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Thus will be shorter (relatively). It wasn't much of a game, drama-wise, but it WAS relaxing. The thing is that you learn about your team even in games like this Especially given how banged up we were going into it. So in the spirit of brevity lets get to it
A. General offensive comments:
1. Josh put together another solid game plan with an emphasis early on 2 TE and 2 RB's which all worked well. He also allowed Maye to cook with some empty looks as well.
2. Maye was once again Maye. As if we now blithely shrug off 90% completion percentages and 5 TD games (to 5 different guys) like they are par for the course. He showed the same extreme poise (is that even a thing?) and accuracy he's shown all year. When you compare it to the first 3 games, it's almost like we got a different QB the last 12 games. His first book on QBing is going to be " How to achieve Zen in the pocket". About the only time I saw him REALLY fired up was on Chism got his TD. Defenses will be a lot tougher the next step and hard as it may seem, EVERYBODY is going to need to take it to a new level. BTW- I care about playoff WINS a lot more than MVP awards. It's nice that he's mentioned, but if its about awards, I'd rather see him Superbowl MVP than league MVP. Bottom line all the talk about Maye is positive, but it's becoming redundant.
3. RB's Once again Henderson gets the love. I DID love the hard runs where he stayed up and his OL carried him and extra 6-8 yds, and I'm happy where he is at this point in his development but he is no were near a starting professional RB YET. Just compare him honestly to what you saw with Stevenson. You could watch Rham make 2 or 3 cuts on a run to see the hole and to avoid tackles, while Tre ran exactly into the designated hole regardless what was actually there. He ran hard, but his sometimes doesn;'t run effectively. Now I will admit that over the course of the season he is begun to start to make those kind of cuts. There was one run in the 4th quarter where he actually made 3 quick cuts on a 4-5yd run of little consequence, but it put a smile on MY face. If you like him now, his ceiling is a LOT higher. There is a reason most of our best "3rd down RB's" to a year tor 2 to fully ripen
Stevenson who hasn't fumbled IIRC, since game 4 (and I don't think we lost it, but the hounds bayed loudly for his release. He's worth whatever we are paying him just for his contribution to the passing game and his pass blocking. He's not just getting in front of DLmen, he is setting and striking them and shutting down LB's in their tracks.
4. Receivers - Henry and Hooper gave us their usual contributions. 50yds, 3-5 catches, first downs and a TD. Hooper a couple of catch with at one being impactful. That being said I'd like to see their blocking scores. Diggs of course gave us the 100+ we needed today. Less than 20 from 1000 by my guess. Great signing. It will be interesting to see how he ages the next 2 years. Williams was had a good game, adding 3 catches along with a great catch on an out of bounds throw in the endzone. It would have been a GREAT game if he came down with that drop. Still 3 catches is incremental improvement. He'll get more chances next week. Really cool for Chism. First catch, first TD and his parents were there. I'm not his biggest fan, but you had to love it. What a thrill. But I miss Mack Hollins' size
5. the OL -The only thing worse than our pass rush was theirs. One 1 yd sack, and 3 QB hits was all that was given up by the pass protection. So I hoping that next week we get Campbell and Wilson back practicing if no playing. I'd like to see them at least get a half of snaps. This isn't a great OL, even when it's at full strength, but it is a decent one and good enough to keep an offense moving even if the run game grinds to nothing.
6. Still would like to see a few designated runs for Maye, or maybe an RPO. They almost had one on that botched handoff between Stevenson and Maye. If Maye had taken that ball away at the "mesh point", he would have clear sailing going around the end. At this point I'd rather save it for the playoffs, but I hope at least they are practicing something like that for Maye.
B Defensive thoughts
1. First is a shout out to CDavis our much maligned #2 CB. It seems every week we see him lying on the ground with some groin injury, listed as Questionable all week, and then ending up playing hard again the next game. The DUDE is on tough MFer.
2. It's one thing to have one great and one good cover CB, its rarer to have 2 guys as go,od and tough in run coverage as well. As the season has gone along these 2 guys aren't tackling guyd the usual delicate cb manner a la Daddy Sanders. They are laying the lumber on these RB's and Receivers, more and more as each week passes, looking a lot more like LB's than CB's All our DB's have seemed to improve their tackling over the course of the season and it has helped.
