Week 2: San Francisco 49ers at Los Angeles Rams

[J-ALL-DAY]

1 minute ago, 757-NINER said:

This.

Even his very first throw to Kittle was behind him and Kittle had to reach back, across his body to make the grab.

It definitely set the tone for his shaky accuracy throughout the game.

He had throws to Deebo, Jennings and one to Aiyuk that were inaccurate even though two of them were completed. Then he missed Deebo on a slant on a 3rd down.

Again, this happens to pretty much every QB so not a huge deal. Purdy still did some good things and was often times making the right decision with where to go with the ball. He has to be better when we play the likes of the Eagles or Cowboys or Ravens etc, but he was still good enough against a solid team in the Rams. 

[NinerNation21]

I thought this game was a weird one, despite controlling the game for most of the second half. It was an ugly and sloppy win. 

Purdy was off all game. Normally, he has zero probably hitting guys in the numbers, but yesterday his accuracy and touch were subpar. Definitely the worst game of his career so far. But even with that, he protected the ball and hit some quality throws to keep the chains moving. 

This was his second game in a row of hitting a deep back-shoulder throw, which is interesting because if he can nail down that throw and add it to his arsenal, he's going to be even more dangerous. We've never had a guy who could hit back shoulder throws as long as I've been watching the 49ers. 

It was all about CMC and Deebo yesterday. I think Aiyuk's injury early in the game changed the gameplan and required Deebo to carry the load in the passing game. 

It seems like Deebo and Purdy are not quite at the comfort level of Aiyuk and Purdy. Aiyuk is 100% Purdy's go-to guy. I think Kittle is still dealing with his groin injury because he's been around the LoS for most of both games so far. Not much deep stuff to Kittle yet and I think that might be by design until Kittle feels 100%.

We also haven't dialed up anything to Juice yet, but knowing Shanny, he's probably putting specific looks on film with Juice so he can bust out a deep PA pass down the sideline to him later in the year. 

 

[clarkfn2284]

Not Purdy's best performance, but he continues to make me a believer more and more with his anticipation on his throws, his willingness to give his guys a chance in 1 on 1's and his overall competitive fire. The throws to Jennings are the stand out throws to me. The pocket slide and throw before Jennings was out of his break was stellar and the the 1 on 1 ball off the leak is a throw JG wasn't attempting. I also think he had a throw to Aiyuk where he slid to his right jumped up in the pocket and out it on him on the run off of one foot that was impressive. He sees the field really well it seems. 

[NinerNation21]

37 minutes ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Not Purdy's best performance, but he continues to make me a believer more and more with his anticipation on his throws, his willingness to give his guys a chance in 1 on 1's and his overall competitive fire. The throws to Jennings are the stand out throws to me. The pocket slide and throw before Jennings was out of his break was stellar and the the 1 on 1 ball off the leak is a throw JG wasn't attempting. I also think he had a throw to Aiyuk where he slid to his right jumped up in the pocket and out it on him on the run off of one foot that was impressive. He sees the field really well it seems. 

Yeah, I'm all in on Purdy being the QB moving forward and I think he'll end up with a quality season.

Yesterday, he looked a lot like Jimmy, but he didn't have Jimmy's signature stupid turnover. We're in good hands with Brock. The right choice was made at QB.

[clarkfn2284]

42 minutes ago, NinerNation21 said:

Yeah, I'm all in on Purdy being the QB moving forward and I think he'll end up with a quality season.

Yesterday, he looked a lot like Jimmy, but he didn't have Jimmy's signature stupid turnover. We're in good hands with Brock. The right choice was made at QB.

Yeah, in fact, he didn't even have a single turnover worthy throw. He managed it well yesterday. I liked his aggressiveness down the field and hope he can get that accuracy figured out because if he can hit that consistently this offense may be unstoppable.  

[757-NINER]

47 minutes ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Yeah, in fact, he didn't even have a single turnover worthy throw. He managed it well yesterday. I liked his aggressiveness down the field and hope he can get that accuracy figured out because if he can hit that consistently this offense may be unstoppable.  

That's really all this offense is missing.

