Week 16 GDT - Tennessee Titans vs San Francisco 49ers

[Justone2]

Just now, J-ALL-DAY said:

It's a stable of the original cover-3 but really it's just how good and sound our LBs/safeties play. There is a reason the pass defense looks so bad when either or even both of the starting safeties are out. Ward/Tartt/Warner are damn good in coverage. Ward and Warner are legitimately super elite at their positions and do so much that the PFF grades don't pick up. 

Seriously, I can't recall the last time Ward has been badly beat in coverage. He's lining up 20 times in the slot in single coverage and still doesn't get thrown at much and when he does, it's usually with him having great coverage.

PAY THAT MAN! 

Ward has been great for years and finally the last few years seems to shaken off the injury bug. He is one of those guys where if you watch the game you don't see him much but when you actually focus on him he makes this D tick.

[J-ALL-DAY]

12 minutes ago, Justone2 said:

Ward has been great for years and finally the last few years seems to shaken off the injury bug. He is one of those guys where if you watch the game you don't see him much but when you actually focus on him he makes this D tick.

He's the most talented in coverage that we have and Tartt is legitimatley the smartest. His IQ is top notch and he's almost always in the right spot. These two work so well off each other.

With Hufanga not playing, I wonder what they do on certain nickel situations where they would have Ward come up in the slot and Tartt come up in the box? Put Wilson back there? Or not use that defense all that much?

[Forge]

Watching Ambry Thomas...you know, I'm not all that concerned. He definitely needs a lot of practice with regards to ball tracking...I'd have him do 100 snaps each practice in 15-20 yard jump ball coverage situations against Jennings lol...but he's fairly sticky in coverage. I really don't see him getting badly beat in coverage during the routes. At worst, I think he could be a pretty good slot corner if he never learns to track the ball over his shoulder. I

[J-ALL-DAY]

46 minutes ago, Forge said:

Watching Ambry Thomas...you know, I'm not all that concerned. He definitely needs a lot of practice with regards to ball tracking...I'd have him do 100 snaps each practice in 15-20 yard jump ball coverage situations against Jennings lol...but he's fairly sticky in coverage. I really don't see him getting badly beat in coverage during the routes. At worst, I think he could be a pretty good slot corner if he never learns to track the ball over his shoulder. I

He's just much better in press man at the moment. Very hard for him to accelerate from his back pedal as it does not come natural to him. That's why Chase would just blow by him even though he was playing 10 yards off the LOS. He will be fine going forward, this season was always going to be rough for him due to the change of scheme and not playing last season. He's one of those types of players that make a big jump from year 1 to year 2. 

[J-ALL-DAY]

So yeah, Ward is never going to make the Pro Bowl unfortunately…. 

[49erurtaza]

33 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

So yeah, Ward is never going to make the Pro Bowl unfortunately…. 

Is Ward the best safety in the NFL right now? 

[J-ALL-DAY]

9 hours ago, 49erurtaza said:

Is Ward the best safety in the NFL right now? 

Elite tackler and the best pure coverage safety in the game. I don't know about the best as others may be better playmakers or have better range but Ward is certainly a top safety in the league. Which other safety can come up and lock it up in the slot like Ward does on a weekly basis? 

[DTMW78]

Any news on Al-Shaair?

Will he be playing tonight?

[J-ALL-DAY]

52 minutes ago, DTMW78 said:

Any news on Al-Shaair?

Will he be playing tonight?

Won't know until 7 pm est. 

So Julio and Brown will be playing today. Titans are beat up at the OL, but have their two WRs back at the same time at last. Going to be a tough game for sure, but we have to stop the run and can't allow any plays over the top. 

[rudyZ]

16 hours ago, Forge said:

Watching Ambry Thomas...you know, I'm not all that concerned. He definitely needs a lot of practice with regards to ball tracking...I'd have him do 100 snaps each practice in 15-20 yard jump ball coverage situations against Jennings lol...but he's fairly sticky in coverage. I really don't see him getting badly beat in coverage during the routes. At worst, I think he could be a pretty good slot corner if he never learns to track the ball over his shoulder. I

First game was bad. But last sunday, I thought he was very solid. The Gage TD was simply Ryan throwing a great ball and Gage making a great catch. I think he was called for a penalty on that play, too, that was declined, but I thought it was a bad call too. He barely grabbed the jersey for a split second, nowhere near as bad as what Richard Sherman or most elite CBs in the league do. I guess you gotta pay your dues before refs let those go. But his coverage was pretty good all game. His almost-interception-turned-almost-catch was great coverage with again a great play by Pitts. You can't blame a player for an opponent making a highlight reel catch. His job is to impede, and he did just that. It looks like he's trending upwards, and if he keeps doing so, then I'm glad the coaching staff stuck with him.