3. I want it said first that I want Chaisson on the team next year, and I wouldn't mind giving him a healthy raise, but I'm NOT paying him like a even a solid edge rusher. He is simply not strong enough to take on an NFL OT by himself. He has length,quickness, and a good motor; but needs good scheming to get free. He cannot apply pressure on his own. He's a good guy to have in your edge rotation, he should NOT be a primary guy and needs to be upgraded. Landry, when he was healthy gave us more pressure on his own, but we haven't had much of a pass rush since Milton went out. It will be more critical in the playoffs where EVERYONE has a good offense.
4. Nice to see Battle get some reps. I would LOVE to see him develop into a #4 CB next season, or someone we could sic on some of these uber pass catching TE's popping up all over the league. He has all the measurables, now let us see if the coaching kicks in.
C. ST's thoughts - For the first half, it looked like Mike wanted to take on the #1 NYJets KO return team as a challenge. They kicked it right to him and pretty much shut them down. That first one was a real, "welcome to the game" smack in the mouth. In the 2nd half they kicked it in the endzone to wisely avoid any injuries to both teams. Borgy Donked one. It won't be the last. The big test for all kickers is how they respond from misses.
Amazing just how accurate FG kickers are. In the 60-90's anything over 50% was decent and kicking a 45yder was a long kick. Adam V was kicking it around 75% for most of his career,and I bet the number of 50+ attempts he had in his long storied career, will be matched by the number attempts Borgales has this year (maybe a bit hyperbolic, but not by much I bet). Now if you aren't kicking at LEAST 85% of your FG's you won't have a job,\
D. General thoughts -
I know there isn't much chance SD will make a full effort in Denver next week, but there IS that chance for the bye and we need to play next week like we need it and the game is important. Anything can happen. Denver will want to sit people too. Maybe Harbaugh will want to prove some point and go all out "all the time", but I doubt even he is as tone deaf as that.
Can someone please explain what they are doing to the kicking balls that allow them to kick the ball 10-15yds further than they used to on a regular basis.
After watching the SF/Bears game- What if our draft went THIS way last year. Campbell in the first, Burdin in the 2nd, KWinston S in the 3rd, and Scatabo in the 4th. Same positions filled, different people. Are we better or worse? We'd have a more productive rookie WR. A bigger better athlete, but less experienced S, and Satabo at RB. Just a thought. I know Burden was a binky of a lot people last April.
Next week - Like to see a duplicate of today. Starters play a half + get some work in for Campbell and MWilliams and call it a day. Miami is a better team so.... How would you play it?
OK calling it a night. Have a great week and a happy New year
A. General offensive comments:
1. Josh put together another solid game plan with an emphasis early on 2 TE and 2 RB's which all worked well. He also allowed Maye to cook with some empty looks as well.
2. Maye was once again Maye. As if we now blithely shrug off 90% completion percentages and 5 TD games (to 5 different guys) like they are par for the course. He showed the same extreme poise (is that even a thing?) and accuracy he's shown all year. When you compare it to the first 3 games, it's almost like we got a different QB the last 12 games. His first book on QBing is going to be " How to achieve Zen in the pocket". About the only time I saw him REALLY fired up was on Chism got his TD. Defenses will be a lot tougher the next step and hard as it may seem, EVERYBODY is going to need to take it to a new level. BTW- I care about playoff WINS a lot more than MVP awards. It's nice that he's mentioned, but if its about awards, I'd rather see him Superbowl MVP than league MVP. Bottom line all the talk about Maye is positive, but it's becoming redundant.
3. RB's Once again Henderson gets the love. I DID love the hard runs where he stayed up and his OL carried him and extra 6-8 yds, and I'm happy where he is at this point in his development but he is no were near a starting professional RB YET. Just compare him honestly to what you saw with Stevenson. You could watch Rham make 2 or 3 cuts on a run to see the hole and to avoid tackles, while Tre ran exactly into the designated hole regardless what was actually there. He ran hard, but his sometimes doesn;'t run effectively. Now I will admit that over the course of the season he is begun to start to make those kind of cuts. There was one run in the 4th quarter where he actually made 3 quick cuts on a 4-5yd run of little consequence, but it put a smile on MY face. If you like him now, his ceiling is a LOT higher. There is a reason most of our best "3rd down RB's" to a year tor 2 to fully ripen
Stevenson who hasn't fumbled IIRC, since game 4 (and I don't think we lost it, but the hounds bayed loudly for his release. He's worth whatever we are paying him just for his contribution to the passing game and his pass blocking. He's not just getting in front of DLmen, he is setting and striking them and shutting down LB's in their tracks.
