Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend

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Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - Farm93 - 01-23-2012

It is worth noting that both championship games came down to very short FG attempts.

The Ravens could have pushed more aggressively and thrown down the middle to score a TD as the fourth quarter closed out.Â Instead they opted for 2 safe throws to the sidelines.Â Both were defended well by the Patriots.Â So the Ravens settled for a short FG to go to OT.Â Oddly, the kicker was a bit late and had to run down to his spot.Â The kicker then missed, and the players were stunned.Â Note:Â That missed FG stuff even happens in the pros.

The Giants could have easily pushed the ball in for a TD in OT.Â But instead "settled" for a 26 yard FG attempt.Â After a 5 yard delay of game penalty, that the staff was almost indifferent about, the kick became a 31 yard attempt.Â Rather than running again to try to get some of that back, the Giants elected to still stay with the kicker and attempt a 31 yard kick.Â The FG attempt was outside, on a wet surface, in the rain, and with a significant wind.Â But the Giants thought trusting their kicker was better than trusting Jacobs and/or Manning.Â Giants win, kicker is a hero for making a really easy kick.

If the Giants miss the kick, perhaps people wonder why the coach didn't try harder for a TD and/or why they didn't call timeout to avoid the 5 yard penalty.Â That's the game though, and it is often won and lost with the kicker.

Stanford and both Harbaughs were on the wrong side of the kicker fortunes this year.Â Still the Ravens, 9ers and Stanford all had great years, just not quite the endings they wanted.

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - OutsiderFan - 01-23-2012

I know this isn't a Niners message board, but, there are some good posters here that are sports fans, so in the aftermath of 0-fer the game on 3rd down, and ONE catch by a WR in 4.5 quarters in the Niners' NFCCG loss:

A) Alex Smith is a legit Championship level QB that with an upgrade in WR talent, can win a Super Bowl with a great defense.
B) Alex Smith is incapable of being a championship level QB, even with a gifted WR corps and a great defense.

My personal belief is the Niners' WRs are dreadful, and based on how well Smith throws to Vernon Davis, he could be much more effective with more talented WRs.Â Of course, Andrew Luck didn't have the most elite set of WRs (though relatively, you could argue Luck had a better receivers overall than Smith), and Luck performed fantastically, even against good defenses.

What does everyone think?

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - wyattp - 01-23-2012

(01-23-2012, 03:38 PM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:I know this isn't a Niners message board, but, there are some good posters here that are sports fans, so in the aftermath of 0-fer the game on 3rd down, and ONE catch by a WR in 4.5 quarters in the Niners' NFCCG loss:

A) Alex Smith is a legit Championship level QB that with an upgrade in WR talent, can win a Super Bowl with a great defense.
B) Alex Smith is incapable of being a championship level QB, even with a gifted WR corps and a great defense.

My personal belief is the Niners' WRs are dreadful, and based on how well Smith throws to Vernon Davis, he could be much more effective with more talented WRs.Â Of course, Andrew Luck didn't have the most elite set of WRs (though relatively, you could argue Luck had a better receivers overall than Smith), and Luck performed fantastically, even against good defenses.

What does everyone think?

Regardless of who does the throwing

Three High Quality TE's + 1.5 WR's > Vernon Davis + half of a 49er WR

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - wyattp - 01-23-2012

(01-23-2012, 03:38 PM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:I know this isn't a Niners message board, but, there are some good posters here that are sports fans, so in the aftermath of 0-fer the game on 3rd down, and ONE catch by a WR in 4.5 quarters in the Niners' NFCCG loss:

A) Alex Smith is a legit Championship level QB that with an upgrade in WR talent, can win a Super Bowl with a great defense.
B) Alex Smith is incapable of being a championship level QB, even with a gifted WR corps and a great defense.

My personal belief is the Niners' WRs are dreadful, and based on how well Smith throws to Vernon Davis, he could be much more effective with more talented WRs.Â Of course, Andrew Luck didn't have the most elite set of WRs (though relatively, you could argue Luck had a better receivers overall than Smith), and Luck performed fantastically, even against good defenses.

What does everyone think?

