Well, the new regime got off with a bang yesterday as the 49ers wore down and dismantled the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football. Tales of the 49ers demise may just be a little premature. Then again, it was only the Vikings. The 49ers defense does what they usually do to AP, and that’s shut him down. Mangini and company disguised coverages, and blitzed from off angles to confuse and befuddle sophomore QB Teddy Bridgewater.
The offense was nigh unstoppable, except by themselves. The 1st half saw a lot of yards, but a lot of penalties. The opening drive was thwarted by a holding penalty deep, and the rest were done in by various other problems. Carlos Hyde pretty much stamped his entry into the NFL as one of the top backs in the league (for a week anyway) by gaining 168 yards on 26 carries for gaudy 6.5 yards a carry and 2 touchdowns.
Yes, we are a running team. But this run game is vastly different than last year as Greg Foerster, master of the zone blocking scheme ran very well against some stacked lines when we had 3 TEs in there, and also when we had 2 WRs in there. Cutback lanes were wide open, and Hyde took big advantage of that.
The passing game, and Colin Kaepernick especially, looked a lot more comfortable in the pocket this year as compared to last, and made most of the plays he needed to. He read through his progressions very well, and made the correct calls to run when he needed to. As I’ve been saying all offseason, we moved Kappy around in the pocket, and even ran play action (!) on 3rd and 1 for an easy toss to Hyde for a 1st down. Kappy’s numbers weren’t gaudy, but they were efficient. 17/26 for 165, 0 picks, 0 TDs. The difference being the Niners converted some tough 3rd downs (5-12 ain’t great, but it beats 1-9). An issue in previous seasons. Red zone offense was 2-5, but 2 drives were killed by holding penalties.
What can you say about the defense? What I saw as a strength for the team was pretty much dead on. Bethea, Tartt, Bowman, Carradine, and Lynch all had sacks. Tremaine Brock had a pick, and the defensive backfield played a very solid game all around. Even though Bridgewater is very mobile, the Niners contained him well, and the coverage was solid even as Teddy broke contain to buy time.
The problems? Well, Special teams were an early disaster. Blocked FG, muffed punt, and a punt return TD called back by 2 blocks in the back. However, Pinion boomed all his punts, and mashed all his kickoffs deep or out of the end zone. Penalties were a big problem early as well. They had 6 penalties in the first half, but only 1 in the 2nd half. So whatever Tomsula said to ST coach McGaughey and the players seemed to get them in focus.
All in all a solid game by the new coaching staff and team. Certainly you have to think this team at least for now looks pretty good.
Irish Kevin, our intrepid man-on-the-scene, shot this opening ceremonies video. Thanks, Kev!
Forty Niners Forever 
Looks like Seattle could be missing Max Unger on offense. I’m not so sure I trade an All-Pro center for a disgruntled TE who thinks he is a WR. It’s obvious they are missing Chancellor on D.
One more thing about Seattle. Pete Carrol assembled a great coaching staff at USC. As he lost them one by one his team fell back. He has lost a couple good coaches lately. Could it be Seattle gradually fades? Don’t know, I just know what happened at USC.
Did you see Lynch’s Mom slam Bevell on twitter, holy shit! She said he is the worst play caller in the NFL and should have been fired after the SB screwup.
I saw that. Can’t say I disagree. I’m still pissed at Harbaugh for not running the ball at the end of our SB loss.
Kap looked very similar to how he looked for the last two games last year as far as touch is concerned. He did have much better mechanics, especially his footwork and release. Too bad he couldn’t get that kind of coaching under the previous regime.
Reno, do you know if Devey and Pears specialize in zone blocking? I’m guessing that’s why they picked up those particular rejects and put them in the starting lineup.
That is a position I don’t evaluate very well. I know I like zone blocking schemes because it requires more athletic linemen and spreads the field out more than the power a blocking scheme. Zone is probably not a good scheme for a guy like Iupati. He would’ve done OK but would not have excelled here anymore and for the money he wanted he had to go.
