Week 2 GDT - Philadelphia Eagles vs San Francisco 49ers

[J-ALL-DAY]

Solomon Thomas had two sucks today! Super happy for him, great guy. Hoping he is able to turn a corner in LV. 

Bosa vs Jenkins next week>>>>

If Moseley is a go next week, does Shanny ease him back in the line up or is he a starter right away? 

Al-Shaair is always around the ball but he needs to work on his tackling. Some bad missed tackles. 

Tartt and Ward did a great job helping prevent the big plays over the top minus the 91 yarder. That will be one of the big keys to having another top 5 pass defense. 

As I mentioned already, Ford did a terrible job of losing the edge vs Hurts. Not sure if he did not get the play call or what, but on one of them an inside blitz was called and he went inside himself allowing Hurts to get outside. 

Rookie vs rookie match up between Lenoir and Smith was a solid one with Lenoir winning majority of the reps. One thing is clear, teams will be testing him deep often this season. He better make sure his technique is sharp and he doesn't get caught flat footed. 

Mack is seemingly making a big difference and was desperately needed. Glad he decided not to retire. Trent is just on another level. McGlinchey allowed one QB hit that I remember but overall the OL held up in pass pro.

Wish continues to punt this away, I will give him an apology. 

Aiyuk still is not getting targeted but made a sweet catch on 3rd down. Hoping this trend does not continue. 

Deebo is playing like one of the best players on the team. Just stupid good.

Uneasy performance by Jimmy but he made enough plays. Need to find ways to mix Trey in and try to have him give a spark to the offense. If Jimmy has more of these types of performances and the team loses, then it will be Trey's time soon enough. 

Good win, thought it was going to be competitive and it proved to be just that. Again, winning two on the EC is not easy and this team got the job done. Now back to back home games vs elite QBs. Can't wait! 

[y2lamanaki]

21 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Aiyuk still is not getting targeted but made a sweet catch on 3rd down. Hoping this trend does not continue. 

I guess trends are in the eye of the beholder. 0 catches Week 1, 1 catch Week 2, 2 catches week 3....he'll be over 10 per game by Week 12!

[J-ALL-DAY]

1 minute ago, y2lamanaki said:

I guess trends are in the eye of the beholder. 0 catches Week 1, 1 catch Week 2, 2 catches week 3....he'll be over 10 per game by Week 12!

Well, in that case, I hope the trend does continue! 

I bet Jimmy blamed the high ball he missed on in the first quarter on Aiyuk and said "see, this is why I never pass it to you!" 😄

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Hallmark win in the Shanahan era in my opinion. Philadelphia was a much tougher opponent than I thought they would be, and dominated the line of scrimmage for a good amount of the game. It was looking grim a few times early on, but DeMeco Ryans' defense kept fighting through the adversity despite the skeleton-crew situation in the secondary. The offense soon stepped up later on, and that 17 play, 9 minute drive for a TD was as inspirational for the 49ers as it was demoralizing for the Eagles. The injury situation wasn't as bad as last week, but some guys still got scraped up. Hoping Mosley can at least come back, and Hasty's ankle isn't too serious. Also Sermon I'm guessing will have to go through concussion protocol. All in all, two good wins on the road to start the year with key players still ticking. Too bad the rest of the division still looks fierce even with Seattle taking an L.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

3 hours ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Uneasy performance by Jimmy but he made enough plays. Need to find ways to mix Trey in and try to have him give a spark to the offense. If Jimmy has more of these types of performances and the team loses, then it will be Trey's time soon enough. 

Isn't it nice to see Shanahan not panic and let Jimmy G work through early game struggles? Jimmy played better in the second half, and did a really good job of orchestrating the offense in a tightrope situation on the road against a tough opponent. That's a lot of pressure for a rookie QB regardless of their talent. 

Trey is gonna get his time, but maybe worry about years 2-15, not year 1 with a decent triggerman already in the lineup.

Edited September 20, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe

[Forge]

4 minutes ago, TecmoSuperJoe said:

You REALLY want Trey to be the starter 

Isn't nice to see Shanahan not panic and let Jimmy G work through early game struggles? Jimmy played better in the second half, and did a really good job of orchestrating the offense in a tightrope situation on the road against a tough opponent. That's a lot of pressure for a rookie QB regardless of their talent. 

