49ers vs. Texans preseason week 1

I've been recording as many preseason games as I can and have been trying to watch the first half of all of them. I wasn't going to report everything I noticed but I figured this was worth a topic.

I was really impressed with the new look 49ers. They utterly dominated the first half against the Texans, outgaining them 3 to 1. Not with explosive big plays or flash, but with every down dominance.

Chip Kelly has generally had finesse teams, but the roster he's inherited in SF is surprisingly athletic and physical. It gives his team more of an Ohio State kind of vibe than an Oregon vibe.

Lamar Miller might be the most over-rated player in fantasy right now. He's pretty much the definition of an average starting RB by NFL talent standards, and he was at best the third best looking RB in this game.

I remember being scared to death that Seattle might draft Mike Davis in the 3rd round of the 2015 draft. His college tape mostly sucked, and he was big and slow. So know what I want to know is, what the heck happened to this guy? He looks way smaller now and way way way quicker. He looked like a stud and quite honestly, reminded me some of Thomas Rawls for his combination of quickness and physicality.

Carlos Hyde had a backbreaking fumble, but otherwise he looked great. I'll be targeting him (and Davis with a super late pick) in my fantasy drafts. This team is going to run the football a lot and run it fairly well. The 49ers OL looked significantly improved from last season.

The run defense for SF seemed to be so-so, but I was very impressed by the quality of their press man coverage.

WR seems to be a glaring weakness for the 49ers. Vance McDonald had a nice game, but with Vance McDonald you can always expect a flash of potential here and there so I'm skeptical about him being poised for a breakout, but we'll see.

Gabbert was better than his 6.3 YPA, he had some nice scrambles and rushes and made good decisions. Third string QB Thad Lewis looked surprisingly great, and then he got a season ending injury.

I'm really glad Seattle doesn't play SF in wacky week 1. This team is going to sneak up on a few good teams this season and beat them. There was an energy and enthusiasm I saw from the 49ers in this game that I hadn't seen out of them since 2013. Maybe it's just short-lived excitement for a new chapter, but this definitely feels like a new chapter. All they need now is to get their QB situation figured out and they could end up with an above average offense.

Can the admin advise how Marvin hacked Kearly's account? Otherwise, If it's a hostage situation blink twice...

UK_Seahawk":2u4xv5d4 said:

Can the admin advise how Marvin hacked Kearly's account? Otherwise, If it's a hostage situation blink twice...

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:irishdrinkers:

I remember thinking the 2013 Eagles would be a breakout team after watching the preseason that year. Foles looked good, the running game looked good... there was a good vibe with the team. Watching this one preseason game gave me some flashbacks to that.

The problem with Kelly is that his schtick wore out it's welcome by year three in Philly. So while I think he will surprise people this year in SF, his long term future with Baalke is certainly a question mark.

Until the 49ers get a quality WR and QB, they will at very best be fighting to be in contention at the end of the regular season. I believe they have underrated talent and vastly improved coaching over last season, but this is a passing league and you need a real QB and more than a one trick pony at WR.

That run game looked good.

Wouldn't be surprised to see your prediction about them sneaking up on some teams come true. Their backs had some nice holes and they were explosive.

Kearly you are spot on. On all points. My biggest fear is that this is the same thing that happened in Philli. One thing I hope is that Kelly can see when things need to be slowed down for the better Of his D. While I did like the run game, online, and defense (stopping the 20mil dollar man). The QB and WR made me pessimistic. Gabbert is not the answer.

So are we thinking they run out of gas Week 6 or Week 8?

So they go 7-9. That would be perfect.

You're being way to generous to Gabbert, Kearl.

He had the nice scramble for the first down, had one nice pass to McDonald (the first down splitting the defenders in coverage), and one decent enough pass to McDonald (the TD in which the defender fell down and McDonald made people miss), but beyond that was just really, really bad.

His decision making was good, but in Kelly's offense decision making isn't that huge: For the most part you're picking a half of the field to focus on based on coverage cues before the snap, and then just reading one defender and throwing to the receiver who occupies the space that defender doesn't turn to. Not saying Kaepernick can do it, but it's pretty straightforward and dummy proof.

Missing throws is really what makes the system fall apart, and Gabbert missed most of them and missed them badly. If he's inaccurate there's literally nothing he has over Kaep in this offense, which is pretty sad.

Agreed with everything else though. :2thumbs:

As I said to my buddy who is a Hawks fan while watching this game: I'd be totally fine if the 9ers went 0-16 and played like this every week. Save for maybe the Vikings in week 1 of last year, it's the first time the 9ers have actually been fun to watch since the bye two years ago.

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MizzouHawkGal":u13jvadd said:

So they go 7-9. That would be perfect.

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I agree.

Popeyejones":1ysxd048 said:

You're being way to generous to Gabbert, Kearl.

He had the nice scramble for the first down, had one nice pass to McDonald (the first down splitting the defenders in coverage), and one decent enough pass to McDonald (the TD in which the defender fell down and McDonald made people miss), but beyond that was just really, really bad.

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Gabbert led several nice drives, and his scrambling ability and decision making does factor into that. I never said he had a great game, I just think he clearly led the offense better than his 6.3 YPA would indicate. People are being too harsh saying he was garbage, IMO.

KitsapGuy":2lmksgpz said:

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There has to be a better option then that. I guess Tavaris really is done if Ponder is signed before him.

MizzouHawkGal":2trgp0dt said:

KitsapGuy":2trgp0dt said:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/765640996025733120[/tweet]

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There has to be a better option then that. I guess Tavaris really is done if Ponder is signed before him.

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Yep, with the very likely scenario that DV happened (though charges were dropped) and him NOT being a "superstar" (see Greg Hardy, Dez "I beat up my own mom" Bryant), he doesn't have the talent level to justify the "baggage" for the lack of a better term.

I think TJack is in someone's camp if the DV doesn't happen. I'm not saying he would stick, but back up vet QB's that played on championship teams do float around the league for awhile.