Week 3: Packers @ 49ers

[Bingo_AlphaMan]

Garoppolo is awful for a veteran starting QB in the league. The game should never have been that close to begin if our QB was competent and capable enough to make all the throws. Simply put, the guy can’t throw deep at all whatsoever. Shanahan is being held back because he’s limited on what he can afford to scheme for us to get positive yardage on any given play because of Jimmy’s weaknesses. He’s also immobile, and again he cannot throw deep. If our line doesn’t give him perfect protection he’s not going to improvise and salvage the play for us. I also notice that he rarely ever throw outside the hashes. It’s so apparent that Shanny pretty much feels handcuffed on what he’s able to do with Jimmy at the helm—he realizes that he’s only able to call intermediate passes 98% of the time for us b/c Jimmy cannot for the life of him throw beyond 20 yards. This is the reason why he wanted Stafford this offseason. As we all can see now, McVay’s playbook no longer looks primitive with a skilled signal caller executing every play on the playbook.

[Jikkle]

Garoppolo is awful for a veteran starting QB in the league. The game should never have been that close to begin if our QB was competent and capable enough to make all the throws. Simply put, the guy can’t throw deep at all whatsoever. Shanahan is being held back because he’s limited on what he can afford to scheme for us to get positive yardage on any given play because of Jimmy’s weaknesses. He’s also immobile, and again he cannot throw deep. If our line doesn’t give him perfect protection he’s not going to improvise and salvage the play for us. I also notice that he rarely ever throw outside the hashes. It’s so apparent that Shanny pretty much feels handcuffed on what he’s able to do with Jimmy at the helm—he realizes that he’s only able to call intermediate passes 98% of the time for us b/c Jimmy cannot for the life of him throw beyond 20 yards. This is the reason why he wanted Stafford this offseason. As we all can see now, McVay’s playbook no longer looks primitive with a skilled signal caller executing every play on the playbook.

I wouldn't call him awful but he's very average and I think he's the main limiting factor on offense.

Defenses are daring Jimmy G to beat them and unless Shanahan schemes him wide open looks down the middle he rarely will hit anything else.

The offense is struggling because defenses can compact everything close to the LOS because they don't fear Jimmy throwing over their heads so they can sell out to stop the run and they'll eat a couple of completions from Jimmy here and there.

It's easy to see why Shanahan would want a Lance who can legit threaten every part of the field with his arm along with the added bonus of being a factor in the running game.

[Samurai]

Garoppolo is awful for a veteran starting QB in the league. The game should never have been that close to begin if our QB was competent and capable enough to make all the throws. Simply put, the guy can’t throw deep at all whatsoever. Shanahan is being held back because he’s limited on what he can afford to scheme for us to get positive yardage on any given play because of Jimmy’s weaknesses. He’s also immobile, and again he cannot throw deep. If our line doesn’t give him perfect protection he’s not going to improvise and salvage the play for us. I also notice that he rarely ever throw outside the hashes. It’s so apparent that Shanny pretty much feels handcuffed on what he’s able to do with Jimmy at the helm—he realizes that he’s only able to call intermediate passes 98% of the time for us b/c Jimmy cannot for the life of him throw beyond 20 yards. This is the reason why he wanted Stafford this offseason. As we all can see now, McVay’s playbook no longer looks primitive with a skilled signal caller executing every play on the playbook.

I wouldn't call him awful but he's very average and I think he's the main limiting factor on offense.

Defenses are daring Jimmy G to beat them and unless Shanahan schemes him wide open looks down the middle he rarely will hit anything else.

The offense is struggling because defenses can compact everything close to the LOS because they don't fear Jimmy throwing over their heads so they can sell out to stop the run and they'll eat a couple of completions from Jimmy here and there.

It's easy to see why Shanahan would want a Lance who can legit threaten every part of the field with his arm along with the added bonus of being a factor in the running game.

