis is a fuckin’ mook. I’ve been calling for the Niners to trade him for years now. He is sooooooo overrated. People love to say, “He’s a mismatch,” but to be a mismatch, you have to exploit those mismatches and dominate people and the game every once in a while. When has Vernon Davis taken over a game? If I was the gm the very first thing I’d do was cut Alex Smith. But while the ink was still wet on Smith’s release, I’d be on the phone talking with other GMs about trading Vernon Davis. And Crabtree? Please. He’s a testimony to Scot McCloughan foolishness. It looks more and more like Eric Mangini was right calling Crabtree a diva.
Our offensive line has problems with Staley and Iupati. Interestingly enough, I like the right side of our line. I like Chilo Rachal and the way he’s re-dedicated himself to the game. Goodwin was a great pickup for the Niners, and even though Anthony Davis is still young with that “deer in the headlights” look to him 24/7, I think he’ll be a serviceable RT for ten years. I don’t think he’ll make the jump to left tackle.
The Niners need a fast quarterback with a quick release – one who can scan the field quickly with good vision and throw guys open. They need to replace the strong side of their offensive line, and they need to dump or trade their skill position players. Frank Gore should be used in a true rotation. And here’s an interesting idea. Why not occasionally use Frank Gore as a FB from time to time? You know Gore can block, catch out of the backfield, and if you put Gore as the lead and Hunter as the RB, D’s won’t know what to expect. You can do a lot out of the I with Gore as a lead blocker, but I have to say, I was really disappointed in to see Alex Smith’s play action fake under coach Harbaugh. I didn’t buy the hand off right from the snap. A lot of people are saying, “We need to open it up,” and “the coaching is conservative on offense,” or “they didn’t show very much.” I don’t buy any of that, how ’bout, “Our offensive players just aren’t very good.”
Yeah, the Gore/Hunter thing is a good idea. I though as much when the Niners got Westbrook last year. The thinking is, hey, both these guys are great blocking and at catching the ball out of the backfield. What a mismatch. Gore on a linebacker coming out of the backfield. Use one as an H-back. Switch them up. Unfortunately, the powers that be at the time couldn’t grasp what Westbrook brought to the table until Gore went down.
Duh.
Don’t think it’ll work with Hunter though. Not this year anyway. Too early.
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The training wheels wil be taken off when the OL shows it can protect well enough for the full playbook to be utilized. That’s not just pass blocking but blocking on those checkdowns. Harbaugh needs to utilize two tight ends more and screen more . Defensively, as I’ve posted, I just don’t see a heavy blitz package exposing a defensive backfield who have not played much together. Regardless of who our QB is, giving up a couple cheapies is really not a good idea. They’ll need to get pressure from four and cover.