The top three things of interest, to me, are: 1) Will we be able to run the ball. And if not, wil Sherman call, and will the players successfully execute screen plays? 2) How will Tannehill handle the pressure from Smith. I pray he doesn't roll out to the right sideline all day long. If Martin can ride Smith wide, this is Tannehill's chance to REALLY develop that feel for stepping up in the pocket. It's actually really up to the INTERIOR of the line to ensure Ryan has room to step up this week. 3) SPecial Teams. For us to win, Defense AND Special Teams have to play well. When they do, it caries our Offense and rookie QB to victory. Last week the Special Teams let us down with the muffed punt and couldn't redeem itself with an onside kick recovery. I'll be watching for STs to set a high bar again, if we are to have a chance.
I mean this in all seriousness. 1.Protection for Ryan Tannehill so that he doesn't get injured. Yes...injured...This is by far the scariest defense in the NFL front to back. Every player on that 49er team hits you like you stole something from them. 2. I think we need to ride Daniel Thomas and Reggie Bush. If there was ever such a thing as a breakthrough game for Thomas this could be it. 3. I will be looking for our defense to play with full confidence. The 49er offense doesn't scare anyone. I like the young QB they have but I still think Alex Smith is the better option for them short term. Hopefully we can get him to make some mistakes. In conclusion I look for this to be a close game. Our defenses are pretty similar and offensively the 49ers aren't much better than us. I look for this to be the same type of game we had against everyone else in that division this year. A pure slug fest all the way to the ugly end. Every team in that division is pretty much the same team with minor differences on the offensive side of the ball. St Louis, San Fran, Zona, and Seattle all have really good defenses and average to below average offenses. For some reason we match up well with every team in that division and while the 49ers are the clearly the best of that group I still like our chances in this game. I think we can beat them if we don't turn the ball over and limit the penalties (which have been as bad as turnovers this year). Tannehill is going to have to make smart throws and Reggie Bush will have to run forward. In fact since their defense is too fast for Bush or anyone to outrun we will probably see a heavy dose of Daniel Thomas running between the tackles. The key going to be the run for us; if we can run on them we can beat them. I would challenge their corner Tarell Brown, I would stay away from Goldson. That guy will make what Laron Landry did to us look like amateur play. The gameplan is simple actually...Mistake free football and we will have a shot at this. I have a look a like as well for this game...
1. Can i find cheap tickets whilst visiting my friends in SF 2. Can our crippled/inexperienced Oline handle the SF Defense? 3. Will Ted Ginn hurt us in the return game?
I consulted the oracle (my friend who works at"The Stuffed Sandwich") and Matt said... 1. It may be... if you save Barry a seat. 2. It will not only handle them, but hold them. 3. Ted Ginn will run like a jackalope straight to the sidelines. Then Sam yelled and Matt had to go back and turn the hot sausages.
Looking at Philbins coaching ability.. Tannehill Qb ability.. All first and 2nd year players. And who's playing hard.
i too am expecting an ugly game. i think Martiin will be fine at LT, but he needs the off season to get stronger. Got blasted with this a few weeks back with this thought ... funny ....
Agree that an offseason will help Martin. Many forget that the left side will feel more natural for him too. But dude... Smith is amazing.
1. Can I find parking for under $30 that isn't a dirt lot 2. How long will it be before I punch a Niners fan while at the game 3. Will I have enough money in my account for bail.
I texted the oracle these questions and while he hates to be contacted before 10am, here is what Matt texted back: 1) Wear shoes you don't care about. 2) Fate determined by number of $7 beers bought 3) Number two leads to number three and a free stay at iron hotel. Then he told me never to text him this early again, and did I want to get an early lunch (his name for breakfast).
1. Jon Martin - Unlike others I think he will be ok this game. Great? Probably not but if he can keep Tannehill's backside clean for most of the game I think its bad news for Jake Long. And to be honest, I almost expect bad news for Jake Long. I really think Martin being at LT will make a world of difference for his performance. I dont know that you ever really stop Aldon Smith but I think he matches up reasonably well with him. The harder matchup for Martin will be the strength of Justin Smith. Justin Smith is one of the strongest DE's around and hes sick at the point of attack. Forget about getting a push, just dont get pushed back! People are killing Martin right now but hes playing out of position. Duane Brown (Houston LT) was equally as bad as a rookie and now hes a top 5 LT. I think Martin can do the same and this game will be telling. 2. Ryan Tannehill - Hes going to get hit this game. He'll get hit probably more then in most games he will play in during his career. How will he react to it? Some players when they get hit a lot get rattled. They no longer want to step up and make throws they need to make. I want to see Ryan continue to be fearless. SF has a great D...respect it but dont fear it. Swag. The hard part is our lack of weapons is going to bite us hard this game. Those who think we have adequate playmakers..this is where you see why others dont agree if you havent seen it already. Ryan is going to have his hands full trying to avoid sacks and keep his eyes down field....thats a challenge every game but especially here. 3. Interior OL - Incognito-Pouncey-Jerry. Running off LT is out. You have to be crackheaded to run at Justin Smith. We have a strong interior OL though and Jerry when he works hard can make an impact in the run game. We know how good Pouncey is but can he neutralize Patrick Willis? Can Richie handle Novorro Bowman? Thats a tall order for any interior OL. All the SF backers play the run extremely well....we need our OL to keep them off Tanny but also to keep the run game a factor. If we do that we will lose the same way we lost to NE...in a game we can feel good that we did a few things.
