SF @ AZ

[jrry32]

I don't know what it is with the DL. I know what it is with the LBs. It's Ogletree. He's just maddeningly inconsistent. But the DL should be playing better than they are.

 

[fearsomefour]

Bruce Arians is doing an amazing job with that team. He really maximizes his talent, the dude is for real.

Their DC as well....amazing they have lost multiple very key starters on D and look miles ahead of the Rams D.

 

[fearsomefour]

SF got hosed on a couple of terrible roughing calls. There has to be a tipping point to this stuff. My guess it will be when a conference title game is decided because of horse shit calls....unless of course it is NE.

 

[fearsomefour]

It is frustrating to see other teams win by out-scheming opponents and then our team seems to get out-schemed every week on defense. I'd say our offense out-schemed Dallas today. But damn it's frustrating seeing our defense just get worked over. I thought Williams was supposed to be the mad genius that is known for scheming. Right now, the guy doesn't seem to have a clue. Either that or our players don't have a clue.

WITH FREAKING LINEHAN ON THE SIDELINE TOO!!
I think a lot of Williams rep was built in New Orleans. As I have been saying over and over he had the great luxury of playing from ahead in most games with a dynamic offense. Of course he has a 21-0 lead today.

 

[Merlin]

SF got hosed on a couple of terrible roughing calls. There has to be a tipping point to this stuff. My guess it will be when a conference title game is decided because of horse crap calls....unless of course it is NE.

According to a buddy of mine, the Raiders got jobbed again in NE today. Haven't seen the highlights or watched the game but doesn't surprise me.

 

[ram007]

Their DC as well....amazing they have lost multiple very key starters on D and look miles ahead of the Rams D.

i wonder how the freak they are doing it without so many starters from previous seasons missing!

 

[jrry32]

Their DC as well....amazing they have lost multiple very key starters on D and look miles ahead of the Rams D.

Yep. It defies logic. They can lose so many key players and still be okay but we look terrible.

 

[moklerman]

I don't know what it is with the DL. I know what it is with the LBs. It's Ogletree. He's just maddeningly inconsistent. But the DL should be playing better than they are.

Well, an example I can think of was the early 2nd and 14 that Dallas had. Instead of pressuring Romo, they rush 4 and play waaaaaaay off the LOS in the backfield. Romo drops it over the middle to Witten for an easy first down.

Just plain wimpy, gutless defense. Granted, you may get burned by trying to pressure the other team but I HATE passive defense. I've never understood the point of just letting the opposing offense just dink and dunk their way down the field.

I'm not seeing anything complex, confusing or aggressive from Gregg Williams thus far and it appears that his reputation is a lot bigger than his results.

I'm beside myself at this defense and team being spotted 21 points and losing at home.

 

[jrry32]

Well, an example I can think of was the early 2nd and 14 that Dallas had. Instead of pressuring Romo, they rush 4 and play waaaaaaay off the LOS in the backfield. Romo drops it over the middle to Witten for an easy first down.

Just plain wimpy, gutless defense. Granted, you may get burned by trying to pressure the other team but I HATE passive defense. I've never understood the point of just letting the opposing offense just dink and dunk their way down the field.

I'm not seeing anything complex, confusing or aggressive from Gregg Williams thus far and it appears that his reputation is a lot bigger than his results.

I'm beside myself at this defense and team being spotted 21 points and losing at home.

That would be the point of having our DL. You fake a blitz and drop into zone coverage. If our DL was doing their job and could get there rushing 4, it would be quite effective. Our DL isn't doing it. Which is the frustrating part.

I definitely don't disagree with that strategy. You can't just blitz on every down. The DL should be such a dominant unit that we don't have to blitz on every down.

 

[fearsomefour]

According to a buddy of mine, the Raiders got jobbed again in NE today. Haven't seen the highlights or watched the game but doesn't surprise me.

Yeah, going in for the tying score got called for a hold that was suspect at best.

 

[Prime Time]

Meanwhile...

