49ers tape review

[Skkorpion]

http://arizonasportsfans.com/storypage.php?Story_ID=515&Category=cardinals

 

[Russ Smith]

Comments.

Agree on Hayes, there are guys on this team that I just can't figure Green out with, Shelton was one, Hayes is another. I love McKinnon, have defended him for years, but Hayes CLEARLY has to be on the field more. When you know the opponent is in their no huddle passing offense why in the hell do you keep Ron on the field, he's been coming out in pass downs for years now.
Pendergast loves fast LB's, and big hitters, Hayes fits the bill to a T, I don't understand why he doesn't play more?

Agree on Macklin, tough game but again, with no Starks, macklin is our #1 CB and suddenly he has to play the role Starks plays. SF figured out quickly he's not Starks, and they picked on him. Contrast that with us, we should have been throwing at Spencer over and over, he proved repeatedly he couldn't react to the ball in the air, but we took far too long in the game to exploit him, just baffles me, Green is too agressive a coach to not have noticed Spencer was starting for Rumph. I gotta believe Wood was the one at fault there.

On the pick by Josh, I think it's a stretch to blame Step for it. Josh was trying to check down and throw to a double covered player, I think it was Diamond. It appears to me at the last second he second guessed the decision because he almost seemed to be pulling the ball back when he threw it, that ball was so low the leaping DE actually had to reach DOWN to deflect it. Even he said he thought it had been tipped by a teammate first, and the throw nearly hit Step in the helmet. That was just a bad decision by Josh, you can't fault Step for not guessing Josh would make that throw.

On davis, I agree he was dominant, and he should have been considering who was against him. I really only saw a couple of mistakes all day, Peterson for example beat him badly on a swim move and nearly got a sack early, but Peterson is one of the best D players in the NFL no shame in that. Big is a better LT than I expected, I still think speed rushers bother him, but he is doing his job so far. When he gets out in front in the run game he can just pave the way, if only we had a faster RB.

I thought Shelton was rusty too, he let Engleberger get to Josh once way too easily, and missed some things, its a new side for him, a few weeks of practice, and rust, he's still much better than AC IMHO, glad Green finally gave him the job.

God what a heartbreaker.

 

[Snakester]

Comments.

Agree on Hayes, there are guys on this team that I just can't figure Green out with, Shelton was one, Hayes is another. I love McKinnon, have defended him for years, but Hayes CLEARLY has to be on the field more. When you know the opponent is in their no huddle passing offense why in the hell do you keep Ron on the field, he's been coming out in pass downs for years now.
Pendergast loves fast LB's, and big hitters, Hayes fits the bill to a T, I don't understand why he doesn't play more?

Agree on Macklin, tough game but again, with no Starks, macklin is our #1 CB and suddenly he has to play the role Starks plays. SF figured out quickly he's not Starks, and they picked on him. Contrast that with us, we should have been throwing at Spencer over and over, he proved repeatedly he couldn't react to the ball in the air, but we took far too long in the game to exploit him, just baffles me, Green is too agressive a coach to not have noticed Spencer was starting for Rumph. I gotta believe Wood was the one at fault there.

On the pick by Josh, I think it's a stretch to blame Step for it. Josh was trying to check down and throw to a double covered player, I think it was Diamond. It appears to me at the last second he second guessed the decision because he almost seemed to be pulling the ball back when he threw it, that ball was so low the leaping DE actually had to reach DOWN to deflect it. Even he said he thought it had been tipped by a teammate first, and the throw nearly hit Step in the helmet. That was just a bad decision by Josh, you can't fault Step for not guessing Josh would make that throw.

On davis, I agree he was dominant, and he should have been considering who was against him. I really only saw a couple of mistakes all day, Peterson for example beat him badly on a swim move and nearly got a sack early, but Peterson is one of the best D players in the NFL no shame in that. Big is a better LT than I expected, I still think speed rushers bother him, but he is doing his job so far. When he gets out in front in the run game he can just pave the way, if only we had a faster RB.

I thought Shelton was rusty too, he let Engleberger get to Josh once way too easily, and missed some things, its a new side for him, a few weeks of practice, and rust, he's still much better than AC IMHO, glad Green finally gave him the job.

God what a heartbreaker.

Gerald Hayes is a much better athlete than McKinnon is at this point. I think Denny Green should have the two at least splitting time right now. I expect Hayes will be the starting MLB next year and it would make sense to start grooming him for the job now.

I agree with you that we should have been more aggressive throwing the ball, especially at Spencer. When San Fran would stack the line on a run blitz on first down, both McCown and DG should have noticed this and change the play to a pass. I think we were too conservative in this game.

