Of all the preseason games, this one is at least mildly interesting. The Niners will likely play the starters for the whole 1st half, and they will also do a little game planning. Something absent from the first 2 games, and definitely missing from the last (scrubbini) game.
Beyond that, we will get out first sighting of Richard Sherman, our newly minted player-coach-mentor to the young secondary. I hope he plays slow and easy and saves himself for the real thing in Minnesota. As it is, the secondary, along with the defense as a whole has not been very exceptional. It has been fairly flat. Run D is decent, but we are getting little to no pressure on the opposing quarterbacks. Granted Salomon Thomas, the guy poised for a breakout year, and Arik Armstead, another guy who has been injured a little too much, bot are on the shelf for the remaining preseason. Hard to know what we have there. Jeremy Attochu looked good last week, and I hope he gets first team reps this weekend.
Of course Eli Harold and his bad angles and blown coverages has finally been jettisoned, but we have a couple unknowns in Mark Nzeocha, and Pita Taumoepenu to fill his spot. Guys who, before I started writing this, I’d never heard of or seen on the field. What they’ll likely do is move Dekoda Watson from DE to the strong side. I guess. Like I said I know nothing about Eli’s backups, and really, if they couldn’t out-play Eli, how good are they? At least they have three weeks to figure it out. As it is, Nzeocha gets the start on Saturday.
Frankly, I think the offense looks really good at this point, despite the run struggles. I think that will come around as the season progresses. My big concern is was and will be our pass rush. Good secondary play can only last so long, but a strong pass rush makes a middling secondary look great. Fred Warner looks solid in his limited play, and the LBs in general seem fine. Even the line play up the middle has been decent. Jones and Buckner have looked solid. As a whole though, the defense isn’t thrilling me. Yet.
I’m sure the regular season will be different, but again, pass rush is king.
Forty Niners Forever 
Not very inspiring but it’s still pre-season so I hope we at least answered some questions. That lowering of the helmet rule is gonna cause a lot of problems and it pretty much gives the fucking refs total control of the game. Sad.
Doesn’t sound like any serious injuries occurred, so that’s good.
Seems I was a bit premature. From 49ers.com:
“There were two notable injuries for the 49ers. Reuben Foster (concussion) and Jimmie Ward (quad) left the game early. Foster should be cleared from the protocol by the time he returns from suspension in Week 3. It’s unclear how severe Ward’s quad injury is and whether or not it will impact his availability for Week 1.”
Jimmie Ward is proving to be another China doll, as fragile as glass, constantly injured. As indicated above, Rueben’s concussion is less concerning because he’ll be out till week 3. He looked good in the game otherwise.
Ward is no great loss. He’s been getting toasted regularly. Foster will be fine by the time he comes back. WAY too many penalties. Got to clean that up.. The drops killed 3 TDs, if not more.
Problem with Foster is that he’s had some concussions at Alabama. You can only get so many of those and they start to mess with you. Hopefully, it won’t be a recurring thing. I saw Moore get beat a couple of times it might take some time with him being a new position. We are gonna be a work in progress this year.
He was awful in the second half (Moore). I agree about the concussions, they definitely have a cumulative effect. Hopefully Sherm can stay healthy, be effective and act as a steadying influence on the young secondary guys.
Moore wasn’t awful in the second half. Hopefully Sherm can stay healthy, be effective and act as a steadying influence on the young secondary guys. And I agree about the concussions, it’s known that they have a cumulative effect. Not good, but Foster will have a full month to get right.
Yeah, it’s known that concussions have a cumulative effect. Not good, but he’ll have full month to get right. Moore was awful in the second half. Hopefully, Sherm can stay healthy, be effective and be a steadying influence on the young secondary guys.
Was it a coincidence that Arik Armstead comes back and the D-line stopped the run game cold? He takes so many double teams, everybody else gets to work one on one. Also, this was the best game I’ve seen from Solomon Thomas. DJ Jones was an animal again. Great game by the D-line!
The offensive line was killing it too. Garnett looked like a starter! The only negative for the starters was Tomlinson’s penalties.
It did look like we were getting some good push from the Dline. I am not sure how many starters Indy had on their Oline though.
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