SAN FRANCISCO — Here are the Week 6 grades for the defense and special teams.
Defensive line: D. They got zero pressure on Eli Manning. They held Ahmad Bradshaw to 23 yards on 11 carries in the first half, but they gave up 93 yards on 16 carries to Bradshaw in the second half. At one point in the fourth quarter they gave up almost 70 rushing yards on 7 straight runs. They gave up a rushing touchdown, too, which they didn’t give up until Week 16 last season.
Linebackers: D. Ahmad Brooks hit Eli Manning once, but that’s it. Aldon Smith was a non-factor. Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman recorded 17 tackles between the two of them (9 for Bowman, 8 for Willis).
Secondary: D. All three cornerbacks played poorly. Carlos Rogers gave up a touchdown to Victor Cruz and dropped an easy interception. Tarell Brown gave up about 70 yards receiving, and was flagged for a pass interference penalty which the Giants declined. Chris Culliver matched up with Domenik Hixon a few times and lost the matchup, giving up a 39- and a 14-yard completion. Dashon Goldson recorded 8 tackles but missed at least one.
Special teams: F. David Akers missed two of the three field goals he attempted. The kickoff coverage unit gave up a 66-yard return to David Wilson at the start of the second half. Last season, special teams was a strength of the 49ers. This season it’s an enormous weakness. They probably regret cutting Rock Cartwright, trading Colin Jones and not re-signing Blake Costanzo – three special teams studs last season.
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Ugly, ugly loss.
Cant hardly argue with those grades.
Def played soft..DBs got ate up by Eli n Co….no pressure on ELI awful should get an E for embarrassing….
I think had Akers hit on all his FG’s (especially the last one to end the half) and the Special teams coverage units, you know, do their freaking job. That this game ends very differently.
The game got away from us after the D allowed a TD on that kickoff. The CK sub was too often, and mis-managed. AS threw into coverage afterwards. And we didn’t run the ball. Had the D held the Giants to a FG at most (or how about 0 points. Like an elite D is supposed to do) then Roman isn’t such a dufus and actually runs the ball a lot more.
Their you go again , protecting your boy toy. Last time I checked the Niners didnot score a touch down that is the problem, no freaking touchdowns.
Neal
I think you’ll find yourself more at home at a Giants Blog. Come to think of it, you find yourself more comfortable on any teams blog who is about or just played the Niners. Because you don’t belong here.
BS,
You are a miserable curse to the team and the blog. We can’t win a super bowl with you here. I demand that you leave this blog at midnight and take the entire Smither Klan with you. As a matter of fact, take Alex Smith with you please. Thank goodness he only has 1 interception, OOPS!!!!
Attention seeker!
If Alex Smith had hit MM on the bomb before the half, the score would have been tied 10-10 going into halftime. All these what-if scenarios don’t mean $hit. We lost this game partly because we got poor production from the QB. His favorite target today was the Giants secondary.
Nick
Eli only produced what he did because he got a lot of help from his WR’s who made some spectacular plays. Eli had a good 4 or so such passes get saved by his WR’s. Passes which led to points scored later on.
Please point to a single great catch by a Niner WR. That DW Int was a perfect time for one such catch. The Giant WR’s came down with those type of throws. DW didn’t.
Eli doesn’t get hot if his WR’s aren’t bailing him out a lot in that 2nd quarter.
We lost the game because our players talked trash all week about how they felt the Giants had what belonged to us! Bullitin board material! Hopefully they learned a lesson and just shut up from here on out. Grant hit it head on with his prediction except for the fact he gave us a little credit and made it a 1 point game! Good call Grant!
Grant, amazing how your bloggers wanted to castrate you and hang you earlier in the week when you predicted a NYG win, although only by one point. Where are those gurus and Monday morning QBs now??? It’s tough to be a homer because your vision is obscured by those rose colored glasses.
Mike
This is one of a few time grants predictions is correct…any given sunday
49ers RIP. Special team was the difference last year and it is not there anymore. Alex Smith is jsut a good QB but not the one who can not win superbowl. I would be very surprised to see 49ers going past a first play off game. They may not even make it to play off. For the next year on you won’t see all the good players will be sticking around for an other season.
