Week 1 GDT - Detroit Lions vs San Francisco 49ers

[757-NINER]

How the **** does Verrett not make it past Week 1?? I swear this team is cursed SMFH!

 

[straighthate]

Thought Lenoir looked great. For a mid round rookie he looked amazing. Thomas looked slow to me. I hope Norman’s ready to step up. No idea what he’s got in the tank but hopefully Lenoir and Mosley can start rest of the year.

Johnson is so bad. They just feasted as soon as he came in the game. 

[y2lamanaki]

29 minutes ago, straighthate said:

Thought Lenoir looked great. For a mid round rookie he looked amazing. Thomas looked slow to me. I hope Norman’s ready to step up. No idea what he’s got in the tank but hopefully Lenoir and Mosley can start rest of the year.

Johnson is so bad. They just feasted as soon as he came in the game. 

Shanahan confirmed that Sherman is a possibility to bring back as well. But Lenoir was very impressive, though it seems clear Detroit WRs are not impressive. Promising either way, given how Thomas faired when given a chance. 

[diehardlionfan]

Good game!!

The injuries are certainly bad news.

[diehardlionfan]

2 hours ago, jrry32 said:

Campbell and his staff are trying to change the culture. Fighting back like that after digging yourself into a hole is a step in the right direction. They're a bad team. It's not going to be a good year. But if you can get guys to buy in and play hard, they're making progress.

Additionally, everyone knows it’s a ground up rebuild. Fan expectations are low so it’s really about development.

The Lions reached a point where many teams go through the motions. The Lions played the whole game. 

[StevenK]

Good game on offense, but then again we played a bad Def from last year. Sucks about the injuries to Mostert, but apparently it’s not too serious. I think Mitchell is a great rookie pickup. 

Our defense, needs to blitz more, which I thought Ryan’s said we would do. Our interior was lacking especially in the first half, hopefully Kinlaw comes back quick! As everyone has already mentioned our corner depth was always a concern going into the season. Lenoir looks promising. Hopefully Sherman is someone who could possibly come in, but we know he’s battling his own demons with the off season concerns we became aware of. 
 

AZ looks scary good! The West is stacked again

[Forge]

2 hours ago, 757-NINER said:

How the **** does Verrett not make it past Week 1?? I swear this team is cursed SMFH!

 

Can't be cursed when you're putting your money on guys who have this reputation. Sadly, we all knew this was a risk. 

[Forge]

1 hour ago, StevenK said:

AZ looks scary good! The West is stacked again

I was super impressed with AZ. That defense seems like it was playing at a high level. 

[Forge]

I legitimately can't believe that there are really applauding and giving Jimmy credit for that 79 yard throw to Deebo. That's  a thing. Just amazed. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

Some thoughts of the game…. 

Offensively, this team was very sharp from the second drive on. Obviously the first one got killed before it even started with the fumbled snap. But Shanny called a great game and there was good balance with the pass and run. The OL played almost a flawless game and Mitchell stepped up and showed what he can do after Mostert's injury. What Shanny didn't do a good job was the runs plays he called for Lance. On 3rd and short, call a power run but not an option where you aren't going north and south. That just made no sense at all, nor did the run on 3rd and 20 when they could have picked up more yards with a pass to give Gould a shorter FG. Jimmy had about three passes that were inaccurate but overall he was good and was making nice reads and showed good pocket awareness. Deebo was awesome until the fumble but he really changes the way this offense operates when he is on the field. Just a different type of beast. Kittle is Kittle but disappointing with what happened with Aiyuk. Hopefully that's the last game we ever see him get no targets. 

Defensively, they got gashed right through the middle for the entire first half. Kerr and Givens kept getting washed away and couldn't hold double teams at all. Kinlaw may go on the IR which is a problem but we will need him to be at least a decent run stopping team. The LBs were making plays all over the field and just looked explosive. Bosa made his fair share of plays but I don't think he is at peak form just yet and will need a few games to get back to the 2019 level. Safeties were good for the most part minus Ward missing that tackle on Swfit that went for a TD. Goff averaged less than 6 YPA and that was with the yards he got in garbage time so you will take that. Ford didn't play many snaps but had a sack and QB hit on the pick six. He definitely made his snaps count and props to Street for making some plays. Lenoir only allowed one catch and hardly got targeted which was nice to see. I was not impressed with Key and how he kept falling for the PA, especially when the Lions were down by 20+. Just bad football IQ. I didn't like some of the soft calls at times bout clearly Ryans wants this defense to keep everything in front of them and make the tackle. Need more variety, especially in coverage. The end of the game sucked but for the most part the defense did what they should have done. 

