The 49ers play the Seahawks at Candlestick on Thursday night. In the meantime, I’ll break down a few key matchups every day.
Right tackle Anthony Davis (6-5, 323 pounds) vs. Left defensive end Bruce Irvin (6-3, 248 pounds)
Before the Giants game, Davis hadn’t given up a single sack through five games. But he gave up 3 on Sunday, as well as 1 QB hit and 6 QB hurries according to Pro Football Focus.
This Thursday, Davis has to face the quickest defensive end he’s faced this season – rookie Bruce Irvin.
That undersized rookie is lightning in a bottle coming off the edge in passing situations, especially on artificial surfaces. On grass he may be another story, but it’s still going to be tough for Davis to contend with him.
Expect Seattle to split Irvin out wider so Davis has to kick step to get a decent angle to pass block him. Davis tends to give up the edge – he’s vulnerable to quickness off the corner.
The Niners will have to chip with a tight end and/or a running back at times to slow the rookie down.
Advantage: Seahawks
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Grant, what do you think about the possibility of adding an HC matchup since you do grade the coaches?
I love it. Great idea.
Grant,
Do not match Alex Smith up against this secondary! You will lose Hofer and half of your posters on this blog.
Please tell me how to go to my archives for my olde entries grant.
“Please tell me how to go to my archives for my olde entries grant.”
Yeah, maybe you’ll get lost in there and *never* come back out! LOL
23welcher, find the entry in the archives where you say you will never return to the blog if the Niners bring back Alex last year!
Buwhahwhjwhwhahjahwh!!!!!!!!!
Well right now we’d see “advantage Seahawks” cuz after last week our coaching staff leaves little to be desired! While we we’re on the west coast babbling to reporters about “they have something that’s ours” crap, they were over on the east coast watching film and coming up with a game plan. Here’s something Baas said after the game:
“During the week, you look back at the NFC Championship Game and you look at what they are doing today and you try to figure out similarities in terms of how they twist or how they will do certain things that didn’t work for us last time,” Baas said. “I feel like recognition, especially passing off twists — that study really helped us. We knew what was coming and even if they changed it up, we were very quick to respond to it. Doing that established a little bit, too, saying, ‘Look, you’ve got to come up with a new plan.’”
We went into the game thinking it was just a continuation of the last time we played! They made adjustments and we got punked! The flowery words of praise came down upon us and what did we do? We brought in Dad and came up with some good trick plays! Reminds me of the circus Rocky put on to prep for Clubber Lang. Time to get to work coaches. Film is out there on you now. No more sneaking up on people! Show me what you got. Show that you can teach new technique. You can’t just line up and throw the “wildkrap” out there. Lets play football! Show me something!
The best thing Roman can do to help Davis handle Irvin is keep 3rd down manageable. Davis will have many more snaps against Red Bryant and Chris Clemons. Irvin is primarily only coming in on 3rd downs until late in games when teams have to throw.
Hey Jack,
Did you see the excellent read on SB Nation regarding the QB shuffle and how successful it is? It’s exactly what I was alluding to yesterday…success rate and momentum stopper!
It was a good piece Hofer. I agree with the writer, “When things are going well and everybody is executing, the Kaepernick package is great. When things are struggling, it’s easy to throw it under the bus.”
Sounds pretty much like my stance yesterday so not sure how you are disproving my position. Nice try though.
Jack, it was my stance yesterday, today and my stance next week. As I stated, they need to stick to core plays!
Hofer,
You do realize that Smith is running those same plays right? They aren’t some trick plays they only run with Kaepernick.
Jack my contention is the offense flow and rhythm. If AS can’t run those, then don’t run them or start CK. There is no history that shows that a QB shuffle for certain plays works period. Roll with one guy!
QB Controversy:
I’ll tell you guys one thing – if the 49ers lose to the Seattle Seahawks on Monday night, Alex Smith’s head is going to roll. Last year, in the Green Room on BayArea Comcast, Bill Romanowski and Eric Davis said about Smith… “You don’t change the qb if the team is winning. ” But I doubt a 4-3 record would be acceptable to Jim Harbaugh, and Kaep is already getting significant playing time, AND you can see Kaep’s superior deep ball. If the 49ers lose to the Seahawks this Thursday, Jim Harbaugh will have 10 days to prepare Colin Kaepernick to start against the Cardinals on Monday night. I bet that’s exactly the way it happens, too.
Spit,
I don’t know if its going to happen but it Ned’s to happen. Personally, I’m thinking its going to be the bye week. Smith is done. Seattle is about to punish Alex Smith. Somehow, I think we still win.
Needs**
Not yet. Give them until October 30, after the Monday Night game in Az. If the team is sitting at 4-4 at that time you may see a change. It makes more sense to do that coming out of the bye week.
I agree but let’s hope it doesn’t come anywhere close to that. The NFC West is the Wild West right now and Russell Wilson looks like Billy the Kid.
Whatever happened to Billy the Kid…?
