My Second and Third columns...for anyone who cares about football. (1231 hits)
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Submitted by Thomas R. Sorrell - sorrelltr.at.hotmail.com (View user info) at 2006-08-31 13:01:47 EDT
So I am now writing two columns a week for www.RealFootball365.com -- one that is published on Monday mornings following a game and a second on Wednesday mornings previewing the upcoming opponent or whatever I might feel like talking about. This is incredible, as I have a significant amount of leeway in what I write. I can watch games, report what I see, and be as opinionated as I want and still get paid for it. Zounds! (TM) It's like PFF said, only in America could I pull this off.
Anyway, if you care, here are the two most recent columns, my second and third for the site.
Thanks for reading.
-- Tom
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49ers Turn In Poor Performance Against Cowboys
Run away as fast as you can and do not look back. Take up stamp collecting. Learn to play an instrument. Lock yourself in a fall out shelter. Do whatever it takes to avoid watching their games, because odds are good you will not survive the season without suffering a complete mental breakdown. The San Francisco 49ers are doomed.
Wait, wait. Come back. This is, after all, only the preseason, and the Dallas Cowboys are one of the teams on the upswing in the NFL while the Niners are still trying to figure themselves out.
"We are not looking for victories, only improvement in the team."
Right. At least that's what the coaches always tell you. Then again, the desired result of watching a game is not nausea and frustration. You should not turn off the television, stare blankly at the screen, and shake your head in disbelief. Yet that is exactly what happened Sunday at six in the morning when I switched off the NFL Network's broadcast of the Dallas/San Francisco preseason game.
Six am. You read that correctly. I sat up until 6 am to watch the Cowboys whip the scarlet-clad team like a high school varsity squad punishing the JV players for insolence. The final count of the massacre? 17-7, yet the score hardly indicates the severe flogging that took place in Texas.
The 49er starters netted a mere 78 yards of total offense against the Cowboys' first-team defense (197 for the entire game), and scored their lone touchdown in the third quarter against the Dallas backups. Meanwhile, the Niners' defense played as poorly as they have all preseason, allowing the Cowboys to march up and down the field during the first half, like the "Triplets" circa 1993. The final numbers for the Cowboys' offense? 489 yards on 73 plays. Yikes.
"I wasn't as disappointed in the offense as I was in the defense," San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan stated after the game.
Well I should hope not, coach, considering your defense tackled as well as a 10-year-old playing Madden 2007 for the first time. (Switch and dive. Switch and dive.) I'm curious, does anyone on this team square up to make tackles? Anyone? Derek Smith? Jeff Ulbrich? Manny Lawson? There must have been seven or eight missed tackles in the first quarter alone. I've seen Pop Warner teams that were more fundamentally sound.
Then again, the defensive backfield did not play much better. Perhaps the 49ers can petition the league to allow Sammy Davis to legally use a cargo net on the field. Maybe then he can cover a receiver one on one. Then again, when a defensive line is as ineffective at rushing the passer as the one I saw yesterday morning, I suppose some leeway is allowed. After all, it's quite difficult to cover a receiver for nine seconds.
Of course, it doesn't help when the plays being sent in to the defense are as ludicrous as a few I saw last night. Most notably, having the unit line up with five defensive backs inside the five-yard line. Are you kidding me? Five defensive backs? Now I'm not a coach in the National Football League, but when I saw the Niners line up in that formation I said to myself, "Wow, Dallas should run up the middle." Sure enough, Drew Bledsoe turned and handed the ball to Marion Barber III who ran untouched into the end zone. It was just too easy.
Yes, the San Francisco defense has its problems. Then again, so does the offense. Specifically second-year starter Alex Smith. I am aware of what I said regarding Smith last week, and I stand by it. However, someone needs to take this kid into a film room, strap him into a chair and force him to watch game film of his interceptions until he finally sees what he's doing wrong. That, of course, would be locking on receivers as if he's looking at them through a telescope.
While watching him throw an interception after staring down a blanketed Antonio Bryant (and completely missing Vernon Davis for a sure TD), I seriously contemplated bashing myself about the head and neck with a large hammer until I passed out. That play was so painful to watch that I wanted to erase it entirely from my memory, and I was certain that a good coma would ensure that. But no, that sort of thing is unacceptable in modern society. Besides, there was quite a bit of game left to watch...it was only the second quarter.