[rudyZ]

12 hours ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

So yeah, Ward is never going to make the Pro Bowl unfortunately…. 

That's good news for us, in a way. Less expensive.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

BTW, random, but funny how the narrative regarding Buckner leaving a leadership void has vanished now that the wins have started piling up. I was just going back and listening a bit to Laura Britt and Matt Maiocco's post game analysis of the Colts game talking about lack of leaders on the team, Jimmy's checked out, and all these all other irrelevant sensationalist platitudes...when in reality it was just not executing and having bad injury, penalty, and turnover luck on the field. That was it. This entire debriefing by the scribes is like a trainwreck now. Oof. 

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by TecmoSuperJoe

[rudyZ]

15 minutes ago, TecmoSuperJoe said:

BTW, random, but funny how the narrative regarding Buckner leaving a leadership void has vanished now that the wins have started piling up. I was just going back and listening a bit to Laura Britt and Matt Maiocco's post game analysis of the Colts game talking about lack of leaders on the team, Jimmy's checked out, and all these all other irrelevant sensationalist platitudes...when in reality it was just not executing and having bad injury, penalty, and turnover luck on the field. That was it. This entire debriefing by the scribes is like a trainwreck now. Oof. 

 

 

Wasn't it before the Rams games that the players had their players-only meeting, the day before the game... I think sometimes players have to step up and take the leadership role. Was it truly what was lacking early on? I don't know, but I'm not ready to say it wasn't. But it wasn't just that. I think our 4-loss streak was a perfect storm of smaller things that added up to a big problem. That team was going nowhere. Some of it was leadership. A lot of it was injuries, and lack of depth (because the FO thought it could go into the season redshirting most if not all the draft class, while having injury-prone players at key positions), bad game planning, bad execution (which I also think relates to the depth... starting a CB that was signed 10 days earlier is never a great idea)... 

You never talk about leadership when you're winning, or when you do, it's to praise how great the leadership is. But I think we may overrate it when we're winning, and it's easy to underrate it when we're losing. Was there overreaction in calling out a lack of leadership back then? A little. But I do think there was something there. The players have truly rallied since then, and maybe I have my timing wrong about that team meeting (maybe it was before the bears game, or was it the John Lynch speech... I honestly don't remember), but I think the turn-around came from the players themselves, and that tells me someone or several people stepped up.

[TecmoSuperJoe]

42 minutes ago, rudyZ said:

 

Wasn't it before the Rams games that the players had their players-only meeting, the day before the game... I think sometimes players have to step up and take the leadership role. Was it truly what was lacking early on? I don't know, but I'm not ready to say it wasn't. But it wasn't just that. I think our 4-loss streak was a perfect storm of smaller things that added up to a big problem. That team was going nowhere. Some of it was leadership. A lot of it was injuries, and lack of depth (because the FO thought it could go into the season redshirting most if not all the draft class, while having injury-prone players at key positions), bad game planning, bad execution (which I also think relates to the depth... starting a CB that was signed 10 days earlier is never a great idea)... 

You never talk about leadership when you're winning, or when you do, it's to praise how great the leadership is. But I think we may overrate it when we're winning, and it's easy to underrate it when we're losing. Was there overreaction in calling out a lack of leadership back then? A little. But I do think there was something there. The players have truly rallied since then, and maybe I have my timing wrong about that team meeting (maybe it was before the bears game, or was it the John Lynch speech... I honestly don't remember), but I think the turn-around came from the players themselves, and that tells me someone or several people stepped up.

I thought it was a defense-only players meeting, but I can't remember. I suppose having a group talk at that time certainly didn't hurt. Something else, and I can't remember which loss it was after, but Jimmy was asked a question that prompted a response along the lines of "we're a pretty tight group" which I've heard him say what feels like several times coming off a win or loss in recent years. I'm wondering (and perhaps this is where we'll differ) if the team leadership was as fractured as Laura and Matt had so much conviction believing it was. Just seems a lot of these narratives conveniently crop up when a team is losing, because it can't JUST be not executing plus bad injury, penalty, and turnover luck. There always has to be some bedtime story fable predicated on people's character instead of the team just not playing well irrespective of the factors like "leadership". I guess sometimes these type of takes reek from the Mike Singletary school of hard knocks for me, and it seems looney tunes how far it's peddled from some folks with a platform. Ahh wells, just an opinion after all.

[Forge]

Saints starting Ian book this week