As far as Stepanovich, he and other Cardinal linemen sometimes are not aggressive enough. The defensive lineman was just standing there and Step was just standing in front of him. He didn't try to engage him at all. Every d-lineman is taught to watch the QB and jump up and try to block the ball if it comes near him. The o-linemen know this and are taught to stay on there man and to try and keep him off balance to prevent this from happening. Like I said, it's not just Step that does it, he just happened to do it and it costed us an interception. Maybe McCown should also have thrown the ball elsewhere to.

Man oh man what a heartbreaker it was. I hope I don't see us lose like that again for quite some time.

 

[HeavyB3]

The Cardinals offense only put up 27 points against the Saints (unless you count the point after on Wilsons fumble return)

 

[Snakester]

The Cardinals offense only put up 27 points against the Saints (unless you count the point after on Wilsons fumble return)

As a matter of fact I did. I said to myself, "self, I think anything the kicker does counts for the offense, and I agreed with myself."

 

[HeavyB3]

Hah ok. I'll accept that answer then.

 

[spanky1]

What I like about Gary's articles is that he takes a few days to review game tapes over and over before providing his analysis. This adds to the credibility of what he writes versus the plain vanilla " McCown is no better than a 2nd string QB.......he sux........get rid of him......etc. dribble that comes out of so many.

 

[Rats]

This is a nice article and very accurate analysis without being to negative over a loss. I finally last night watched my tape of the game and watched the line play. DL...is right on with Garys assessment and the LBs in pass coverage cost us this game. The coaching staff blew this as bad as the players by not getting the right personel in against the pass. But also at one point late Dansby should have been in in pass coverage but wasn't and I wondered if his hand injury effected the deciesion to not put him in. This happened a little earlier he was on the sideline with a hand injury. The OL as Gary stated really was both good and bad. I disagree on the audible calls into a run rather than a pass. The audibles occured on blitz pcks from the corners and safteys. The OL has to get on there man and let the Rb find a seam. There could have been several long runs on those audibles but the Gaurds didn't move there men and it just got stacked up. Rusty play was a nice way to say that LJ didn't have a great game. And Step might have had a worse game then him. If you are running to set up the pass as it seemed we were....we have to do better in getting our arms extended and moving what everyone seems to think was a sub par DL for SF. Peterson looked good but the schemes ran against our OL were poor. The OL should have done better for our running game. Wr. were getting seperation on several plays and it showed in what they were able to do. And the only question I have is Why aren't we allowing the QB to line up in the shotgun more. It puts us at a dis advantage by being under center unless it is an issue that stems from practice and not taking care of the ball. Josh needs more time to go thru reads during obvious passing downs and the shotgun will give him that. One throw where Josh had to go to the security valve (Croom) was lucky that he wasn't sacked. Had he been in the shotgun he would have had the time to see BJ on the sideline and would have been able to go to that read. This team really did some great things on Sunday. That is all we would be talking about had we not collapsed and lost. Overall team loss but progress is made is the right call Nice job Gary

 

[slanidrac16]

What I like about Gary's articles is that he takes a few days to review game tapes over and over before providing his analysis. This adds to the credibility of what he writes versus the plain vanilla " McCown is no better than a 2nd string QB.......he sux........get rid of him......etc. dribble that comes out of so many.

Spanky , you took the words right out of my mouth.

Great Job Greg!! I stayed away from my pc until tuesday...thats how upset I was. When I finally paid a visit I start reading McCown sucks and this guy was terrible, blah,blah, blah, and I start to think, maybe I missed something. I didn't.
Your article has become the one I most look forward to because it is so in depth.

And you know what is REALLY refreshing? Nobody dares to respond with a typical "you're an idiot", because of your thoroughness.

AGAIN, GREAT JOB AND KEEP EM COMMING!

 

[Russ Smith]

This is a nice article and very accurate analysis without being to negative over a loss. I finally last night watched my tape of the game and watched the line play. DL...is right on with Garys assessment and the LBs in pass coverage cost us this game. The coaching staff blew this as bad as the players by not getting the right personel in against the pass. But also at one point late Dansby should have been in in pass coverage but wasn't and I wondered if his hand injury effected the deciesion to not put him in. This happened a little earlier he was on the sideline with a hand injury. The OL as Gary stated really was both good and bad. I disagree on the audible calls into a run rather than a pass. The audibles occured on blitz pcks from the corners and safteys. The OL has to get on there man and let the Rb find a seam. There could have been several long runs on those audibles but the Gaurds didn't move there men and it just got stacked up. Rusty play was a nice way to say that LJ didn't have a great game. And Step might have had a worse game then him. If you are running to set up the pass as it seemed we were....we have to do better in getting our arms extended and moving what everyone seems to think was a sub par DL for SF. Peterson looked good but the schemes ran against our OL were poor. The OL should have done better for our running game. Wr. were getting seperation on several plays and it showed in what they were able to do. And the only question I have is Why aren't we allowing the QB to line up in the shotgun more. It puts us at a dis advantage by being under center unless it is an issue that stems from practice and not taking care of the ball. Josh needs more time to go thru reads during obvious passing downs and the shotgun will give him that. One throw where Josh had to go to the security valve (Croom) was lucky that he wasn't sacked. Had he been in the shotgun he would have had the time to see BJ on the sideline and would have been able to go to that read. This team really did some great things on Sunday. That is all we would be talking about had we not collapsed and lost. Overall team loss but progress is made is the right call Nice job Gary

