Random Thoughts™ on the Panthers game

[volsunghawk]

You didnt need to call other posters names to get your point across.In many peoples opinions 2.5 yds a carry and the pass pro problems are that bad.I know they will be better the rest of the season I am sure of that but yesterday they got beat in the trenches and that pisses people off.I dont care how good Carolinas front 7 are the Oline has to match that intensity if they are going to be the team we all want them to be.
Its just that anytime people criticize a part of the team or a player they get jumped on and called chicken littles,overreacting or whiners.
Its the different opinions that make forums work.

Actually, according to the official NFL game book for our game, our team averaged 2.7 yards per carry rushing against the Panthers. So does that mean our O-line was bad?

If so, I want to check in on something. The 49ers averaged 2.6 yards per carry rushing against the Packers yesterday. What does that say about their O-line? Is it also bad? Especially since they were going up against a Green Bay defensive unit that is clearly inferior to the Panthers team that Seattle faced?

Being critical is okay. Demonstrating a lack of perspective, however, will definitely open you up to have that criticism turned back at you.

 

[ClumsyLurk]

Big John Ryan kicked ass today. It was unfortunate we couldn't make points from one of his kicks that bounced off their blocker's legs.

Hope the talk of their front 7 is the real deal and not an indictment of our offensive line.

 

[Thunderhawk]

#1) Ron Rivera is the worst coach in the NFL.

#2) Mike Shula as O.C.? Dear God, how does this guy stay employed? Those poor Panther fans.

#3) If we play a team with semi-competent coaching, even Romeo Crennel level coaching, we lose. I love our effort, but the Panthers pissed away a lot of possessions today. And Rivera's clock management at the end of the game - brutal - even with Coleman giving them a free stoppage.

#4) I hate to keep rehashing this but why did we trade our #1 pick for a WR? The Panther front 7 approaches elite but the Niners front seven is just as tough. If we are struggling with the Panthers front what can we expect from a 49er front 7 that returns Justin Smith? Clearly we need upgrades in the trenches on both sides of the ball, DT and G especially. Clearly our WR talent is adequate even without Harvin. So what was the logic in prioritizing WR over OL/DL? Expecting Cable to constantly work magic or expecting to find diamonds in the rough at DT in the latter rounds seems overly optimistic. I hope Pete and John are vindicated and Harvin is a monster but I still don't get it. Honestly it looks even more questionable to give up a 1st and 3rd rounder for Harvin when Boldin was gotten for a 6th. Hindsight, etc, but even so: Boldin - 13 catches 208 yards 1 TD. Wowzer.

#5) This was going to be a tough opener for all the reasons that Kearly indicated, therefore it is a HUGE win and no matter how we got it done, I am grateful.

#6) We destroy San Fran Sunday Night...again. I'm sure Harbaugh spent a good chunk of this offseason studying the Seahawks, identifying weaknesses and devising ways to exploit them. It won't matter. Our defense simply matches up too well against their offense and we're at home: 27-13.

 

[justafan]

2.5 came from the previous poster I have no idea if he was using that an an example or actual stat.IMO Capers is one of the best D coaches in the league.

 

[HawkMeat]

Bevell's playcalling can be freaking genius one game, and then the next look so predictable. The designed roll-outs later in the game is when things appeared to start rolling better and I was surprised why there were not as creative early in the game. I know the Hawks are a run first team, but change it up and design some more passes down the field. Oh, and thank the lord they didn't trade Baldwin this offseason.


Hawks have some great WR depth. I wish I had more time to look at the routes more in depth and see who is getting separation. Wilson holding onto the ball equate to little separation by his receivers or perhaps waiting for passing lane. I think it is more looking to keep the play alive. Already concerned about the pass rush the 49ers put on display week in and week out. Thank goodness the first game is at the clink.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Bevell's playcalling can be freaking genius one game, and then the next look so predictable. The designed roll-outs later in the game is when things appeared to start rolling better and I was surprised why there were not as creative early in the game. I know the Hawks are a run first team, but change it up and design some more passes down the field. Oh, and thank the lord they didn't trade Baldwin this offseason.

Bevell is a good play caller, and a good schemer. But the one criticism I have of him, and this might be more on Carroll than him but he's too stubborn.

