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PE.com column is posted.
--LINK--
Here are my keys to the game:
Ball security – San Francisco is very good at forcing fumbles. Safety Dashon Goldson loves to put his helmet right on the ball. LeSean McCoy has a loose style of carrying the ball. He tightens up in traffic, but he needs to be extra careful this week. Donovan McNabb also needs to be careful in the pocket.
Kick protection – Last year the Niners blocked a field goal and ran it back for a score in the game against us. That play had a huge impact on the game. Last week, we allowed the Giants to block an extra point. We managed to win both times, but that will catch up to us eventually. Ted Daisher needs to have his blockers tighten things up.
Double Davis in the red zone – Vernon Davis has 11 touchdown catches on the year. The rest of the team has nine. Most of his scores come in the red zone. If San Francisco gets down in that area, we must double Davis and take him away. Make quarterback Alex Smith find someone else to throw to.
Keep running – The Niners are fifth in the league in run defense. They have a good nose tackle in Aubrayo Franklin that clogs the middle and they have a pair of outstanding inside linebackers in Takeo Spikes and All-Pro Patrick Willis. We must stick with the run even if it isn't working great. I think Leonard Weaver could be effective with his quick hitters. Our best hope with McCoy is to run him from the three-receiver set. The key blocker is center Jamaal Jackson. If he can block the nose tackle, we might have some success.
Tackling – This has already been covered all week, but it is true. We must tackle better. We need to make the Niners earn every yard. They lack explosive weapons. Let them throw the ball short, but come up and make the stop. Do this and they'll have a long day.
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Sunday, December 20, 2009
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Early game thoughts...
--Josh Cribbs is bananas.
--Who would have thought Cle-KC would be so exciting?
--The antithesis of exciting? The Jets. I can't remember a time when they were ever fun to watch, at least not with any regularity.
--The Rams throwbacks remind me of how tired I am of those 'new' unis that a bunch of teams adopted back in the 90s. The Rams, Pats, Bucs and Broncos all need to "throwback" permanently. As do the Eagles...but I know that won't happen.
--Wow, the Lions are bad.
--I find it hard not to pull for the Titans these days.
--I think Gary Kubiak is trying to get fired.
--How much longer til Sanchez throws another pick?
I think a lot of professional sports teams switched to darker colored uniforms in the 90's and early 00's. I agree that it sucks.
Now, they're trying to slowly add color back in to their uniforms. The Seahawks are doing it with the neon green trim and the Chargers added powder blue trim to their dark blue uniforms a couple years ago.
RE: Titans
I'm rooting for Chris Johnson to reach 2000 yards, though. I've just gravitated towards him as a fan because he's a great RB and gets about 3% of the attention Adrian Peterson gets.
Great start.
I love seeing DeSean going horizontal in the RZ. That is the way to use his speed down there.
The defense wasn't great, but came up with a timely stop.
Let's go score another TD.
Big pick by Q. Good to see him making a play.
Mikell found his hands at long last!
Weird decision by Reid to go for it.
Andy Reid does it again.
....
Looks like the D bailed Big Red out.
Sheldon is getting a free dinner from Andy tonight!
Kevin Curtis still loves to run backward after catching the ball.
I was hoping the bum hammy would prevent that. Darn.
Flip 90??????????????
Great TD run by McNabb. I love seeing that in the RZ.
That was a really interesting defensive look from the Niners. Good thing it didn't work on SuperNabb.
Bunk chases down the screen. Nice to have a DT that hustles. Anyone remember Corey Simon? Hahaha...
Awesome tackle by Sammie. Grab a leg and hope for the best.
MmmBop doing a good job of blitzing. If only he was a tad faster...
Good pressure by Clemons on the pass where Sammie made the pick.
It's lookin good
Is it just me, or does it seem like there are just more tipped passes at the LOS league-wide this season?
McNabb's doing a great job of escaping the pressure and keeping the play alive. We're just not getting anything positive out of it.
Are we missing Vick in the Red Zone?
Could McNabb have possibly run it in himself there? Or would he have been tackled?
We did miss Vick in the RZ. We must stick more to the run down there.