Yeah, I'd say he's closer to average rather than awful. He is very good at throwing short to intermediate passes over the middle; unfortunately defenses are realizing that as well. It's not just that he can't throw deep, but he can't consistently hit passes to the sidelines because he doesn't have the arm strength to get the ball there fast enough to avoid defenders breaking on the ball. These go down in the stats as a 15 yard throw but you have to be able to zip it 35 to 40 yards if it is outside the numbers. Defenses just clog the middle of the field and dare him to beat them with deep outs. Plus, as Russell Wilson has proven to us too many times to count, it is demoralizing (and tiring) to a defense to have the QB beat a strong pass rush on 3rd and 10 by scampering for 12 yards and the first down. Jimmy isn't any threat to do that so defenses just go after him and never have to waste a defender by being a spy on him because he can't outrun most coaches, referees or cheerleaders.

[Pattersonca65]

In a game where Green Bay started their 3rd string Left tackle, 49ers only generated 1 sack and 2 QB hits.

D_Line was supposed to be the strength/backbone of this team, but it appears to be pretty over-rated

They are very pedestrian right now

[Pattersonca65]

Wow. The Jimmie hate here. O line can't block worth a darn and you guys don't see it. No run blocking or pass blocking makes it hard on a qb.

Sent from my SM-T510 using Tapatalk

This!

He was being pressured or hit on like every play down the stretch

I noticed Brunskill getting beat s few times but he was not the only one

[Pattersonca65]

In a game where Green Bay started their 3rd string Left tackle, 49ers only generated 1 sack and 2 QB hits.

D_Line was supposed to be the strength/backbone of this team, but it appears to be pretty over-rated

I think they said Rodgers was 16-16 getting rid of the ball under 2.5 seconds at some point, hard to get a pass rush like that

When Rodgers did drop bsck for longer routes the pass rush was almost nonexistant

[Pattersonca65]

Sure Rodgers is impeccable, but it goes beyond this game.

They only have 6 sacks through 3 games. That's not becoming of a supposedly elite D-Line.

Bosa is the only special guy on the unit. Otherwise we have pretty good depth, but that's it.

Good thing they gave Armstead $85 million, spent a 1st rounder on Kinlaw, and traded a 2nd for Ford + gave him $85 million. They have a ton of resources invested in the DL.

Dee Ford didn't show up in the box score. I'm curious to see the snap counts. I'm not sure he was actually on the field too often.

I watched Dee Ford do nothing out there. He would try to run around the lineman but all i see happen was the olineman just ride Ford wide right out the play. A good pass rusher should have some move to get inside sometimes

[Jikkle]

While it is a bitter way to lose a game the fact that they were seconds away from winning it is a bit of a moral victory to me because that game could've very easily been a Packers blowout.

A lot of small things added up to that loss and I don't think there is one area that you can point to and say that's the reason they lost.

It's pretty clear CB has got to be a major point of emphasis this offseason whether it's free agency and/or draft.

Rodgers had his quickest time to throw at 2.05 seconds since PFF tracked the stat in 2011. That stat is a huge reason why the pass rush didn't hit home because the ball was out before they even had a chance. If the secondary forced him to hold the ball just a tad longer I think the pass rush would've been much more effective.

And I've already talked about Jimmy in an above post. What we're seeing on offense is about what we'll see all season long under Jimmy and while it's not great it's not bad either, but it's definitely not enough to make a serious Super Bowl run.

[arich35]

While it is a bitter way to lose a game the fact that they were seconds away from winning it is a bit of a moral victory to me because that game could've very easily been a Packers blowout.

A lot of small things added up to that loss and I don't think there is one area that you can point to and say that's the reason they lost.

It's pretty clear CB has got to be a major point of emphasis this offseason whether it's free agency and/or draft.

Rodgers had his quickest time to throw at 2.05 seconds since PFF tracked the stat in 2011. That stat is a huge reason why the pass rush didn't hit home because the ball was out before they even had a chance. If the secondary forced him to hold the ball just a tad longer I think the pass rush would've been much more effective.

And I've already talked about Jimmy in an above post. What we're seeing on offense is about what we'll see all season long under Jimmy and while it's not great it's not bad either, but it's definitely not enough to make a serious Super Bowl run.

