SAN FRANCISCO – Here are my Preseason Week One grades for the 49ers defense.
Defensive line: B+. Justin Smith didn’t play. The rest of this unit allowed 4.3 yards per carry to the Vikings, which is below the Niners’ stellar standard of run defense.
The standout player of this group was Demarcus Dobbs, who completely dominated the Vikings’ backup left tackle. In the second half, Minnesota had to give Dobbs the Justin-Smith treatment – constant double teams.
Inside linebackers: A. NaVarro Bowman looked like the best player on the defense when he was on the field. He made three tackles and seemed to beat his teammates to the ball carrier on every play.
Larry Grant is the hardest hitter on the team. He’s a “neck-snapper.” Whenever he makes a tackle, both his the ball carrier’s neck snap back.
Outside linebackers: B. Aldon Smith easily beat Vikings’ rookie left tackle Matt Kalil on the first drive of the game and forced Christian Ponder to throw the ball out of bounds, but Smith bruised his hip later on and had to leave the game.
Cam Johnson didn’t play. Eric Bakhtiari did, and he got two sacks. Suddenly, he has a chance to beat out Johnson as the Niners’ fourth outside linebacker.
Cornerbacks: A. Carlos Rogers got burned by Stephen Burton on the first drive of the game for a 52-yard completion. Rogers seemed to expect help from Dashon Goldson deep, but never got it. Besides that gaffe, the Niners cornerbacks mostly held the Vikings wide receivers in check. Perrish Cox picked off a bad McLeod Bethel-Thompson pass at the end of the fourth quarter.
Safeties: C+. Goldson seemed to blow his assignment on the 52-yard Burton reception. Donte Whitner gave up two catches in the first quarter to tight end Kyle Rudolph. Backup free safety Darcel McBath blew an assignment in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 28-yard catch by Kerry Taylor, John Taylor’s nephew.
Sixth-round pick Trenton Robinson had a huge hit in the fourth quarter to break up a pass. Robinson has the best chance of all the Niners’ 2012 draft picks to suit up for the season opener in Green Bay.
Special teams: A. Despite the strong, swirling winds, the Niners’ special teams made no mistakes. Kyle Williams returned one punt 22 yards. Andy Lee landed two punts inside the Vikings’ 20 yard line, and one inside their 5 yard line. And backup kicker Giorgio Tavecchio kicked a 29-yard field goal.
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GC said: “….The rest of this unit allowed 4.3 yards per carry to the Vikings, which is below the Niners’ stellar standard of run defense.”
I think to be more clear to dense literal people like me this would be stated better as “…which is above the Niners stellar standard of run defense.”
I realize the object of the adverb is the “standard” but when I read the word “below” following a number I assume it’s referring to the previously stated number.
penry pooch. shut up. thanks.
Cool my own fan club. Thanks for the interest, im flattered. Do you hold club meetings and if so should I come as a guest speaker?
Truly honored by your sincere and hard to explain interest in me but none the less thanks anyway for taking the time out of your life to leave me messages. It’s truly heart felt.
once again. please. just shut up
How can I, you are clearly my number one fan and I feel obligated to continue to give you purpose.
Agree with the C grade for the safeties. In addition to the possible blown coverage Goldson didn’t wrap on a couple of tackles, and Whitner was routinely beat in coverage by the TE on the second drive.
I think that might be due to Willis not playing. He has been covering the opposing TE usually.
MidWest,
They played a lot of base last night so Whitner was on him. Either way, he was having a tough time in coverage. That is not his strength.
Sorry Jack, I didn’t know that. I just know that Willis was the one usually covering the TE last season.
What I saw was that the safeties played soft so that they did not get injured. They deserve the C.
The safety I’m concerned with is Goldson. He has a history of allowing big plays. He was a Pro Bowler last season, but he needs to get better in his ability to provide coverage.
Pass defense has been my concern for awhile. See what happens.
I mentioned my concern for the pass defense and I got blown up by people telling me we were “deep” at corner and our pass rush would settle any secondary issues. Christian Ponder kind of put that hope to rest. Pass defense against who play this year is going to be paramount. You can’t run the ball if you are down 21 points at the half.