I vaguely recall that Green said he was concerned with a rookie C and a young QB to do a lot of shotgun. Remember Green is a Walsh disciple and Walsh hates the shotgun because of the potential disaster on bad snaps. As he says you rarely see a fumbled snap under C returned for a TD like you do a botched snap in the gun.

You also have to remember that Step played at Ohio State and they rarely use the shotgun either. When LeCharles Bentley was a rookie I recall reading that he had to spend a lot of time working on that because the Saints like to do it, and he'd almost never done it in college.

It would eliminate some of the issues Josh seems to have with dropbacks and put him in better position to see the field right away.

 

[spanky1]

Russ,

You raise a very interesting point. One of the "concerns" about Steph pre draft was his "shotgun" snapping skills.....or more appropriately, his lack thereof.

Now he could certainly learn how to do this, but maybe Green doesn't like it in his offense!

 

[Russ Smith]

Russ,

You raise a very interesting point. One of the "concerns" about Steph pre draft was his "shotgun" snapping skills.....or more appropriately, his lack thereof.

Now he could certainly learn how to do this, but maybe Green doesn't like it in his offense!

No I'm pretty sure they used it in Minnesota despite his Walsh influence. I just think he decided he couldn't use it much this year because of step and josh being so young.

I seem to recall when Kendall first moved to C we weren't using it much for the same reason.

 

[Rats]

No I'm pretty sure they used it in Minnesota despite his Walsh influence. I just think he decided he couldn't use it much this year because of step and josh being so young.

I seem to recall when Kendall first moved to C we weren't using it much for the same reason.

Yeah ....I think you are right on with the analysis that there just young and if Steps history of not being accurate on snaps it because an issue of fumbleing and not taking care of the ball. For our offense to be all it can with Josh at the helm... we will need to be able to eventually go into the shotgun in obvious passing downs where the D will be blitzing. If a limitation like that keeps you from being able to go to other options in the passing game then the OL is going to have to work that much harder and Rb and TE are going to have to stay in and block. I guess at least Josh can tuck it and run. But that sucks to.

 

[SoCal Cardfan]

Remember Green is a Walsh disciple and Walsh hates the shotgun because of the potential disaster on bad snaps.

Is there any stats for fumbles caused via shotgun.. as opposed to a normal snap?

It seems to me I watch just as many (if not more) fumbles when the QB is under center. (I realize the ratio can skew this.)


Poor QB-Center exchanges are one thing when your starter goes down..
But c'mon, If you have worked with the same guy all through camp and pre-season, and play in this leauge, either exchange should be rudimentary by now.

 

[jmr667]

Biggest red flag from this game: The OL grades out as only a B in the tape review and they were up against who? The backups of the backups on the 49ers D-line? Getting beat at all by any of the defensive linemen on the 49ers in that game is not good. Maybe you can debate on how the rest of the team is doing but the O-line must improve if this team is going to go anywhere.

 

[Russ Smith]

Is there any stats for fumbles caused via shotgun.. as opposed to a normal snap?

It seems to me I watch just as many (if not more) fumbles when the QB is under center. (I realize the ratio can skew this.)


Poor QB-Center exchanges are one thing when your starter goes down..
But c'mon, If you have worked with the same guy all through camp and pre-season, and play in this leauge, either exchange should be rudimentary by now.

I don't disagree with you but Walsh says the shotgun is just another opportunity for a mistake, and if you DO make a mistake, it's a lot more likely to lead to a score for your opponent than fumbling a regular snap, which happens a lot, but you often don't lose the ball.

I've never understood why that snap is considered tough but it is, and apparently because he played at Ohio State, Step was known to be lacking in that when we picked him.

I'm sure he's working on it and will get better, he's a bright kid, but that's my guess as to why we don't see much shotgun this year.

 

[Snakester]

Thanks for the comments guys. Good or bad, I like seeing what you guys think of what I'm writing. I try to be as accurate as I can.