It wasn't all bad, though. Smith did show some flashes of the talent that earned him the top overall selection in the 2005 draft. On the first play of the second quarter, a third-and-nine from inside his own territory, he stood firm in the pocket and delivered a strike to Arnaz Battle for a first down. The 22-year-old's 15-yard touchdown pass to Vernon Davis in the third quarter was very well thrown also, even if was against the Cowboys' second string. There is definitely potential there. Let's just hope he can play up to it.
The biggest bright spots for the Niners were Frank Gore and Davis. Gore continues to play well this preseason. He rushed for 54 yards on nine carries against the Cowboys and looked very confident with the ball in his hands. He has excellent field vision and definitely looks like someone who could develop into a star in the next few seasons. Coach Nolan seems to have found a gem in No. 21.
As for Davis, he only caught one pass, but the sixth overall pick certainly proved he's as fast as advertised. On the play where Smith threw the interception, Davis sprinted past Bradie James as if they were reenacting The Tortoise and the Hare. Very impressive to say the least. The Maryland product's touchdown catch was nice as well, even if he did look a bit confused/surprised after he caught the ball.
With only one exhibition game remaining, there are still many questions that need to be answered. Will the tackling improve? Will the secondary get better? Will the defensive line be able to impact games in any way? Will Alex Smith learn from his mistakes and stop locking on to one receiver? Let's hope the answer to all four questions is yes, otherwise another 4-12 season may be looming on the horizon.
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Four Questions Need To Be Answered By Niners' Defense
For the majority of teams in the National Football League, the final preseason game is nothing more than a "go-through-the-motions" affair. By this time, most teams have the luxury of knowing approximately where they stand in relation to the rest of the league. Because of this, very few starters play any significant amount of time, choosing instead to rest up before beginning the regular season.
The San Francisco 49ers , however, are not most teams. Their final preseason game against the Chargers is very important, especially for the defense, as four questions still need to be answered.
1. Will the defense, specifically the linebackers, improve their poor tackling?
Tackling is, in theory, the simplest of tasks. "See the ball carrier. Square your shoulders and deliver a blow. Wrap him up and bring him to the ground." Simple, but effective. Yet proper tackling, or rather, the lack thereof, is a growing problem in the NFL. Perhaps this has something to do with the ever-present television cameras and the desire to make the list of Top Ten Plays on that night's episode of Sportscenter. Regardless, that is another column for another time. The point is, a professional football team (or any team for that matter) will not win many games if its defense does not tackle well. Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs . Their tackling was so horrendous last year it caused Dick Vermeil to openly weep on the sidelines and retire at season's end. Not that this was anything out of the ordinary, but it's worth mentioning nonetheless.
Against the Cowboys last week, there were numerous times when a 49ers defender would arrive in the backfield to make a play, yet allow the running back to slip through his grasp for a big gain. A wise coach once said, "It doesn't matter how fast a player gets to the ball if he doesn't make a tackle, or at the very least, hold the ball carrier up until his teammates arrive."
That is sound advice, and the 49ers' defense should adopt it as their slogan for the 2006 season. They should have it printed on t-shirts to be worn under their pads. They should stencil it on signs and hang them up in various places throughout the locker room. They should hang banners from the railings of Monster Stadium with this phrase emblazoned across it in bright red letters. Whatever must be done to get this philosophy through to them should be seriously considered. If the Niners can not tackle, they can not win.
2. Will the secondary improve upon its mediocre play?
Granted, starting cornerback Shawntae Spencer was out with an injury against Dallas, but the rest of the secondary looked like pigs lost in the wilderness against the Cowboys' aerial attack. Sammy Davis, in particular, was torched time and again by Terry Glenn in the first half of the game. On Glenn's 28-yard touchdown catch, the former Ohio State standout ran a simple post-corner route, but Davis tripped over his feet while trying to adjust to the break and fell down. Later in the half, Davis had over-the-top help from safety Tony Parrish on a deep corner, but stopped running with Glenn long enough to allow a pass to be completed over his head for a 52-yard gain. The Cowboys scored their second touchdown of the game a few plays later.
Furthermore, the 49ers played quite a bit of zone coverage against Dallas and there were numerous occasions when a lack of communication between two defenders resulted in gaping holes in the coverage. Of course, this wouldn't be such a problem if the 49ers had any semblance of a pass rush. After all, a good pass rush can make the worst defensive backfield look, well...not as bad. This brings me to my next question.