More bad officiating in this one. SF imploding emotionally as the refs are zeroing in on and controlling EVERYTHING.
AZ keeps losing starters and somehow is 9 min away from being 3-0 and 1-0 in division.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...n-on-officials-the-crap-cost-us-another-game/

Anquan Boldin on officials: The crap cost us another game
Posted by Josh Alper on September 22, 2014

AP

The 49ers melted down in the second half again on Sunday, allowing the Cardinals to outscore them 17-0 on the way to a 23-14 loss that left San Francisco with a 1-2 record after three weeks.

The team has now been outscored 52-3 in the second halves of games this season, a problem that needs to be addressed if they are going to turn things around and return to the playoffs. One good place to start would be penalties, which played a major role in both of their losses.

One of the costliest on Sunday was a head butt delivered by wide receiver Anquan Boldinto Cardinals cornerback Tony Jefferson late in the third quarter that took the Niners from first-and-goal on the six to first-and-10 on the 21-yard line. They had to settle for a field goal try, which was blocked, and the Niners wouldn’t come close to scoring again. Boldin acknowledged his error after the game, but said it came after officials missed several infractions by the Cardinals before throwing flags on his side.

“For me, it’s been obvious the last two weeks: The amount of calls that have gone against us and the amount of calls that we’ve gotten hasn’t been close,” Boldin said, via theSacramento Bee. “Every week, it’s the same thing — send the tape in, the NFL just reports back, ‘We made a mistake.’ But at the same time, the crap cost us another game. At some point, they need to be held accountable.”

On some calls, like the one on linebacker Patrick Willis for an unambiguously clean hit onDrew Stanton, Boldin is absolutely right about the officials making blunders that need to be corrected on the field and not during the week. On others, though, the 49ers have only themselves to blame. Whether it was Boldin’s head butt or Chris Culliver’s taunting wiping out a Cardinals holding penalty, the 49ers’ inability to keep their emotions under wraps was their fault alone.

Those latter issues are the only penalty-related ones that the 49ers can control by themselves and they’ll need to against the Eagles in Week Four if they want to avoid another disappointing result.

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/09/22/san-francisco-49ers-loss-arizona-cardinals-week-3-trouble-ahead/

John Biever/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB


A Season Slipping Away? A Team Slipping Away?
Having suffered two ugly second-half collapses in the past two weeks, Jim Harbaugh‘s 49ers suddenly look like a team that lacks discipline and focus. Can they turn it around, and—more importantly—are they even Jim Harbaugh’s 49ers anymore?

By Greg A. Bedard


Talk about “must-win” games before the halfway point in the season is often silly. Teams can get things turned around in a number of ways, and often do. But when it comes to the 49ers and their current predicament (1-2, having been outscored 38-3 in blowing halftime leads the past two weeks against the Bears and Cardinals), Sunday’s showdown with the Eagles sure feels like a must-win for San Francisco. This team needs to start to feel good about itself in a hurry, or the season could slip away.

That’s the feeling I got watching the 49ers’ 23-14 meltdown in the desert against the Cardinals. There were the three personal foul penalties against San Francisco in a little more than five minutes of game action. There were the three carries for 49ers running backs (one for Frank Gore) in the second half despite San Francisco’s 14-6 halftime lead.

There was the lack of pressure against Cardinals quarterback Drew Stanton (zero sacks, two hits, five hurries according to ProFootballFocus.com), which meant he could conduct business from the pocket like he was sitting in a La-Z-Boy. That further exposed a secondary that has been torched the past two weeks. You could understand it against the Bears, with Jay Cutler and his weapons, but Drew Stanton and rookie receiver John Brown?

And, finally, there was Colin Kaepernick, who continues to look like a franchise quarterback in the first three quarters of the game but just another guy when pressure mounts and he can’t use his feet.

