Clarkfn's Weekly Review Week 1 @ Chicago aka The Monsoon Bowl 3.0

[clarkfn2284]

Thought I would fire this thing up again this season. I have yet to watch the full coach's film and likely wont find time to, but I did watch some clips on Lance and the game a second time. 

Week 1 @ Chicago

 

Grades

QB: B-

I thought Trey played fine. I didn't expect much from him considering the conditions they were playing in and I don't put a ton of scrutiny into his game. He had some nice things and some mistakes. The crossers to Aiyuk and Ray Ray were very good throws. Especially the Ray Ray throw, That is an elite level throw to fit in between 3 defenders like he did. He clearly throws better outside the numbers where he can use the boundary. There was a throw to I believe Dwelley that was really good and showed his freak athleticism. He climbed the pocket, eyes were up and made a throw while his body was twisted and not in sync with his feet. He obviously has to hit the Kroft throw, but the previously mentioned balls and the Jennings throw were really well done. The pick looks bad, but it was the read. He likely stared the route down, but at the end of the day it was a really good play by Eddie Jackson. It was a low ball out of trouble and Jackson just made a good play. Trey looked better running as well, however I don't want to see so many designed power runs called. 

RB: B

Mitchell was very good, he had solid averages and the run game was hurt by his absence. Wilson doesn't appear to have the ability to cut like he used or he just flat out wasn't seeing it. It's mind blowing to me that Mason didn't get at least a look. Deebo will land in this category as well since he plays both positions. I thought for the most part Deebo looked good out of the backfield. My concern is that it takes him out of the pass game too much and I believe the book is out on how the Niners want to run Deebo. They want to get wide with sweeps. Teams know this and when Deebo is out there they are going to look for it. Im hopeful that we will start seeing Shanny use Deebo in the pass game out of the backfield.

WR: B

Aiyuk was good, wish he would have seen more targets. Jennings showed again why Kyle likes him. This was never really a game for the WR group to be showcased unfortunately. I found it odd that Gray was inactive.

TE: C

Dwelley had the same amount of targets as Aiyuk......yuck. 

OL: C+

This is where I may differ from a lot of people. I feel like the OL was good enough. They got the run game going early, they gave Trey time really until it became an obvious passing down in terrible elements late. We had our weekly McG on roller skates moment which came at a terrible time and Banks had one terrible rep where he went down and held. I thought other than that the IOL held up nicely. On the play where Trey climbed the pocket and hit Dwelley, Brendel missed helping Banks because he had two bailing LB's showing blitz, but didn't recognize that it wasnt man. It ended up being zone blitz and he needed to slide left to help, but instead ended up blocking nobody and actually got turned around when Lance climbed the pocket. 

DL: C

I thought the D Line was average at best. Only 2 QB sacks. Only had consistent pressure early on the first couple of drives. Armstead and Kinlaw were just non factors after the first couple of drives. I felt like the whole D Line disappeared. Omenihu blew up a play at some point and if I recall correctly it resulted in the INT from Fields. The D Line has to be better.

LB: D

Good early, terrible late. Story of the defense in this one. Maybe Im harder on this group because the expectation is higher, but Greenlaw killed them multiple times. Facemask penalties are always rough. I dont believe guys are trying to do it, sometimes it just happens. In this case it just happened, he was wrapping and his hand got the facemask. The other penalties were rough and can be controlled by he and Azeez. This group will be better, but this was a pretty bad showing.

DB: B+

This group was lockdown all day. Ward had the 3rd down hold which is inexcusable because never at any point should anyone need to hold Pettis. This may end up being a strength all season. 

S: B

Gipson has to catch that pick. Huf was great in the first half, but I was unimpressed in the second half. He blew the Pettis coverage chasing the play. I understand that it seems unlikely for a QB to escape left and stop and throw all the way back right, but you cant abandon backside players being overzealous. I still don't know what happened on the TD to St Brown, but I have also heard that Huf and Greenlaw broke coverage on that as well. I think long term Huf will be fine, but coverage is going to be a liability for him. The question will always be the risk reward with his gambles. He sees things well or believes he does and fires. Teams will learn that and try to take advantage of him.

ST: B+

Gould is Gould and Wish was fine. He had the really slow early punt that caused Pepper to be downfield and then missed one later, but he was still fine. 

Coaching: D

The team didn't appear prepared. Lack of discipline, lack of urgency and an inability to play a full game hurt this team. More so, Kyle sucked as a play caller in the second half. He didn't seem to have an answer in the run game outside of Lance once Mitchell was down. The unwillingness to give Mason a look is inexcusable, especially after seeing what Wilson was giving him. They went from calling play action crossers to middle of the field digs and a short passing game concept. This has been widely broadcast to be a weakness of Trey's, but Kyle insisted on square peg into round hole. Kyle tends to have weird moments where he loses all ability to adjust and call plays when the plan falls apart. It has been an issue forever with no solution in sight.

 

Overall it was a tale of two halves. This group has to and will be better. I expect them to clean up the unforced errors and get back to normal. It will be an up and down year because asking every facet to be great while Trey tries to get his feet under him is a big ask.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2022 by clarkfn2284
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[John232]

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