49ers RIP. Special team was the difference last year and it is not there anymore. Alex Smith is jsut a good QB but not the one who can win superbowl. I would be very surprised to see 49ers going pass a first play off game. They may not even make it to play offs. For the next year on you won’t see all the good players will be sticking around for an other season or so.
Yeah… Alex is exposed yet again… Have to give the Def a C- since they were put on a short field often and got tired since the offense could get them any rest.
Grant, you don’t believe the DB’s that were playing off the NYG WR’s deserved an F?? What did they do well?
Same with the defensive line…zero pressure..
It’s tough to differentiate between a D and an F. Manning only threw 1 TD and only averaged 6.9 yards an attempt. I gave the DBs credit for that, especially considering there was no pass rush.
So why did you give the DL a D?
hof
They did a great job of trailing the WR’s. Making sure the backs of the Giants uniforms didn’t have any holes and were stitched up all nicely.
Letting Costanzo walk in free agency was a crime. The heart and soul of the coverage teams. Harbaugh didnt like Costanzo. I remember after Costanzo got a personal foul penalty last year, JH went crazy on him and then told Seely to talk to him. Our special teams aren’t so special anymore.
Stop the presses. I agree with Jordo.
23Jordon…you are 100% right. Letting Blake Costanzo go was the biggest mistake, however I can’t say that your comment about Harbaugh is correct…he and Blake did get along well…there was something else going on that you and I as well as the rest of the 49ers fans will never know. They offered zip…nada…nothing to Costanzo and now the special teams has gone from the best out there to #32 I believe? And don’t listen to any of the talk out there that Costanzo was fighting over money so that is why he went to the Bears…the truth is the offered him nothing and he is getting from the Bears close to what he was getting from the 49ers. Blake Costanzo had an infectious ability to get the guys to gel and work together…well…not happening anymore….no more Tony Montana…he went to the Bears
The niners are not the team or as great as we thought. We will be lucky to be 10-6 this year, not a championship team, sorry……
Here is the problem with Smith, Akers saved his ass last year, Smith and Akers is like Sonny and Cher. Second problem with Smith you don’t know what Smith you are going to get. Is it the Smith who played 3 great games, this year, or is it the Smith who played 2 poor games this year, or the one who played one below average. I was on the Smith bandwagon, after the first two ganes this season, and now he reminds of the stock market, you don’t know what you are going to get. If he playes as poorly as he did today, agaist the Hawks, he will be in serious trouble.
Although the entire team sucked from top to bottom.
Typical band wagon fans. Niners lose 1 game and all of a sudden they’re not making the playoffs. All good teams have a bad game here or there. Last time I checked niners are on top of the division and on pace to win 12 games.
Grant,
I really want you to ask this question. I’m repeating it from a previous blog entry…
Why in the hell are the 9ers dropping Aldon Smith into pass coverage so often? Even on obvious passing downs Smith is dropping into coverage. I think it was the 3rd quarter today, Aldon Smith was actually lined up over Victor Cruz when he was slot left. I was going crazy when I saw that. The 9ers weren’t getting much of a pass rush and here their best pass rusher was literally lined up to cover the slot receiver. Even against Minnesota, Smith dropped alot. Smith was responsible for covering the TE when Ponder threw that lob pass to left of the end zone for a TD. Why is the best pass rusher on the team trying to cover guys with 4.4 speed? Makes no sense to me.
I noticed him down field quite a bit as well. I did notice at least once when they dropped him into coverage they had a double middle linebacker blitz, but other than that…I have the same question.
Call me a smither but I place the blame on the coaches on this loss not the players.. Who’s idea was it to completely abandon a successful rushing attack for a pass happy attack with a quarterback who had just injured his hand the week before. That type of logic would be like placing your life savings on a cripple to win a marathon. Also; 23jordan/Alex is who I said he was!, you are a cancer to this blog you are constantly offensive to other posters on this blog, you are rude and have no respect for other people.
23jordan is not a fan, he is here to get attention.
Good to see the Texans are having their *off game* today as well.
They’re making the Packers look good.
I think a D overall is Harsh, the Giants had to drive what a total of 50 yrds for all their scores in the second half. The defense held a team 26 points in spite of 3 turnovers by the offense. They kept this game within reach in spite of having an offense that hasn’t proven it can move the ball against a defense that is above average.