A third of his throws and completions were screens. If you're going to do that, you may as well play Trey, tbh. His throws down field were a mess, and his pocket footwork was pretty gnarly a couple of times (why does he just randomly get cement feet where he doesn't generate anything below the waist?)

He did make one really nice throw in a tight window late in the game that I gave him credit for, but mostly he was just bad. He'll have games like that because he's not super good or anything, but in those situations I don't mind pulling the plug for that game because unlike most, we have that ability.  

I don't really care for Jimmy working through his struggles on a personal level. I'm just as happy if we had pulled him and Lance won. We didn't, we won, so hard to argue the decision. It's a tough win and we will have games like that and we need to be able to win those games for sure. But it's okay to acknowledge that the reason we may be having those games is that sometimes Jimmy just isn't very good. 

That being said, it's easier for me to say this because I do *not* believe that if you pull Jimmy in one game to generate a spark that you have to just stick with Lance. I believe you can pull Jimmy in this game and go right back to starting him next week for green Bay. I'm in the super low minority in that belief however. 

[TecmoSuperJoe]

31 minutes ago, Forge said:

A third of his throws and completions were screens. If you're going to do that, you may as well play Trey, tbh. His throws down field were a mess, and his pocket footwork was pretty gnarly a couple of times (why does he just randomly get cement feet where he doesn't generate anything below the waist?)

He did make one really nice throw in a tight window late in the game that I gave him credit for, but mostly he was just bad. He'll have games like that because he's not super good or anything, but in those situations I don't mind pulling the plug for that game because unlike most, we have that ability.  

I don't really care for Jimmy working through his struggles on a personal level. I'm just as happy if we had pulled him and Lance won. We didn't, we won, so hard to argue the decision. It's a tough win and we will have games like that and we need to be able to win those games for sure. But it's okay to acknowledge that the reason we may be having those games is that sometimes Jimmy just isn't very good. 

That being said, it's easier for me to say this because I do *not* believe that if you pull Jimmy in one game to generate a spark that you have to just stick with Lance. I believe you can pull Jimmy in this game and go right back to starting him next week for green Bay. I'm in the super low minority in that belief however. 

Yeah we diverge then. Pulling Jimmy, and then inserting Lance, only to potentially put in Jimmy again...I can't remember the last time a team went far playing musical chairs at QB. Can't imagine what that does to a locker room. Also, I'm glad Shanahan doesn't just give up on players if they start out slow in a game. I'd like to think that's the difference between being a spectator and actually being around players day in, and day out. Even in an era of advanced metrics, data, etc., I think that still matters. Just the type of thinking I prefer in my sandbox.

The Eagles defensive line just completely dominated and the running game was non-existent. Shanahan called those screen plays, they worked, so they kept going back to them. Sometimes it's just like that regardless what QB you have. You'll have games you need to grind out...unless it's someone like Mahomes I guess. We could also be 0-2 with Trey if he had played. Like I told J I'm more worried about years 2-14, not year 1. Anyway, nice to chat about it, even nicer to get the win. 

Edited September 20, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe

[Forge]

32 minutes ago, TecmoSuperJoe said:

Yeah we diverge then. Pulling Jimmy, and then inserting Lance, only to potentially put in Jimmy again...I can't remember the last time a team went far playing musical chairs at QB. Also, I'm glad Shanahan doesn't just give up on players if they start out slow in a game. So we diverge on that too. 

The sample size isn't big enough to make a judgement on how it works tbh.  Last year Miami had a shot to get into the playoffs maybe only because of it, and Denver did it elway's rookie season. 

 Nobody has ever given me a legit reason why you can't do it. Seems to be a lot of "don't want to hurt development / break him" which doesn't make sense to me,  and "you can't do that. Nobody has ever done that"

The track record likely will never be great because as the old saying goes, if you have two, you have none and the sample is unlikely to ever be big enough.

Jimmy isn't good enough to get the benefit of the doubt when he struggles. If he were, it's a different story.  But trey is a 21 year old rookie with 300 d2 passes under his belt. So there are likely going to be times where nothing really works all that well regardless of who is playing because they are what they are. But trey certainly could have been very effective against a front blowing up on the interior if he's getting to the outside. 

And I think shanny has shown he has no problem giving up on people for the record lol. 