Regardless of who does the throwing

Three High Quality TE's + 1.5 WR's > Vernon Davis + half of a 49er WR

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - wyattp - 01-23-2012

(01-23-2012, 03:38 PM)OutsiderFan link Wrote:I know this isn't a Niners message board, but, there are some good posters here that are sports fans, so in the aftermath of 0-fer the game on 3rd down, and ONE catch by a WR in 4.5 quarters in the Niners' NFCCG loss:

A) Alex Smith is a legit Championship level QB that with an upgrade in WR talent, can win a Super Bowl with a great defense.
B) Alex Smith is incapable of being a championship level QB, even with a gifted WR corps and a great defense.

My personal belief is the Niners' WRs are dreadful, and based on how well Smith throws to Vernon Davis, he could be much more effective with more talented WRs.Â Of course, Andrew Luck didn't have the most elite set of WRs (though relatively, you could argue Luck had a better receivers overall than Smith), and Luck performed fantastically, even against good defenses.

What does everyone think?

Regardless of who does the throwing

Three High Quality TE's + 1.5 WR's > Vernon Davis + half of a 49er WR

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - Leftcoast - 01-23-2012

Alex isn't in the top-tier of NFL QB's but he's close to earning a spot somewhere on the second or third rung.Â Â So he's not a Manning, Brady, Brees or Rivers but thisÂ year he showed he could be a Flacco, Romo or Ryan.Â That may be good enough if SF's defense stays at an elite level and Harbaugh can add talent at Wide Receiver and Defensive Back.

Yesterday the QB story was on the other side of the ball where I was impressed with Eli Manning.Â Peyton's younger brother played tough, consistent and ACCURATE football despite being knocked down on roughly 50% of his passing plays.Â Eli has grown up and rendered the old "book" on him obsolete.Â Where in his early pro years Eli had the reputation of losing composure and getting happy-feet under pressure there were no signs of those tendencies in the NFC Championship Game.Â

Good for him - I will briefly be a Giant fan during the Eastern Seaboard Championship in two weeks time although my passion will be a mile wide and an inch deep.Â Sigh ....

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - Spiny_Norman - 01-23-2012

Tom Brady throwing to Aaron Hernandez and Rob Gronkowski reminded more of Stanford's offense than the Niners did.Â

Kudos to the Giants defense.Â They consistently got pressure on Smith with 4 rushers which allowed them to drop 7 into coverage.Â Don't judge Smith too harshly.Â He just faced a defense that also made the league MVP Aaron Rogers and his top corps of WRs look mortal and stoppable.

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - FarmBoy - 01-23-2012

There's no question that Alex is good enough, as long as the defense and special teams are excellent, as they were this year. If Kyle Williams had muffed those two punt returns, the 49ers win. The 9ers were up 14-10 and getting the ball back on offense when the first mistake was made. They probably had a 65-70% probability of winning the game at that point.

But is Alex the quarterback you want to build your franchise around? I don't think so. The NFL is a passers league right now. Having a great quarterback increases your chances of winning significantly. You don't want to rely on your defense causing 5 turn overs against the Saints to win your home playoff games. If the 49ers want to contend consistently, they need to upgrade at the QB spot. They've got a defense that can keep them in games, but they need the QB to put them over the top.

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - Class_of_75 - 01-23-2012

Unfortunately, it was deja vu for Kyle Williams. ASU lost to UofA, 20-17, because Williams muffed a punt.

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/14348/heartbreak-for-williams-arizona-state

Re: Niners! Guess I know where I'll be next weekend - burger - 01-23-2012

As a non-49ers fan, I don't see Alex Smith as a quarterback who can take his team to the Superbowl.Â Torching the awful Saints defense is one thing.Â But if you can't throw accurately with pressure, then you can't win a Superbowl because at some point you're going to face a monster pass rush in the playoffs (oddly, the playoffs this season featured a bunch of all-offense/no-defense teams, but that's not typical).Â

And let's not forget that the Niners faced one of the weakest schedules in the NFL this year.Â Even with a WR upgrade, I think you need a new quarterback.Â Some quarterbacks just don't have the right stuff.

One other note: several sports writers have commented on the odd play selection by Harbaugh last night.Â Despite a very effective run game (5 ypc), the Niners threw way more than they ran in the 2nd half.Â The result was a lot of punts, especially near the end of the game.Â I'm reminded of when Stanford was driving near the goal line in Big Game a couple of years back, and Harbaugh decided to pass instead of feeding Toby.Â The results were not good for either of Harbaugh's teams.