San Francisco’s secondary was shredded by a rookie wideout, John Brown, 12, for two third-quarter TDs. (John Biever/Sports Illustrated/The MMQB)

Before I go any further, let me point out that the Cardinals are a very good team and a legit 3-0. The defense has not taken a big drop after the injury to Darnell Dockett, and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles did a tremendous job scheming for the 49ers. And it’s amazing what Arizona is doing on offense with less talent, especially with quarterback Carson Palmer out. The Cardinals are a well-coached team with Bruce Arians and will be a force in the NFC West for the rest of the season.

But these were (are?) not the 49ers we have been used to seeing since Jim Harbaugh took over in 2011. You could count on San Francisco to be a well-coached, disciplined defense-first team that relied on a power running game with a few athletic plays from Kaepernick sprinkled in.

In the past two weeks we’ve seen an undisciplined team that easily loses its cool and can’t recover when things go bad. That’s an indication, in my opinion, that the Niners players are no longer drawing their persona from the head coach, and are instead doing things their own way. That’s a bad sign.

When Harbaugh spoke with Anquan Boldin on the bench after his personal foul penalty, the coach appeared dumbfounded and speechless. Later in the fourth quarter, when the broadcast showed Harbaugh on the sideline, he looked as if he had no answers for a team that desperately needed him to lead them out of that malaise.

Is Harbaugh getting through to his players anymore? And will he be around much longer? (John Biever/SI/The MMQB)

The players’ disposition and the coach’s increasing disconnect with his team look familiar to me: The situation reminds me of Nick Saban as he coached the Dolphins during their 1-6 start to the 2006 season, when they were a preseason Super Bowl favorite. It wasn’t long before Saban started looking at other options, which led to him taking the Alabama job. The players knew he wasn’t all in, and it all ultimately collapsed.

Harbaugh is in the fourth year of his five-year contract, and both sides have tabled contract talks. With Harbaugh’s alma mater, Michigan, just 2-2 this season with blowout losses to Notre Dame and Utah, there is only going to be increased chatter of Harbaugh’s future.

The offense, with Harbaugh increasingly calling the plays, has become more and more reliant on Kaepernick. Yes, the 49ers were without their top two tight ends (Vernon Davis and Vance McDonald), but there are still creative ways to run the football.

If we’ve learned anything about Kaepnerick to this point in his career, it’s that he’s not capable of carrying the 49ers against the better defenses in this league. Yes, he was 29 of 37 for 245 yards (103.3 rating), but stats lie. The truth is that if the 49ers don’t have the threat of the play-action pass, Kaepernick can’t get a defined read. If he doesn’t have that, he becomes indecisive and fails to see open receivers. Kaepernick has a difficult time feeling and dealing with pressure in the pocket. If he senses pressure (and sometimes it wasn’t even there against the Cardinals), his flight sense kicks in. He needs more fight, which in quarterback terms means to move within the pocket with eyes downfield and make a play from the pocket.

No matter how athletic the quarterback is, NFL games still come down to making plays from the pocket. This is why Russell Wilson continues to ascend, while Kaepernick is the same player he’s been, if not regressing. Wilson flourishes when the game and pass coverage is the tightest, late on. Kaepernick gets worse.

The 49ers haven’t scored a fourth-quarter touchdown since Kaepernick hit Davis with 10:31 left against the Packers in last year’s wild-card game. That’s five-plus games without a fourth-quarter score. The best teams and players rise to the occasion later in the game. The 49ers and Kaepernick continue to come up short.

The 49ers’ defense, hurting without NaVorro Bowman and, especially, Aldon Smith, hasn’t been up to its usual standards, but has played well enough to win the past two games. It’s Harbaugh, Kaepnerick and the offense that have failed to deliver. If they don’t do it Sunday against the Eagles, it may be too late.

 

[Boston Ram]

You obviously haven't been watching or paying attention. They were a smoke n mirrors undefeated team in 2012. Believe me when i say that they're playing well. They're better than SF. I don't know how or why but they are. Coaching.

I watched this game and I agree, Cardinals were the better team and with their backup QB.