Myron, I think McNabb was smart just to throw it away. It looked like he didn't have much room to run. No sense in the QB getting hit to make a chip shot FG even more chip-shotty.
Just getting back to the original replay re: throwbacks, I am loving the helmet of the 49ers starting centre.
Nice TEAM performance so far
Wow. I've never seen an OL do that before. Cool.
Who else was holding their breath on that McCoy screen?
McNabb knows better.
How about more screen?
Nice Pressure D-line!
Ha, that's why I voted for Tracey to the Pro Bowl. Nice.
Leonard Weaver just ruined his season.
Wow, Alex Smith looks really bad so far. I mean, damn, this guy was a first round pick a few years ago?
Either he really sucks or he's just getting into the holiday mood by doling out presents.
I really like Daryl Johnston. He seems to be better prepared and doesn't just stick to the usual talking points for teams. Kenny Albert on the other hand...
Run defense looking better in the 3rd Qtr.
McNabb is really forcing throws today. Why the unusually aggressive approach?
Donovan is having an off day. He's forcing the ball to DeSean.
Could be something to do with not having Maclin. A score now would make me much less nervous.
DAMN!
This 3rd Qtr is just like last year vs SF. Everything goes against us.
Let's hope the 4th Qtr is the same where everything goes for us.
Well, i'm nervous.
Geeze. Can we have anymore costly penalties on that series? We lost a TON of momentum after the holding call.
I hate to see that streak come to an end.
it looked early on like it would be a relatively stress free day, however this is now starting to get a little frustrating. dumb penalties have to stop. we're not always going to have an alex smith to bail us out with 3 interceptions.
Big stop by the D.
Now the offense needs to go get some points. Even a FG would be great.
Beautiful drive. Great RZ running.
POWER 'O'
Andy, is that you?
yaaaaaaaaaaay!
I love it when we /actually/ run.
okay, nice job pounding it in there for a score.
Clemons with the sack!!!
He's playing well today.
McNabb is having a bit of a shocker this game.
I don't know how that isn't a penalty on Goldson for a late hit. Crazy.
Sheldon is back on the field.
The D really needs to step it up here. Go get the QB.
I hate to say it, but that penalty looked fair. Jones made contact with his knee and threw the receiver off. Daryl Johnston made a good point, too: all Jones had to do was turn his head around and look for the ball and the flag wouldn't have been thrown.
What a ridiculous call.
That 2nd down tackle on Vernon Davis represents the night and day difference between this game and the Giants game.
I knew Trent Cole would come out with a chip on his shoulder.
The Raiders just upset the Broncos. I'm curious what that will mean for next week.
Big win.
This game wasn't pretty, but it was good to see the defense bounce back in a big way.
Have we heard anything about Vick's status? I don't think the FOX TV guys have mentioned him since he went to the locker room with a "right quad" problem.
No mention that Demps was injured, so it seems that his decision to run it out from 5 yards deeps cost him.
SF was 0-11 on 3rd down. That stat jumped out at me. They stayed in the game by going 3 of 4 on 4th down.
Nice stand by the defense. You can make the "mediocre quarterback" argument to discredit this win (a la Jay Cutler and the Chicago game), but at this stage, I think getting to 10-4 and securing a playoff spot is a pretty nice accomplishment for this team.
Tommy: Are you at all concerned by McNabb's performance? It seemed as if he was streakier than ever - some great moments mixed with some truly awful - and the 2 turnovers this game, following up the turnover last week, is worrying. Both of those 2 interceptions he threw this week were just really terrible decisions on his part, i.e. forcing the ball into coverage in the redzone when he could have easily checked it down to Weaver, etc.
Wouldn't it be great if the Vikes somehow lose 2 games and the Eagles win out making us the 2 seed. Much better road than going to the domes back to back weeks
We shouldn't at all be worried about McNabb. He had a few bad throws, but kept nearly every play alive and showed that he'll run to move the chains (and in the red zone!).
Honestly, I think he was playing TOO loose. But McNabb's a vet. A couple bad decisions in one game aren't a cause for concern.
Interesting thing I noticed from MIN-CAR game: the Vikings players are wearing their hand-warmer pouches undr their uniforms. They have slits in their jerseys to stick their hands through to stay warm.
I've never seen that done before.
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