Week 1 GDT - Minnesota Vikings vs San Francisco 49ers

[oldman9er]

The thing I found most disgusting was how our defense made everything so easy for Kirk Glorified Cousins. 

That was just nasty. We had injured guys sure. I get that. But Kirk barely had to be competent to whoop us. Or CBs in position were pathetic in even trying to locate the ball, and the easy throw YAC plays made me sick. 

[John232]

1 hour ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Why do you say Bourne is not good? Because of that INT? Aside from that he wasn't even targeted right? 

I'm being unfair tbh. I just watched the game. I was watching some of the routes he ran when he wasn't targeted, and there's a reason he didn't see much when he was on the field. He got mugged by Xaiver Rhodes and tripped one play, in the RZ, he might even ran the wrong route. Then fell on the INT.

That said, I do still like Bourne, he's proved he can do it, and for a fifth receiver..that's fine. But it was not a good game for him and that fall on the INT triggered me hard. 

But gotta say, infuriating loss but only because we were in a game with a contending team that played really well and we were pretty awful at points. Encouraging altogether. 

[John232]

49 minutes ago, oldman9er said:

The thing I found most disgusting was how our defense made everything so easy for Kirk Glorified Cousins. 

That was just nasty. We had injured guys sure. I get that. But Kirk barely had to be competent to whoop us. Or CBs in position were pathetic in even trying to locate the ball, and the easy throw YAC plays made me sick. 

I think the play of our outside corners was solid. They got beat, but that's going to happen with those two receivers. But the play of Coyle, Kuann and Ward in coverage was just infuriating at times. Kuann had like two or three really bad breaks in coverage. One at the end that went to Cook, and another that went to Thielen. I understand that we play a fair amount of zone, and we attack guys after the catch..but they still have to be in position to do that.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Just doing some history checking, 49ers haven't won in Minnesota since 1992. Including yesterday, that's six straight losses. Strange. 

[N4L]

Couple of things I noticed that hasn't been talked about (havent rewatched the game yet, but I plan to):

Armstead deserves some credit for the way he played. He had a couple of very nice run stuffs where he looked almost unblockable. I remember one in particular in the fourth  quarter where he got into the backfield, shed the FB and then made a play on the running back for a loss. He didnt generate a lot of pressure in the passing game, but it was a game he can build on for sure. The guy is talented. He uses his hands well. He is not a 43 DE though. 

Obviously our interior line generated pressure, but there were a few plays where it felt like Kirk had all day to pick us apart. Seemed like on those plays our edge guys tried to loop around to the inside. None of our interior guys made any effort to go around the edge on these plays. It clogged everything up and our entire DL got stonewalled in the middle of the field. Kirk was able to just drop back and not worry about moving laterally.

Ive been saying it for months, the best thing that our edge guys can do is fly upfield and force QBs to step into the teeth of our passrush. All they need to do is move him from the spot and hopefully it will create the right angle for the interior guys to shed their block and create pressure. Thats part of why the plays where the edge guys tried to loop to the inside were so ineffective, guys like buckner didnt have space to make any lateral moves or change their rush angle to create leverage. If we are going to have our edge guys loop inside, we need to have someone go outside at the same time, or bring pressure from the slot or on some sort of saftey blitz that needs to be accounted for. I would like to see an overload blitz or two next week, or something where Buckner lines up at the edge and loops to the inside while someone else with a little more speed tries to get the edge. Buckners swim move could be very effective in this scenario because it would force OLmen to hand him off to someone else. They would have to try to extend their arms to engage him and he could then swat them out of the way and hop to the side like he does so well. 2.5 sacks is a REAL nice start to this DPOY season. 

I didnt think Tartt had a very good game. I dont fault him for the Rudolph TD, rudolph out muscled him and created juuuust enough space for kirk to drop a perfect pass in there. There were a few plays where he took poor angles or wasnt running hard. He just didnt look comfortable. Can we PLEASE just sign Eric Reid already? sheesh. You cant tell me that some sort of rotation on the back end wouldnt be beneficial. Especially now that we are so thin at LB with coyle out next week, he could fill in nicely on this team. Just make the damn call John, we have 43 million dollars in cap space. What is there to think about? 

I knew from the way Garoppolo reacted on the pick six that bourne ran the wrong route. He was heated. Kyle was clearly frustrated as well. I thought it looked like he was telling Garoppolo to throw the ball earlier when they showed the two of them on the sidelines after that pass that garcon couldnt hold onto in the endzone. That was a clear PI, the defender turned and tried to make a play on the ball and CLEARLY hit garcon early while he was in the air. Garcon kind of ran into the defender, but the defender clearly stopped and turned torwards garcon and made contact before the ball touched his hands. Definition of PI. That was a big missed call imo.