 

[Prime Time]

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/09/23/arizona-cardinals-defense-todd-bowles/

Ric Tapia/AP

Safety In Numbers
Arizona lost nearly all its standout defensive players in the offseason, for varied reasons. Inventive coordinator Todd Bowles is using it as a chance to get more safeties on the field, and the result—the Cardinals' 3-0 start—speaks for itself
By Peter King

As you watch football week to week, you see new things crop up and wonder if they are trends or simply the result of teams playing the game with different lineup combinations. Necessity was the mother of invention in Arizona this year, with defensive coordinator Todd Bowles drawing up a new style of play because he had no other choice. The different usage of his marauding safeties has played a big role in the Cardinals’ 3-0 start.

It especially was evident Sunday, in the 23-14 victory over the 49ers.

The best coaches find ways to win when they’re at a personnel disadvantage. That’s what Bowles has done in the first three weeks of the season, when he’s been forced to find solutions with a different cast than he fielded last year as a first-year Cardinal defensive play-caller. Both three-down linebackers were lost—Daryl Washington to a season-long drug suspension and Karlos Dansby in free agency to Cleveland. This summer, two more defensive playmakers disappeared—tackle and team leader Darnell Dockett to an ACL tear and pass rusher John Abraham to IR with a concussion.

So Bowles decided, particularly in nickel situations, to play safeties near the line, and to play safeties pretty much everywhere. It’s not unusual to see four safeties on the field for the Cardinals, and they have four good ones: starters Tony Jefferson and Tyrann Mathieu, and quasi-starters Deone Bucannon and Rashad Johnson.

That’s how they’re listed on the depth chart, but on Sunday, Johnson was the starter at free safety and played all 64 snaps, and Bucannon, the rookie first-round pick, played a hybrid role that had him playing linebacker much of the game. Jefferson, a strong safety, also plays down in the box and had 52 snaps. Mathieu is still recovering from major knee surgery nine months ago and isn’t ready for a full role yet.

Bowles isn’t the only defensive coach finding different uses for safeties, because of the advanced use of athletic tight ends and three- and four-receiver sets, but so far this year he’s the most effective. On Sunday, he tormented Colin Kaepernick with Jefferson and Bucannon playing down at inside linebacker several times. Bucannon was impressive because he didn’t get caught in the wave of misdirection that San Francisco offensive coordinator Greg Roman was throwing at the Cardinals. Usually, a veteran play-caller can get a rookie to bite on misdirection, but Bucannon is a mature player who stayed home on several snaps flowing left and made plays.

“We were losing a lot of players in the off-season,” Bowles said Monday from Arizona, “and losing a lot of pass rushers. So when we get to third down, most of our better athletes are now defensive backs who can play some nickel linebacker down in the box. With all the DBs on the field, I guess it’s hard [for a quarterback] to point out who the Mike linebacker is—so that leaves the offense in a little bit of confusion. You’ve got four safeties who can come back or come up, so you kind of play with that a little bit to offset some of your lack of pass rush.”

In the first half against the Niners, Kaepernick often went no-huddle, and that prevented the Cardinals from adjusting on the fly to moving the safeties down in the box and adding them depending on the situation. In the second half, the Niners slowed down, and that helped Arizona make changes more often. “Last year,” said Bowles, “we had two three-down linebackers in Karlos and Daryl, so it was easy to leave them on the field, because they can do more things than the ones we have this year.

So in order for us to be a little bit faster, we have safeties that can tackle and play in the box and they can get to the quarterback a little faster, as well as messing up the blocking scheme. So that helps out a lot … We don’t have the impact players that you always had, but from a chemistry standpoint, the way the players get along and communicate makes it kind of easy to play.”

Todd Bowles (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Bowles, a former NFL defensive back, is in his 14th years as an NFL assistant. He played for Joe Gibbs in Washington and coached under Bill Parcells in Dallas. I asked him what he learned under two of the best coaches, and mentors, in recent years.

“Coach Gibbs was very meticulous,” said Bowles. “He was an outstanding X’s and O’s guy. And under coach Gibbs I had Richie Petitbon as coordinator, and he was one of the best X’s and O’s guys that I’ve ever been around. He taught me how to watch film and how to see the football game and really become kind of a coach on the field and see what’s going to happen to you and how to diagnose things.