We have been saying this for what seems to be years but they don't do it. I do like Lenoir and think he could end up being a starter for us

[CrimsonCrew]

Man, rough one last night. A lot of thoughts and emotions. First and foremost, I'm pretty disgusted that we lost, and in the fashion that we did. Letting Adams get that open for 25 yards on the first play of a do-or-die series is just plain inexcusable, and we really didn't deserve to win.

This team has some real strengths, but also some glaring weaknesses, and I don't know that we are truly competitive in the division this year, much less in the SB hunt. In terms of weaknesses, the OL - especially the right side - is a mess. The Packers aren't a particularly good pass-rushing team, and they still made our guys look silly repeatedly. It was an especially tough pill to swallow as the team we were playing started two rookies and a second-year player who was making his first start at LT, and held up markedly better.

Our pass rush isn't what we thought it would be. Only Bosa scares anyone one-on-one, and I'm starting to think that all the raves we heard from the offseason are more a reflection of them playing against our OL than actually being good. The depth is solid, but it doesn't really matter if we can't effectively generate pressure. And even when we could generate pressure, it didn't matter because...

...our cornerbacks are garbage. Our pass rush is all but irrelevant if the opposing QB's first read is open literally all the time. How many times did Rodgers actually have to go through a progression? Granted we've had some bad injury luck at the position, but we've also taken it for granted for years. Going into the season relying on Jason Verrett to stay healthy is dicey, and Moseley and Williams also have a fairly lengthy history of missing time.

The there's Garoppolo. Sure, the OL did him no favors, but he's paid like a guy who can compensate for that. He continued to make just totally bone-headed plays. A bad INT on first down last night, another horrible drop by a defensive player on what should have been an easy INT, and then the awful fumble/backward pass late in the fourth. It's unacceptable for a guy with his experience in the league. Frankly, it's embarrassing. Even when he was playing "well," he's constantly putting his receivers in danger. How many hard hits did Samuel and Kittle absorb catching high balls over the middle? That's supposed to be Garoppolo's strength, and he once again barely threw outside the numbers or downfield (except for the INT). Another game with 28 minutes of absolute offensive ineptitude before we finally got something going.

Now, the team showed some poise in not letting this one get out of hand. They did a nice job of coming back from a 17-0 hole and putting themselves in a position to win, but honestly, without a couple very dubious calls and non-calls, I don't think this one would have been as close as it was. And I don't believe that the Packers are really that good of a team.

It's becoming clear that the only chance for this team is to lean into the offense and try to put up some real points. Our strength right now is the receiving threats. Kittle, Samuel, and Aiyuk comprise a pretty potent group - even though we haven't been using Aiyuk as we should. We need to put up 30+ points every week if we're going to be competitive with this defense. And I don't know that Shanahan and Garoppolo can do that. If we lose to the Hawks next week - more to the point, if our offense is still inconsistent - then we need to strongly consider going to Lance and see what he can do for us. At this point, Garoppolo's strengths aren't outweighing his weaknesses, and at least Lance would open up the play book.

[Pattersonca65]

While it is a bitter way to lose a game the fact that they were seconds away from winning it is a bit of a moral victory to me because that game could've very easily been a Packers blowout.

A lot of small things added up to that loss and I don't think there is one area that you can point to and say that's the reason they lost.

It's pretty clear CB has got to be a major point of emphasis this offseason whether it's free agency and/or draft.

Rodgers had his quickest time to throw at 2.05 seconds since PFF tracked the stat in 2011. That stat is a huge reason why the pass rush didn't hit home because the ball was out before they even had a chance. If the secondary forced him to hold the ball just a tad longer I think the pass rush would've been much more effective.

And I've already talked about Jimmy in an above post. What we're seeing on offense is about what we'll see all season long under Jimmy and while it's not great it's not bad either, but it's definitely not enough to make a serious Super Bowl run.

I don't agree about the pass rush at all. There were times Rodgers let deep routes develop downfield and there were pass rushers no where to be found. The only consistent pass rusher was Nick Bosa. Dee Ford was the invisible man last night and he looked like it watching him play. Green Bay's offensive line pass blocked better than the 49ers line blocked. Put Lance under some of that pressure and watch him make errant throws like he did in the preseason.