Being able to hit those deeper routes at a decent clip would open up soooooooo much more for Shanny to dial up.

[Chrissooner49er]

9 minutes ago, 757-NINER said:

That's really all this offense is missing.

Being able to hit those deeper routes at a decent clip would open up soooooooo much more for Shanny to dial up.

And teams would have to reconsider how to approach Purdy if he could pull that off. So many have said it, but it is so true: Purdy is the best at processing the field so quickly and reading the defense that Kyle has had while HC. Instead of Kyle having to teach a QB step by step, this QB studied. Going through the maturing process at Iowa State helped, I am sure. What Brock needed was better supporting talent than what he had as a Cyclone. 

[NinerNation21]

1 hour ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Yeah, in fact, he didn't even have a single turnover worthy throw. He managed it well yesterday. I liked his aggressiveness down the field and hope he can get that accuracy figured out because if he can hit that consistently this offense may be unstoppable.  

Yeah honestly I think the fact that he kept missing big throws and was not hitting guys the way he normally does but yet was still looking to hit plays downfield is a great sign. 

He's legit.

[oldman9er]

 

and on this note, just read:

 

[FrantikRam]

8 hours ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Again, if Williams just catches the ball, it was going to be 3rd and 10. Your first TD came on a weak personal foul call on Greenlaw as well. If that's not called, the entire drive is different as it becomes 2nd and 14 instead of first and goal from the 7. 

Stafford and the Rams offense started out well, no different from the last meeting in LA. But overall, the Rams were held in check from getting any big gains and that ended up playing into the hands of the defense. Stafford had less than 6 YPA and the team averaged less than 5 YPP. You will almost always take that defensively. It was just annoying how the Rams kept converting all those 3rd downs to keep drives going. 

 

I don't know that we can call that weak - I mean we couldn't really see it, but Sanchez's remarks made it seem like it was a good call and if anything a bit dirty by Greenlaw.

The first drive for us where Bosa was holding Higbee (something else Sanchez commented on) helped hold us to a FG and given how we weren't being stopped, fair to wonder if that bad call (could have at least been offsetting holds) stopped us from getting a TD.

Even if Williams catch "only" sets up 3rd and 10 - we were pretty good on 3rd down so that could have been a conversion - at the very least it's a FG for us. Those two alone account for a 7 point swing.

Also amazes me how we got called for holding a few times but apparently the Niners didn't hold Aaron Donald the whole game (Niners weren't called for holding until the game was essentially over while we were called twice, one of which like I said, Sanchez said was bogus).

 

All to say, I disagree. I mean the better team won and obviously Purdy missed some opportunities, but it was VERY different than the last game of 2021. Y'all couldn't cover our WRs minus Kupp which has never been an issue. The OL held up better than it ever has, and we played the run well minus the 51 yarder (which again is significant because in past years the Niners having so many 12 play drives was demoralizing). Without looking I'd bet we forced more punts in this one than we have from the Niners in a while too. It was essentially unforced errors/lucky bounces (what's the difference really between Williams' drop to INT and the fumbled snap? Both just pure luck, both went the Niners way).

[J-ALL-DAY]

1 minute ago, FrantikRam said:

 

I don't know that we can call that weak - I mean we couldn't really see it, but Sanchez's remarks made it seem like it was a good call and if anything a bit dirty by Greenlaw.

The first drive for us where Bosa was holding Higbee (something else Sanchez commented on) helped hold us to a FG and given how we weren't being stopped, fair to wonder if that bad call (could have at least been offsetting holds) stopped us from getting a TD.

Even if Williams catch "only" sets up 3rd and 10 - we were pretty good on 3rd down so that could have been a conversion - at the very least it's a FG for us. Those two alone account for a 7 point swing.

Also amazes me how we got called for holding a few times but apparently the Niners didn't hold Aaron Donald the whole game (Niners weren't called for holding until the game was essentially over while we were called twice, one of which like I said, Sanchez said was bogus).

