RAMS game thoughts

[49er4life1979]

First off, great comeback win. Kap was outstanding and OL held up in pass protection. Brandon LLoyd is a deep threat we have been lacking at WR. That 80 yard TD was a complete momentum changer. Great call by Fangio to blitz a lot against an inexperienced QB. Ahmad Brooks finally came to play, 2 sacks, I believe we had 5 total. Skuta and Lynch also looked great...Not sure if blitzing is going to work against Peyton Manning on Sunday however...Now the negatives: 1. We just fricken suck on short yardage. We TWICE get stuffed on 4th and 1. That has been a problem for quite a long time and I dont see it improving, unless Roman gets shown the door. 2. Special thanks to Vernon Davis for bumping into Vance McDonald and causing him to drop what wouldve been his first career TD...3. Injuries - especially the Patrick Willis toe injury. I hope its not like Tramaine Brock's obviously. They just keep piling up. Jimmie Ward, Mike Iupati, Stevie. Damn!

[imac_21]

We played 3 great quarters and shat the bed for one.

Really impressed with the defense, we spent basically the entire second half without Willis, Ward, Bowman, Dorsey, Smith and still held what has been a pretty good offense to nothing (save the one FG). It will be really interesting when everyone is healthy/off suspension.

Culliver bit badly on the second TD, but I thought the secondary played well other than that. Bethea was awesome, which is becoming par for the course. Janoris Jenkins, for the Rams, looked horrible.

I thought the LB played really well, particularly in the second half when it was Borland and Wilhoite in the middle.

Great to see Lynch finally get a sack.

Seriously, we had, in the second half, on the field defensively Borland, Wilhoite, Lynch, Skuta, TJE, Cook and Johnson. It felt like late August.

Offensively, it's nice to see the team looking downfield the last two weeks, and Brandon Lloyd is a great big play threat.

Kap was insane.Had the one stupid throw to start, and the one stupid stupid stupid throw when he was horse collared, but all in all a great game.

Vernon was horrendous.

Didn't run the ball well, but StL had, at times 15 in the box and we were trying to run at them. Late in the game it would have been interesting to see what could have happened with some play action, but I think Harbaugh was trying to win the game with a 4th down conversion and not get anyone injured.

Holy **** we had a lot of injuries today (Willis, Ward, Iupati, Stevie). Next week could be a tough one, as we could be running out the second stringers.

It's possible we could be without:
Bowman, Smith, Willis, Ward, Dorsey, A. Davis, Iupati and Stevie.

Damn.

[arich35]

Fun game to be at! The turn in the crowd after the Lloyd TD was great. Sucks to see so many damn injuries. Willis is the bug one, I hope he doesn't have to miss Sunday against Manning and TE. Thomas against Borland/Wilhoite. It did look like Borland stepped in pretty well though, those who watched on a tv do you agree?
Kaepernick had one of his best games of his career, great job by him and the oline.

[NinerSickness]

Great to see Lynch finally get a sack.

When did Lynch get a sack? It's not showing up on the stat sheet; it says he didn't even have a tackle.

He had some nice pressure though. That stunt he ran was blazing fast for his size.

[NinerSickness]

No love for my nicknames?

Lynch Mob?

Motor Skuta?

...Michael Wil-hoite ya really badly?

[shouldakepowens]

No love for my nicknames?

Lynch Mob?

Motor Skuta?

...Michael Wil-hoite ya really badly?

Skuta tripped up Davis and lynch finished it. Lynch mob is my favorite.

[NinerSickness]

Gruden kept calling him Kevin Will-height. Wonder if the name Kevin will catch on.

[Jikkle]

Consider this game exhibit A on why pass protection is so important and why I've been harping on it so far this season. It was no coincidence that the pass protection was excellent and Kap had his best ever game passing (IMO).

On the topic of Kap aside from that one hideous decision chucking the ball up into the air he was pretty spot all night. 8 different guys had catches and most of his passes he threw were catchable. Lloyd doesn't get that TD unless Kap hits him in stride and that TD pass to Boldin was just amazing.

His pocket presence was also excellent and he shifted around in the pocket at the appropriate times unlike other games where there were quite a few times he bailed out of pocket sooner than he should've.

Overall it's a textbook example offensively what we want to do. When defenses sell out to stop the run we want to be able pass effectively and force them to back off the run to than open the running game.

Defensively the Rams offense had them out game planned for a quarter and the defense proceeded to tighten up and clamp down after that. You're going to run into games were the one side gets you in game planning it's what you do to adjust and how quickly you do that's critical and I thought the shipped was righted pretty quickly.

Overall great game on both sides of the ball.

[CalamityX12]

Skuta and Lynch provided excellent pressure from the edges as did Brooks, surprisingly so.

Borland's coverage ability stood out for me, I never had him pegged as someone able to stay on a TE like he did.

Cox had been our best CB and maybe def. player through this season, good stuff.

Kap had a good game honestly, sans two or three wtf throws...(esp. the horse collar one)

[Yadahell]

Thanks for your thoughts on the game. I was on a plane that didn't have personal Tv's, so I had to watch it on my phone via ESPN gamecast which wasn't very informative.

Kaep seemed to play quite well and I'm impressed that the rookies stepped it up when Willis, Ward, etc went down. Hope none of these injuries are serious. Tough task with a banged up team on a short week traveling to mile high....