You can load a box vs zone blocking schemes but it is not as effective since linemen block areas instead of having individual assignments. The RB usually gets the ball deeper and reads what is going on in front of him. Unless somebody shoots a gap hard and fast the runner can often just choose a different hole. Hyde is really good at that.
OK, thanks. That’s what Shanny ran all those years in Denver, wasn’t it? With the threat of Elway, I think he always had a 1000 yd. rusher and not always the same guy.
Yes, it is what Denver ran all those years in the late 90s.
The way to defense a zone blocking scheme is lane discipline. Especially against a good cut back runner.
In watching last year’s play calling there were too many times when defenders were unaccounted for. That has to be squarely on the coaching staff and their highly touted line with mostly high picks. Hence, the “dumb schemes” comment. This years staff has two rejects on the right side and ran and protected the QB well. Iupati and Davis are gone and the question is, did the rejects play better or was the coaching better. Whatever the answer, I know we paid a lot more for Iupati and Davis. But then, it was just one game. Stay tuned.
Fair question.
Lynch’s Mom:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000531421/article/marshawn-lynchs-mom-bevell-is-worst-playcaller-ever
Thanks for posting the Duffy piece, Chuck. Very nice and from a kid all Giants fans have to love. I know I do. I also have a completely different perspective on Casey McGehee. Pretty amazing guy in his own right.
Yeah, for all the shit I gave McDP, he’s a stand-up guy to go out of his way to clear a path for his successor.
Tomsula on Bush:
This quote is pretty close to what he said:
“Yeah, they’re not doing X rays, it’s the MRI. It’s a better test or somethin’…”
LOL, x-rays aren’t much good for soft tissue injuries like ligaments and muscles…
Is Skeebs site working? I cant even get in.
They’re still asleep.
Skeebers has a new thread up. Of course he’s not impressed with the victory. The sharp-eyed Skeebers is doubtful it can be repeated in Pittsburgh.
lol
jesus Christ I turned into a vampire !
Always thought you were a night crawler . . .
Huh. I still can’t get in. Whatevs. What;s funny is those guys hoped so badly that the Niners would fail that they had 6 months of ramp up to get themselves in a frenzy over it.
Well, the team that they all predicted to suck, isn’t.
Phils’s post “I refuse to be sad over this” tells it all.
I just can’t get over the things they say about tomsula , baalke , jed and the rest of our team. we’re called bottom feeders and a league wide laughingstock ! tomsula is called a clueless backstabbing moron who isn’t fit to be the 49ers head coach even after a 2-0 record as head coach . he has wins of 38-7 and 20-3 to his credit so far !
A win vs Pittsburgh could have him shutting down his blog. You could feel the pain he was oozing over a 49er win. He went to default mode of Kap hating.
Here’s the post game locker room speech by Jimmy T.
http://www.ninersnation.com/2015/9/15/9334715/watch-jim-tomsulas-post-game-victory-speech
Who’s got it better than us? Fuck that.
At some point Jimmy H becomes a caricature:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-jim-harbaugh-sideline-tirade-20150913-story.html
And, as usual, NoFear backpedals fiercely after months of disparaging comments about Kappy, Tomsula, and the team in general. And how stupid it is to think the team may do well. What a fucking tool. Now he’s the model of decorum regarding the team.
At least he notices things like Kappy reading his progressions and shit. The rest are in full denial mode. 3 months of BakkenBullitSpitty regailing us with tales of how Norv is going to carve us a new one and AP running rampant. How quickly they forget how the Niners have done well against him. The offense looks MUCH more coherent and rhythmic than the past few years. Sure it’s a small sample size, but getting the pays off faster did worlds for the run game.