Yeah I agree they wouldn’t even consider a change until after the bye, but the fact we are even talking about this is pretty crazy. Smith is not on that short of a leash where they will be thinking about benching him due to one poor performance. Unlike some of the Coaches and GM’s around here, they will look at the situation as a whole instead of focusing on one game.
Agreed Rocket,
BUT why do you think the coaches started inserting CK right after their struggles against the Vikings?
Why has CK’s role increased every game since then?
I’ll let you answer because if I do it’s viewed as hate.
Rocket, it’s an overreaction. If CK had 30 tds and 6 Ints in 23 games , I’d think that would be outstanding. AS has those stats and we get agenda based negative comments after one poor game (again, out of 24 games). SMH!
Bay,
I think it’s two fold. One reason is to get him game experience and the other is two take advantage of his athleticism which is through the roof. Harbaugh has this theory of using everybody; to give them a role so to speak. It’s why they bring in Tukuafu and Davis in big packages, or give KW snaps when he’s 4th on the depth chart at WR. They want everybody involved and have found a role for Kap as well.
Now is there a chance they are grooming Kap for the starting job? Yes, no doubt, but I think it’s more of a situation where they have a great athlete who is raw as can be and want to integrate him slowly into the offense and not overload him too quickly. Smith has allowed them to do that with his play, but if he begins to slide the plan would most likely change again. I just don’t see it happening because one thing about Smith is, he won’t play reckless enough to keep making mistakes the way he did on Sunday.
If he plays like he did last week, it will definitely become an issue. This game is going to be a blood bath. Seattle looks very good, maybe a year away, but good.
Shawn Hill lost his job with a winning record. The year he got benched, he was one miracle Farve TD throw away from being 4-0. He was winning games ugly the way we are winning now and yet still lost his job.
I think the Niners would have to be out of it before they made a switch. Kaepernick may turn out to be a hell of a player, but a switch during the season would be acknowledgement of a failed campaign.
Yeah, they’re not going to intentionally start up a QB controversy and then reverse course and have to explain a bunch of stuff. Would be a big mess. Damage some office egos, etc. Damage Harbaugh’s less-than-honest reputation, too. :P
This may just be a blip, anyway. Tony Romo threw five picks in the Chicago game. Stuff happens.
A lot of it boils down to coaching and game plan. If these guys weren’t completely prepared, most times that blows up in a bad way. Just one of those games where all three phases were lacking and we were frankly beaten by a better team that day. Other teams have had a year now to study Harbaugh, this won’t be getting any easier.
If Smith falls apart then we (fans) should demand a change. A couple of bad games… meh, not too worried about it yet. We’ll see.
AS was the top rated passer in the NFL until that abomination against the Giants. No picks this Sunday.
AS will be the starter for the remainder of the season and next year as well.
Addressing the topic: The best way to help Anthony Davis against Bruce Irvin is to run to the right and road grade that rookie. That will also play into Leonard Davis strength.
**Thursday night.
He had the top QB rating for a week after beating Buffalo, where is he rated now?
>>where is he rated now?
#7
Exactly.
96-97 rating is still pretty good overall. He’s still 6+ points over last year’s average. He’ll have to completely collapse before they’d make a change.
Anything can happen though, that’s all part of the excitement of it. :)
the 49ers had an outstanding speed outside rusher in the 70′s cedric hardman. his only move was the speed rush. teams nullified him by running inside of him. the guard must handle the nt or dt on that side the full back leads through the whole and takes on the lb if they start cheating a safety up it opens up play action passes of 10 to 15 yds over the middle [sounds like crabtree's strength] but it all comes back to pound the football 30 to 35 carries by gore hunter and possibly jacobs.
Grant,
Do you have any insight as to how opposing coaches view and gameplan for Harbaugh? It seems that they really enjoy beating him, almost on a personal level. Is his coaching style sometimes detrimental in that it seems to consistently bring out the best in their opponent (Bills and Jets excluded)?
Coaches always love to beat the guy who is winning. There always perfect gentleman when they beat the teams they are supposed to beat.
I actually like the idea of Seattle splitting Irvin out wide. It means the 49ers are going to have to commit a back in the back field. I say this because as Grant mentions Davis is slow to react to quickness off the edge. I don’t think that’s a bad ordeal to be in for SF.
We all know SF does great running the ball. Having the back back there will give Alex Smith a check down receiver and open up screens. Our backs, Gore/Hunter are incredibly quick on the edge and have great hands coming off blocks. Alex Smith can also bootleg away from the rush. I expect to see Smith rush for 35 yards this game.
forgot the “l” in hotmail. My mistake.
Pick’em Ranking Week #6
Crab15 59
Angus 58
*49erGirl 57
ninermd 57
Coffee 55
pirate 55
D Rogue 55
Jack H 55
hjt396 54
rocket 54
elGuapo 47
NickRow 47
msc67 43
MWN 39
Chris 30
Group avg: 51
*weekly winner
One of the tougher weeks this season. 8 of the 14 games were won by the underdog.