I liked this and agreed right until the end, about us losing. I agree with that but I don't like it. Also, does Ted Ginn show up big against us? I always remember the week everyone was questioning Ginns ability and heart in the media here and that same week he had two return TDs against the Jets. I hope none of the Dolphins talk smack to Ginn and get him angry because that's the one time he shows up and plays well.
I dont like it either but right now we are too short on talent to beat an elite team like SF. I do think we can "show well" and put up a fight. If we cover the 10 point line I'll be happy because frankly SF is a top 3 team and we are maybe top 15....just on the outside of the playoffs.
1. I'll be specifically looking at what kind of coverages the Dolphins employ and how they scheme for CK. Rams pretty much played a Cover 2 shell and kept everything underneath. They wanted CK to dink and dunk his way downfield, to methodically move the team to score, not dare him to find holes lin coverage like the Bears and Saints did. He did that for the most part, just had two mental errors late that turned out to be too much to overcome. Curious to see if you guys come with pressure or drop more in coverage and make him think about where to go with the ball. 2. Our O-Line got mandhandled for the first time all year, last week. They didn't even looked that bad in the loss to the G-Men. Brockers really gave our boys problem and I want to see how they respond. We got no push in the run game and blitz pick up hurt us a couple of times. That group really needs to bounce back for us to pull out a win this week. 3. Our run game really missed Kendall Hunter last week. His runs outside the tackles were missing and allowed the Rams to gap blitz inside because Gore and Jacobs are mainly between-the-tackles runnuers for the most part. I expect them to active LaMichael James for the first time all year and see if he can't give us some of what we're missing with Hunter gone. 4. We got out-coached and out-schemed on the offensive side of the ball last week. All the offensive players, to a man almost, said that it was if the Rams were in the perfect defense for every call the Niners made. I didn't see any adjustments and the play-calling was very suspect, with how aggressive the Rams were in the front 7. We looked stagnant and I questioned some of the play designs that Roman called for, considering the types of looks we were getting most of the day. Would like to see the staff respond better in those instances. The Rams have laid a 2 game blueprint on how to beat the 49ers. Up to the staff to adjust and tweak some of our tendencies. They must do better heading down the stretch.
Offense: 1. How Jon Martin holds up on the left side. 2. Can Tannehill make plays in the passing game? 3. Can we score TD's? Defense: 1. How do we handle Kaepernick's ability to run and move in the pocket (we struggle there). 2. Can we hold up upfront and stop the run. 3. Can we create turnovers?
I am looking for Tannehill to bounce back and play close to a complete game I am looking to see if Martin is better at left tackle than right tackle I am looking for Miami to cut down on three and outs, while improving their time of possesion.
Great post and welcome to the board. I think your guys will come put playing hard after last week's loss. I can only hope our coaching staff seriously studied those two Rams games to see your weaknesses, schematically. I wonder if the Rams don't somehow know your calls and signals? I can see us make CK throw more volume of passes.. increasing volume of shorter plays means a higher chance he'll make a mistake at some point. Our defense will want CK to beat himself (since we rarely get INTs that we create ourselves). I didn't know that about your run game. I'll keep an eye on how much you run outside, and if we start to load up inside vs you guys.
There's a good chance Tanny plays better if you judge by the bad-good-bad-good pattern he's had the last half of this season. I think Martin will play better at LT than RT... but agains a dominant pass rusher it won't matter. He'll get schooled. Yeah, our D will wilt in the 4th qtr again if Tanny and the offense can't hang onto the ball for a little longer.
Thanks. Our run game will depend on personnel. If James isn't activated, I think it'll be another game where we're very one dimensional, in terms of our versatility. We may throw some tosses to Gore to run outside(which I hate) but it will pretty much be a lot of traps and power I stuff. That would have me very worried because Starks and Solari are very good against the run and guys I feel we can't run at directly for any extended period of time nor allow them penetration by slanting the lines with too many pulls from our OGs. You have have a combination of outside runs, then comeback to inside runs, out of different personnel groupings. Power running is our bread and butter but Hunter's presence allowed for so much to open up outside because of his speed and quickness to get to the edge. He could run inside and outside and it just made our run game that much more dynamic. We lost a lot when he went down. I don't know if they have to confidence in James pass-protection to give him extended carries.
Miami has generally been better against the power runners this year. They have struggled against the quicker, shiftier backs.
1. Ryan Tannehill 2. Ryan Tannehill finding the wide open plays he has missed 3. Ryan Tannehill using more then the "Go Go" snap count 4. Ryan Tannehill stepping up in the pocket to create the extra 1 or 2 seconds needed for the plays to develop 5. Ryan Tannehill rolling left instead of always right 6. oh wait you said 3 things sorry Anyway if Tannehill does these things and a few more, we will win. JMO