It was EXTREMELY obvious that Carolina's game plan coming in was to shut Lynch down and create a nightmare for our run game with exotic blitzes and line shifting. After the 1st quarter Bevell and Carroll should have let Wilson throw the ball, play action and roll out way more than they did. Instead they continued to stubbornly tried to run the ball, which created a lot of 2nd and 3rd and longs.

Yes we made some great defensive halftime adjustments, but IMO not enough offensive halftime adjustments. We have the QB to throw the ball around with minimal risk, USE HIM!

 

[Schadie001]

To stop SF it will merely take a bam bam Cam hit on Boldin. He saved Kaep time and time again yesterday.

 

[Pandion Haliaetus]

Thunderhawk,

If we only had the hindsight to predict that Harvin would injure his hip or that Kearse and Williams would step up big. With Rice and Baldwin having brittle bodies (although it seems both players worked on it this year. Rice adding 10 pounds, Baldwin slowing down to fully recover then worked on strength and fitness to become more durable).

Besides Boldin was a desperation move by the 49ers bcuz JSPC Hawk-blocked them from obtaining Harvin. It also helped the 9ers to get Boldin because of the Harbaugh relationship and that the Ravens were going to release him anyway but Jim was like

"No, Bro... my recent blood sacrifice to my patron as foretold me that I will have WR boosboos... here's 6th round pick"

Boldin to Seahawks likely would've been a 4th rounder. Seeing how they have our most recent 4th rounder its a moot point. But ill ask you this... Would you rather have Boldin with the 49ers short-term or Harvin with the 49ers long-term?

Its basically why the Seahawks paid the price they did... but honestly not having draft picks does scare JSPC.

I think people are overreacting a bit with the Oline. Oline always starts out slow and it looked bad in the Cardinals opener last year sans the travel, heat and mugginess, and as long as everyone stays healthy and the young DTs continue to make progress probably the best defensive front 7 in the NFL.

 

[tacomahawk]

Thanks as always for putting together these pieces Kearly, I was wondering, if you got the feeling at all that we were holding back, or playing possum at all for next week? It may be just me, or stupid, but it felt like on offense like we still played pretty vanilla except at the end when we had to win.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Thanks as always for putting together these pieces Kearly, I was wondering, if you got the feeling at all that we were holding back, or playing possum at all for next week? It may be just me, or stupid, but it felt like on offense like we still played pretty vanilla except at the end when we had to win.

I don't think so. Pete said in his presser that they tried just about every new wrinkle they worked on over the offseason.

IMO the poor line play (on both sides of the ball) was all on execution and stupid penalty issues. Seriously, I'm getting tired of the dumb penalties. Pete keeps saying it's being fixed, but it's still happening over and over............and over.

 

[12thManNorth]

Thanks Kearly. Came to the site this AM precisely for your writeup.

I was disappointed with the first 3 quarters yesterday, but as always, Russ Wilson made the plays he had to in order to get us a win. Anybody remember the last time that DIDN'T happen ? Been a long time. I would love to see a quarter by quarter stat comparison for RW in his career. I would bet his 4th Q rating is as solid as anybody in the league.

The game definitley left me with mixed feelings at the time, but waking up today I'm just stoked that game is over and we don't have to worry about it anymore. We're also the ONLY NFC team with a road win right win. Also we got out of the game without any major injuries, which is always is half the battle in the NFL.

As for SNF vs SF, we will look like a COMPLETLEY different team, I'll guarantee it. SF is a top 3 team as well so it aint gonna be anything like 42-13 again (let's get that game out of our minds), but we're gonna go toe-to-toe with them and watch RW pull it out again for us in the 2nd half. Book it

 

[themunn]

It was EXTREMELY obvious that Carolina's game plan coming in was to shut Lynch down and create a nightmare for our run game with exotic blitzes and line shifting. After the 1st quarter Bevell and Carroll should have let Wilson throw the ball, play action and roll out way more than they did. Instead they continued to stubbornly tried to run the ball, which created a lot of 2nd and 3rd and longs.

Yes we made some great defensive halftime adjustments, but IMO not enough offensive halftime adjustments. We have the QB to throw the ball around with minimal risk, USE HIM!

