Cold Water: The 49ers Will Not Win the West

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by Senator Palmer

It is just one game, but there has to be a better showing from a team with this much talent, especially along the line and at running back. But forget about the offense, there are some studs on that defense and they shouldn't be surrendering 28 points to the Seahawks. Now the Seahawks may prove to be better than the pundits think when it's said and done. Maybe. Maybe not. But they should be the ones with first game jitters, not the 49ers who are a more coalesced unit.

But it's in Seattle... not an easy place to play when the crowd is pumped.

Plus, the 49ers defensive talent isn't nearly what its made out to be. You have an Franklin and Willis, certainly elite players... after that, Justin Smith is solid, Takeo Spikes is good but slow, the secondary is awful, the outside linebackers are average at best, the LE is a platoon of guys who should be backup tackles.

Offensively, they could be worse than last year. Neither rookie lineman was impressive in the preseason. Davis was terrible. That line is no better than last season, when it was the worst in the NFL. Plus you have an offensive coordinator who should be coaching runningbacks in High School.

I didn't voice most of this during the off-season. I allowed myself to be optimistic, to think maybe the crowd was right and I was wrong. This game is bringing forward my worst off-season feelings. I'm embarrassed to be associated with this team right now. All the bad teams they've had over the past 8 years, I've never felt that way. This is pathetic.

[The Chef]

Quote: Originally Posted by Senator Palmer

It is just one game, but there has to be a better showing from a team with this much talent, especially along the line and at running back. But forget about the offense, there are some studs on that defense and they shouldn't be surrendering 28 points to the Seahawks. Now the Seahawks may prove to be better than the pundits think when it's said and done. Maybe. Maybe not. But they should be the ones with first game jitters, not the 49ers who are a more coalesced unit.

Well 14 are thanks to turnovers so the defense didnt really surrender 28 points anyways.

[Senator Palmer]

True enough, Seattle has never been an easy place to play, and the game is not on in my area so I'm just going off the score. I don't know if those scores were easy scores that came off turnovers, but going in I would have thought that with Gore they would have been able to move Seattle off of the LOS, especially with a d-line made up of Mebane, Cole, Clemons and a guy that I've never heard of, Red Bryant.

I like the linebacking corp of Seattle, but I would have thought that the highest paid TE in history would have given them some matchup problems to make things easy for Smith.

Seattle has some good looking players on offense with Carlson, Okung, and Branch (I personally think Hasselbeck has a lot left), but all in all, I never would have thought they would pick them apart and put up 28 unanswered points. I mean when is Manny Lawson going to show up? He's one of the studs I had in mind... from a physical standpoint that is.

They're not a team I follow closely, outside of Patrick Willis so you would know better than me, but I didn't know the secondary was terrible, especially with Clements who was pretty good when he was in Buffalo.

[The Chef]

Clements is just getting old and is getting beat by double moves way too often these days. In terms of the 28 points, 7 were from a returned INT for a TD and another was from an INT that was returned to the 20 or so I believe.

[oneamongthefence]

I think pretty much all the teams looked sloppy and I doubt the first week is a good indicator of the season. Most offenses looked bad and a lot of games were decided over defensive plays and offensive misplays. So I wouldn't give up yet. The texans beat the colts. The first week is not indicative of the season.

[pietasterp]

In general, nothing of substance can really be predicted based on week 1...but week 1 can dispell a lot of unwarranted pre-season hype. I think the only thing you can confidently take away from week 1 is that NFC West is more open than we were led to believe (i.e. SF is not a lock).

[steelcurtain311]

Singletary handled it pretty well, I think. Coaches like him can rub some players the wrong way, but the players who like him, LOVE him. If Alex Smith isn't one of those guys, he's going to have a miserable time in San Fran. Singletary reportedly called out Smith and a few others on offense specifically at a mandatory meeting.

Smith was the main reason I was iffy on the Niners. While I thought they'd definitely contend for the division and everything, I wasn't for a second buying the "one of the best teams in the NFL" hype. Not with Alex Smith at QB, and not with a number of defensive holes.

Seattle got off to that hot start, and that pretty much killed the Niners offense anyways. You get up fast on them, they're screwed, since it takes away that pounding run game they're trying to build their offense around. If Smith has to throw for four quarters, I'd imagine it's a loss 10 times out of 10.

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by steelcurtain311

Singletary handled it pretty well, I think. Coaches like him can rub some players the wrong way, but the players who like him, LOVE him. If Alex Smith isn't one of those guys, he's going to have a miserable time in San Fran. Singletary reportedly called out Smith and a few others on offense specifically at a mandatory meeting. Smith was the main reason I was iffy on the Niners. While I thought they'd definitely contend for the division and everything, I wasn't for a second buying the "one of the best teams in the NFL" hype. Not with Alex Smith at QB, and not with a number of defensive holes. Seattle got off to that hot start, and that pretty much killed the Niners offense anyways. You get up fast on them, they're screwed, since it takes away that pounding run game they're trying to build their offense around. If Smith has to throw for four quarters, I'd imagine it's a loss 10 times out of 10.

Seattle didn't get off to a hot start... the 49ers were dominating the game on BOTH sides of the ball for a quarter and a half, but couldn't punch it in in the red zone. At one point, the 49ers had outgained the Seahawks, iirc, around 150-11. Smith started out 13-15.

At any rate, the 49ers biggest problem wasn't Smith, wasn't the secondary, wasn't Crabtree dogging routes (the reason for one of Smith's INTs), or Davis not fighting for first downs... although all of that was a factor... the biggest problem was that the coaching staff was brain-dead for most of the first half. Used all 3 timeouts waiting for play calls to come in, and THEN took 2 delay of game penalties.

Singletary needs to take a good long look in the mirror before he calls anyone out on this game. If anyone, he needs to be on Jimmy Raye's ***. Every failure was on a critical down... in the red zone or on 3rd... and to top it off, you twice (once on a pass, once on a run) go to MORAN NORRIS on the goalline... not Michael hands-of-glue Crabtree, not Vernon can-leap-out-of-the-stadium Davis, not Frank fight-for-every-yard Gore, no, Moran averages-about-three-touches-a-year Norris. You can't make a worse call than that. Well, maybe if you faked a field goal on third down and threw it to Nedney, that might be worse. Maybe.