I think that Garoppolo held onto the ball too long on a couple of plays and there were times it seemed like he was passing up the easy underneath pass for a risker throw down the field. I did like that we took a few deep shots. I am a firm believer that you need to throw deep at least 3-4 times a game to keep the safeties honest. So there does need to be a mix of that, it just felt like with the way they were blitzing us, and how poorly the OL was picking them up that he needed to be cognizant of that and deliver the ball quickly.

I think that Jimmy went off script A LOT this game, which is probably why Kyle was so frustrated. Im sure that even some of the positive passing plays we had were not executed the way that kyle had envisioned when he called them. There was one spot in particular where Jimmy rolled out to his right, had kittle or someone in the flat right away, held the ball, kittle got covered, no one was open and Jimmy either ran or threw it out of bounds or something like that. Then the camera shows kyle talking into the headset right before the snap of the next play and it looked like he said something like 'throw it to him right away, let him run with it' and then on the next play we essentially run the exact same play to the other side of the field, Jimmy threw it right away (to goodwin?). Whoever caught it was able to get some YAC for 5+ yards to bring third and manageable. 

Kittle looked great. Really pleased with what we have there with him. Obviously he didnt catch that one pass, it looked like he hesitated for half a heartbeat while tracking the ball over his shoulder. One of those that you have to shake off and forget about or you will do it again. Other than that he played a really good game. I wish Garoppolo would have given him a little more of a chance to come down with that one pass in the endzone as well but he is clearly the best run blocking TE.  

I kinda like it when shanahan is a little frustrated. I think it brings out a good side of him, the hardarse side that doesnt take crap off anyone. Hopefully he is really grinding the team this week. Sometimes everyone needs a little kick in the arse. I think that will really grab everyone's attention and set the tone for next week. I dont want to have the mindset that we can just show up and roll the lions this week. You know their team will be getting chewed out after that pathetic excuse for a third quarter on MNF. Short week, flying across the country (even if it is flying west as opposed to flying east) should give us the upper hand, but how we play over the next month will determine how far this team goes... Rams are already setting the pace

 

[757-NINER]

So Person has a foot sprain and Garnett has a dislocated toe. And I don't expect either to be ready to play by Sunday and I'm almost positive neither Coleman nor Tobin has been here long enough to be a capable starter. Mags can't play and I believe Person was the back-up center as well so if Richburg goes down....*sighs*

I mean at this point, I think you may need to bring back Cooper. Unprecedented run of injuries we've had to the O-Line to start the season.  

[JIllg]

11 hours ago, oldman9er said:

The thing I found most disgusting was how our defense made everything so easy for Kirk Glorified Cousins. 

That was just nasty. We had injured guys sure. I get that. But Kirk barely had to be competent to whoop us. Or CBs in position were pathetic in even trying to locate the ball, and the easy throw YAC plays made me sick. 

Kirk is great when not pressured. Like, top three nearly Brady great according to PFF (for whatever it's worth, but it matches my untrained eye test). But he needs to be able to step into throws and rarely is good having to reset or throw off platform as he just doesn't have as much zing as others (either Jimmy style with a strong core generating off-balance power or Mahomes style with straight up arm strength). We didn't get pressure often enough. And the DBs didn't have best game as you said. But them's some excellent Viking weapons and a QB that is great when not pressured. It happens. I still ultimately think that the defense did well enough to win in a difficult environment. The other side of the ball, though...

[oldman9er]

12 minutes ago, JIllg said:

Kirk is great when not pressured. Like, top three nearly Brady great according to PFF (for whatever it's worth, but it matches my untrained eye test). But he needs to be able to step into throws and rarely is good having to reset or throw off platform as he just doesn't have as much zing as others (either Jimmy style with a strong core generating off-balance power or Mahomes style with straight up arm strength). We didn't get pressure often enough. And the DBs didn't have best game as you said. But them's some excellent Viking weapons and a QB that is great when not pressured. It happens. I still ultimately think that the defense did well enough to win in a difficult environment. The other side of the ball, though...

Good stuff. I think I'll spend some time this week focusing on and counting the pass snaps where Kirk even held the ball for more than 2-3 seconds. So far, it's been one of those games I can't find the will to watch again.  

