SAN FRANCISCO – Here are my grades for the 49ers, who lost 20-17 to the New York Giants in the NFC championship game.
Alex Smith: D. Most of his 196 passing yards came on two long completions to Vernon Davis. Besides those two plays, Smith completed just 10 of 24 passes (42% – a Tebowesque percentage) for 95 yards. That’s awful. His best plays came when he scrambled – he picked up 42 yards on 6 carries. Still, Smith isn’t Tebow. He’s not paid to run the ball. He’s paid to throw, and in the biggest game of his life he threw horribly.
Offensive line: A-. They gave up just three sacks to the Giants ferocious pass rush, and they created huge running lanes all game long. Mike Iupati missed about ten snaps and the unit didn’t miss a beat with Chilo Rachal in the game at right guard.
Running backs: A-. These guys were underutilized. Gore rushed 16 times for 74 yards (4.6 yards per carry), plus he caught six passes for 45 yards. He was effective running up the middle, but his coaches got too cute with their play calling. Kendall Hunter was also fantastic. He runs the counter like no one I’ve ever seen. Twice he had big gains by running one way, stopping on a dime and running back where he came from. If Greg Roman had kept these two players more involved, the Niners may have won.
Wide receivers: F. Corey Webster completely shut down Michael Crabtree, just like he did in Week 10. Crabtree caught one pass then and one pass in this game. He is not a No. 1 wide receiver. He was invisible in the playoffs. Kyle Williams, the other starter, caught zero passes. The entire wide receiving corps caught one pass. The Niners need to overhaul this group in the offseason. Trent Baalke should have added a better wide receiver earlier in the season. Signing Brett Swain and Joe Hastings – complete NFL non-factors – to replace Joshua Morgan and Braylon Edwards was an error in judgment. You mean to tell me that Terrell Owens or Randy Moss couldn’t have done better than Brett Swain in this one? Or how about Kyle Williams? Or how about Crabtree?
Tight ends: A-. Vernon Davis is a super star. In these playoffs he was the entire Niners offense. He’s by far their best wide receiver on the team and he isn’t even a wide receiver. Smith only threw his way five times, which is preposterous. Delanie Walker blocked well and caught a couple passes, but he wasn’t much of a factor.
Defensive line: A. Ray McDonald had the game of his life – sacking Eli Manning 2.5 times. Justin Smith was a one-man pass rush in the fourth quarter. The whole line held the Giants offense to just 3.3 yards per carry. This unit was top-notch all season.
Linebackers: A. These guys are top-notch, too. NaVarro Bowman finished with 14 tackles, one half of a sack and another hit on Eli Manning. Patrick Willis was also dominant. The Niners didn’t lose because of their front-seven.
Secondary: D. Carlos Rogers got torched by Victor Cruz. Rogers is going to want top cornerback money in the offseason and I highly doubt he’ll get it from the Niners. Tarell Brown got knocked out of the game. Tramaine Brock got picked on for a touchdown pass to Mario Manningham. Donte Whitner failed to cover Bear Pascoe on an early touchdown. This unit got exposed in coverage. They didn’t seem much better than they were back in Week 2 in their overtime loss to the Cowboys.
Special teams: F. Kyle Williams should have been replaced as the punt returner after he dove to catch a punt in the third quarter. He was overwhelmed by his special teams assignment. Reggie Smith returned punts at Oklahoma – have him return the punts. Or Chris Culliver. Or anyone. Harbaugh didn’t make the correct adjustment, and Williams fumbled the game away.
Coaching: F. What was that? What were those play calls on offense? How could they leave Kyle Williams in as the punt returner? What happened?
In a conference championship game you go with what got you there. You go with your meat and potatoes. The Giants did. But the Niners? They were running option plays. They were running (and bumbling) complicated reverses. They ran any number of plays they had never run once in a game. They insisted on being cute when all they needed to do was run up the middle – it was working. Gore was ripping off five yards per run right up the gut and the Niners went away from it. Why?
Praise Harbaugh and his staff for orchestrating one of the most amazing franchise-turnarounds in sports history. But don’t praise him for his performance in this one. He was as in awe of the moment as Kyle Williams was.
49ers RSS feed
Loading ...
Grant, can’t disagree with your grades at all. I will say there is a correlation between QB and WR play and if the 9ers had better WR’s it would make a difference. Obviously two beautiful pass plays for tds to VD proves that out – get open and the ball is there. BTW, one being a wheel route that some said AS couldn’t throw.
Great year and a hell of a ride. Add some more playmakers on offense and the 9ers can return.
I guess we’ll see from the draft the area of most importance from the powers that be in the 9er org.
After reading MSando, I put more blame on the WR’s. He’s correct by stating that “It’s tough to blame quarterback Alex Smith for Crabtree’s irrelevance when Smith was completing game-changing passes to tight end Vernon Davis throughout the playoffs”.
Great year just an unfortunate ending with the ST fumbles.
Agreed, the Giants receivers were running great routes and getting open when they needed too. Our wide receivers just seemed overwhelmed. Crabtree is a #2 receiver at best imo.
Hey Grant who are some free agent wide receivers avaiable across the league?
Agree. Though my favorite QB certainly has to share in the WR F, the WR’s needed to help more than they did. The looks they got were no surprise to anyone – they just failed to get free. I was waiting for Alex to get that last posession to set aside the safe throws and sling it, but he never got the chance. I agree, too, about poor playcalling but I’m no coach. I also didn’t understand keeping Williams involved. Hindsight is 20/20. It was, indeed, a great run. Looking forward to the off-season.
Grant,
I agree with your grades. It was a brutal end to the season. Thanks for always doing a great job, love the blog.
I’m sort of thinking Greg Roman wanted to polish his resume in this game. Instead of meat and potatoes Roman tried to serve up some fancy French cooking.
Your grades are dead on Grant. Nice work.
Wow, a little harsh on your grades. Smith was inaccurate at times but didn’t turn the ball over and made a few big time throws. He also made plays with his legs. The Giants secondary played well and there just weren’t a lot of guys open downfield. This is a great defense. I figure a C is more accurate.
The secondary also deserves much better than a D. Exposed? How so? Other than Rogers in the first half, the secondary played extremely well, especially considering the lack of a pass rush in the first half and the loss of Brown. Brock was in excellent position on the TD pass to Manningham, that was just a great throw and catch by two great players. One-on-one coverage and he played it well, you can’t fault him for that. This is a fantastic group of receivers and an offense led by a top-flight passing attack. Big plays are bound to happen. They deserve a C+ at worst.
As far as coaching is concerned, the adjustments they made at halftime were excellent. The defense played awesome the second half. Roman called a bad game, I’ll give you that, but an F all around? Come on now. If the 49ers had won, I don’t think you would give them an F.
I agree. I thought the 9ers played a pretty good game against a top team, the two turnovers obviously were the big difference. They win relatively easily I think without those two gaffes.
As far as the passing goes, I think the g-men played a lot of nickel, even against our heavier formations, inviting the 49ers to run. And so they did run, relatively well.
The 49ers played well enough to beat a top team, but two punt return turnovers was their undoing. Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
i thought the grades were a bit harsh but emotions can cloud no doubt…secondary did have two certain interceptions that they knocked each other off of…..those would have been game changers…probably would have made that D into an A-, except cruz still did have 10 catches for 140yds and many of those on 3rd downs….
Good comments, LSX. I thought our secondary was pretty impressive. Very few wide open receivers for the Giants. Some of the completed passes – like the Manningham TD – were indefensible, no matter who the cornerback was. Mannings’ numbers weren’t that good – barely over 50%, only 316 yards on 58 attempts. After adjustments at halftime, Cruz wasn’t a factor. That actually made me think that upgrading our secondary is not a major priority for next year.
Agree that Smith was better than his grade. I do wish that he had tried to go downfield more, taken a few more chances, not been so conservative in certain situations. The conservative approach got us to this point, but near the end of the fourth quarter an interception way down the field would not have been the end of the world, and a completion would have won the game – low risk, high reward. Of course the coaches should have helped him with that.