[CrimsonCrew]

Oh, as for the people - on this board and elsewhere - who are criticizing the team for scoring too early, that's a pretty silly view IMO. Sure, in a perfect world, we'd score a TD as time expired. That ain't the world we're living in. Our red zone offense isn't very good. If we have a chance to score, we need to do it. The D should be able to get a stop with 37 seconds and no TOs.

[Samurai]

Jimmy is certainly good enough to beat the bad teams. But with our o-line looking very suspect and our top RB's out, he isn't bringing enough to the table to put the team on his shoulders and beat good teams, let alone great teams. Not saying a rookie like Lance can do that but he at least gives you a puncher's chance to land that big knockout punch, whether it be with a long run or one deep pass, to take down an overall stronger fighter.

[wco81]

Lombardi is going in on the failure to make the Packers field the kickoff in the last possession.

Also Alex Mack is to blame for a lot of problems, poor blocking and poor snaps in key situations.

I don't know if Mack missed a block on the play where Jimmy fumbled in the 4th quarter.

[49er4life1979]

Absolutely no pass rush tonight, Bosa was good in the first half and Armstead had the only sack. But they made it way too easy for Rodgers. This pass rush is just NOT the same without DeForest Buckner. No pressure ever from the middle. The run D is still leaky. I was hoping they would stop the run and make GB one dimensional and allow our pass rush to tee off on Rodgers. Kinlaw needs to step up and be a force in the middle in the pass rush. The secondary needs to be addressed in the offseason, FA and draft. I am done with Tartt, and we would use a stud CB. On offense, its clear we are missing Mitchell and others. Sermon is just not ready, and surely would've been a healthy scratch again tonight if not for injuries. Aiyuk will be ok I think. But Jimmy G wont.

[Samurai]

Lombardi is going in on the failure to make the Packers field the kickoff in the last possession.

Also Alex Mack is to blame for a lot of problems, poor blocking and poor snaps in key situations.

I don't know if Mack missed a block on the play where Jimmy fumbled in the 4th quarter.

Looking at some of the highlights. Mack was beaten on the sack at 12:30 in the 4th quarter (granted he wasn't the only one but it looks like the blitzer #42 that he picked up was the first to get to Jimmy). Tomlinsen was the one who was beaten on the 4th quarter fumble. The 3rd and 1 with 5:47 left in the 2nd quarter (where we failed to get the yard and had to punt) originally looked like the Packers jumped early but was actually Mack snapping the ball too soon so the rest of our linemen weren't ready to block; very surprising that a veteran like Mack would make that type of error. And of course Mack's botched shotgun snap that Jimmy fortunately picked up and managed to gain a few yards on.

Mack also did a great job in pulling (a 35-year old center that can pull??) to make the key block on Lance's TD run just before the half. I think it is doubtful Lance would have scored there without Mack.

Also I totally disagree with the posts that "blame" Juice for scoring the go-ahead touchdown instead of falling down at the one to eat up more clock. You have a chance to score, you better take it. Rather than blaming Juice it makes more sense to ask why we couldn't sack Rodgers when he held the ball for 4.6 seconds to hit Adams with the big play to get close to field goal range when EVERYONE knew he had to throw it and would have to hold it long enough for his receivers to get 30 yards downfield. And rather than blaming Juice, why is no one questioning why we (Jimmy? Shanahan?) snapped the ball on Juice's TD pass with 12 seconds still on the play clock? Why not take the clock down to 1 second? Not likely that Rodgers would have been able to make that last drive with only 25 seconds instead of the 37 we gave him.

[CrimsonCrew]

Lombardi is going in on the failure to make the Packers field the kickoff in the last possession.

Also Alex Mack is to blame for a lot of problems, poor blocking and poor snaps in key situations.

I don't know if Mack missed a block on the play where Jimmy fumbled in the 4th quarter.