[Forge]

7 hours ago, N4L said:

Armstead deserves some credit for the way he played. He had a couple of very nice run stuffs where he looked almost unblockable. I remember one in particular in the fourth  quarter where he got into the backfield, shed the FB and then made a play on the running back for a loss. He didnt generate a lot of pressure in the passing game, but it was a game he can build on for sure. The guy is talented. He uses his hands well. He is not a 43 DE though. 

You're right, this probably deserved to be mentioned. Armstead had a really good game doing what he does, but like you, I agree that he's just not a 43 end. 

[big9erfan]

Lost in all this is any discussion of the Vikes. Wow do they have a loaded roster.  I mean nlook across the entire roster on both sides of the line and find a weak spot ... there is none. If Cousins plays well for the entire season they should indeed be one of the favorites to win it all. In that light it's comfoting to know that we made a ton of mistakes anll had some chance in the game. That one single play where Kittle dropped the long ball might have been a 14 point turnaround all by itself

[John232]

4 hours ago, big9erfan said:

Lost in all this is any discussion of the Vikes. Wow do they have a loaded roster.  I mean nlook across the entire roster on both sides of the line and find a weak spot ... there is none. If Cousins plays well for the entire season they should indeed be one of the favorites to win it all. In that light it's comfoting to know that we made a ton of mistakes anll had some chance in the game. That one single play where Kittle dropped the long ball might have been a 14 point turnaround all by itself

Yeah, the sky is falling narrative that always happens after L's is always annoying. Especially with this loss. The Vikings have the most talented roster in the league. I think the Rams are the only other team in that discussion. The Vikings have at least 1 pro-bowler at every level in their secondary. On offense they have a pro-bowl caliber QB (imo) who is at the very least, solid. You have one incoming stud at RB with cook, but a steady work horse in Murray. A very well rounded and underrated TE in Rudolph and two pro-bowl receivers. 

they are absolutely stacked. That secondary and D-line are levels of insane too. Good god....It hurts to think about it.

And we had it within one possession up until the last INT. Despite shooting ourselves in the foot so many times..we were that close. And they played well too....

 

 

[the-catch]

I didn't watch the game, but saw Jimmy G's picks. The first one Kendrick Bourne said he ran the wrong route. The second one I get the feeling Jimmy was expecting Pettis to run more of a post, but Pettis cut it flat. And the last one was a bad throw. 

[mw2noobbuster]

Shanny schemed the receivers open most of the game. Our players aren’t gonna drop every pass, and Jimmy isn’t gonna miss every throw.

[J-ALL-DAY]

Yep, Shanny drew up some great play and that's why he was so frustrated after the game that we only scored 16 points. Should have been a lot more. Lost 11 points in the RZ just off the Jimmy G miss to Kittle and Morris' fumble at the 1 yard line. That's just brutal. Still didn't like the formations we used on both Morris' runs though. I was watching closely other teams who success in the RZ and ALL of them were spreading it out inside the 10 yard line. Not saying you can't run, but run from the spread. That goes against Shanny's overall philosophy though.

[rudyZ]

17 hours ago, the-catch said:

I didn't watch the game, but saw Jimmy G's picks. The first one Kendrick Bourne said he ran the wrong route. The second one I get the feeling Jimmy was expecting Pettis to run more of a post, but Pettis cut it flat. And the last one was a bad throw. 

I felt when I saw it that it was a matter of timing, on the Pettis one. Pettis used a lot of footwork off the snap to turn around the DB, and did a pretty nice job, but what if in practice, Jimmy is used to the receiver getting out of the break a little faster, but because of all the steps Pettis used to fool the DB, the timing was a little off, and it impacted the accuracy of the throw? I'm not blaming Pettis at all, just saying the relationship between him and Jimmy is still in its infancy, and Pettis as a NFL wideout is still young, and Jimmy, for all the positives he has, has the tendency to make risky throws. Add all of those, and the result is that INT. The Bourne one was more clear-cut. Even with only the replay, it was obvious it wasn't his fall that caused it. Even he kept his feet, he was nowhere near the ball, so it had to be a mistake. Bourne only confirmed after the game it was his, and not Jimmy's. The third was trying to do too much in order to mount a comeback drive. The great thing is that prior to the drive, I braced myself up for a game-tying drive. I believe in Jimmy. I believe he can pull those off. But after the first play call that went nowhere, I already felt like it wasn't going to be one of those drives. The INT just sealed it. 

Room for improvement! And against a great team. We have cause for optimism and pessimism. I choose the former.