The elephant in the room is Verrett's injury but there's just not many good options available to help this team at the moment. Norman isn't what he once was and will get exposed in certain coverages and even if we sign Sherman, he won't be ready to go for a few weeks. Lenoir deserves to continue to start and you just have to hope Moseley is able to go soon. Trust the safeties on the back end and take your chances. 

This defense is stacked but injuries like Verrett are complete game changers. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

6 minutes ago, Forge said:

I legitimately can't believe that there are really applauding and giving Jimmy credit for that 79 yard throw to Deebo. That's  a thing. Just amazed. 

The thing is you just have to take your shots. DBs are for the most part not good at playing the ball that far down the field. I give him credit for standing in there delivering it to Deebo under duress. And the way Okudah was covering him, the pass needed to be on the back shoulder since he did not have a step on him. The pass wasn't great but nice adjustment made by Deebo and good on Jimmy for standing in the pocket knowing he was going to get whacked. 

[Forge]

1 minute ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

The thing is you just have to take your shots. DBs are for the most part not good at playing the ball that far down the field. I give him credit for standing in there delivering it to Deebo under duress. And the way Okudah was covering him, the pass needed to be on the back shoulder since he did not have a step on him. The pass wasn't great but nice adjustment made by Deebo and good on Jimmy for standing in the pocket knowing he was going to get whacked. 

I'd love if he took shots like that more often. And given the down and distance I want him to take a shot like that. Same as the washington INT in 2019. 

But no way in hell do I think that through was on purpose though in terms of placement lol. If the placement was on purpose, it's an elite pass. So just depends on whether or not you want to  believe that was a happy accident

[J-ALL-DAY]

12 minutes ago, Forge said:

I'd love if he took shots like that more often. And given the down and distance I want him to take a shot like that. Same as the washington INT in 2019. 

But no way in hell do I think that through was on purpose though in terms of placement lol. If the placement was on purpose, it's an elite pass. So just depends on whether or not you want to  believe that was a happy accident

I mean even if it was supposed to be a back shoulder pass, I don't think it was a great pass but one that works. 

One thing I noticed with Deebo is that he tracks the deep ball very well. He is far more capable than what he showed last season. 

[Forge]

Impressive job by Sewell on bosa. Dee Ford playing efficiently

 

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Just saw the game for the first time without any prior knowledge of the results. Frustrating win. Can't believe the team almost crumbled with a little over seven minutes to play. 41-17 at the two minute warning my goodness. It was a complete snowball effect with injuries, lucky bounces for Detroit, and the defense just losing their mental fortitude when the game was essentially over. What I wanted was a dominant performance against a (in my opinion) inferior squad even if it was on the road. We did get that until garbage time. I know week 1 is a circus, and I've calmed down since the contest ended, but it just seemed like a ridiculous amount of bad luck + performance in the closing moments. Shanahan probably chewed his boys out. But all in all, it's a road win, and despite some of the setbacks, the team for the most part looked sharp. But when will the Football Gods cut the 49ers a break in the health department? 

BTW, what I was most impressed with was the offensive unit. Mitchell looked really good for a rookie, and surprise surprise, perhaps Shanahan/Turner found another late round gem that could be the next Shanahan family warhorse. Who knows. I heard that Sermon was essentially beat out in camp by Mitchell/Hasty, so that is why he was a healthy scratch. Didn't look impressive in the preseason from what I remember, and now I wonder if he'll ever see a snap here. 

Jimmy was good, and it was great that he got 300 plus yards on minimal attempts. You can talk scheme, average depth of target, lack of downfield ability, etc., but at the end of the day he looked really comfortable making all of the throws he was asked to make including some big time throws to Samus. Glad he got his ZENKAI after that first snap. I think my favorite play he made was actually a left sideline toss to Juice. Didn't end up mattering due to the 49ers getting a roughing the passer penalty, but on the play Jimmy couldn't initially find anybody open. He didn't panic though, and proceeded to waltz in the pocket undaunted. That was just beautiful to see our triggerman stare into the abyss without blinking. 

On defense the guy that I remember standing out the most was Azeez Al-Shaair. Thought he had a great game, and I was gutted when I saw him on the field hurt during the potential game collapse. Thankfully he returned. Losing Verrett was awful, and it was very difficult for me as a fan to watch him walking back to the locker just completely breakdown into emotional anguish. Especially after all of the hard work he's done to try and keep his career going. Maybe it was just a matter of time due to his history, but I wish fate would get off his back. I guess it's time for Lenoir to step up, whip Norman into shape, and give uncle Sherm a call. Secondary on a skeleton crew though. Last thing is that Nick Bosa looked pretty disappointing. I thought he was going to dominate a rookie that had looked bad in the preseason, but at the same time it's Bosa's first live action in a year. The defense was helped out by some key drops by the Lions, but obviously still made a lot of big plays that helped the team at least get out to the 41-17 mark. 

Edited September 13, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe