Post#476 » by CrimsonCrew » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:39 pm
So, with the benefit of a night of sleep, my general thoughts on the game.
First and foremost, really disappointing loss. I thought last week was going to be our wakeup call, but it wasn't. We looked sloppy across the board yet again, with all three phases contributing to an awful performance.
This week I'll start with the defense. Completely unacceptable showing. I try to start with the positive, so let's do that. Yes, they did a nice job of twice holding the Vikings to FGs from first and goal inside the three. That is literally the only good thing I can say about them. I guess the LBs generally played well except that we kept putting Greenlaw on Hockenson or a WR. I blame the coaches for that. Even an athletic LB like Greenlaw can't hang with good TEs and even mediocre WRs.
The DL was nonexistent. I was defending Bosa earlier in the year, because I felt that he was still getting pressure even though the sacks weren't there. Hard to do that after this game. I didn't see him facing a lot of double teams. He couldn't disengage from the RT. He seemed to lack power, wasn't really even trying counter moves, definitely not explosive coming off the ball. Interior DL didn't do much better. We barely laid a hand on Cousins all night.
Coverage also seemed soft. We repeatedly gave them huge cushions to easily snag balls for first downs. A couple times they had nice plays on the ball, but their guys were running open all night. Kind of beaten the blitz at the end of the half to death, but truly one of the great bone-headed plays that I can recall seeing out of a defense. So epically stupid. And Ward has to know that he either needs to pick it or make the tackle. Either result is acceptable there. They almost certainly didn't have time to get down and kill the clock. Going for the pick, not securing it, and falling down was just catastrophic.
The offense was so frustrating. They moved the ball well in the first half, but couldn't score. McCaffrey needs to hold onto the ball better. Period. I know he has a lot of carries, but three fumbles is unacceptable. And we need to get him off the damn field from time to time. He's getting too many touches. An underrated part of our issues the past two weeks is the lack of a run game. We averaged 3.0 YPC last night. Take away Purdy's scrambles and that number falls to 2.7 YPC. That's pathetic. The week before was somewhat better at 4.3 YPC, though without McCloud's two jet sweeps we fall to 3.7.
Purdy started the game well, finding the holes and making accurate throws in rhythm to open guys, just like we'd seen most of the year. The only real knock on him through the first three quarters was the bone-headed throw-away - though the fumble call there was exceedingly odd. It was clearly down by contact or an incomplete pass (and probably grounding). Then the fourth quarter happened. I don't have a defense for it. I guess I can kind of understand the first INT because it was an anticipation throw, but Jennings got hung up. The second INT was just inexcusable. He panicked, threw back across the field into the teeth of the D to a 5'9" receiver. It can't happen. I'm sure I'll post more about this in the Purdy thread.
The OL seemed to struggle again, with both blitzes and four-man pressure (hell, even with three-man pressure). With Trent in the lineup, our OL is about average. Without him, they're probably toward the bottom of the league, and it showed. As said above, they should have mixed things up with different RBs. I don't absolutely hate giving Mitchell a shot, and I don't really blame him for the loss of yardage on his one carry given the shoddy blocking, but CMC can't take every carry. Especially when he's dealing with an injury.
Another missed 40-yard FG is just a kick in the teeth. Especially in a tight game like this. At least he came back and hit the 50+ yarder. Kid needs to get his confidence back and make easy kicks. This is a big part of why it's not a great idea to draft a kicker early. They tend to struggle. It's now arguably cost us two games. At least Wishnowsky is killing it this year.
Overall, two bad games in a row falls on the coaches in my view. Our D was laughable in this one, and our offense just looked a little out of sorts again. Even without Deebo, our collection of skill players is among the best in the league. There's no excuse for generating 17 points against a shaky defense. We're still in great shape to make the playoffs, but if we want to win the division, much less be in the mix for a bye, we need to get it buttoned up now. It's hard to imagine us beating Cincinnati this week given how we have looked, and it feels like Baltimore will just destroy us. Can't see us beating the Eagles team we just saw. And two games against the Seahawks won't be gimmes. This could get ugly fast. Have to stop the bleeding, as we should have done last night.