It's about making the D commit though. You keep pounding the rock they'll keep trying to shut down Lynch, eventually the secondary lets their guard down and you STRIKE.
We could have started showing our hand a bit earlier, but then they'd have halftime to adjust accordingly. It's better to commit to a strategy in the first half then change up later in the game when the opposition doesn't have time to react.
Of course if you're 20 points down it's a different matter, but as long as the game stays within reach, it's good to keep your cards close to your chest. Arizona and SF aside, we went ahead in the 4th quarter of every close game last season, and only failed to win when our defense let us down. I expect that trend to continue, and as long as we keep winning games, I'm fine with it

 

[John_Redcorn]

I was surprised to see that throw by Wilson when he just basically heaved a prayer that was answered. Also kind of impressed with the actual throw itself.

 

[Hawks46]

Week 1 can be kind of flukey. There are some things that are consistently problematic, and things that could just be general rust.

This the 1st game that counts at real speed, with game plans and specific strategies. We also saw some guys like Lotuleilei that we didn't see before, and you don't expect to see a rookie make that sort of impact in his first game.

I also didn't like how long Wilson was holding the ball. Like some other posters, I wonder if it's a vision issue (height related) on the quick 3 steps, or if we really don't have that repetoire in our passing game. Keep in mind that our passing game is a lot of intermediate routes with a healthy PA vertical route tree put in to complement our punishing (haha!) run game. So far in 2 years of Wilson, I've seen our short passing game amount to quick outs and throwing to backs out of the backfield. We rarely throw quick slants to the middle, and when we have, it's generally been to Tate. Maybe Harvin coming back changes this. Think about it: new player, and new route tree that we haven't shown off all season. That will catch some teams with their pants down.

I'm in agreement with pretty much everything you said about Carpenter, Kearly, but before I make that judgement, I'd review tape from last year when Carp was healthy and see how he looked in this scheme. The other issue is that I don't care how athletic a guy is, if he can't stay healthy, it will never fully show up on the field. Carp just can't stay 100%. I know, I know, players aren't 100% during the season, but this was GAME 1. They've babied him all preseason. How long does it take for this guy to recover ? At some point, we need to cut bait and start drafting OLmen.

I didn't see Sweezy much (watching a big screen from a distance...you're not going to get a full review of every OLman) but he's underwhelmed me in pass pro, and sometimes still whiffs on blocks. His best asset is getting the combo block and getting to the next level, but against physical lines like Carolina and SF have, he gets mauled. Once again, don't know how long it takes (and I'm not being impatient) but at some point, we have to start drafting guys higher than the 3rd round for the OL (not named Carpeneter). At some points, it's starting to feel like Ruskell: "gee, we can get any old guy to block, why waste a 4th rounder on a guy when we get can our 3rd CB upgraded?" Our interior OL outside of Unger is above average at best, and against elite competition is down right terrible.

We really need to figure out how to shut down TE's a bit more. I'm not sure if this is schematic, or personnel mismatches, but it's problematic. Davis will have a field day against us, now that he won't have to play WR.

Overall, I'll take the win. It's hard to win on the road, and it's a win. It shows we still have fight. Once of the interviews had the player (forget which one) saying that they were positive the entire game on the sidelines. They knew it would be tough and responded. That's the biggest positive for me......they didn't buy the hype and think they were going to steamroll a lesser team from last year, and took the competition seriously.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

It's about making the D commit though. You keep pounding the rock they'll keep trying to shut down Lynch, eventually the secondary lets their guard down and you STRIKE.
We could have started showing our hand a bit earlier, but then they'd have halftime to adjust accordingly. It's better to commit to a strategy in the first half then change up later in the game when the opposition doesn't have time to react.
Of course if you're 20 points down it's a different matter, but as long as the game stays within reach, it's good to keep your cards close to your chest. Arizona and SF aside, we went ahead in the 4th quarter of every close game last season, and only failed to win when our defense let us down. I expect that trend to continue, and as long as we keep winning games, I'm fine with it

The D was committed...........to stopping the run. This is the same thing Pete did at USC, he stubbornly stuck with his gameplan because he thought eventually his superior team would force their will.

