Well, called this one. I didn’t think we’d be this stupid though. This team went through what was one of the worst coached games I’ve seen a 49er team play. Minnesota didn’t stop the run. Shanahan did. Throw in the soft-serve defense and the usual major fuckup on special teams, and there you go.
On offense, the 49ers seemed surprised that Brian Flores likes to blitz, I said it 2 days ago. So naturally we came out throwing. Derp! The offense didn’t get going until late in the 2nd quarter with some strong running from Mason and a weird inside screen to Kittle and closed the gap to 10-7. So wonder of wonders we let Minnesota march down the field with 1:50 left and kick a field goal as time ran out.
Purdy had a shit game, but he was under pressure nearly every play as Minnesota was rushing 5 just about every play. He routinely threw into coverage, got a pick on a tipped pass, and he should have had another pick when he fumbled the ball out of his hand and it was caught out of the air. Mason was only averaging 5 yard a carry so why go there? So, did we adjust our coverage or line play? Nope. 6 sacks. But yeah, why improve the pass pro in the offseason?
Another amazing play call was 3rd and goal from the 1, and since the Minnesota defense is getting in EVERY goddamn pass play, we try a 1-step drop sideways pass that Van Ginkel tipped into the air that Deebo caught for a 9 yard loss. I mean, yeah, the 4th and 1 pass was SO successful, they did an even dumber play. So that’s 11 points given away as we did kick the FG.
On defense, if it wasn’t for Fred Warner, the 49ers would have lost 37-17. He picked a ball off in the red zone, and forced a fumble on the goal line. Still and all, the fucking Vikes gained 400+ yards on us. Mainly because we run the softest defense in the NFL. We stunted once that I saw, and it netted a 17 yard run on 3rd and 7. Blitz? 2nd and 9 from the 2? No, let’s go soft and watch at the DBs cross each other up and give up a 97 yard pass.
Later in the game, the DBs again both covered the under guy and let the slot guy go clear for an easy score.
Special teams? Well, we forgot to block a rusher and a punt was blocked (only led to 3), and rookie Jacob Cowing muffed a punt that was batted around until Isaac Yiadom recovered it. He also recovered the fumble by Aaron Jones on the 2 yard line. So, we weren’t the only ones playing stupid.
Funny, we had a 10 minute TOP advantage but all those trips to the red zone got us nowhere. We were behind the whole game and did nothing to adjust of offense and defense.
Still and all, short week, east coast flight, early start, blah blah blah. Minnesota would have had a lot to answer for had they blown this game, but alas, they won.
Not ready to read too much into this, but the alarming thing is what I’ve been saying since the beginning of the preseason. Our defense is ludicrous. We CANNOT win playing this style of soft cover zone. Darnold’s numbers weren’t spectacular, but they kept our defense off-balance most of the game and we couldn’t stop them on 3rd down (7-12). 146 rushing, 258 passing. 4 sacks, but we let Darnold sit in the pocket and hit passes all game.
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
The overarching theme of this game is Shanahan was schooled. Everyone knows that Flores ikes to blitz. Shanahan had little to offer in the way of dealing with the pressure. All game. No adjusting to the pressure during the game.
Shanahan killed 2 drives with ludicrous calls on the goal line. Like I said, Shanahan is the only one to stop our run game. Not Minnesota.
I’m just supremely disappointed and angry that our defense plays what amounts to a prevent defense all game. They are playing the same shit that was ripped in the playoffs. We can beat crappy teams playing this way, but better teams will shred this defense.
This is gonna be a wasted season if it continues this way.
There didn’t seem to be any adjustments that I could see. Our defense was swiss cheese but what concerned me the most was the Vikes had our offense down. Purdy had a shitty game and only saw a couple of plays where we had separation. We are not going to the SB this year. We may make the playoffs but if we don’t get our shit together we will be eliminated. If it wasn’t for Warner’s play we would have been humiliated, maybe we were.
In the Jets game, Brock rolled out quite a bit did not see him do that much in this game. With that said, like Krukow would say “ownage is ownage, and it is ONE game. Also why didn’t Kyle use Deebo like CMC, put Jenning, BA, Kittle and Jusic(no even going to look that up)back with Deebo. That way if Brock has nothing down field dump it off to Deebo
Maybe Shanahan should give up his role as OC and just coach. He had a very good coach on his staff for a season I believe?in Klint Kubiak ( yes the son of Gary Kubiak) he has revolutionized the game right now.Has Derek Carr of all people playing insane ball right now.
The Saints have scored 91 points in 2 games after destroying the Cowgirls in their house 44-19 after 47 in their opening win.Carr has 4TD’s of over 50 yards leading the newest version of the”Greatest show on Turf” as the young hotshot (33?) OC really has this team playing Great football..
Bobby Slowik was a big loss. As was McDaniel.
Shanny leaves a lot to be desired in his play calling abilities. Bunch up on the line like a run and do the jet sweep. I don’t like passing down that close on short drops because of exactly what happened. Tipped passes. Passing twice on the goal line when Mason is churning out 5 yards per is utter stupidity.
49ers rank 20th out of 32 teams in football on defense giving up 227 yards in the air and 107 on the ground. 669 yards in 2 games isn’t going to cut it under new DC Sorenson!!
He expects the front 4 to put the pressure on the QB and not blitzing isn’t working! Atleast under Wilks he dialed up blitz packages with Warner /Safeties etc this clown has them playing off the line to far and when a QB has time any of them can look good even freaking Darnold..