Looking at some of the highlights. Mack was beaten on the sack at 12:30 in the 4th quarter (granted he wasn't the only one but it looks like the blitzer #42 that he picked up was the first to get to Jimmy). Tomlinsen was the one who was beaten on the 4th quarter fumble. The 3rd and 1 with 5:47 left in the 2nd quarter (where we failed to get the yard and had to punt) originally looked like the Packers jumped early but was actually Mack snapping the ball too soon so the rest of our linemen weren't ready to block; very surprising that a veteran like Mack would make that type of error. And of course Mack's botched shotgun snap that Jimmy fortunately picked up and managed to gain a few yards on.

Mack also did a great job in pulling (a 35-year old center that can pull??) to make the key block on Lance's TD run just before the half. I think it is doubtful Lance would have scored there without Mack.

Also I totally disagree with the posts that "blame" Juice for scoring the go-ahead touchdown instead of falling down at the one to eat up more clock. You have a chance to score, you better take it. Rather than blaming Juice it makes more sense to ask why we couldn't sack Rodgers when he held the ball for 4.6 seconds to hit Adams with the big play to get close to field goal range when EVERYONE knew he had to throw it and would have to hold it long enough for his receivers to get 30 yards downfield. And rather than blaming Juice, why is no one questioning why we (Jimmy? Shanahan?) snapped the ball on Juice's TD pass with 12 seconds still on the play clock? Why not take the clock down to 1 second? Not likely that Rodgers would have been able to make that last drive with only 25 seconds instead of the 37 we gave him.

Shanahan's clock management leaves a lot to be desired. I completely agree that you take the TD when you can get it, but I didn't realize they had that much time left on the clock when they ran the play. That's sloppy. With three TOs, time isn't really an issue. And to the extent that it is, you want to consume it.

[Jikkle]

Lombardi is going in on the failure to make the Packers field the kickoff in the last possession.

Also Alex Mack is to blame for a lot of problems, poor blocking and poor snaps in key situations.

I don't know if Mack missed a block on the play where Jimmy fumbled in the 4th quarter.

Looking at some of the highlights. Mack was beaten on the sack at 12:30 in the 4th quarter (granted he wasn't the only one but it looks like the blitzer #42 that he picked up was the first to get to Jimmy). Tomlinsen was the one who was beaten on the 4th quarter fumble. The 3rd and 1 with 5:47 left in the 2nd quarter (where we failed to get the yard and had to punt) originally looked like the Packers jumped early but was actually Mack snapping the ball too soon so the rest of our linemen weren't ready to block; very surprising that a veteran like Mack would make that type of error. And of course Mack's botched shotgun snap that Jimmy fortunately picked up and managed to gain a few yards on.

Mack also did a great job in pulling (a 35-year old center that can pull??) to make the key block on Lance's TD run just before the half. I think it is doubtful Lance would have scored there without Mack.

Also I totally disagree with the posts that "blame" Juice for scoring the go-ahead touchdown instead of falling down at the one to eat up more clock. You have a chance to score, you better take it. Rather than blaming Juice it makes more sense to ask why we couldn't sack Rodgers when he held the ball for 4.6 seconds to hit Adams with the big play to get close to field goal range when EVERYONE knew he had to throw it and would have to hold it long enough for his receivers to get 30 yards downfield. And rather than blaming Juice, why is no one questioning why we (Jimmy? Shanahan?) snapped the ball on Juice's TD pass with 12 seconds still on the play clock? Why not take the clock down to 1 second? Not likely that Rodgers would have been able to make that last drive with only 25 seconds instead of the 37 we gave him.

I'm fine with how Shanahan managed that offensive sequence at the end because we're still 12 yards out and even with 3 timeouts you still don't know how many plays it's going to take to get it into the end zone and you could have plays negated by penalties taking even more time off the clock. So given the circumstances I'd say it's the right mix of burning clock and giving yourself enough wiggle room to score a TD.

I'm more critical of them not forcing them to return it on the kickoff and even that one I wouldn't rake them over the coals over.

The defense is solely to blame on this one. With 37 second and 0 timeouts you somehow allowed two completions to their best receiver when you knew exactly what was coming. All you needed to do was force one more incompletion or force one of those two completions to be a shorter pass and it's game over.