32 minutes ago, TecmoSuperJoe said:

The Eagles defensive line just completely dominated and the running game was non-existent. Shanahan called those screen plays, they worked, so they kept going back to them. Sometimes it's just like that regardless what QB you have...unless it's someone like Mahomes I guess. We could also be 0-2 with Trey if he had played. Like I told J I'm more worried about years 2-14, not year 1. Well anyway, nice to get the win. 

They didn't really work though. N4l I talked about the lack of a functional screen game during the game. Now, not always his fault, that drop by deebo was egregious, but the screen game itself was pretty weak. Running on third and 8 and running (up the middle which was basically just giving up in this game) on third and 4 in the fourth trying to put a game away are not things that I believe speak highly of where this team was at mentally during this game sometimes. 

those two touchdown drives were some back breakers for sure, but man, it's really hard to win it all on the back of constant 14 play drives. Jimmy offers little to nothing in the explosive play department. 

but it was a big win for sure. Two road games down and two wins is huge. Schedule starts to get fun now and I have bigger concerns than a quarterback situation which is largely fine. 

[JIllg]

36 minutes ago, Forge said:

A third of his throws and completions were screens. If you're going to do that, you may as well play Trey, tbh. His throws down field were a mess, and his pocket footwork was pretty gnarly a couple of times (why does he just randomly get cement feet where he doesn't generate anything below the waist?)

He did make one really nice throw in a tight window late in the game that I gave him credit for, but mostly he was just bad. He'll have games like that because he's not super good or anything, but in those situations I don't mind pulling the plug for that game because unlike most, we have that ability.  

I don't really care for Jimmy working through his struggles on a personal level. I'm just as happy if we had pulled him and Lance won. We didn't, we won, so hard to argue the decision. It's a tough win and we will have games like that and we need to be able to win those games for sure. But it's okay to acknowledge that the reason we may be having those games is that sometimes Jimmy just isn't very good. 

That being said, it's easier for me to say this because I do *not* believe that if you pull Jimmy in one game to generate a spark that you have to just stick with Lance. I believe you can pull Jimmy in this game and go right back to starting him next week for green Bay. I'm in the super low minority in that belief however. 

Jimmy had two or three really bad and potentially pickable throws in the first half that could (and probably should have even when not picked off) lost us the game. If bounces went differently, Jimmy’d have been yanked. You don’t get 0 first downs in a quarter accidentally, even with the really rough start that the offensive line had. Just airmailing Aiyuk and Sanu, missing a screen badly. Screwing up the lobbed softballs Shanahan was tossing up. On the other hand, he made an absolutely nuts throw to Deebo on the first touchdown drive before the half for 40 yards and stopped messing up the easy things. He was enough to ride a better roster to victory. And Lance is a major adventure that did some amazing stuff in the preseason and tried to turn the ball over every third or fourth play. Lance also messes up the easy at an even higher rate. He gives you more variance right now - I think we’ll reach for that bag when we’re a touch more desperate and Jimmy really can’t cut it. I don’t necessarily agree with the idea - I’d have moved on from Jimmy even getting negligible assets in return and attempted to stock the roster, but it’s what we’ve decided to do. These next back to back games against the Seahawks and Packers could really make Jimmy look like not enough quarterback for the job. Then again, the Packers are missing Bakhtiari and Smith and the Seahawks defense is still a mess and we could 2019 it with the roster and Shanahan’s play calling meaning that we only need our quarterback to do just the regular things he’s been doing. Pretty sure only the Rams on the schedule are truly a class above us. And even that’s debatable - they nearly lost to a terrible Carson Wentz and a deeply uninspiring Colts team.

Edited September 20, 2021 by JIllg

[Forge]

4 minutes ago, JIllg said:

enough to ride a better roster to victory

Pretty sure this is on his family's coat of arms. 

I give Jimmy a hard time, but as I said on the main board about Baker Mayfield and Derek Carr, it's less about the player specifically and just a profound irritation and frustration with that entire QB tier

 

[JIllg]

7 minutes ago, Forge said:

Pretty sure this is on his family's coat of arms. 