I wonder if Bullitt will study the tape of the Monday night game like he’s backtracked all these years.
at least NOFEAR is seeing things with some objectivity. most of the folks from the ‘other blog’ still insist we suck from top to bottom . worthless owner , coach is a moron, quarterback sucks team stinks on and on and on and on
I’m just hoping there are enough young guys on the team that don’t realize it’s a short week with travel. It will be a hostel place and they will be rested. Hopefully, that won’t mean much to the team and we will come out fired up.
Yeah, the scheduling kinda sucks. Esp when Pittsburgh played on Thursday the week before and we’re flying across the country on a short week. That being said, it never used to bother Walsh’s Niners.
Tomsula seems to have the pulse of the players much more than ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ did. A lot of shit was made regarding Tomsula and his dealing with social media. Point is, him showing leeway regarding that goes a little way with the players to show them that he supports their side of things. Different era and all that. Walsh was told he was nuts for going easy with the hitting in practice. He did it anyway. Kept the players fresher.
Harbaugh on the other hand demanded that there be no loud music or card playing on flights. Like the players were unruly children who needed strict rules.
I thought Harbaugh’s lax discipline directly led to all the crimes committed by Niner players. You guys have to get your story straight.
Lol.
There’s controlling the players, then there’s dealing with outside issues.
2 different things, RTF.
Nope, exact same thing according to the posts on this very site. “Letting players leave dirty unis on the locker room floor and leave their trays on the cafeteria tables led to RayMc’s and Brooks’ (alleged) crimes.”
I’m paraphrasing, but that’s exactly what was posted here. Lax team discipline (unis and trays) -> criminal behavior.
The quotes about the players being slobs is well-documented, RTF. No one is making this shit up. Neither the fact that Harbaugh disallowed card playing and loud music.
Harbaugh’s a control freak. That is a known. How he treats the underlings is a different story.
You have a problem with that line of thinking, talk to Bergs. You post a lot of crazy shit too.
Good to know. I wouldn’t want to be the only one posting crazy shit on here. LOL
that was posted here because of comments made by eric davis RT
Brady’s career QBR against T-Rex? 54!!! Brady has an excellent record in that matchup, but it looks from that number it’s not because of him.
Have you checked out Rex’s press conferences? The guy’s entertaining, funny and informative, way more laid back in public than his daddy. A guy I’d like to have a couple bowls with, if (ahet, ahem) it ever gets legalized here. I’m definitely a Rexy fan.
Sir Spit is pissed off at Norv Turner and the Vikings for a poor game. It must be tough going in Geneoushire with the 12th Century plumbing and all.
RT the comments related to the sloppiness aspects, in and around the team facility, came from NFL Network, specifically former 9er, Eric Davis.
It was his opinion that the inmates were running the asylum.
For whatever the factors were, Harbaugh, rightly or wrongly, gets associated with the player conduct.
I’m all about leaving the past in the past now.
What’s done is over in my book.
We’ve beaten the Harbaugh Era into dust.
Dust to Dust……..
So which was he, NJ, a lax disciplinarian who ran an insane asylum, or too stern a disciplinarian who the players disrespected because of it? He’s been blamed for being both on this blog. I want to know which was it? Maybe neither and it’s all in your heads?
IMO, he was harsh on the field and lax off. I never interpreted Davis comments to say the towels and trays led to the off season troubles, as you cite above. I instead took it as a metaphor. Basically saying the disrespect they have for the janitors and cafeteria workers is the disrespect they had for the community. Since he was in a Super Bowl winning locker room as a player it had some clout. I doubt telling the players to pick up their towels and trays would have changed the off season issues.
What I like about Tomsula is he preaches being good human beings, not just turning a blind eye off the field like Harbaugh supposedly did. Will it help? Probably but only time will tell for sure.
Tru dat NJ.
1-0 baby!
Nothing wrong with that whatsoever 12th 😀
AFC game this week, short rest and, travel to boot.
Follow that, with the first NFCW game next week vs AZ.
Would love to steal a W in Pittsburgh of course but, I give the edge to Ben at home.
Would much rather grab a Division win the following week if given the choice between the 2.