This is the NFL, if a team takes away something, you have to change. If you don't, then it's going to be a long day for your offense, which is what we saw yesterday. Carolina has a very good defense, so I'll give them credit. But their defensive weakness is their DB's, so why wasn't our gamepan to throw it all over the place............which would THEN open up the run game. Not the other way around, stubbornly keep trying to run when it was obviously the Panther's front seven was dominating our line.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

It's about making the D commit though. You keep pounding the rock they'll keep trying to shut down Lynch, eventually the secondary lets their guard down and you STRIKE.
We could have started showing our hand a bit earlier, but then they'd have halftime to adjust accordingly. It's better to commit to a strategy in the first half then change up later in the game when the opposition doesn't have time to react.
Of course if you're 20 points down it's a different matter, but as long as the game stays within reach, it's good to keep your cards close to your chest. Arizona and SF aside, we went ahead in the 4th quarter of every close game last season, and only failed to win when our defense let us down. I expect that trend to continue, and as long as we keep winning games, I'm fine with it

The D was committed...........to stopping the run. This is the same thing Pete did at USC, he stubbornly stuck with his gameplan because he thought eventually his superior team would force their will.

This is the NFL, if a team takes away something, you have to change. If you don't, then it's going to be a long day for your offense, which is what we saw yesterday. Carolina has a very good defense, so I'll give them credit. But their defensive weakness is their DB's, so why wasn't our gamepan to throw it all over the place............which would THEN open up the run game. Not the other way around, stubbornly keep trying to run when it was obviously the Panther's front seven was dominating our line.

 

[Thunderhawk]

Thunderhawk,

Would you rather have Boldin with the 49ers short-term or Harvin with the 49ers long-term?

I would rather have had more high-level interior lineman whether on offense or defense because I think that was the greater talent deficit compared to WR. And I still think that, though you make some good points about the WR question marks facing the front office entering 2013. Obviously Schneider made the decision to trade for Percy with a lot more info than we had and you have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, this topic will be an interesting and inevitable subtext this season.

 

[Perfundle]

This is the NFL, if a team takes away something, you have to change. If you don't, then it's going to be a long day for your offense, which is what we saw yesterday. Carolina has a very good defense, so I'll give them credit. But their defensive weakness is their DB's, so why wasn't our gamepan to throw it all over the place............which would THEN open up the run game. Not the other way around, stubbornly keep trying to run when it was obviously the Panther's front seven was dominating our line.

Stubbornly tried to run? They ran for 20 plays and attempted to throw for 37! Did you miss the times when trying to throw it ended with massive pressure on Wilson?

 

[Sgt. Largent]

This is the NFL, if a team takes away something, you have to change. If you don't, then it's going to be a long day for your offense, which is what we saw yesterday. Carolina has a very good defense, so I'll give them credit. But their defensive weakness is their DB's, so why wasn't our gamepan to throw it all over the place............which would THEN open up the run game. Not the other way around, stubbornly keep trying to run when it was obviously the Panther's front seven was dominating our line.

Stubbornly tried to run? They ran for 20 plays and attempted to throw for 37! Did you miss the times when trying to throw it ended with massive pressure on Wilson?

I did not miss those pressures. What do Brady and Manning do when there's pressure? They change the play to quick slants, outs and screens.

So my question to you is this, on pass plays why was Wilson still trying to take 5 and 7 step drops, which resulted in him running for his life? If your O-Line is getting pummeled, you have to change. That's my criticism of the play calling yesterday. Not only enough passes, but not enough effort to slow down Carolina's rush.

 

[Perfundle]

I did not miss those pressures. What do Brady and Manning do when there's pressure? They change the play to quick slants, outs and screens.

So my question to you is this, on pass plays why was Wilson still trying to take 5 and 7 step drops, which resulted in him running for his life? If your O-Line is getting pummeled, you have to change. That's my criticism of the play calling yesterday. Not only enough passes, but not enough effort to slow down Carolina's rush.

Well that's a completely different criticism. Wilson isn't going to be making many quick slants with his lack of height, but yes, I would've liked more plays to counter the pass rush as well. My point was that a lack of passing attempts was definitely not the issue.