3. Will the defensive line have any effect on the game whatsoever?
In the NFL, an effective pass rush is one of the most crucial elements of a defense, and the front seven is a major component of the rush being solid. Every quarterback in the league can beat a defense if he's allowed to stand in the pocket for several seconds without being harassed by the defense. Eventually the receivers will find soft spots in a zone or beat their defender in man to man coverage. This much is obvious. Yet there were numerous plays on Saturday where Drew Bledsoe was able to stand in the pocket for several seconds without a defender coming within five yards of him. This resulted in the veteran completing 12-of-17 passes for 200 yards and a touchdown...in the first half.
4. Will the coaching staff get with it or continue to put the defense in precarious situations?
Drew Bledsoe is like a statue in the pocket. If you blitz him, he either makes bad decisions or gets sacked. That has been his M.O. ever since his days in New England. Everyone in the league knows this...but the 49ers did not blitz him. They sat back in zone defense and rushed four (highly ineffective) defensive linemen all game long. Even after the first few drives, where Bledsoe marched them up and down the field, still no blitzes. Where were the adjustments by the coaching staff? Was their plan to run as vanilla a defense as possible? Perhaps the coaches were trying to keep it as simple as they could, so as not to give away too much of their defensive gameplan in the preseason.
Aside from the tackling issue, the San Francisco defense might not be as bad as it looked against Dallas. The 49ers are trying to run a 3-4 this season; however, several of their linebackers were injured last week, so they were forced to switch to a 4-3 for the game. It is possible that the switch back to a 3-4 will free up their outside linebackers and provide an effective pass rush. This, of course, would help the secondary dramatically by forcing opposing quarterbacks to throw the ball earlier than they would like.
Then again, if this does not happen and the defense continues to struggle, there will be one more question 49ers fans around the country could be asking by the end of the season.
"Who are we taking with the first pick in the draft?"
User Reviews
Submitted by Sinistral (user info) at 2006-09-10 01:38:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm going to have to start reading your column because a)this was thoroughly enjoyable b)I want to be a sports/automotive journalist.
Submitted by TheSpook (user info) at 2006-09-10 00:49:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
VICTORY@!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Submitted by Method (user info) at 2006-09-01 15:17:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Milk, 2 sugars, please. And don't forget the stirrers this time.
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2006-09-01 15:03:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by BuckeyesTHEGAME (user info) at 2006-09-01 13:54:36 (#)
Ranking: 0
No, the Lions stink. I was at the Lions/Bills game yesterday (Club seats, baby), and I truly believe they're the worst team in the NFC.
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I would fight you for that statement, but I know it's true.
Submitted by BuckeyesTHEGAME (user info) at 2006-09-01 13:54:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
No, the Lions stink. I was at the Lions/Bills game yesterday (Club seats, baby), and I truly believe they're the worst team in the NFC.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-09-01 13:36:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-08-31 15:25:51 (#)
Ranking: -1
Raiders 4-0.
Check that: 4-1 They stink.
Submitted by BuckeyesTHEGAME (user info) at 2006-09-01 08:20:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Oh yea, Darko. The Bucknut died after the Penn State game last season. The site I was using was an absolute bitch to upload onto.
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2006-08-31 17:13:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
by the way, does this mean you killed the bucknut?
Submitted by darko (user info) at 2006-08-31 17:13:16 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Did you pick one of the college teams? Go with the Spartans!
Submitted by GodLovesALittleLovin (user info) at 2006-08-31 16:50:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
WHO-DEY!
Submitted by BuckeyesTHEGAME (user info) at 2006-08-31 15:31:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
It was either the Niners or the Broncos.
They asked me to cover a college team, too...specifically Michigan State or Notre Dame. But I watch (and tape) every single OSU game, so that was out of the question.
PS: Shlongy, my team, the Bengals? 3-0...and Carson's back, bitches.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-08-31 15:25:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: -1
Raiders 4-0.
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2006-08-31 15:15:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I really wish you covered someone other than the gay bay 49ers. Come to the east coast and write for the Eagles, please.
Submitted by WingedFoote (user info) at 2006-08-31 14:13:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I give you credit, 'cause sports isn't an easy thing to write about, but I think you broke out every cliche in the book, and even invented some...
Submitted by UnderOathMeal (user info) at 2006-08-31 13:38:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I have an especially strong hatred for the game of football so I'm fighting the urge to -2 this outright.
But you appear to have a lot of talent so I shall acknowledge that with my trusty +1.