“Coach Parcells taught me from a coaching standpoint how to look at the game, how to treat coaches, what to look for every day—he taught me the entire game overall. I think he doesn’t get enough credit for how great he was at seeing the entire game, offensively and defensively. He knew how to push players’ buttons. He knew what they could and couldn’t do. He had an idea from the first guy on the roster to the last guy on the roster about how he would play them if they had to play. I learned a great deal from him about using all my pieces.’’

He’s using them all in Arizona now. And it would be a surprise if Bowles doesn’t get a chance to use them as an NFL head coach. Soon.

ON OFFICIATING. Watching the Cardinals-49ers game got me thinking: the game has become so fast, and the difference between legal and illegal hits so gray, is it even reasonable for us, the fans, to expect competent officiating?

—Andrew, Menlo Park, Calif.

I think you should expect competent officiating, but not consistently superior officiating. The game is too fast. Officials cannot reliably see hits that on replay appear to be so obviously, say, a helmet-to-helmet hit, but upon further review are not. That’s the reason why I favor instant replay for every play. I don’t favor any additional replay opportunities beyond the current rule. But if a coach feels he has just seen a horrible call and wants to have it reviewed, he should have the right to do so. Once he has used his allotment for the game, then he can’t review calls later in the game. That’s the only way that I can see a safeguard for an obviously wrong call involving these lightning-fast plays that are very hard for the human eye to get right consistently.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/09/23/49ers-cardinals-fans-involved-in-bloody-melee/

49ers, Cardinals fans involved in bloody melee
Posted by Curtis Crabtree on September 23, 2014

AP

Following the NFL’s realignment in 2002, the four teams placed in the new NFC West didn’t really have histories that led to heated rivalries between the teams.

The Seattle Seahawks had been a member of the AFC. The Arizona Cardinals had been in the NFC East and the rivalry between the Rams and San Francisco 49ers didn’t feel like it carried over when the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995.

Now over a decade into the new alignment, the rivalries on the field have heated up and apparently carried over to the stands as well.

According to Andrew Joseph of AZCentral.com, a massive brawl broke out in the stands during the Cardinals 23-14 victory over the 49ers on Sunday afternoon.

Several fights occurred in that section of the stadium during the game.

In a video posted to Youtube that has since been removed, a group of close to 10-20 fans appeared to be involved in the incident. After some pushing and shoving with punches thrown, a handful of bodies tumbled down a staircase in the stadium as the fight enveloped security as well that was attempting to quell the melee.

In the aftermath, blood could be seen splattered over the stadium’s staircase.

One person was arrested with several others ejected from the stadium.

 

[Cardncub]

I'm telling you boys John Brown is for real. I think he will end up being OROY.

 

[blue4]

3-0? Cards fans kicking butt in the stadium? Well, I underestimated them this year.

 

[Faceplant]

Todd Bowles should be a head coach. I was hoping the Rams would interview him when Spags got the boot. I remember rumors that we were interested, but I think it was a contingency in case we didn't get Fisher. Well......we got Fisher. For better or for worse. Guess we will find out soon enough....

 

[blue4]

Todd Bowles should be a head coach. I was hoping the Rams would interview him when Spags got the boot. I remember rumors that we were interested, but I think it was a contingency in case we didn't get Fisher. Well......we got Fisher. For better or for worse. Guess we will find out soon enough....

A rookie head coach taking over for Spags? It would have ruined Bowles career.

 

[Faceplant]

A rookie head coach taking over for Spags? It would have ruined Bowles career.

Well, it would have been a challenge for any coach, that is for sure. Maybe if Fish gets the heave ho we take a run at him, haha.

 

[ZigZagRam]

I saw the video of that brawl in the stands. At one point some guy tried choking a volunteer security guard before a big guy in a Darnell Dockett jersey stepped in and gave him a few good shots in the head.

Dockett was reaching out on twitter so he could give the guy tickets.