[Jikkle]

Man, rough one last night. A lot of thoughts and emotions. First and foremost, I'm pretty disgusted that we lost, and in the fashion that we did. Letting Adams get that open for 25 yards on the first play of a do-or-die series is just plain inexcusable, and we really didn't deserve to win.

This team has some real strengths, but also some glaring weaknesses, and I don't know that we are truly competitive in the division this year, much less in the SB hunt. In terms of weaknesses, the OL - especially the right side - is a mess. The Packers aren't a particularly good pass-rushing team, and they still made our guys look silly repeatedly. It was an especially tough pill to swallow as the team we were playing started two rookies and a second-year player who was making his first start at LT, and held up markedly better.

Our pass rush isn't what we thought it would be. Only Bosa scares anyone one-on-one, and I'm starting to think that all the raves we heard from the offseason are more a reflection of them playing against our OL than actually being good. The depth is solid, but it doesn't really matter if we can't effectively generate pressure. And even when we could generate pressure, it didn't matter because...

...our cornerbacks are garbage. Our pass rush is all but irrelevant if the opposing QB's first read is open literally all the time. How many times did Rodgers actually have to go through a progression? Granted we've had some bad injury luck at the position, but we've also taken it for granted for years. Going into the season relying on Jason Verrett to stay healthy is dicey, and Moseley and Williams also have a fairly lengthy history of missing time.

The there's Garoppolo. Sure, the OL did him no favors, but he's paid like a guy who can compensate for that. He continued to make just totally bone-headed plays. A bad INT on first down last night, another horrible drop by a defensive player on what should have been an easy INT, and then the awful fumble/backward pass late in the fourth. It's unacceptable for a guy with his experience in the league. Frankly, it's embarrassing. Even when he was playing "well," he's constantly putting his receivers in danger. How many hard hits did Samuel and Kittle absorb catching high balls over the middle? That's supposed to be Garoppolo's strength, and he once again barely threw outside the numbers or downfield (except for the INT). Another game with 28 minutes of absolute offensive ineptitude before we finally got something going.

Now, the team showed some poise in not letting this one get out of hand. They did a nice job of coming back from a 17-0 hole and putting themselves in a position to win, but honestly, without a couple very dubious calls and non-calls, I don't think this one would have been as close as it was. And I don't believe that the Packers are really that good of a team.

It's becoming clear that the only chance for this team is to lean into the offense and try to put up some real points. Our strength right now is the receiving threats. Kittle, Samuel, and Aiyuk comprise a pretty potent group - even though we haven't been using Aiyuk as we should. We need to put up 30+ points every week if we're going to be competitive with this defense. And I don't know that Shanahan and Garoppolo can do that. If we lose to the Hawks next week - more to the point, if our offense is still inconsistent - then we need to strongly consider going to Lance and see what he can do for us. At this point, Garoppolo's strengths aren't outweighing his weaknesses, and at least Lance would open up the play book.

Jimmy appears he's right about at his ceiling as a player so I think the offense under him is as good as it's going to get because I think Shanahan has schemed it as well as he can around him. I mean there is a reason they were sniffing around Stafford in the offseason and why they gave up what they did to move to #3 to get a QB.

The offense is only going to expand once they get Lance up and running. Look at how much the Chiefs offense exploded once Mahomes took off and look at the Rams offense this year with Stafford under center. Both teams have what are considered in the tops of the offensive minds in the NFL and both had offenses really take it too another level once they upgraded at QB.

It might not be now or in the next couple of weeks but they need to make the switch to Lance at some point this season even if it's the last couple of games. The only reason I'm not for completely pulling the trigger now is that his mechanics still need refinement and you don't want him to slip back into bad mechanics because the new and improved mechanics aren't quite there in terms of muscle memory.

[TheMonarch]

Lombardi is going in on the failure to make the Packers field the kickoff in the last possession.

Also Alex Mack is to blame for a lot of problems, poor blocking and poor snaps in key situations.

I don't know if Mack missed a block on the play where Jimmy fumbled in the 4th quarter.

Alex Mack sucked last night. He got destroyed on Sermon's first run and we lost 3 yards because of it.