 

All to say, I disagree. I mean the better team won and obviously Purdy missed some opportunities, but it was VERY different than the last game of 2021. Y'all couldn't cover our WRs minus Kupp which has never been an issue. The OL held up better than it ever has, and we played the run well minus the 51 yarder (which again is significant because in past years the Niners having so many 12 play drives was demoralizing). Without looking I'd bet we forced more punts in this one than we have from the Niners in a while too. It was essentially unforced errors/lucky bounces (what's the difference really between Williams' drop to INT and the fumbled snap? Both just pure luck, both went the Niners way).

It was a weak call, I don't care what Sanchez says lol. What did your eyes tell you on that play? 

Fair point on the Bosa hold, though there was case for that...and vice versa. 

I think the stacking formation and the crossers really was making it difficult on the corners but overall they were playing off coverage quite a bit and McVay/Stafford took advantage of that. What this defense has done so well against the Rams is prevent the big plays...and that happened again yesterday. The offense in the first half was great but if you have to keep relying on 8-12 play drives, than you open yourself up to making mistakes that kill drives...and that's what ended up happening in the 2nd half. We used to have to go through this with Jimmy G for years. 

I mean you guys forced more punts in part to turning it over twice while the Niners had none. The Niners offense averaged 6.8 YPP while the Rams offense averaged 4.9 YPP. That's a significant difference right there. One offense was far more explosive than the other. 

All this to say that the Rams play hard and with Stafford healthy again, they should be factors all season long. I mentioned that before the game. My response was to the flawed what if's from @stl4life07, that's all. 

[clarkfn2284]

1 hour ago, Chrissooner49er said:

And teams would have to reconsider how to approach Purdy if he could pull that off. So many have said it, but it is so true: Purdy is the best at processing the field so quickly and reading the defense that Kyle has had while HC. Instead of Kyle having to teach a QB step by step, this QB studied. Going through the maturing process at Iowa State helped, I am sure. What Brock needed was better supporting talent than what he had as a Cyclone. 

Playing matters. The time at Iowa State is a big deal because there are going to be very few if any situations that Purdy has not been through. It shows with how he approaches and handles his mistakes. Studying is always significant, but we wont ever truly know the amount of time put in there. We do know he played 4 years and that has allowed him to develop more and make mistakes to learn from. He also played in a big time Conference against top tier talent. A lot of that makes a difference.

[Chrissooner49er]

16 hours ago, clarkfn2284 said:

Playing matters. The time at Iowa State is a big deal because there are going to be very few if any situations that Purdy has not been through. It shows with how he approaches and handles his mistakes. Studying is always significant, but we wont ever truly know the amount of time put in there. We do know he played 4 years and that has allowed him to develop more and make mistakes to learn from. He also played in a big time Conference against top tier talent. A lot of that makes a difference.

Yup. This basically shows a major flaw in picking Lance as he is still sooooooooo raw. Trubisky also proves the need for multiple seasons of production at the college level--I was REALLY big on Trubs and thought he would be THE guy from that draft. 🙄

[N4L]

https://x.com/ShaneStern/status/1704091992735600969?s=20

 

https://x.com/ShaneStern/status/1704091992735600969?s=20

 

[GW21]

24 minutes ago, Chrissooner49er said:

Yup. This basically shows a major flaw in picking Lance as he is still sooooooooo raw. Trubisky also proves the need for multiple seasons of production at the college level--I was REALLY big on Trubs and thought he would be THE guy from that draft. 🙄

I'm starting to buy into Parcells rules for drafting a QB more and more as the years go by, but at the same time, there will still be guys like Matt Stafford, Tua, Cam Newton,  etc. that don't fully fulfill his rules and have success. Cam was an outlier in that he had success with very few games played in college and it certainly can happen, but the risk goes up with that. 

Bill Parcells rules for drafting a QB: 
-be a three year starter.
-be a senior & graduate from college.
-start at least 30 games and win at least 23.
-2-1 td/int ratio.
-at least 60% completion percentage.

BTW Brock hit all the marks laid out by The Big Tuna. 

I think I would axe be a senior & graduate from college from his requirements for sure, but everything else seems to be a very good indicator of future success. I'm sure that there are plenty of players that hit all these marks that didn't amount to anything in the NFL as well, which is why it's so fun/stressful trying to find a QB.