Agree about the coaching, including the play calling by Roman, who I think is the weak coaching link.
But that defense! Fabulous, and if we keep all our guys and upgrade our offense a little, we’re set for years.
I agree with all or your grades Grant. I know most people will say Kyle lost the game for us. I agree he had a big role in that. However, to me the coaching staff and Alex deserve the lion’s share of the blame. The run game was working all day and we inexplicably went away from it. Not to mention that we were atrocious on 3rd down today! We were ranked 31st in 3rd down conversions during the season and it finally caught up to us. Harbaugh can tout Alex as being “elite” all he wants and Alex had a good year but I disagree. Elite qb’s are more consistent with their accuracy I’m sorry! Alex looked like a right-handed Tebow out there tonight!!! He was all over the place! As much as I hate to admit it though I would rather see us lose tonight instead of going to the Super Bowl and losing to Tom Brady. I take pride in our undefeated Super Bowl record! I will say though we did have a great season and no reason to hold our heads down. The future is looking bright!
Good outlook, Vegas. Agree on the assessment for offense. Underthrown and overthrown passes do not win Championship games. Not a fan of Eli, but he was sacked on numerous occasions and ate grass, but he took risks and made throws.
And I echo the undefeated Super Bowl goal. If we can’t win it, don’t go. We should aim high.
I feel bad for Kyle, but all of these comments about winning despite the fumble overlook the fact that we were going 3-&-out…our defense would have had to win it, as the offense couldn’t. If we’re relying on a punt returner in OT, then we failed by placing him in that spot.
Now it’s on to the draft. Let’s up the ante on this blog by seeing who predicts the best overall selections. Niners will return.
I feel bad for Williams, but not as bad as I feel for Gore and Justin Smith. The fault is squarely on the coaches. I was at the game, and it seemed to me that even when Williams caught the punts there seemed to be something wrong with his technique. He was mistiming the path of the balls and rushing late to the spot for the catch. He did the same thing in the Arizona game where his muffed punt led to the winning field goal by Arizona. The coaches erred on KYP: Know Your Player. Niners were out-coached in this game. I hope Harbaugh learns some lessons here.
Williams is nice kid but I’m not sure if has been ready mentally for NFL. I’ve noted that very often after getting tackled hard during a catch attempt, he would run to referee demanding a flag. Niners’ WR group is one of the least talented in the league.
Overall it was a fantastically succssful year. But next year will be tougher, with an improved NFC West, and some of the FAs who won’t be re-signed. It’ll be hard for Baalke to match this successful draft two years in a row.
I agree with much of what you said. the irony is, the niners had a great chance to win a game against a team many people thought would beat them. had Williams not muffed that punt and they won, what would you have given the coaching staff? and Alex? B’s?
Alex had a passer rating of 97.6, in the rain, against an elite pass rush, playing with worse wide receivers than my high school had. and i was homeschooled. i’m not sure how that’s a D….
He didn’t play nearly as well as his QB rating would suggest. That being said, he didn’t play horrible either. Two perfect passes for deep touchdowns, some nice plays running, zero turnovers…that’s good enough to be considered average as far as I’m concerned. Yeah he missed on some throws and the 3rd down rate was awful, but he didn’t have any help from the wide receivers or the playcalling, that’s for sure.
It was a bad game all around on offense, but give some credit to New York. You guys seem to forget that the Giants are a really good team. It’s not like we were playing the Colts.
Yeah sorry LSX but the Giants were getting beat. They played a good game and I don’t think I’m taking anything away from them when I say that the wrong team is going to Indy.
One man CAN make a difference. But in this instance he just so happens to wear the 9er uniform and play for the Giants.
This has to be the WORST loss in Franchise history. The Craig fumble may hurt but this is an Epic type of hurt. This team hadn’t been in a Championship game in 14 years and hadn’t been in the Playoffs in 9 and we’ve see more than our fair share of suckage.
I’ve been a fan through it all and have to say this one cuts deeper than them all. I don’t think I’m gonna get over this one for a long time.
I know, and I agree, I’m just trying to stay positive so I don’t go crazy. I’m just saying that their defense deserves some credit for our lack of offense. Giving D and F grades even though we should have won this game against a very good team, that’s what I mean.
Ahhh gotcha. In that case I can’t agree anymore heartily. :)
The reason we lost rest with play calling on the offensive side. Greg Roman tried to be too cute by putting the pressure on Alex Smith despite the offensive line opening holes for Gore and Hunter to the tune of 5+ yards per rush. Bad game plan on the O side. Feel bad for the D’s front 7 who were superb. As for Kyle Williams, what can I say?
Jaron,
Smith is the QB. Roman is supposed to put the gameplan in the QBs hands if that what the plan is. The QB has to make plays. Smith made a couPle of plays early. He couldn’t make any plays after the 3rd quarter. He made 2 solid throws the whole game. That was it.
Bandwagon grades.
+1
Grant
I disagree with your grades for DB’s. Rogers is playing within his scheme. That NY chose to go almost 100% with Victor Cruz was their scheme. At halftime, coach Fangio made adjustments, and Cruz disappeared. That our Dbacks were over-aggressive is true, but that’s what good Dbacks do even when it costs the team INTs. That TD pass to Pascoe was so short, that no one could cover it…not Whitner, nor even Ronnie Lott. I would go with C+, maybe even B-.
Kyle Williams just took tons of weight off Roger Craigs’ shoulder. Rarely a player single handedly gave the game away not once but twice in a game.
Don’t forget the botched reverse play he fumbled that was just too cute for words!
Yeah I blame Roman for that call. We’re on our side of the field and the conditions are too sloppy for that play. If the ground was solid fine, but one slip and the Giants have the ball. Hell they almost did except Williams got it back.
Ceadderman, I don’t blame Roman for the call; the sloppy field didn’t seem to have anything to do with the fumble, from what I saw. If you’ve got the game taped, watch Williams’ head…he’s clearly looking where he wants to go, and NOT watching the ball. THAT’S why he fumbled.
Criag’s fumble was much worse. As I recall, didn’t we have a one or two point lead then? We were running out the clock on the way to our third SB (would have been a fascinating one too as Montana was hurt and Steve Young would have gotten his first start that season…..in the Super Bowl).
I do not blame Roman for the reverse call. This was the best front four defense and the plan was to use misdirection to take advantage of their agressive play.
Craig fumbled but Craig didn’t play D. New York had to take it down the field and our D let them. No, we would not have won that SB, so why bother going?
Wow Grant. Let’s give Smith a D for his Receivers being ghosts. Only Davis and Walker showed up for this game. But whatever, when all else fails resort to previous stance of the guy and drop it at his feet. He’s not the guy calling the plays or the guy that is dropping ball after ball in the Playoffs.
Also one man is NOT the unit. Akers and Lee did THEIR jobs and did em well. Until the first KW Fumble the Giants were getting smacked around for most of the game. You even give the credit to everyone(except the secondary, what happened to the “their gonna get their scores) for doing a hell of a job. But c’mon dude that Secondary caused Manning to get sacked a number of times and the guy was constantly under fire. I don’t know how much more they could have done when Giants ToP was HUGE for much of the game. I cannot blame anyone on the Defense for giving up a total of 14 points to Manning with that bunch of Receivers he has to throw to. I cannot believe you give them a D.
I’m not going to insult you but if you’re going to be a Football blogger, be honest with the game you see. The game deserves that much at the least.
I would say that Smith deserved a B-.
I would say B for the Secondary
Special Teams should get at worst an A- for their ability to make the stops when they had to keeping Manning pinned on or behind his 20 for most of the game.
Coaching should get at worst a C. At best a C+. Manning got his much ballyhooed 4th quarter score. Yay for Manning. Why? Cause of the next Grade…
Kyle Williams you sir get the booby prize grade of F. Actually that would be Epic F and Epic F again and one more for having the GALL to tell people your teammates have your back. If I were your teammates I’d have your back all the way to SFO where they bought you a non refundable one way trip ticket to Siberia and hand you the box holding the contents your locker as they all shed a tear and wave their goodbyes. You were a bit player and while you did some good things, costing your team with selfish play negates it all.
