Week 1: 49ers @ Lions

[Pattersonca65]

One thing that stuck out at me about Jimmy G is he has looked the most comfortable moving and running since the knee injury. Maybe people who said it takes a couple of years to get over it were right.

[49er4life1979]

Well bad news confirmed indeed. Verrett has torn ACL and is done for the season obviously. Mostert to miss 8 weeks with chips in his knee cartiledge. I guess we will now see Trey Sermon a lot more. And good news on Greenlaw, day to day. Greenlaw was my biggest fear.

[thesack12]

In regards with the Lance package the biggest problem I saw was it was predictable.

I think it can work but only if a defense is convinced any play can be coming not just zone read. Right now if you're an opposing defensive coordinator you're going to prepare your guys for Lance by making sure they stop the zone read or similar plays and that's what the Lions were prepared to do.

I think if Shanahan wants the Lance package to work he'll have to dial up some deep shots when he's in and have plays that will defeat defenses keying in on RPO or zone reads.

Shanahan needs to get the package to a point that when Lance lines up the defense believes any play can be coming and has no idea what to expect when the ball is snapped.

I think you nailed this. The Lions D is not good and they were able to stuff Lance. It was actually a negative yesterday as it killed a drive on third down. I appeared the Lions were not respecting the pass and they were playing the run all the way. Lance is not Lamar Jackson, and I don't want him to be. But you are right. If Shanahan wants this to work Lance is going to have to pass more and get teams to respect and plan for it. Otherwise it will end up like the Smith/Kaep situation which became ineffective to where Harbaugh abandoned it.

Yeah, predictability/watered down playbook was my biggest concern with the QB swap program.

[I_am_1z]

How did Fred Warner look? Never thought he deserved the huge contract, so IMO he should be under the microscope all year.

[Samurai]

How did Fred Warner look? Never thought he deserved the huge contract, so IMO he should be under the microscope all year.

I'm assuming you didn't get to see the game? Warner played 77 snaps while resting for only 15; 77 snaps would be more than all but two of his games last season. He led all tacklers with 11 stops. But as a group, the linebackers were inconsistent as the Lions gashed us for a number of big runs. Part of that was due to Kinlaw missing the game and the Lions interior lineman were frequently able to get to the second level, forcing our LB's to shed those blocks. None of our LB's were particularly effective at doing that. Greenlaw also missed time with a groin injury, which also threw off the timing and coordination among the LB's.

[I_am_1z]

How did Fred Warner look? Never thought he deserved the huge contract, so IMO he should be under the microscope all year.

I'm assuming you didn't get to see the game? Warner played 77 snaps while resting for only 15; 77 snaps would be more than all but two of his games last season. He led all tacklers with 11 stops. But as a group, the linebackers were inconsistent as the Lions gashed us for a number of big runs. Part of that was due to Kinlaw missing the game and the Lions interior lineman were frequently able to get to the second level, forcing our LB's to shed those blocks. None of our LB's were particularly effective at doing that. Greenlaw also missed time with a groin injury, which also threw off the timing and coordination among the LB's.

Never understood the point of signing an LB to a huge contract just because he's "elite" in coverage. He's also great with play recognition, but misses too many tackles and will never be known as a run stuffer.

[CrimsonCrew]

Wanted to vent briefly on the use of Lance in this game. Running him up the gut on 3rd and 12, or whatever it was, infuriates me. We've got virtually no chance of converting that, you're risking injury with him, and it doesn't help him grow as a QB in any way. I've just got to hope it's Kyle putting something on film that he'll exploit in a few weeks.

[Jikkle]

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[Jikkle]

Wanted to vent briefly on the use of Lance in this game. Running him up the gut on 3rd and 12, or whatever it was, infuriates me. We've got virtually no chance of converting that, you're risking injury with him, and it doesn't help him grow as a QB in any way. I've just got to hope it's Kyle putting something on film that he'll exploit in a few weeks.

McDaniel in his presser basically said they didn't put him in the best position when it came to running the ball.

My guess is that it's like you said that they wanted to put something basic on film to make sure it's in the mind of opposing teams and probably to just get Lance's feet a bit wet with some easy plays.

It's hard to imagine with all these amazingly crafted running plays and Shanahan's history with running RGIII they don't have better plays for Lance than what they showed against the Lions.

It's a package that will grow as the season goes on and I'd say the meat of it will be for tougher and more important opponents.

Weeks 3-5 are against the Packers, Seahawks, and Cardinals so I'd imagine in that stretch we'll see the more clever side of the Lance package.

[CrimsonCrew]

I don't think we can afford to take the Eagles for granted. They seem to always give us trouble, and their DL should be a problem again this year.

[Samurai]

I don't think we can afford to take the Eagles for granted. They seem to always give us trouble, and their DL should be a problem again this year.

Three areas of the Eagles offense should be giving DeMeco Ryans significant stomach cramps: strong running attack that piled up 173 yards last week, a mobile QB, and speedy wideouts that could burn mediocre CB's for long scores.

A positive note is that Kinlaw finally returned to practice, albeit he was limited to individual drills (his first since Sept 9). Unclear if he will be healthy enough to play.

[Jikkle]

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[Jikkle]

I don't think we can afford to take the Eagles for granted. They seem to always give us trouble, and their DL should be a problem again this year.

With as tough the NFC West is and as banged up as the defense is right now every game needs to be a must win and nobody should be taken for granted.

Offensively, I tend to think the Eagles were like us with the Lions and they feasted on a poor defense. The 9ers aren't a 41 point a game offense and I don't think the Eagles are a 32 point a game offense either.

The defense just needs to focus on stopping the run and making sure Hurts doesn't burn them with their legs. Hurts is at his weakest if you force him to play QB in the pocket so they need to keep him in the pocket and make him uncomfortable while he's in there.

Eagle's defensively is the unknown because it's hard to tell if they are that good defensively or if the Falcons are just that poor offensively especially given they have a brand new coaching staff. I'm going to pick somewhere in between for now but I feel we're going to need another good game from Jimmy to win this one because I don't know if the running game will completely carry the load.