[arich35]

One thing that pissed me off last night:
After Vance fumbled that ball (after holding the ball like an idiot) they continued to put him on the field. Carrier has been great when Vernon and McDonald were hurt. I wish they would have benched McDonald for at least a series or a quarter

[Jikkle]

After reading and watching some of the media rounds on the game they seemed to make a bigger deal out of our lack of being effective running the ball than it was.

Rams were clearly stacking the box and their defense was actually built to stop the 9ers and Seattle's rushing attacks so I don't have an issue with the anemic running attack because we effectively exploiting their defense in the passing attack.

Running into brick walls and doing what defenses expect us to do is what cost us a few games last year which leads to........

.....Our struggles on short down situations. I don't know how many times we've got to get stuffed before the coaching staff realizes that the handoff up the middle is exactly what defenses are expecting and selling out to stop.

For one we have the best running QB in the league so I just don't see why we don't do a QB sneak since it gives the defenders less time to stuff the middle or just do a quick rollout since the defense will be looking for Gore to take it up the middle.

Also VD clearly isn't right and probably should've sat in this game. He didn't look comfortable physically and he wasn't engaged mentally.

[clyde21]

Jim Harbaugh. Through the media **** and all of the damn injuries we still were able to go on the road against a tough division opponent and come out with a big victory.

Dude's an ass, but he's a great coach.

[imac_21]

Great to see Lynch finally get a sack.

When did Lynch get a sack? It's not showing up on the stat sheet; it says he didn't even have a tackle.

He had some nice pressure though. That stunt he ran was blazing fast for his size.

Skuta's second sack was being talked up all game as being Lynch's. I figured it would get changed to Skuta, but when I posted it hadn't. Honestly, I thought they'd split it officially.

[generaldreedle]

I was really most encouraged by Kaepernick keeping plays alive, looking downfield and making sick touch throws. The one to boldin was it looked like it did drop out of the sky. If he continues to progress that would take the pressure off the defense while they wait for Smith and bowman to come back.

Sent from my VK810 4G using RealGM Forums mobile app

[NinerSickness]

Vernon's thought bubble:

"Hello TD! That'll get my stock back up to--- Crap."

[CrimsonCrew]

A few thoughts:

Ultimately a good win on the road after a shaky start. Kap had a strong game despite one absurdly stupid play. No delays, no wasted TOs, and we even kind of hustled up to the line after Gore's questionable reception. The pass protection was better than it has been, though Martin had some shaky moments. Run blocking was not great, but STL was selling out to stop the run.

The D continues to baffle. They're an absolute sieve one minute, and completely lockdown the next. However, their overall performance is a real credit to the players and the staff given all the injuries. It's been great to see young players stepping up, and it's really encouraging as we look ahead to when Aldon, Navorro, and even Brock come back.

Definitely not a perfect game, and still some things to smooth out, but this team can definitely win the division given the way the Hawks have looked to date.

[CalamityX12]

:nonono:



Vernon's thought bubble:

"Hello TD! That'll get my stock back up to--- Crap."

Caption:

Vance: YES!!!! I GOT A TD!!!
collision....
Vance: NOOO its a VD!!!!

[Yadahell]

After reading and watching some of the media rounds on the game they seemed to make a bigger deal out of our lack of being effective running the ball than it was.

Rams were clearly stacking the box and their defense was actually built to stop the 9ers and Seattle's rushing attacks so I don't have an issue with the anemic running attack because we effectively exploiting their defense in the passing attack.

Running into brick walls and doing what defenses expect us to do is what cost us a few games last year which leads to........

.....Our struggles on short down situations. I don't know how many times we've got to get stuffed before the coaching staff realizes that the handoff up the middle is exactly what defenses are expecting and selling out to stop.

For one we have the best running QB in the league so I just don't see why we don't do a QB sneak since it gives the defenders less time to stuff the middle or just do a quick rollout since the defense will be looking for Gore to take it up the middle.

Also VD clearly isn't right and probably should've sat in this game. He didn't look comfortable physically and he wasn't engaged mentally.

Agreed on the lack of rushing due to the way the Rams stacked the box. Not a big deal to me as long as Kaep continues to make plays and good reads which leads to sustaining drives.

The thinking on Kaep not running on 3rd and short would be that you want to limit his hits. He's great at the zone-read and scrambling when lanes open up, but I don't want him going full steam into a stacked box. He's good at not letting defenders getting good contact on him, but I'd be worried he could get nailed sooner or later on a 3rd and short with a stacked box.

[CrimsonCrew]

Re: Vance, the guy is driving me a little crazy. I'm higher on him than many, I think. You can see the potential is there. He's got great size, good athleticism, has developed into a solid blocker, and was a very effective receiver in college. It just seems like every time he touches the ball something goes wrong. He drops an easy pass, or he fumbles a ball while foolishly trying to leap defenders (please stop this immediately), or has an easy TD broken up by his own player. He almost seems snakebit. I'd like to think this sort of thing will dissipate over time, but he's got to start showing that we can rely on him in the passing game.

And while we're on the topic of TEs, I think one of the most overlooked aspects of the Niners' recent success (relatively speaking) is that they have been doing it without Davis. Last year, Davis left the Hawks game early and then missed the Colts game. We scored ten total points in those games. This year, the offense is still productive without him. When he gets back to full health, this unit could be very dangerous. In this game, though, Vernon was more of a hindrance than anything.