So for those of you keeping score that would be a Triple fFf that he can hang on the wall of his igloo. This guy is dead to me.
Anyone that even has the balls to compare what this guy did to what happened with Craig against the Giants is more than welcome to follow this cat outta town. Huge difference and if you don’t see that you don’t know a blasted thing about the game.
At least Alex calls it straight. At his presser he said he played crappy. His words not mine.
Smith will ALWAYS take the blame. It’s built into his DNA. I have to say that it’s one of the things I really like about him is his character. But c’mon, if you saw the game you can’t say he was playing bad. The guy kept drives alive with his feet when his Receivers were blanketed by guys like Webster. O_o
Crabtree just said ” you have to give guys a chance to make plays”
When the reporter asked if he hopes his QB develops a confidence in him to throw the ball up and make plays, Crabtree said ” yeah man. That’s football”
Unfortunately that is not Alex football. Gotta be wide open or he doesn’t throw it.
Bay, jeez if not for AS and VD there is no game tonight. BTW, who kept them in the game? Not MC. No team in that comment versus what AS said in your earlier comment!
Crab was a GHOST tonite Bay.
Can we agree that he’s no better than WR4 at this time? He may get better next year but this year he’s contributed like a 4th and nowhere near a 2nd. Hell Morgan is more of a 1st than Crab is at the moment and that’s sitting at home on his couch after a real fugly injury.
I want Crab to do well but if you blame Smith for Crab, then Bay I have to say I’ve lost any respect I had of your knowledge of the game. You make some good points but this one couldn’t be anymore wrong.
Hof, our Defense kept us in the game. Not our offsense, not our QB. Alex didn’t have another Saints moment. Deal with it. He will improve.
And I may be in the minority, but I loved Alex trying to run his way to get yards. The position is called Quarterback, not Passer. If he had to skip his way to a first down, he would have tried. He just couldn’t make the throws. If the QB gets the credit for winning, then he gets the blame for losing.
Ceadderman, I feel the same way about Williams. There is no comparison with Roger Craig, who helped win 3 Super Bowls. The team should release him after some time. We are all angry and let down because this was something special. It’s a tough one to get over. He should not have been put in that situation. Let’s chill and look forward to next season.
Maybe but that’s where I am at right now. I’m not going to get over this game because this is what Harbs has been coaching all season long was to play Smart Football, and THE TEAM THE TEAM THE TEAM.
That wasn’t smart and it was by it’s very nature a selfish act. Everyone else was doing THEIR job. He just had to be the hero at a moment when the Hero isn’t needed. Plenty of time left on the clock for Smith and the Offense to get into FG range and end it. Instead they’re stuck on the sidelines staring helplessly as the game is put away. If Dude doesn’t understand this I’ll help him pack.
After reading MSando, I probably change the AS grade to a C- grade. Some here expecting elite QB play with (very) non elite WR’s.
Exactly. You can’t have caviar with Peanut butter and crackers.
The only reason I thought Craig’s fumble was worse was because we pretty much had that game won when he lost the ball. Of course Williams’ performance was much worse and Roger Craig arguably was a Hall of Fame caliber player who had a great career (as well as three SB rings).
I just disagree with your grade on Alex, I give him a C. He threw as many touchdowns as Manning and brought the team back after falling behind 17-14. I agree with your other grades, Victor Cruz had a Raymond Berry first half but was shut down in the second. Your assessment of Kyle Williams is spot on, the coaching staff should have yanked him after the diving catch of the punt. I watch replays of the punt that grazed him and he’s moving toward the ball. That’s completely not being in the moment. This game goes in the back seat with the 57 loss to the Tobin Rote Lions and the Craig fumble. Thanks for a great year Grant, you and most of the fans here made me feel connected.
“This game goes in the back seat with the 57 loss to the Tobin Rote Lions and the Craig fumble. ”
That game hurt bad. With a big lead and the second half kickoff run back to around the ten yard line, they only got a field-goal which turned out to be their last points in the game. The next week the Lions won the NFL championship by a very big score.
I agree with LSX. Your grades are about spot on except for being a bit harsh on our secondary and coaching.
Our defense, as a unit, played lights out. Our gameplan was obviously to stop the run and prevent anything deep. My count may be wrong, but we only allowed two or three “big plays” of more than 2o yards. Without those two fumbles and the resulting 10 points scored, our defense AND secondary holds the potent Giants’ offense to a mere 13 points.
As far as coaching, I am confident to say that Harbaugh believes in a team approach, a responsiblity approach, and a “next man up” approach. Ted Ginn was unavailable for today’s game, so Kyle Williams was that next man up. To remove him from the game, from the military perspective Harbaugh emphasizes, would have been like demoting a man on-spot, in front of the squad. It would have been demotivating and in direct contrast with that mantra that he had been preaching all year. Remember, too, that Kyle Williams “made up” for his first muff by returning a later kick-off (or punt) to near mid-field. Harbaugh needed to show that he trusted his man in that situation and had every reason to believe and have confidence in the next man up. When Tarrell Brown was lost for the game, we didn’t change our gameplan in the secondary. It was “the next man up” philosophy.
If anything, I believe, yes, our offensive play-calling was our Achilles’ heel. Our running game was surprisingly effective today and we should have kept pounding the run until the Giants stacked the box with eight men, and then attacked downfield.
A gut-wrenching was to lose, but, if it were the Giants to muff the punt and US kicking the gimme field goal, we’d all be singing much higher praises.
After the first one, Hunter should have been that guy returning in OT. No two ways about it. At worst Hunter fair catches it. He at least hangs onto it.
Dana, excellent post on all your points.
The coaching staff obviously did a GREAT job this year. At the same time, I think it would be foolish to compare Greg Roman with a top offensive guy like Sean Payton for instance (or Holmgren or Shanahan when they were 49er OCs). Of course Walsh/Holmgren/Shanahan not only had Montana and Young, they also had WRs like Solomon, Clark, Wilson, Rice, Taylor – heck, even Renaldo N. was effective.
We need better WRs to be sure, but we need more robust game plans on the offense as well and I think JH probably needs to be even more involved. We don’t have to turn in to the Saints, but we need have a more consistent and productive passing attack (that means, throw the damn ball MORE).
Oh yes, I forgot one unit not graded. Hochuli and his Ref Corps. I wouldn’t be grading them but when you review a Punt or Kick Return or Fumble when challenged it SHOULD include footage of the guy that Recovered the ball. Which I’m pretty blasted sure Hochuli did. How did he miss Thomas CLEARLY being 4 to 5 yards out of bounds before being the FIRST Giant to pick up the ball. That’s ILLEGAL TOUCHING and you could CLEARLY see that Thomas was out because it was part of the footage being shown in the replays. The first time it happened I thought I must be wrong. But the replays confirmed that it indeed happened.
Hochuli? You can go with Williams and don’t worry about packing any warm undies, we’ll care package some to you and your crew. EPIC FAIL!
Did that crew call one holding call on the Giants? Yes I think it was holding during a run. They were holding every pass play!
I thought that too but I think the fact that the ball actually touched Williams negated the illegal touching, as he was in fact, not the first player to touch the ball, Williams was; and he should have been no where near that ball.
Nope. Illegal Touching is a Defensive penalty whereby if a man goes out and there is a live ball on the ground, he cannot touch the thing unless another Defender picks/touches the ball and it slips his grasp. Then it is fair game. And by slipping the grasp of the other player I mean that the Defender cannot “unintentionally(intentional)” drop the ball to affect forward progress and on a kickoff cannot keep the ball moving forward in an attempt to circumvent the rule.
The fumble is negated by the penalty. It happens all the time. ;)
Oh yes. Concerning “the touch” of Williams, that is initial contact. Much different from the actual act after initial contact. Williams act would be like if I handed you the ball and you drop it without touching it again. Thomas comes in from OB and is first player to touch it, Illegal Touching. ;)
Is there such a scenario that a defender can be forced out of bounds, re-establish himself in the field of play, and then be the first to touch the ball?
