Forum Replies Created
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aeneas1
here’s a look at the rams td from last weekend…
davis does a heckuva job keeping his composure and delivering a strike to britt on the crossing route as justin smith stunted through the middle virtually untouched. it was another one of those niners defensive plays, this time wilhoite crashed down on grob’s blindside in an effort to create a rush lane for smith. saffold followed wilhoite, looks like saffold may have even shoved wilhoite to the ground, leaving the middle wide open for smith to come barreling through, hard to tell if benny was supposed to hang back a bit and help out with pass pro, or a chip at least. speaking of benny, he was wide open as well. anyway, great pitch and catch for a score!
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here are a few highlights of grob’s play vs the niners, the guy is a beast!
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and here’s a look at a type of defensive play the niners love to run, crash down on an offensive lineman’s blindside in an effort to create a rush lane for a stunting defender. in this case justin smith, who is lined up on saffold’s inside shoulder, crashes down on grob’s blindside at the snap of the ball, while brooks stunts inside, who wells was ready to pick up:
jrry32
I have done this for Bradford in the past and I’ve found that some like it, some don’t. Regardless, I’m going to give you my opinion and break things down to the best of my abilities. You don’t have to agree with my conclusions, please, just keep it respectful. I had expressed the opinion that I believed San Francisco’s defense had not played all that well against us and that I felt Austin Davis had just really struggled but that I would check to see if it could be confirmed on Coach’s Film. I did just that and unfortunately, it was confirmed.(in my mind)
This is first and 10 just outside the 20 on a drive that ultimately ends in a FG. A completion here is important because it sets us up with manageable 2nd and 3rd downs. On this play, Austin Davis has a choice to make. The linebacker circled is more or less the guy he’s going to read. If the LB crashes down on the drag route with Kendricks, Davis should throw it to Cook down the seam inside of the safety. If the linebacker drops underneath Cook, Davis should hit Kendricks with the cross for a solid gain. Unfortunately, Davis takes too long to make his decision. If he’s going to hit Kendricks, the ball needs to be out now. If he’s going to hit Cook, he can take his hitch step(which he does) and throw it down the seam. Instead, he takes his hitch step and tries to throw to Kendricks. It’s late and the defender is able to defend the pass.
This is the same drive as the first picture but it is now 3rd down and 10. Brian Schottenheimer calls up a brilliant play. They may or many not have flagged us for OPI…that’s up in the air but Stedman Bailey(IIRC) is wide open over the middle because the 49ers brought the house. Davis, though, panics and runs himself right into pressure. The free blitzer was coming off the right side. Cunningham actually does a great job of picking up the blitzer on the left side. Davis has the time to stand tall in the pocket and hit a wide open Bailey over the middle. Instead, he flushes out of the pocket too early and is forced to throw the ball away. This is what you have to do to stop teams from blitzing. You stand tall and deliver the pass over the middle to the open WR. If you bail on the pocket, they’re going to keep coming.
This is the interception that Davis threw that led to the 49ers TD. Here’s the frustrating thing, Britt was WIDE OPEN the entire time. He ran a crossing route from the opposite side of the field and nobody covered him. Davis locked onto Austin and never looked Britt’s way. But even getting past that, he still could have completed the pass. Here’s the issue, he has to throw the ball now if he is going to throw the comeback route here. Austin is making his break and Bethea isn’t in position to undercut it. However, Davis holds the ball far too long, Bethea drops back to undercut the route and Davis throws it right to him.
Davis’s second interception of the day. Kenny Britt is behind the defender. Davis actually does a great job of escaping the pressure on this play and extending the play. Unfortunately, he makes the right read but throws a duck. The ball comes up 5-7 yards short of Britt and ends up right in the DB’s hands. Britt scores easily if Davis gets the ball there on this pass.
This is probably my most questionable play in that it’s a tad nitpicky. As you see here, Kenny Britt has gotten behind the CB and Davis actually has a nice pocket to work in. The safety is playing Britt so Davis is going to have to throw this ball towards the sideline or else there’s a risk that Bethea can make a play on it. Still, I think it’s a risk he should have taken. I wonder if the two earlier interceptions made him a bit gun shy. Instead, Davis tries to take off and runs himself into a sack(this was a 3rd down play)
Here’s another third down play(3rd and 11) that did not get completed. Davis does a nice job of escaping the blitz which gets sealed inside by the OL. However, he’s completely indecisive once he gets out of the pocket. He has a choice here, he can either hit Britt down the field(Britt will work his way back to the ball) or he can drop it off short to Cook and see if Cook can pick up the first with YAC. I would have dropped it off to Cook because it’s a safer play and I think Cook can get to the first on this play. However, Davis inexplicably doesn’t pull the trigger on either one. Instead, he holds onto the ball until he is forced to throw it away.
Here’s my final play and the Rams final offensive play of the game(not counting the kneel down). It’s 3rd down again. This time, the 49ers bring heavy blitz off the right side of the OL but they also fall for our play-action. Kendricks is left completely uncovered and the 49ers have nobody back to stop him from scoring. However, Davis panics when he sees the blitz and does the worst thing possible. He rolls right into the blitz. He has 3 blockers to pick up the 3 blitzers on that side of the OL. If he stays where he is, he has ample time to get the ball to Kendricks. Or if he’s worried, he can slide to his right and the OL will have enough blockers to account for the blitzers. I don’t know if he misread it or what but instead, he flushes out of the pocket to his right which is exactly where the blitzers are going. He is forced to throw it away.