See what happens.
I choose to win them all,
As do I Winder 😀
Just trying to be pragmatic.
Need to see more from the passing game, as I think the Steeler Secondary is suspect.
Not sure we’re ready to exploit it just yet.
Find out on Sunday.
I do not need to see more passing if we can run the ball like last week. That is a big if. Eating clock and running is a great formula. I felt the passing we did last week was mostly to keep the defense on their heels to keep the running game going. It we have to pass more this week then it is because either Pittsburgh has scored more than we game planned for or they are stopping our running game. Which, is a good possibility.
Last posting on the “other” blog was 6:20 PM. There were only 13 postings all damn day. Dead.
A 49er win really took the wind out od their sail!
Skeebs is an emotional blogger. The day after Smith got replaced he wrote on Obituary. The day after a Niner win, yes a win, he was so distraught he waited all day to put up a new post and him and his merry men look for the negatives in the win.
These are not Niner fans. They are only critics. There profound opinions more important than the Niners winning the first game after all that bullshit in the off-season. They should be cheering from the rooftops or at least smile about it.
Dennis made an appearance yet following the win?
So-called fans.
Pathetic.
*their
They are acting how we would here if we lost!
three or four of those posts were from me lol
Poke em in the eye Rob!!!
That’s what I’m saying Berger, WTF!
I liked it when the old regime ran the ball but I did not like how they did it. It did not keep defenses on their heels. They called it WCO but it sure didn’t look like it. They play calling made for a heavy onus on player execution that was above the call of duty. The play calling from the Vikings in this weeks game looked like a WCO and the rhythm was fantastic. Only some bonehead penalties slowed us down.
Player execution is always the most important factor but a good play caller can make it so it isn’t as difficult. We saw that on Monday. I don’t care if we have to pass or run to win, although I prefer being able to run, I just want play calling that makes sense so the players have the best chance to execute.
On the play where the Rams stuffed Lynch on 4th and 1, Michael Brockers knew what they were going to run because he got burned on the same play earlier. He went to the coach and got permission to break off the defensive play call and shoot the gap if he saw that again. It was how Lynch lined up that tipped him off. He saw it on that play and signaled his team mate next to him what was coming. He was right and they stuffed the play.
Sounds like the Harbaugh regime tipping off plays because of tendencies. I hope our new staff is wiser to that than the our old one and Petey’s in Seattle.
Certainly the tempo was MUCH more fun to watch. The slow-play walk up to the line shit was interminable to watch. Dilfer was over-the-top crazy in his praise of Kappy, but he did show much better pocket patience and progression read-throughs. Again though I don’t really know what Minn is. They are supposedly much improved defensively, but we ran easily on them. They were 25th vs the run, and 11th overall last year.
And RTF, remember when i said Hyde was a 1,400 yard back? I may have unersetimated him. He’s on pace for 2,700 yards.
To quote Kenny Mayne, “That would be a record!”
the biggest mistake Minnesota made was listening to the prevailing wisdom of bullshit surrounding our team instead of doing their due diligence.
they heard we lost aldon and might be without brooks so expected a very weak pass rush.
they heard we lost “both of our starting corners in free agency” and expected a bad secondary.
they saw harbum leave and expected bad defensive coaching.
maybe they even read the “other blog”
what they got was a pass rush lead by good D-line play and aaron lynch among other rushers. a damned good DC in mangini showing what a difference it makes to attack on defense. and our starting and best corner brock leading an improved secondary !!!
sorry minny-soda wrong game to turn into a passing team !
btw guys I think we have a better secondary than when we went to the superbowl in 2012!
A bit early for me to tell but they are talented.
thank god for baalke as our GM
Great comment.
Despite all the big name losses the team was stocked and ready to go.
Which GM can have more than 30% player turnover, 2 years in a row, and the biggest stars on the team amongst them gone and still compete?
Baalke.
Don’t tell the cancer blog. They don’t like Baalke.