Not that it matters now, but if he ran out to avoid the jam and then came back in and illegally touched it (as you stated), then it should have been niners ball … crisis averted.
That’s just too bad, cause we had some good momentum going after that defensive stop. That was a game changer, for sure.
Page 56 of 2011 NFL rulebook:
“A player of the kicking team, who has been out of bounds, may not touch or recover a
scrimmage kick beyond the line of scrimmage until it has been touched by a kicking team player who has
not been out of bounds, or until it has been touched by a player of the receiving team beyond the line.”
of course it did…there was no illegal touch
“scrimmage kick beyond the line of scrimmage until it has been touched by a kicking team player who has
not been out of bounds”
This takes precedent over Williams touch cause Williams touch is a FUMBLE. He would have to touch it again for that rule to be enforced in the follow up to the quoted portion. Just a clarification. Thanks for taking the time to find that.
In effect that makes Thomas ineligible.
You and your dad are both clowns. This blog is over.
True.
Not a lot of objectivity coming from either one, that’s for sure. Just pure reactive, emotional, negative grandstanding … whatever get’s the hits up though, I suppose.
A critic is someone who enters the battlefield after the war is over and shoots the wounded.
That is seen in time dude, too many objectives to comment, but at the end of the day, when you draw the line, those words are true.
I agree with most of the grades…there were two occasions where the secondary should have had picks…the play where Dashon took out T Brown and another where Carlos Rogers had a pick but Dashon was in the way…the Niners get those picks, the outcome may have been different…and on another note…Ahmad Bradshaw fumbled….I don’t care what the official said about his forward progress…bad call…
we were one play away from winning. in the nfl, you look to your qb to make plays first and foremost. so yes, an F for the wide receivers, and unfort a D for alex makes sense.
i think grades for coaches and secondary are a bit harsh: the coaches cant block, make runs, throw, etc..and Eli was harnessed enough for us to be one play away from winning.
d-line deserves an A+. if this team had won a SB this year, they might have been drawing up plans for a Jusrin Smith statue outside the new stadium.
about right but i give alex a c+
if he had real wide outs i think he could be elite
This game went south because two of the 49ers great strengths, turnover differential and special teams, failed them. In particular, Andy Lee was no factor in field position after a year in which the offense seemed unnecessarily risk averse because they knew he would bail them out.
I would also offer the opinion that this is the worst group of wideouts to make a championship game in recent memory. The 49ers #1 WR (Crabtree) would be #3 on the Giants, #4 on the Saints and #5 on the Packers. If he placed the blame for his inability to get open on Smith, he is an endangered species in Harbaugh’s world of deeds over words.
Crab wouldn’t even be a 3 on the Giants. They have 3 very good Receivers in Manningham, Cruz and Nicks. Crab would be on the Giants Special Teams.
He wouldn’t even make the Packers. They’re pretty loaded.
That’s not meant as an insult to Crab so stay off my YouTube channel if you can’t be respectful people. I want the guy to succeed but Alex Smith can’t run past the Line of Scrimmage and politely ask him to open his hands, place the ball in them, squeeze them tight and then block downfield so the guy can get some YAC for his QB.
Every Reveiver on the aforementioned teams get CRAZY YAC for their QB. This is how they get those 4k yard seasons as well as all the passing they do to make up for the lack of their Run games.
Give Alex Smith any combination of these guys and imho that he could do something great.
I hope Baalke goes after a guy like Colston or one of the other top ranked FA players and gets another Receiver in the draft. I think too much is being made about the “exposing” of our Secondary. The truth is if they aren’t on the field because Smith is completing 3rd downs with Completions, drives are extended and extended drives keep the other QB cold.
He would not be on special teams, to get that honor you play through pain and he does not play in spring training so he would be cut if he was on a team with decent talent at that position.
You are right on with your TO and special teams play there chargerfan. DG twice prevented the Int by hitting his own guy. If even one of those would have been picked off, chances are good that the Niners win.
@ceadderman
Our secondary was not bad at all. They were nearly lights out in the 2nd half and OT, and only gave up 10 points in the 1st half which is all that really matters when they were getting burned by Cruz.
Notice how Cruz was like over 1/2 of EM’s passing yards (and virtually all of his yards in the 1st half)? A WR getting open, making some great catches (CR had good coverage on several of those passes where Niner WR’s would have dropped them). We lack that.
I also agree with you on where MC would be ranked in the WR pecking order on those teams. Heck, on Baltimore he would not even be the #1 WR, lucky to be the #2. What a sorry state of affairs that in the today’s NFL where the rules are so lobsided towards the passing game…the Niner WR’s are nothing next to other teams or our own legacy of WR’s.
DS94, I think you mistake what I’ve been saying because I completely agree with you. The Giants were all but done before that first fumble. Our Defense was playing with Eli like a cat plays with a mouse. Only this time the mouse had a little life left in him and he found himself a nice safe spot to recover. I think the Pasties Defense is gonna take him out. Look what they were doing to Flacco most of the game. lol
That’s our biggest weakness, our WRs, we know but it really came back to bite today. We are not deep anywhere on offense and coaching kept going away from what was working: runs by Gore up the gut, passes to the guy who got 14 of our 17 points. Why? All in all our offense was offensive and our OC looked like a guy who was calling his 2nd NFL playoff game. Which he was. There is only so much you can ask from the D and ST. We couldn’t make plays, the Giants were far superior on O. Our D held them to 20 but that was too much for our offense.
However based on the quantum leap from last year I have to think this too will get fixed. There is hope around here for a change.
yep, a few more runs would of helped, darned if you, darned if you don’t.
@phil fan
I would have liked to see more KH in there and running outside. The Giants LB’s were a lot slower than KH was on that grass yesterday and Greg Roman needed to recognize that and take advantage of it.
And can we please stop with the outside runs by FG next year? He simply does not have it anymore. Keep him inside and he can definitely pound it in there for positive yards.
Grant, your assessment is right on. I approve all the grades. They need WRs and I want to see Kaepernick compete with Smith next year for the starting job. I mean, Smith threw seven times in the first half with two completions. Kaepernick is a better athlete running or throwing.
Alex was 1/9 for 3 yds targeting WRs, 11/17 193 yds 2 tds when targeting everyone else. Alex threw for almost 200 yds 2 tds and had 42 yds rushing, giving him a D is simply unreasonable. He didn’t play well by any means, but he didnt have anyone to throw to once the Giants took Vernon away and his performance was good enough to win.
What I learned from this game? Offense wins championships.
Building a team around Defense and special teams doesn’t work in todays NFL as all the rules are slanted to helping the offense and you just cant rely on defense and special teams to win for you every week as games are always going to be close and you will lose some that you should win. Secondly but the most importantly the reason for this is simply financial to build around a Defense means you have to pay for a lot of good players. You have to have great players at every level and not many teams can afford to pay for elite linemen and db’s as they cost a premium. Building around offense means you have to pay for a qb and some wr’s.
Make no mistake we watched the better overall team lose last night.
But it takes time to get skill posititons on offense, We need receivers, but on D, we have aldon smith , another commodity hard to find, we need to keep rogers and get a couple of young CB, We may have a better team next year but a worse record, lots of good young teams but we have pieces, we need more and see what the coaching staff and Balke can do with a few years together.
I expect a worse record next year for certain Road Games against GB,NE, and NO is rough. Im guessing around 10 wins next year.
Unlike grant, and the rest of you guys the 9ers had a great season if anyone told me before the season they loose in the NFC championship game I would have took it in a heart beat so relax 9ers fans and get a grip.
The strange thing is we still have a lot of the same questions we had going into the year lingering around for next year. Will we be able to shore up our secondary or will it be a liability? Will our offensive line start to gel and become the bullies they were drafted to be or will they continue to be inconsistent? Is Alex Smith the answer given the right conditions or just a stop gap? Do we have the wide receivers or do we need to bring in some more? Has Gore lost a step?