I watched Carlos Rogers get torched the first play of the drive and I thought, here we go again. Christian Ponder torched him. I am sure Aaron Rodgers is licking his chops at the prospect of throwing at Carlos’s coverage.
I also saw a lot of the blown reads in the AZ game again with Goldson last night. He has to get out of the Taylor Mays mentality and start wrapping tackles up.
Now, I think Rogers is our biggest liability in the secondary, because he won’t be able to count on safety help against GB. I think that a sollution here is to talk about trades.
Possible teams who have what we need and we have what they need:
Chicago Bears get Scott Tolzien
SF gets Zackary Bowman and SF 3rd round pick.
Cleveland Browns get Collin Kaepernick
SF gets Eric Wright and SF 5th round pick
Tampa Bay gets Scott Tolzien
SF gets Aquib Talib SF 6th round pick
NE gets Scott Tolzien
SF gets NE’s third round draft pick 2013
or SF gets Decon McCourty and gives up a 2nd round pick in 2013
Our schedule points to a need to bring in a speedster at corner who isn’t going to need safety help. Any one else see any possible trades here?
* sf doesn’t get their own picks. Typo. They give those picks up if that’s who they get. I have to learn to proof read. Sorry
Please say this post is a late April Fool’s joke.
Sorry, but I don’t think you could be more wrong about something than you are about Carlos Rogers.
OK, that was too hyperbolic. Let me just say that I think you are disturbingly wrong about Carlos Rogers.
And Chris, can you be specific on those blown reads by Goldson in the AZ game that you claim you saw, I’m guessing on TV? How would you have played them instead?
I’ll jump on this comment here. They actually did a poll, much like they vote for the Heisman trophy winner in which they ranked the top 10 safeties in the league. Dashon Goldson wasn’t even mentioned in the top 22.
Here is the link:http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2011-06-12-top-10-safeties_N.htm
N ow for Carlos Rogers. He was ranked 76th in the league for yards after the catch and average pass distance. 5.5 and 12.7 37% of the passes at him resulted in a first down. That ranks 19th. To put that in comparison, Chris Culliver had half the YAC at 2.7.
Here is that link :http://footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2012/best-cornerback-charting-stats-2011
This year the team faces 5 of the top 8 passing offenses. Goldson and Rogers will be exposed week 1.
@Webster:
The link you provided shows that Carlos Rogers finished as the 9th best CB last year in terms of success rate. It showed nothing with regard to his ranking for YAC, average pass distance or 1st down %.
great idea Grant–maybe we should tell Matt Maioco about it
Sorry, but I just can’t buy into that Rogers is the 49ers biggest liability at corner because of a blown play in a preseason game. That’s a pretty extreme observation.
He was victimized by a second year player in Christian Ponder. He’s been beaten in camp through several blogs. I could be absolutely wrong, I just don’t think I am. I hope I am, but if I’m GB, NO, NE, BUF, I target Rogers
I’m all for that Chris. Maybe he’ll get ten interceptor this year.
I agree with Chris.
He is absolutely wrong about Carlos Rogers.
Hardest hitter on team Larry Grant…Sorry that title still belongs to P Willis, but I understand what you are trying to say.
The team (yesterday) signed linebacker Kenny Rowe to a 2 year contract. How many LBs will the team carry into the season? Does this mean they will go low on a couple other positions?
I had pretty much thought that our LB position was one of our deepest.
It was until the position got hit with the injury bug. Unfortunately for Rowe, he’s only filling in for Aldon Smith until the end of the preseason so that Smith doesn’t aggravate that hip bruise in any way.
Rowe is training camp fodder. This signing suggests to me that Smith will be missing some time in practice and they need a body to fill in.
Thank you gentlemen. I appreciate the explanation.
If you see any gentlman in these blogs please by all means kick them in the @ss and send them on their way. Mid and Hammer assesment is pretty much right on. And Hammer by no means is a gentleman, sorry Jack couldnt resist.