Even Nolan blitzed every once in awhile.
And DeMecco Ryans on the defensive side. He was better than Saleh in my opinion.
This IS the most vanilla defense since the Nolan era. And even then they blitzed more. I was gonna say at least we stopped the run, but we didn’t yesterday. And A Jones didn’t even get that many shots.
Fucking backups all around beat us.
Geez the hits keep on coming as Deebo Samuel to miss atleast the next 2 weeks with a calf stain..
Man I figured we could easily handle the Rams next week with Puka&Kupp out and a banged up OL with injuries!
It’s time for Aiyuk &Jennings to step it up even more in this MASH Unit developing game..Shanahan has OWNED McVay but that was with different DC’s and so far Sorenson isn’t doing it for me!
Good analysis
https://apple.news/AFOnuSZ_VSnSWoFVhNV982g
Someone’s finally listening to me. All of this is what I said. Coaching, defense, O line play. And the MAJOR issue, blitzing. Pressure.
Now Deebo’s out? Fucking Aiyuk has to get his shit together in a hurry.
That being said, the Rams look more fucked up than us.
As usual, pressure Stafford and he sucks. Let him feel comfy in the pocket, we lose again.
I’d get Odum out of there and put Mustapha in. He cannot do any worse. He was key on the 2 coverage screwups that led to 2 TDs.
Sirianni giving the Falcons a breath of life when all he needed to do was run the ball.
I swear I’ve seen so much stupid coachng so far this season.
Theory was on the road you take the points early when down close.
Eagles lose! After throwing on 3rd and short with a 18-15 lead and 1:45 left. Barkley drops the pass, thus saving the Falcons 45 seconds. They kick the FG for a 21-15 lead.
Sirianni goes prevent and the Falcons drive 90 yards to score the game-winning TD in 1:05 seconds.
Run the ball and kick the FG and the clock is down to about a minute.
Then again. Philly went soft (sound familiar?) and Atl got down the field in 1:05.
Atl was forced to kick a 48 yard extra point on an ‘excessive celebration’ because WR London did the sprinkler.
Then Hurts threw a stupid pick to seal the game for Atl. They needed like 15 yards to put themselves into position to win.
Unreal.
Fuck the eagles!!
Oh yeah, Sirianni went for it on 4th and goal on the 4 early in the 2nd quarter.
Fail.
Prevailing sentiment at some point has to get these coaches to stop throwing points away.
Miracle at the Meadowlands???
This is the shot heard ’round Lincoln Field!
Yeah Fuck the Eagles they don’t fly tonight as Barkley critical easy catch but he dropped it that could of sealed it had to settle for 3..
Like a lot of teams prevent D prevents wins as Cousin hit 3 huge throws on Eagles soft coverage and there at the 5.Quick strike to London for the TD and being stupid gets a 15 yard penalty, but clutch KOO KOO for coco crisp a great kicker knocked the game winning Extra point from 48!! It’s great when Siriani loses fuck him!!
From PFF:
“The 49ers blitzed on just four of Darnold’s 33 dropbacks, and the Vikings quarterback completed all four of his attempts for 133 yards and a touchdown when blitzed, including the 97-yard touchdown play to Jefferson.
Darnold was under pressure on just nine of his 33 dropbacks.”
That’s the problem with blitzing, you live by the sword and die by the sword. LB and Safeties have to be on their game or you get burned. Sam Darnold burned them every time, 4 out of 4. Brown was the safety that got burned on the Jefferson TD. I’m hoping Huff gets back next week.
Leonard Floyd was the only D lineman to not even register a hurry let alone a sack, disappointing for an established pass rusher.
Until they get a more stable nickel D it’s a big risk to blitz, I presume that’s why its so vanilla, unfortunately, other than Bosa, aim not seeing much pressure from the front 4. Might be they are still learning to play together.
Huh. We did blitz on the 97 yard TD. Warner. If you are saying we should blitz less, you are losing me.
You’d think they would be able to come up with better schemes at this point.
Minn rushed 5 most of the game and our response was to throw too much against it. Purdy was harassed the entire game, even against their 4 man rush, and our billion dollar defense was garbage. Hargrave is giving us little to nothing.
Granted, we gave away points up the wazoo but still, this was a very poor showing.
I’m saying the DC appears to be vanilla because he’s afraid to expose the safeties, and having been burned for 97 yards he basically shut it down. That play lost them the game by itself. There were a ton of other plays they went badly in all 3 phases, but in a one score game that easy shot play cost them and it came on a blitz. Incidentally I liked the call to blitz there, but obviously it didn’t work out and made Sorenson gun shy.
To blitz you need the right personnel. The Vikings have that and practice their scheme which is blitz heavy, they are very good at it.
The Niners need a more experienced safety in order to feel more secure blitzing, Im hoping Huff comes back soon so we see a more agressive style of D.
It’s exacerbated because the front 4 didn’t get to the QB fast or often enough to make Darnold uncomfortable.
Purdy didn’t make the Vikings pay enough for blitzing, so consequently they did it a lot. It was effective for them.
Not having much luck getting a video link to take without adding text but it’s fun to listen to the day of the Eagle today 😁
https://youtu.be/D8ZYhTog7oc?si=b_0fnx6VseNhV0FW
https://youtu.be/06lWmDg7i7Q?si=JQZ632LQivrTobj1
New thread. Love this.
I’ll move this to the new one as well.