I guess to start it off early should Colin kap start next year? Hmmmm I would give him a shot don’t trade up in the 2nd round or nothing
For*
100% agree with your grades, Grant, particularly on the coaching. I am completely mystified as to why Gore did not get more than 16 carries. Those shotgun runs were crap, but when Smith was under center they were eating the Giants alive on those runs. Why stop until they prove they can stop it? And then leaving Williams deep on the punt returns was inexcusable. It seemed obvious to me that it was only a matter of time before he turned it over back there. From the very first return you could tell that he was overmatched for whatever reason. Very painful loss because the 49ers lost it more than the Giants won it. The offensive coaches and Kyle Williams are the big goats in this game.
Alex should probably get a C+ with no turnovers and just as many TD passes in the NFC Championship game as that “elite” Giant QB Eli against the 2nd best defense in the NFC. Honestly, an A- for the O-line. Not in pass protection as Smith had a major role in the ‘only 3 sacks’, they just didn’t allow any free shots at Alex this game. When in the game did Smith have the same pass protection that Manning had in the first half, I guess I missed it??? Now the wideout grade was pretty close but I will say the play calling/gameplan didn’t help them out much though with no or very few slants or other quick passes.
Now where’s the biggest disparity between these two teams. That’s pretty easy to answer in another question: which group of wideouts is more scary ….. Nix, Cruz and Mannigham or Crabtree, Williams and Swain. Even the dumbest fan should have no problem answering that. That my friends is the main reason for the loss other than the two turnovers, you can’t expect to win with that stable of wideouts in a league of high powered passing games. They really missed Morgan especially on 3rd downs. I’m betting that gets addressed big time in the off season, hopefully not with another Braylon Edwards type.
**you can’t expect to win big games with that stable of wideouts**
@niner61
You’re the first to recognize what I was seeing; Alex running out of sack situations…several times he was one step from getting nailed by their DE. Staley has to pick it up. In that Swain and Hastings were on the PS most of the year, I hope that they both get a chance next year in TC to show their stuff. WE NEED A BIG NASTY #1 RECEIVER! I’m sure that we’ll be looking over the waiver wire for him, as well as in the draft.
Grant’s QB grade was way too harsh. But at the end to the day, it does not matter at all.
I was hoping that the Niner WR would show up in the last series of the game. With 3 TO’s left, I was hoping “Now is the time for MC to arrive.” But, he did not. And, I saw nothing to give me any inkling that the Niners have a true #1 WR. The announcers didn’t say anything at all about wide open guys running free at this most critical of times nor at all during the whole game.
And this time, I think the OL gave some decent time for the WR’s to get open. There weren’t too many times where AS set his back foot and the rush was on top of him like it has been so often his career. He had time to look around for somebody. Somebody did not get open though.
Ugh, this is why fans make horrible coaches.
Two turnovers by KW inside the 50, the Giants score on both, sorry but how do you not blame this kid. Yes, the offense struggled but when you do not have a true WR how can you move the ball?
Sign our own free agents and continue to build through the draft.
@Prime
Who else would you recommend return punts then?
TG did practice, so he took up some reps. KW had to have taken the majority if not most of the rest of the punts.
DW had some experience. But he returned from a broken jaw, and never did it in the rain. And would be crazy to put him in that situation. Remember Battle a few years ago? He was placed in a bad situation by Coach Sing when they got rid of their return guy at the time, and the Niners lost a lot of games due to it. Can’t blame Battle. The coaches put the player in a position to lose. JH did not do that this year. KW just had to make the plays.
And it was more than the fumbles. A few times he called for a fair catch with nobody near him. So, the Niners D did great in getting a 3 and out, and the punt is returnable (at least a good 10+ yards) and he didn’t do it. A good return there, and a few first downs, and the Niners can go for a FG.
As disappointed as I am in that game last night, I think everyone is forgetting that there wasn’t an offseason or training camp to speak of, which is important for getting timing down between QB and WR. With that being said our WR’s suck. Alex missed Williams on that one deep throw other than I can’t fault him for his throws to WR’s if they aren’t open or close to being open. We’ll be better next year. Let’s take the 13-3 and be happy with the quantum leap this team took this season
Respectfully disagree – they played an entire season together – they reached the NFC Championship game so we can’t turn around and say it was partially due to not having an off-season. Harbaugh never saw that as an excuse, and we shouldn’t use it either.
You’re right – we never thought they would make it as far as they did and the season as a whole was awesome to watch. For the first time in nine years we had something to look forward too other than the draft :-)
Unfortunately last night was just a poorly executed game. No excuses needed.
If you watched Alex got hit just as he threw it up.
The Secondary grade should be “F”. Complete failure. Couldn’t stop Cruz all day, no interceptions, and Goldson nearly killed one of his own teammates. He’s the safety, he’s coming up the field, it’s his responsibility to avoid his corners. How long is T. Brown going to be turning his head watching where he’s going and wondering when he’s going to get clobbered by his own safety again instead of looking for the ball…?
Manning only averaged 4.2 yds a completion thats pretty good.
Rame, Come on! I can feel your frustration but to grade the secondary F after they shut down Eli in the Second half is just funny. This is football, do you think in the heat of the moment the players are focusing on not hitting each other!!! DBS just reacted to what they saw and unfortunately for us and TBrown it lead to an injury. Yes it would have been great if Dashon would have stop and allowed brown to catch the ball but you could make the same argument for T Brown!
Watching the MC interview, and I hope MC sees that he needs to do better now. Can’t really tell by watching it if he puts enough blame on himself.
He needs to realize that he needs to put in the time here in the bay area or wherever AS is in the offseason.
@DS maybe Im still upset but when you look at the “body of work” considering MC, he is a bust! He’s not a legit threat becuse he lacks speed. Sure he has great hands, but he cannot get seperation on anything over a 10 yard route. We need to revamp our whole WR core. Keep Morgan, get Dwayne Bowe or Colston, and draft 2 more WR that can return kicks and play as a 3rd WR.
@Prime
Sometimes anger can bring about how you truly feel/think about somebody. When you are not angry it may lead you to opinions which you don’t really have except for keeping it nice. Just don’t do it all the time, or you become a despicable person.
After these playoffs, there is plenty of reason to be angry at our WR’s. Mainly MC because he wants to be the #1, then as the #1, you get the majority of the blame when things go wrong.
I disagree with you about TG though. No need to get rid of him because he stinks as a WR. He got the Niners a lot of good field position this whole year with his returns. If he stank at returns and he was our best returner, then lets say he gets 5-10 yards less per return than he does now, then look at it like this.
Niners force a good 6 punts per game. At least 4 punts are returned. He gets a good 5-10 yards more a return, then he gives the Niners a good 20-40 yards right there (minimum). How many #4 or #4 WR’s are going to get you at least 20-40 yards a game (and I think he gets a lot more/game better than an average returner)? TG gets yards on returns that don’t need to be made on offense. If you don’t get a WR who can get at least as many yards more than TG does on offense+returns, then the Niners are in worse shape than they are now.
We just need better top WR’s. Morgan is a reliable #3. A guy who can line up and get the catch on 3rd down for a 1st down and good near the goal line. I don’t see him as a guy who can demand double teams on a constant basis which is what a #1 WR needs to do.
Jerry Rice didn’t have great speed, but he seemed to be able to find a way to get open……
Crabtree’s not a true #1, but he’s not a bust either. He’s our best run blocker at WR, he’s excellent on slants, and can be a solid possession receiver.
Our problem this game was that the Giants pass rush was too good. Not enough time to find WRs down field. I blame that on the OC (for the record, Fangio has been excellent this year). We had to run, run, run, play-action and screen, then start looking for the WRs after NY had to adjust to us. We were killing ‘em with standard runs, yet we went away from what worked.
Well said JS.
@jsteez
What games have you been watching?
The OL did a pretty decent job. AS had time. The WR’s just couldn’t get open.
Given where MC was drafted, one could consider him a bust. 2nd WR taken in the draft. That Cruz kid was not even drafted. So, your argument that he can’t be a bust is flawed.
