NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell spoke on the Murph and Mac Show Thursday morning. Here’s Cosell’s take on the Vernon Davis issue. Q: Vernon Davis’ catches have decreased a little bit this year. What are you seeing on film? Are defenses taking him away or is Alex Smith just not looking for him? COSELL: It’s always hard to say whether a quarterback’s looking for someone because I don’t know what’s…
NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell spoke on the Murph and Mac Show Thursday morning. Here’s what Cosell said about the 49ers offense. Q: Jeff Fisher praised the 49ers offense more than the defense yesterday on a conference call. What do you think of that? COSELL: It’s coach-speak, but you have to understand what Jeff’s background is. Jeff’s a defensive coach, and defensive coaches always think in terms of not turning…
SANTA CLARA — Here is what Alex Smith said at his locker Wednesday afternoon, courtesy of the 49ers. You talked to Peter King about WR Randy Moss’ influence on the team. Have you seen his work ethic rub off on the other receivers? Have you seen his influence in action? “All of our guys work hard, I didn’t mean it in a sense like that. Here’s a guy that’s,…
SANTA CLARA – St. Louis Rams inside linebacker James Laurinaitis spoke to Bay Area reporters on a conference call Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what he said about the 49ers offense. Q: You say your defense needs to force more turnovers. Is that more difficult this week, because the 49ers generally don’t turn the ball over? LAURINAITIS: Yeah (chuckles), it’s extremely hard. You have team that’s very good with ball security. You…
Now that we’re halfway through the season, there’s a book on how to beat the 49ers. We know it, the 49ers know it – it’s their job to know it — and the rest of the NFL knows it. Let’s explain that game plan and list the teams that can pull it off. Stop the run with seven defenders. If you can do that, you can beat the 49ers. You…
St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher spoke on a conference call with Bay Area reporters Wednesday morning. Here’s what he said about the 49ers. Q: Did you feel the NFC was an ascendant division when you took the Rams job – a lot of young teams? FISHER: Yeah, I feel like the division has improved. Obviously, after the first half of the season you can say it certainly has,…
Pro Football Weekly just announced their midseason All-Pro team. Considering how good the 49ers defense is, you’d expect a few those players to make it. They didn’t. Surprisingly, two players on the offense made the team – Mike Iupati and Anthony Davis. Punter Andy Lee also made it. PFW named Aaron Rodgers the midseason All-Pro QB, Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch the running backs and Rob Gronkowski the tight end….
Here is what Greg Cosell said on the Murph and Mac Show Thursday morning about Alex Smith’s game against the Arizona Cardinals last week. COSELL: “I think he was highly efficient. I think that the majority of his yards came from run-after-catch. That’s not something you can count on for your explosive pass plays on a week-to-week basis. “The interesting thing about this offense – and it will be very…
Mike Florio interviewed Alex Smith on Pro Football Talk Live Friday morning. Florio asked Smith if the 49ers are better this season than they were last season, and here’s what Smith said. ALEX SMITH: “Definitely better. I think we got better in the offseason, through free agency and the draft as well. Better I think for the experiences last year, not just the success during the season, but the experience…
Mike Florio interviewed Alex Smith on Pro Football Talk Live Friday morning. Florio asked Smith what the 49ers learned from their losses to the Vikings and the Giants, and here’s what Smith said. ALEX SMITH: “What it takes to win. I really feel like before those weeks we were feeling good, we had won back-to-back games, we got off to a great start against Green Bay and Detroit, and then…
Mike Florio interviewed Alex Smith on Pro Football Talk Live Friday morning. Florio asked Smith what is the biggest difference between playing quarterback in college and in the NFL, and here’s what Smith said. ALEX SMITH: “For one, decision making. It starts there. You have to be able to make the decisions. You have to be able to process fast. There’s so much more volume offensively and defensively. You have…
The 49ers rushing offense ranks No.1 in yards per game and yards per carry. That’s great, but the offense is scoring half-a-point less per game than last season. Why is that? One of the reasons is Greg Roman. He doesn’t get the ball enough to his best skill player and biggest scoring threat – Vernon Davis. Davis scored 4 TDs the first three games. He has scored zero since then…
Over the next few days, I’ll give midterm report cards for the 49ers starting players and coaches. Let’s start with Alex Smith. His completion percentage is 69.4. That’s the best in the NFL and 10 points higher than his career average. His TD percentage – 5.7 – is 7th-best in the NFL and 2 points higher than his career average. His interception percentage is 2.4, which is close to his…
Some of you may be wondering why Frank Gore and Alex Smith were not finalists for my midseason offensive player awards. Afterall, they are both having the best seasons of their careers. First, I’ll address Gore. He’s excellent, but he’s benefitting big-time from the 49ers offensive line. He’s regularly running through gaping holes at the line of scrimmage. He’s averaging 5.5 yards per carry, and that’s impressive, but Kendall Hunter…
The Giants are parading through the streets of streets of San Francisco today, and some of them are being driven by Alex Smith and Jim Harbaugh. Spefically, Alex Smith is driving Matt Cain’s car, and Jim Harbaugh is driving Brandon Belt’s car. Here’s what Harbaugh said to CSN Bay Area about the SF Giants: “It’s very inspiring, no question about it, just how they stayed together as a team and…
SANTA CLARA — Here’s how Jim Harbaugh explained the four sacks allowed by the 49ers offense against the Cardinals last night, courtesy of the 49ers. Four sacks seemed to be the only question mark. Overlooking it together, do you see a trend, it looks like a couple times Alex pulled it down something wasn’t there right away and he had no other choices. What accounts for the four sacks, was…
SANTA CLARA — Here’s what Jim Harbaugh said at his Tuesday press conference about the red zone connection between Alex Smith and Michael Crabtree, courtesy of the 49ers. Michael Crabtree said he’s been working a lot in practice with Alex Smith, as far as getting into the red zone. He had two red zone touchdowns, obviously last night. But, before that he had only had two in the last three…
SANTA CLARA – Joe Staley spoke at his locker Tuesday afternoon. Here’s what he said about Alex Smith. Q: Did you see your coach’s “gobble, gobble, turkey” quote about criticism directed toward Alex Smith? STALEY: I did. Q: Has he ever used that language with you guys? STALEY: Never. Q: Do you know what it meant? STALEY: Just a lot of talk. Gobble, gobble. That’s never been an issue in…
There’s been a lot of discussion around here the past few weeks about whether Alex Smith has lost confidence as a result of Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman mixing backup quarterback Colin Kaepernick into games. Against the Cardinals Monday night, Kaepernick did not play, and Smith happened to play one of the best games of his career. After the game, Jim Harbaugh was asked if he ever felt Smith’s confidence…
Here are the grades for the 49ers offense from their 24-3 win over the Arizona Cardinals. Quarterbacks: A. Alex Smith played one of the best games of his life. He only attempted 19 passes, but he completed 18 of them, and Delanie Walker dropped the one incompletion. That’s a 95 percent completion percentage. Smith broke Fran Tarketon’s record for the most completed passes in a game in which he threw…
