Thots from being at the game. Momentum, heart, coaching

Went to the game and sat with someone who had never before watched a football which was interesting as I was explaining the basics. It took the end of the first quarter before she really understood why teams punt and how that whole punting thing changes possession. Pretty fun.

First drive was impressive. The Rams were really playing hard on offense and things just clicked. This got the fans into the game which was fun to see and be a part of in the stands. (OBTW, lots of empty seats in the stands) First quarter and a half were pretty good from an effort standpoint.

Still, even saying that, the niners defense was spending more time in the Rams backfield harassing Davis the Ram line was doing against Kaepernick. We were up 14-3 which was great and the defense was playing okay, but it didn’t seem like we were winning. It seemed like we were kind of holding our own and were getting some key plays at some key times.

Still, all seemed good up until the last minute of the half. The Niner’s touchdown deflated the team as well as the fans. I told my seat mate that if the Niners scored on their first drive, the Rams were going to be hurting.

The Niners came out after the half and just marched down the field. It was painful to watch. The Rams never recovered momentum wise until the last 6 minutes of the game.

We lost the battle on the line of scrimmage over and over again on both sides of the ball for most of the game. Scheme? Players? Heart? Coaching? I don’t know, but it wasn’t great.

Kaepernick is not a great passer. He is okay, but he does not possess great accuracy. What he is incredible at is moving in the pocket and still getting off a decent attempt or taking of and running. The Rams played pretty good overall defense the first quarter and a half, but they couldn’t sustain after they lost the momentum at the end of the first half.

Davis looks like a decent young developmental QB. He throws some nice balls. He moves okay. His clock goes too fast even when he is not pressured and he throws some errant passes. He did not look good at the end of the game. He overthrew what would have been a wide open touchdown just before the field goal in the 4th quarter that could have made the difference in the game. He…well…young and he plays like it. He looked like a guy who could QB for 5-10 teams in the league and you wouldn’t see much of a drop-off.

Defense really picked it up the last 10 minutes after the goal line stand. The 4th down defenses were impressive, but they weren’t the only good plays. There were plenty of them by a defense that woke up. Maybe someone on the sideline jumped in their shit. Hard to say.

They actually had a chance at the end. Can’t believe they didn’t kick it deep with 2:26 to go and a timeout left. Bad decision imo with the way the defense had picked it up the previous couple of drives.

Coaching has got to be better for both lines. We got beat in the trenches.

We ran too many routes that stopped. Didn’t use crossing routes over the middle as much as they should to give the players opportunities to run after the catch.

Biggest issue was emotion. The novice football fan noted it as well. We were holding our own (not winning even though we were up on the score board, but holding our own) until we gave up the long touchdown at the end of the half. Then we just got beat until the goal line stand in the 4th.

It’s sad really.

It looks like the pieces are there and the receivers as a group played better than I’ve seen in recent years. We have that going for us.

So, we have a decent group of WRs. Wouldn’t hurt for them to get one more years experience.

I think we are okay at RB. Tre Mason is the real deal. He looked like a #1 back in person. Strong, fast, good cuts and decisive. I really liked his runs.

Oline needs help. Got to fix this.

Front seven needs coaching and/or heart. They proved last year they are better than this.

Dbacks need experience. They might be okay, but they need more experience.

QB. I dunno. If Bradford could stay healthy… I think you draft one in the first round and have them compete with Bradford and Davis. Best one wins. The good news is the team is now built with some decent talent. It just needs to jell with some experience, find some passion and heart then get some good QB play to be able to play with anyone.

Hram

P.s., The Rams did a lot of 1999 stuff which was very cool. I hope the t.v., showed the halftime ceremony. Marshall gave a decent short speech and introduced Vermeil who said a few words. It looked like they players had fun being on the field together and the impromptu bob and weave they did in the endzone as they were exiting the field was very cool!