MC might be a good blocking WR. But TE can do that just as well. And both VD and DW are faster than MC and block at least as well if not better than MC, so not really seeing your point here.
I see your point in the play-calling though. Running the ball (I’m including AS here as well) was working until we chose for it not to work any more. The Giants did not stop us. We stopped ourselves far too often, and that is why we lost the game.
I will defend TB not bringing anybody in here for WR.
We needed to find out this year if AS is the future. We now know he is.
We needed to find out this year if MC could be a true #1 WR. We see that he isn’t. 2 playoff games are plenty of opportunity to find out if he is.
Had we signed anybody else, I don’t think we find out about MC. Sucks that we have to lose the title game to find out, but it is what it is.
I’m not ready to bail on Crabtree, although he needs to start taking more accountability. He really had a good second half of the regular season but he and AS still don’t have that connection like he has with VD. Does the AS debate now rear its ugly head again?
@Sean
AS had that great 2 comeback drives against NO without MC doing anything on those drives (catching wise).
If not for AS, would the Niners had won the game based upon MC’s play that game? I don’t think so. Therefore, the AS was better than MC.
If MC was improving late in the season, why did it do a no-show come the post-season? That game screamed MC to me. The weather conditions. The fact that he basically stank against NO, and would come out wanting to prove that week to be a fluke. The fact that VD had that big game against NO, and we all knew that the Giants would double VD, leaving single coverage on MC. MC was supposed to be a great route runner, but in game situations (soggy field) which favors the offense with good route runners, MC did nothing. I can’t ignore that.
Did you see the interview on CSN Sean? If so, I would like to know how you interpret the interview and what he said. You won’t get the full effect just by reading transcripts (sorry Grant : )
Sean,
Of course it does rear it’s ugly head. When you go 1-13 on 3rd down. When your QB can’t throw on the run, you have to at least consider bringing in competition in the offseason.
So you mean that we play an entire game and not one wide receiver was open the entire game??? That didn’t happen. I was at the game. The QB never gave receivers an opportunity to make a play. He never threw the ball to them at all. I have never seen that before in my life.
A whole game and your wide receivers are never open. That’s garbage. It is not the case. Alex got a lot of balls knocked away throwing to Vernon. Kyle Williams was wide open and ith overthrew him. Delaney walker was open deep and smith overthrew him as well. He never threw a catchable ball to crabtre. The one pass crabtree did catch was over his head. Thrown so high that crabtree couldn’t run after he caught it.
Receivers got open in this game but didn’t get the balk. They may not be the best receivers but they did get open on occasion. When your QB rolls right all game long, he eliminates the left side of the field. Alex throws to his primary or he checks down. Other options don’t get a look.
I just hope Alex has some competition next year.
DS, I’m not at all suggesting that AS stuff get started but I’m also not ready to throw MC under the bus. I said good regular season as opposed to second half of the season for a reason. He had drops against the Saints and was a non factor last night. I haven’t been a fan of MC but he did have some playmaker flashes this year. Hoping he can participate in training camp and develop some chemistry with AS.
I did not see the interview but will look for it and get back to you. CSN bay area, MC interview?
Jordon, at least the debate was over for a week. I’d throw in one of those weird smiley face deals there but I find that lame. I’m gonna trust in the direction JH takes the team and if that’s AS that’s great, if it’s CK or someone else, that’s great too. Looking forward to this being just the start of something special.
@Sean
Compared to VD, MC was horrible.
VD all season long had major drops, bad decisions in jumping for balls, etc. He was not very good for much of the season. But come playoff time, VD was awesome. That cures all of his regular season ills. Post season is just that much more important.
MC was probably better this year in the regular season than VD. Especially late in the year. But, he stank it up big time when the pressure is on. Can’t live with him. Can’t play with him.
Sean,
I’ve never seen a wide receiver catch a pass that’s not thrown to him. How many times did Smith target Crabtree?? Every pass he threw to crabs was in the dirt, except the one he threw over his head.
Jordon, I’m not saying AS doesn’t have to take his share of the blame in the loss, but he isn’t the sole reason. Just like KW isn’t either. I haven’t found the MC post game interview video yet but just reading the comments he made, he places the blame on AS. At some point he does need to look in the mirror.
Who’s got it better than us? GIANTS!!!
Awful game. I actually had a bad feeling about this game, but I couldn’t say anything. Something just felt wrong before the game.
ESPN radio is ripping in to Alex Smith. “They should not re-sign him, if they do, they’re crazy. They should grab Payton Manning on a two-year deal… yada yada.”
I can’t say as I blame them for ripping in to Smith – he made two great throws – the rest of it was awful. The problem is: unless they feel CK is ready, I don’t see any other alternatives. I have a sneaky suspicion that P. Manning won’t ever come back and if he does, he’s such a huge liability that few teams would want to take the risk.
I’m not completely ready to move on from Smith for two reasons (although I’m close). He played much better this season (how would he look with two years under Harbaugh – is it worth the time?) and second, our receivers are mediocre at best and Smith obviously doesn’t trust them to catch the ball consistently. So there’s the conundrum.
So… saying all that, I would have no problem if Harbaugh and Baalke blew up the entire offense and started over (including not re-signing Smith).
I won’t pile on Kyle Williams. He’s a young guy trying to make plays. He lost focus in a big game. It happens. He has to shake it off and make the best of his future. The offense couldn’t make a third down to save its life so this was going to be a game where a single mistake would kill whoever made it.
I’m with you Adam. It was a good ride though huh.
Yeah, absolutely. Nothing really to hang our heads about. Great season, we just slipped up at the end. You nailed it earlier in the season, if I recall correctly: “not being able to convert third downs is going to come back to bite us.” It did yesterday for sure.
We essentially beat ourselves yesterday, it wasn’t anything real great that the Giants did. Sports radio is all slobbery over Eli this morning. He had some decent passes but it wasn’t like he lit anything up either, yards to me are like smoke without the fire if they’re not going to score points. They had quite a few three-and-outs as well.
I fell bad for Williams. The kid made some contributions this season, it’s too bad it ended the way it did but that stuff happens to the best of them. Just have to shake it off and look forward to next season.
Had the same feeling myself, Adam – that’s why I stayed away yesterday – wanted to avoid putting any negative vibes out there in Ninerland.
Grant – I agree with most of your grades. I don’t think you were harsh enough on the secondary – and Dashon Goldson needs to be mentioned there. Not only did he knock out Brock going for a ball that he should have backed off of (clearly Brock was in front of him and had an angle on the ball), but he did it twice. Rogers was going for an INT and Goldson knocked him off the ball too. It was like he forgot to trust his teammates and decided that if the ball was going to get caught he would have to do it under any circumstances. He needed to back off on both those plays – without his interference on those plays the game could have turned out much differently.
Sure Williams fumbles cost us big time, but imo, Goldson had two equally devestating mistakes.
Yeah, I wasn’t feeling the buzz or the hype or whatever that we were all feeling in the first game. Either they turned down the volume in the stadium or the crowd was kind of half there too, I noticed. The intensity just wasn’t the same. Maybe everyone lost their voices after the Saints game. The rain probably made it miserable, too.
The players were off, too. DBs running in to eachother when they could have had easy INTs, bad passes by the QB against a questionable Giants secondary, cutesy play calling, special teams mistakes… it just wasn’t there. Although, as poor as all that was… I thought we’d somehow win it in OT. The Giants weren’t “all that” either, in my opinion.
It was Brown that Goldson knocked out, and Brock came in to replace Brown. Goldson is a perfect example of a two edged sward that’s very dangerous to friend or foe. He also takes bad angles looking to blow people up.
Kyle Williams lost focus THREE TIMES in the game. I’m OK with a little piling on, at this point. It’s a 60 minute game, with 53 players involved, so it’s not reasonable to try and lay all the blame on any one guy. But without Williams’ three MASSIVE screwups, it’s a different game. So, to borrow from you, Adam, I would have no problem if Harbaugh and Baalke decided that he can shake it off and make the best of his future somewhere else.