The book for beating this team is out… get an early lead and relax becuase if this team feels it cant run. It cant move the ball. Buckle up boys were going to have a hard fought game against the seahawks and if they get an early lead were in real trouble because they have a better Defense that than the Giants.
Had the Defense forced a 3 and out and not given up any points after AS’s first Int, I think Roman doesn’t freak out and stop running the ball. As for the constant switching of QB’s, that was just stupid. 20 snaps for a guy who fakes a hand-off/toss to a non-existent player, forget about it.
DS we cannot keep putting it on the defense to save us but to your point, the defense has to make some critical stops sometime during the game.
They did hold the Giants to a couple field goals after the two INT’s. What more can you ask of the defense? This game would have been a blowout if we allow touchdowns there.
FDM
If you look at the stats (because they are so very vital in telling the story), the defense looked pretty good in some areas. Allowing only a pair of FG’s following 2 Int’s deep in our end of the field being the most impressive.
But, they allowed 2 TD’s on drives that didn’t start deep in our end of the field. So, if you want to balance it out, 2 longer TD drives for 2 shorter FG drives, and you get a sum of 0. Hardly elite.
Those TD drives came off of plays that (in Romans head, not mine) forced the Niners to pass the ball the whole second half. Your earlier post was nearly spot on. When we play well, we make teams one dimensional because they can’t run. In this game, we choose to be one dimensional. The Giants just said “Thank you” and took off with it.
Also, elite defenses get elite by beating elite offenses. To do that, they make elite plays. They didn’t make a play. The Giants scored 26 points. Chances are low that if your defense gives up 26 points, you will win. No matter what else happens (offense sucks). While the offense and Special teams stank to high heaven, the defense gave up all those points. There was no pick 6, or return for a TD. The defense had their chances to get a 3 and out (the game changes if they get a 3 and out after Int 1) or create a turnover themselves, and failed. Every point was given up by the defense.
If we are going to judge AS on the elite scale, we need to judge the known elite unit on the elite scale. Elite defenses don’t give up 26 points at home. They find a way to stop the other teams by countering with a turnover of their own.
Nicely out DS. The two long drives in the 1st half that ended in a TD and FG were momentum killers for us. I agree that the defense needs to come up big on one of those drives.
My point is we cannot rely on any one facet of this team. The 49ers really do rely on each unit to complement the other. If one fails, they all fail and I dont understand why that happens. I get that we are not the most explosive team and in every sense the most complete team, but a complete collapse in all three phase and coaching Sunday was shocking.
*nicely put*
FDM
Everybody says we are the most complete team wh we win. What man don’t understand is we are just as much a complete team when we lose. If we are all connected here (players/coaches) then by definition the will all suck, or a’ll look good. There is balance in everything. If you have a team that is really connected all parts will fail. A team that is less connected…those parts operate more independently. So other teams can have 1 go bad, and not all go down. But of course they are not as complete/connected as we are. And that single quality more separates us from every other team, and I like it. This was the bad part to it. The 17-5 part is the good part.
You are correct DS. The one worry I have is do we show up to play the “great teams” in the “big moments”. We did against the Saints in the playoffs, GB, and DET this year. Not so much against the Ravens last year. Layed an egg yesterday, as well as MIN. This is my only worry moving forward. Lets see what happens against the Seachickens.
Fangio said he hasn’t been worried about the numbers of sacks because the d-line is still getting pressure and causing turnovers. Okay, so now they didn’t get sacks or pressure. Is it time to start worrying yet? It’s putting too much on the DB’s who are decent when the DL is getting pressure, but don’t have the ability to shutdown above-average receivers on their own. Fangio again has shown an inability to adjust his scheme at halftime this season after that being a strong-suit last season; especially against “balanced” teams mixed the pass and run like the Vikings, and now, Giants have done. Seems they play their best against one-dimensional teams that do one or the other.
Nothing special in Seely’s ST – and not just Akers current slump, but the coverage units are looking terrible. Even without Constanzo, they’ve got to improve. Ginn looks nothing like last season, Williams looked much better as a PR while filling in. Too many fair-catches and running toward the sideline. Maybe it would be better to cut him (they won’t, but Ginn won’t be here next season) and bring back Rock Cartwright for ST help.