I give Jimmy a hard time, but as I said on the main board about Baker Mayfield and Derek Carr, it's less about the player specifically and just a profound irritation and frustration with that entire QB tier

 

I mean, that’s definitely slander on Derek Carr this year. He’s been awesome irrespective of everything else. I have no idea what to do with Baker Mayfield. Like - I’ll pay Lamar. He can make an offense with just some dudes score points just because he’s a profoundly good athlete. He can generate tens of millions of dollars of value, even if not traditionally. Maybe he won’t win you a Super Bowl, but he’ll be valuable and keep you quite relevant even while getting paid. Baker, though, has shown more traditionally useful traits - he’s more accurate and just an overall better passer from a clean pocket. But he’s also looked mediocre to bad when not having clean situations and a great run game to lean on. He probably should be paid, but you might instantaneously have put yourself in Kirk Cousins with the Vikings land. At least neither look as potentially catastrophic as the Josh Allen contract. He’s faced two good defenses, but he’s played two really poor games. If he is actually just 2018-19 Josh Allen fundamentally (or something relatively close to it) and luckily hit the top end of his variance for a season, the Bills are absolutely toasted unless some idiot team comes in like the Colts did with Wentz. Allen could definitely figure it out, but if I’m the Bills front office, I’m sweating bullets over the next couple of weeks. 

[TecmoSuperJoe]

4 hours ago, Forge said:

They didn't really work though. N4l I talked about the lack of a functional screen game during the game. Now, not always his fault, that drop by deebo was egregious, but the screen game itself was pretty weak. Running on third and 8 and running (up the middle which was basically just giving up in this game) on third and 4 in the fourth trying to put a game away are not things that I believe speak highly of where this team was at mentally during this game sometimes. 

those two touchdown drives were some back breakers for sure, but man, it's really hard to win it all on the back of constant 14 play drives. Jimmy offers little to nothing in the explosive play department. 

but it was a big win for sure. Two road games down and two wins is huge. Schedule starts to get fun now and I have bigger concerns than a quarterback situation which is largely fine. 

I'd have to watch the game again, but I do remember two screens that went for first downs. Both on third down I think in the first half. One was to Mitchell, the other to Kittle who muscled his way for the conversion. I can't remember how many total screen pass attempts there were though. Juice dropped one he should have caught on the second offensive snap even if the throw wasn't the greatest. 

Edited September 20, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe

[J-ALL-DAY]

8 hours ago, TecmoSuperJoe said:

Isn't it nice to see Shanahan not panic and let Jimmy G work through early game struggles? Jimmy played better in the second half, and did a really good job of orchestrating the offense in a tightrope situation on the road against a tough opponent. That's a lot of pressure for a rookie QB regardless of their talent. 

Trey is gonna get his time, but maybe worry about years 2-15, not year 1 with a decent triggerman already in the lineup.

I'm FAR from a Jimmy G hater and do appreciate what he brings to the table and think he has good intangibles that lead to a lot of scrappy/close wins. However, it is EXTREMELY hard to beat the top teams wins the offense struggles to generate any big plays. The long drives are good and all, but one misstep and the entire drive could be killed. Having the big play threat allows you to make some mistakes and still overcome them with one play. Look at the Ravens/Chiefs game and just see how many big plays both QBs made. Our run game without Mostert is going to be less explosive so we need to generate big plays through the air. Jimmy HAS to be willing to take some shots as he did vs Detroit. If the offense is just struggling like this and has to have 15 or 16 play drives to score TDs, then yes, I believe it would be better if Trey plays. He will have his struggles, but he will also have his fair share of big plays every single game. At the very least, Shanny needs to find a way to get Trey in the game when the offense is not able to sustain any consistent offense. 

@ForgeI mentioned towards the end of the half that the way the Philly DL was just attacking and the corners playing off coverage, the screen game was the way to go. I know some took that as a knock on Jimmy, but I didn't look at it that way. It's just something that needed to be done. How else are you going to slow that pass rush down? And the screens worked fairly well in the second half. Got a few first downs or good yardage out of them. Not perfect, but solid. 

Through two games, Trent Williams has not allowed any QB hit and McGlinchey has allowed only one. Definitely will take that!

Hurts threw the ball 23 times, and 11 of them came Lenoir's way. That's an unreal split for any defender, but credit to the youngster but only allowing four catches...Of course he allowed the 91 yarder which is terrible but hope he can learn from that. His technique was an issue vs the Raiders in preseason and sometimes he gets caught being flat footed. Those are correctable things though. 

Armstead is eventually going to cash in on these pressures right??

 

 

[TecmoSuperJoe]

Defensive grades against the Eagles from PFF

[TecmoSuperJoe]

...Offensive...