The ESPN guys are invested in perpetuating their own myths. Manning threw two balls that should have been picked, had a crappy 5.4 yards per pass attempt throwing to elite receivers and is too slow to be a threat with his legs, but he is on the way to the Super Bowl again and to the Hall of Fame after that. That is their mantra and they will hold on to it.
On the other hand, the 49er guy who turned the ball over seven times in eighteen games (winning fourteen of them) is a problem because they have been saying that for seven years. So by all means, let Smith go as a free agent, bring on Kaep and resign those wideouts. Nothing but good will come of that.
I’m surprised we didn’t keep Bear Pascoe. What was the deal with that? Sing didn’t think he was Fysical enough?
Want to start by thanking my 49ers for a tremendous year. The two playoff games were a bonus. Alex and VD’s magic in the 4th quarter of the Saints game, and our defense against the Giants were dominant and special. 6-10 to the NFC Championship!
Also want to thank Grant for this forum and for calling it straight. Can’t wait to see what we do to strengthen our offense in the off season.
Grades
QB C-
Alex did some good things in this game. He re-established his connection with VD. His sideline route to VD for the first touchdown was beautiful. He used his legs in this game as well. In the end though he didn’t do enough. Not going to beat him up. We know what we have with this guy. And most of it is average to slightly above average. He’s not consistently good and he definitely is not great. I replay him most recent miss over and over again. A wide open KW down the middle of the field and Alex overthrowing him by 10 yards. You can bring in all the free agents you want. Whether it’s Crabtree open, or KW, or the free agent you bring in, inaccuracy is inaccuracy period. 19 seconds left in regulation with single coverage on VD and Alex never threw it downfield. Game on the line and he was still in conservative protect mode. 12-26 he was crappy. His words not mine but I agree. I look for CK to step up and compete for the starting spot next year. If not I can live with AS for one more year until they bring in someone better. Flynn anyone?
RB A-
Gore looked like he had a little spring yesterday. He hit the holes hard and had positive yardage after first contact all day. He was a beast. Kyle ran the counter beautifully yesterday. His cutback runs were huge. My only criticism of the running game yesterday is that we got away from it in the 2nd half and didn’t lean on it more.
WR C-
Tough to grade the wide receivers when the QB is throwing balls at their feet, missing wide open sure TD’s and staring them down allowing the defense to adjust and then throwing the ball high. Saw your grades Grant. Would you have still graded them the same if KW gets a decent pass and scores the long TD and we win because of it? Or on the 3rd down play in the redzone when Alex stared down Crabtree allowing the defense to zero in on him and then threw him a high ball. If he takes his three step drop and lets it go, Crabs get a first down easily instead of being 2 yards short. These two plays happen, do you still give your F grade? It’s not like they had drops. I saw Crabs wide open on two slants and balls got batted down. Crabs fault? No. Can’t judge the receivers when they don’t get chances period. Crabs is not a true #1. He will flourish as a #2. Williams is not a #2, he will flourish as a slot receiver. We need a number one and I hope we can draft him because a top free agent will not come play with AS as QB. For those of you that laughed when I said bring in Plaxico, I laugh back at you. We could have used him.
O-line A-
They protected the QB, they opened holes for the RB’s and they were nasty period. This group grew all year and saved their best for the playoffs. Next year they along with our defense will be a strength of the team.
TE A+
All world. That’s my best compliment. All world. Even Delaney came back early from a broken jaw to play. Bravo…..
Defensive line A+
Today these guys were ALL WORLD. Constant pressure. Even though their offense which was 1-13 on 3rd downs left them on the field all day, they rose to the occasion. They didn’t play tired, they got stronger. #99 is special and with a year of NFL muscle and experience he is going to be a beast. Love the group. The bell cow of the team.
Linebackers A+
Manning had to chuck it up almost 60 times because the Giants simply could not run on this group. Willis even got some hits on the QB. ALL WORLD.
Secondary C
Yes Rogers got torched by Cruz. All in all they made stops when they had to. The Manningham TD was with Browns backup playing and they picked on him. I blame the coaching staff for not pressing Cruz. He is small and could have been pushed around a bit.
Special teams C-
Akers did his thing when called upon. Lee for the first time looked human. While he didn’t shank anything he also didn’t place anything inside the 15 yards line as we’ve grown accustom to seeing. KW not getting out of the way was inexcusable. The staff should have given instructions to not touch a ball after that. Our coverage was WORLD CLASS…
Coaching C+
They got us here so I can’t be too tough on them. Their conservative nature baffled me. 8 pass attempts in the first half? Really? Sitting on a lead in the 3rd quarter. Really? I understand we have limitation at WR and QB, but they are who we have. Give them a chance.
I also understand not pulling KW from kick returner. He is a head case and it would have affected him on offense. But they should have had him fair catch balls. That lack of instruction helped lose us the game. All in all, incredible season. Thanks for the experience…..
Bay,
You forgot the overthrow to delaney Walker in the third quarter. Please tell me you saw receivers running open that didn’t get the ball thrown to them like I did. Wideouts have to be open by 10 yards for alex to throw them the ball. You have to give your receivers a chance to make a play. Crabtree never got thrown a catchable ball all day. That is unheard of. Wide receivers catch 1 ball the whole game. Unheard of. Receivers have to be Alex Smuth open. Need 7 yards of separation. At least nobody is complaining about how many passes crabtree dropped.
I missed the Delaney overthrow, but I did see Crabs wide open twice on slants, and I saw KW open on underneath crossing routes. And I saw KW wide open by ten yards on a streak down the middle.
Bottom line, Alex was not scanning the field. He was looking for one read VD. Whether its lacking trust, or lacking confidence or whatever, it hurt us.
Ultimately we have things to work on and QB is one of them…
You guys know Eli overthrew and threw behind some of his receivers yesterday too right? Its not like Alex is the only Qb that does it.
@philly
They actually think any QB not named AS is perfect.
Oh jesus, those were probably on plays where Smith was getting harassed with by the Gmen. You’ve always had a wild hair up your tailpipe concerning Smith. Let it go dude, just let it go. He IS going to be re-signed and IS going to be the Starter so it’s time to get used to it.
Apologies after, but your column is very emotional and poorly written Grant.
Alex played like he had all season, looking for safe throws and found none because no WR’s were open. Either the WR core gets an F, or Alex gets a D; not both in this case. The talk about bringing in TO was very late in the season and would not have helped. His poor relationship with the organization would have also chafed.
Our wide receivers were bad??? Crabtree, Williams, Hastings, Swain. That’s not a superbowl bound set of wide receivers. Our front office and head coach leaned way too heavily on our defense and special teams.
We should have given T.O. Or Moss or some other receiver a look. Even if these guys were nothing but decoys. We should have given these guys a look. It couldn’t have hurt. Swain and Hastings were amazing! NOT.
Throwing to Morgan up 40 looks like a genius move for Harbaugh now!
Jordo, can’t disagree. But I will debate this whole MC issue. He isn’t elusive and he isn’t fast enough to get separation. He doesn’t fight for the ball a la CJ and AJ. It is ludicrous to even agree that even though he didn’t have separation that he will make plays. Based on what? He hasn’t won those battles all year. He has made some good catches but when has he consistently won those battles? There is no team in his comments.
You are correct about the JMorg injury. Should never have been throwing to him with a lead. He was the 9ers best WR.
We give them the game on two muffed punts. We dropped two simple interceptions. The refs took away a fumble.
And according to these grades basically the whole team stinks and we need to rebuild for next season?
These grades read like an emotional over reaction.
I don’t always agree with you, Grant, but I was furious we didn’t just pound the rock against the Giants. It was the obvious tactic, it was working, and we went away from it. We get no production out of our WRs, yet we choose plays that set us up on 3rd-and-long? I expected more from our coaches.
The D was awesome, though Cruz was killing us in the first half. Take away two collisions by our DBs and we have 2 picks. Thought our DBs actually played pretty well considering the constant pressure.