4. Receivers - Henry and Hooper gave us their usual contributions. 50yds, 3-5 catches, first downs and a TD. Hooper a couple of catch with at one being impactful. That being said I'd like to see their blocking scores. Diggs of course gave us the 100+ we needed today. Less than 20 from 1000 by my guess. Great signing. It will be interesting to see how he ages the next 2 years. Williams was had a good game, adding 3 catches along with a great catch on an out of bounds throw in the endzone. It would have been a GREAT game if he came down with that drop. Still 3 catches is incremental improvement. He'll get more chances next week. Really cool for Chism. First catch, first TD and his parents were there. I'm not his biggest fan, but you had to love it. What a thrill. But I miss Mack Hollins' size
5. the OL -The only thing worse than our pass rush was theirs. One 1 yd sack, and 3 QB hits was all that was given up by the pass protection. So I hoping that next week we get Campbell and Wilson back practicing if no playing. I'd like to see them at least get a half of snaps. This isn't a great OL, even when it's at full strength, but it is a decent one and good enough to keep an offense moving even if the run game grinds to nothing.
6. Still would like to see a few designated runs for Maye, or maybe an RPO. They almost had one on that botched handoff between Stevenson and Maye. If Maye had taken that ball away at the "mesh point", he would have clear sailing going around the end. At this point I'd rather save it for the playoffs, but I hope at least they are practicing something like that for Maye.
B Defensive thoughts
1. First is a shout out to CDavis our much maligned #2 CB. It seems every week we see him lying on the ground with some groin injury, listed as Questionable all week, and then ending up playing hard again the next game. The DUDE is on tough MFer.
2. It's one thing to have one great and one good cover CB, its rarer to have 2 guys as go,od and tough in run coverage as well. As the season has gone along these 2 guys aren't tackling guyd the usual delicate cb manner a la Daddy Sanders. They are laying the lumber on these RB's and Receivers, more and more as each week passes, looking a lot more like LB's than CB's All our DB's have seemed to improve their tackling over the course of the season and it has helped.
3. I want it said first that I want Chaisson on the team next year, and I wouldn't mind giving him a healthy raise, but I'm NOT paying him like a even a solid edge rusher. He is simply not strong enough to take on an NFL OT by himself. He has length,quickness, and a good motor; but needs good scheming to get free. He cannot apply pressure on his own. He's a good guy to have in your edge rotation, he should NOT be a primary guy and needs to be upgraded. Landry, when he was healthy gave us more pressure on his own, but we haven't had much of a pass rush since Milton went out. It will be more critical in the playoffs where EVERYONE has a good offense.
4. Nice to see Battle get some reps. I would LOVE to see him develop into a #4 CB next season, or someone we could sic on some of these uber pass catching TE's popping up all over the league. He has all the measurables, now let us see if the coaching kicks in.
C. ST's thoughts - For the first half, it looked like Mike wanted to take on the #1 NYJets KO return team as a challenge. They kicked it right to him and pretty much shut them down. That first one was a real, "welcome to the game" smack in the mouth. In the 2nd half they kicked it in the endzone to wisely avoid any injuries to both teams. Borgy Donked one. It won't be the last. The big test for all kickers is how they respond from misses.
Amazing just how accurate FG kickers are. In the 60-90's anything over 50% was decent and kicking a 45yder was a long kick. Adam V was kicking it around 75% for most of his career,and I bet the number of 50+ attempts he had in his long storied career, will be matched by the number attempts Borgales has this year (maybe a bit hyperbolic, but not by much I bet). Now if you aren't kicking at LEAST 85% of your FG's you won't have a job,\
D. General thoughts -
I know there isn't much chance SD will make a full effort in Denver next week, but there IS that chance for the bye and we need to play next week like we need it and the game is important. Anything can happen. Denver will want to sit people too. Maybe Harbaugh will want to prove some point and go all out "all the time", but I doubt even he is as tone deaf as that.
Can someone please explain what they are doing to the kicking balls that allow them to kick the ball 10-15yds further than they used to on a regular basis.
After watching the SF/Bears game- What if our draft went THIS way last year. Campbell in the first, Burdin in the 2nd, KWinston S in the 3rd, and Scatabo in the 4th. Same positions filled, different people. Are we better or worse? We'd have a more productive rookie WR. A bigger better athlete, but less experienced S, and Satabo at RB. Just a thought. I know Burden was a binky of a lot people last April.
Next week - Like to see a duplicate of today. Starters play a half + get some work in for Campbell and MWilliams and call it a day. Miami is a better team so.... How would you play it?
OK calling it a night. Have a great week and a happy New year