Don’t take this as meaning Davis didn’t do anything well in this game. He simply made a lot of mistakes. The 49ers defense made some huge mistakes in this game and Davis just didn’t capitalize on them well. I’m really concerned at his tendency to panic and flush when blitzed. The 49ers gave us multiple opportunities to punish them on blitzes and Davis just didn’t do an effective job of capitalizing.
from off the net
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jrry32
Here’s Tavon “stepping out of bounds”:
Here’s the supposed “block in the back”:
Bates is clearly to the side of the defender.
(Can’t take credit for the pictures…they aren’t mine)
Great post ! Kap fumbled at least twice, ZN posted a nice Gif of it.
Eh, that still should have been a run.
Judgement call. In fact, I judge it differently–I think it was a brilliant play and Davis screwed it up. We don’t have to debate it. All we will get on either side is opinions. Which is kind of my point.
On top of it I doubt that was the coordinator. Maybe the specific play was…and in fact, it’s a signature Schott thing to set up play action that springs a blocking TE (Kendricks or Harkey) for a big gain. But going for the big play instead of the 1 yard is, I think, a Fisher thing. As in “let’s do more than run for the 1”–that would be Fisher. Here’s Fisher on that:
(On the decision to throw the ball on the team’s final offensive third down)
“There was 3:30 left and they had two timeouts left and the two-minute warning and I needed a first down. That’s a good defense. I’d do it again. (TE) Lance (Kendricks) was wide open. Austin couldn’t see him. Complete the pass, we kneel on it. The game is over. So, I was trying to win the game.”<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>zn wrote:</div>
PA Ram wrote:
The Austin Davis experiment has begun. May as well finish it. We know that Hill is NOT the future. We know(realistically) he won’t get them to a Superbowl this year.I get that argument but I don’t think it’s realistic. I am much more of a “win now” guy and I think off-season determinations are for the off-season. I think the best thing for Davis’s improvement is to sit and watch for a while and work on sharpening the aspects of his game that he CAN work on, in the off-season.
I am going to tease you.
If they do it your way? I can see the pep speeches now: “Team, give it your best and give it your all. Scoff at injuries, play in pain, throw yourself into it heart body and soul. Give it all of your blood sweat and tears. And here’s why–the staff is in the process of determining whether or not the qb is a future back-up. So…go Rams!”
The stuff dreams are made of.
They didn’t throw a first-round pick at Davis and they aren’t in this awkward position where they have to stick by him or admit that the pick was wasted.
I prefer win-now stuff.
Then again, twice now Davis was making the same kinds of mistakes and not running the offense the way it should be–which btw a lot of the sacks are on HIM not the OL–and twice now they straightened him out for at least a game or 2.
So I don’t know what the reality is.
I just prefer win now. I think “win now” has a way of taking care of things.
But they DID win–even with his worst performance. And I don’t think you’d pin their 5 losses on Austin Davis.
Winning is always the most important thing, but who has any idea that Hill gives the Rams the better shot of winning? And if Hill comes in and stinks? How is a QB carousel good for anything?
Also–there is short and long term thinking, and while players may be invested in the here and now–coaches are long term thinkers as well as short term thinkers.
Look–even if they win two more games this year because of Hill–how does that help them next year?
This team shows no carryover from one year to the next. Next year is a whole new thing. There will be changes.
I’m just suggesting that staying with Davis right now(short of him having a big regression or complete meltdown) offers more long term benefits than tossing in Hill to win a game or two and I’m only saying that because, as I asked in my last post: What is his ceiling?
That’s where I sit in all of this.
If the coaching staff believes he has hit his ceiling and this is it, fine–move on.
If not–continue the experiment a while longer.
I believe that the things Davis needs to learn are probably best learned in starting reps during practice and game experience.
And if you pull the plug too soon and Hill does no better, that tells the team you’re lost.
So–while I am critical of Davis–I would be patient for now.
Believe me, the thought of pulling him crossed my mind yesterday. Looking back, I’m glad they didn’t.
Going forward, we’ll see.
None of this is carved in stone. Everything is subject to change.
When just looking at qb play my assessment is that they can and absolutely need to do better. Rams can’t keep depending on ref’s calls on last minute fumbles to win. They should have been up by at least 7-10 in that game. Moderately decent, unpanicked qb could have done that.
The Austin Davis experiment has begun. May as well finish it. We know that Hill is NOT the future. We know(realistically) he won’t get them to a Superbowl this year.
I get that argument but I don’t think it’s realistic. I am much more of a “win now” guy and I think off-season determinations are for the off-season. I think the best thing for Davis’s improvement is to sit and watch for a while and work on sharpening the aspects of his game that he CAN work on, in the off-season.
I am going to tease you.
If they do it your way? I can see the pep speeches now: “Team, give it your best and give it your all. Scoff at injuries, play in pain, throw yourself into it heart body and soul. Give it all of your blood sweat and tears. And here’s why–the staff is in the process of determining whether or not the qb is a future back-up. So…go Rams!”
The stuff dreams are made of.
They didn’t throw a first-round pick at Davis and they aren’t in this awkward position where they have to stick by him or admit that the pick was wasted.
I prefer win-now stuff.
Then again, twice now Davis was making the same kinds of mistakes and not running the offense the way it should be–which btw a lot of the sacks are on HIM not the OL–and twice now they straightened him out for at least a game or 2.
So I don’t know what the reality is.
I just prefer win now. I think “win now” has a way of taking care of things.
Kap is still a “one read and run” QB.
It’s funny isn’t it that Alex Smith is programmed to perform well against the Rams D and Kap isn’t.