OL was excellent on the run, but pass protection wasn’t great. Frankly, this was the one match-up that worked in our favor, and we didn’t go to it. We didn’t even use play action effectively. We should have run 60% of the time (even without the wet conditions), and that would have set up the play action.
Oh well, there’s always next year. Fingers crossed for Alshon Jeffrey
Totally agree with 49erGirl on Dashon…selfish play…T-Brown and Carlos had the picks. Dashon must have felt (and I’m no mind reader) that if he couldn’t get the picks, nobody could…I wonder if he thinks he’s going to get a fat payday in free agency, playing this selfishly…
This team deserves an A for what it accomplished(…as a team) considering the circumstances going into the season.Yes some errors were made and we can second guess strategy and yes pine for talent in key positions…. bottom line ,Bravo for a season that far outweighed expectations.
I agree that Ray McDonald had a monster game. If anyone wants to put themselves through the pain and suffering of re watching the game they will notice a few key moments: 1) the Giants #93 linebacker finger tipped a ball away from Vernon on the exact same play and quality throw from Alex Smith that turned into a TD in the Saints game. Vernon catches that and its at least a FG try, 2) Anthony Dixon had a huge hole to run through the right side of the line and again, #93 on the Giants catches Boobie’s shoelaces and brings him down, Boobie was gone if he doesn’t grab the shoelace, 3) On his 40+yard punt return, Kyle Williams got past the kicker and got caught from behind by #39 of the Giants in a last moment lunge for Williams. He was that close to running it all the way back to give us 7 instead of the eventual 3 points we got on the 17-17 tying score. These teams were so evenly matched that those three moments going our way would have magically turned all these grades to As and Bs.
The anger and emotions in these grades and negative comments on Roman, Crabtree, Kyle Williams, etc are very easy to make from a MMQB point of view. It’s hard but objectively see that we were three (and many more) moments away from winning. The Giants made some key plays that made the difference in a very close, competitive game.
Yeah, what I dislike about Grant’s scoring system is that he’s unable to separate the game outcome from his grades. If that quick whistle hadn’t negated the Giants fumble, we probably would have won the game, and as you said, the grades would have magically changed upward. Just too simple-minded an approach, in my opinion. But he’s young, and like Kyle Williams will improve.
Right. With maturity, maybe Grant will not be looking to scapegoat individuals when his predictions prior to the game don’t work out.
Niners would have won the Super Bowl with two weeks preparation, rest and the lights-out defense. Tough, tough loss.
Yes, we need better wide receivers. Needed them in this game.
Yes, Smith missed some throws and skipped a few. But he didn’t fumble or throw an interception. He did just enough to win. Could have done more. But he did just barely enough to win.
The defense adjusted perfectly after half-time. Justin, Aldon and McDonald. Wow.
The Niners had this game won. They did enough to win it.
They lost because:
- Two Niner picks dropped because Niner players got in the way of each other.
- One fumble by Giants nullified by over-eager refs. Bad call. Bad luck.
- Could have been some better coaching calls. How about a bootleg option by Alex instead of Dixon up the middle for a failed two yards?
- Williams should not have muffed two punts and an exchange, but the team compensated for the first two. The last was obviously the inexcusable game-breaker.
- Niners lost this game more than Giants won it.
Next year!
I would give the coaching a C, the defense played great and special teams played well except for KW, KW is a freaking dope, it is one thing to fumble the ball and then another to have a punt hit him in the knee, don’t they teach that in Pop Warner. Alex Smith can use some improvement, he continually threw the ball in the dirt when he came out of the pocket. MC should be traded for a third round pick I wished GR got the Penn State job, JH needs to calls his own plays.
Grant,
Some your grades and comments look like they were made in the heat of the moment, and because of that I don’t agree with some of them.
First off, Alex Smith put 17 points on the board, same as his counterpart Eli Manning. Unlike Manning, he didn’t throw up two awful passes that should have been picked, and also unlike Manning, didn’t benefit from being setup deep in the oppositions territory due to two muffed punts. Alex didn’t play great yesterday, no question, but let’s at least be consistent when we analyze what happened. Both QB’s struggled under the weather conditions, not just Alex.
The other area I disagree with is the secondary grade. Rogers got worked in the first half a few times by Cruz, but these guys played really really well for most of the game and didn’t give an inch in the second half until Brown went out and the Giants took advantage of Brock on their second TD.
The reality of this game was that the Niners played well enough to win, and would have if not for the Williams miscues. If they make even one of the interceptions, they win by two scores imo.
Overall a great season that ended before it should have, but that’s football sometimes. I expect this team to build on what they did this season, and continue to compete for a SB for the next few years, and I couldn’t have said that at this time last season.
Rocket, I probably was too harsh on the secondary but I stand by my Alex Smith grade. He was bouncing passes.
Grant
I didn’t see AS bouncing too many easy passes. If anything, he overthrew them.
One that I have in mind was near the sideline. AS was running towards the sideline. At the last second he threw the ball towards MC who was also near the sideline. The ball must have traveled at least 15 yards and was thrown at the last second. So, it isn’t like AS had time to step into the pass or anything. He just winged it out there. The ball bounced right in front of AS feet. I was mad at MC for not coming back to his QB who was in trouble.
Off the top of my head – Smith bounced a pass to Vernon Davis in the third quarter and he bounced one to Crabtree in the fourth.
@Grant
The 4th quarter one was the sideline pass I was talking about.
I forgot about the bounce to VD pass, but I wonder if his hands were effecting him. In his press conference he made it a point to say the wind was more of a factor and his hands were getting dry a lot. Bet that played a part in it. Remember Eli didn’t look too good in the 2nd half either (when these 2 passes you are referring to happened). Missing a lot of passes after going 5-7 for 3rd downs. Didn’t they finish the game with like 7-15 or so on 3rd down so EM was not lights out either.
@Grant,
No question he bounced a couple. My point was, he was playing in crappy conditions and really didn’t fare any worse than the guy on the other sideline. A D to me means he didn’t really do anything to help the team win, and that isn’t the case here. He threw the two TD’s and ran for 50 yards which helped set up the FG. Did he play great? Of course not, and he was inconsistent, but the conditions played a big part in that because Manning played the same way for the most part.
Grant
When a QB is ‘bouncing’ passes, it usually means that the WR isn’t intended to catch them….there isn’t enough separation from the Dback, and the QB is trying not to get his WR killed.
@oregon and rocket
Nice point oregon. MC on that bounce pass was not at all open and was draped by the CB.
And rocket. AS had the same number of TD passes with fewer passes thrown than EM and fewer Ints than Tom Brady yesterday (0 for AS, 2 for TB). And TB had perfect weather conditions.
folks, for once i was there, and take it from me (or not), but Grant is right – those receivers were open, and the ball was just very poorly thrown. i recall 3 passes that i would call “head shakers”, where afterward i wasnt sure that i saw a pro qb throw that pass, it was that bad. this is the kind of stuff I didnt see on tv, because tv tends to focus on the qb, then pick up the receiver only after the ball arrives.
do all qbs make mistakes? sure. but in an nfc championship, where one play can make the difference between losing and the Super Bowl, 3 head shakers is just unacceptable.
A lot of people down on KW, but he did put up 150 yards of return which equals what all the rushers did and is only 40 yards less than the passing game. Dumb moves/pretty good returns.
I’m giving Grant an “F” for his lousy prediction the other day. SF was out-coached and out-played when it counted. As for these grades, agree for the most part though giving the secondary a “D” seems a bit harsh. Eli threw for 300 yards but it took him 63 attempts, hardly dominant. If you told me we’d hold the Giants to 17 points in regulation I’d have predicted an easy win. This loss was on Harbaugh, Roman and the offense.
Shoot, Goldson did hurt us twice. But we needed all the pieces to fall together and they didn’t. We played our mirror image. They beat us. We all need to stop saying we had the game won. We didn’t. Thrilled that this team took our hopes much further than we ever thought. And folks, it’s just a game.
I agree with Grant 100% I read his blogs but have stopped reading the comments for obvious reasons