Conference Championship: San Francisco 49ers vs Detroit Lions

[jonnguy2015]

On the one hand I feel bad for Lions fans, especially given our own history with Shanahan and Harbaugh before, but on the other hand as far as I'm concerned the Lions kinda owed us one after trading Stafford to the Rams in the middle of the night to stop Shanahan from making a counteroffer. Glad we avoided losing a third NFC championship and becoming the only losers of that trade a third time

[adamq]

 

[J-ALL-DAY]

Just now, adamq said:

 

On 3rd downs, I want to see Ward matched up with Kelce. 

I'll trust Luter on the outside opposite of Thomas against the Chiefs WRs. 

[adamq]

1 minute ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

On 3rd downs, I want to see Ward matched up with Kelce. 

I'll trust Luter on the outside opposite of Thomas against the Chiefs WRs. 

I wouldn't mind that while shading Rice to prevent sideline acrobatics. None of their other WRs are a threat unless they get behind the defense

[J-ALL-DAY]

One thing I hope people understand now is that while Hufanga missed tackles, he was being super aggressive and doing what he was supposed to do as often times the runner would slow down for someone else to make the tackle. Sherman mentioned it saying that's what they are taught and that is something that has been missing from this defense since his injury. He just diagnoses the plays so quickly and he doesn't hesitate. We are just so reactive instead of proactive on the defensive end of the ball and there's too much confusion. The Lions dropped and missed some plays in the 2nd half that made our defensive performance look better than what it actually was. Need to clean it up for the Super Bowl.

[JIllg]

1 minute ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

One thing I hope people understand now is that while Hufanga missed tackles, he was being super aggressive and doing what he was supposed to do as often times the runner would slow down for someone else to make the tackle. Sherman mentioned it saying that's what they are taught and that is something that has been missing from this defense since his injury. He just diagnoses the plays so quickly and he doesn't hesitate. We are just so reactive instead of proactive on the defensive end of the ball and there's too much confusion. The Lions dropped and missed some plays in the 2nd half that made our defensive performance look better than what it actually was. Need to clean it up for the Super Bowl.

This. In the majority of plays, we are 1-gapping on defense. That means that linebackers and safeties cannot afford to hesitate or they won't reach their assigned gap by the time the ball gets there. 1-gapping theoretical benefits are simple: the technique allows your players to be aggressive and do the 1 thing they are tasked with at maximum velocity. But it is also simple in that if you don't handle that gap, no one else is coming and the play is getting to the second level. Huf definitely was a part of that. I like Gipson, but he's having to play that strong safety role and he does not have the same gusto. Ditto for Oren Burks / whoever the third linebacker is depending on injury. A good part of the Lions and Packers success was getting in 12 and 21 personnel and dragging our third linebacker on to the field. Whenever the Lions brought on the third wide receiver, I breathed a sigh of relief because man do their non-St.Brown/Williams receivers not cut it. The Chiefs have loved 12 personnel since realizing that their wide receivers are largely poo. They are going to do just the same.

[J-ALL-DAY]

3 minutes ago, JIllg said:

This. In the majority of plays, we are 1-gapping on defense. That means that linebackers and safeties cannot afford to hesitate or they won't reach their assigned gap by the time the ball gets there. 1-gapping theoretical benefits are simple: the technique allows your players to be aggressive and do the 1 thing they are tasked with at maximum velocity. But it is also simple in that if you don't handle that gap, no one else is coming and the play is getting to the second level. Huf definitely was a part of that. I like Gipson, but he's having to play that strong safety role and he does not have the same gusto. Ditto for Oren Burks / whoever the third linebacker is depending on injury. A good part of the Lions and Packers success was getting in 12 and 21 personnel and dragging our third linebacker on to the field. Whenever the Lions brought on the third wide receiver, I breathed a sigh of relief because man do their non-St.Brown/Williams receivers not cut it. The Chiefs have loved 12 personnel since realizing that their wide receivers are largely poo. They are going to do just the same.

Exactly, you cannot be hesitant and run this scheme. It's just stupid and it's easy pickings for the defense. Hufanga got hate for getting tipped INTs and missing tackles but the dude was a menace and as smart as anyone on the defense. That man is DAMN good. This year he played cleaner ball and got some hate for that. We were #1 in the league in preventing big passing and running plays when he was on the field. That has dropped since he got hurt. We really need this man to be at full health and get in form to have a chance to reach the SB. 

[757-NINER]

1 minute ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

Exactly, you cannot be hesitant and run this scheme. It's just stupid and it's easy pickings for the defense. Hufanga got hate for getting tipped INTs and missing tackles but the dude was a menace and as smart as anyone on the defense. That man is DAMN good. This year he played cleaner ball and got some hate for that. We were #1 in the league in preventing big passing and running plays when he was on the field. That has dropped since he got hurt. We really need this man to be at full health and get in form to have a chance to reach the SB. 

I'll readily admit his missed tackles infuriated me to no end.

That and his poor angles to the ball at times.

But you can't help but notice the drop in the overall play of the defense since his absence.

Tig might get there eventually but right now, I'm not seeing it.

He's better than Ryan but that's not saying much.

 

[J-ALL-DAY]

51 minutes ago, 757-NINER said:

I'll readily admit his missed tackles infuriated me to no end.

That and his poor angles to the ball at times.

But you can't help but notice the drop in the overall play of the defense since his absence.

Tig might get there eventually but right now, I'm not seeing it.

He's better than Ryan but that's not saying much.

The bad angles he took were far and between though. Most of the time the angle was not the issue. He is naturally an aggressive player and sometimes misses the tackle but at the very least, he slows the runner down. That is not happening at all the last two weeks, and really since his absence. 

 The Chiefs game is going to come down to how we start and if we can take a early lead and always play from being ahead. If not, the Chiefs will end up having too much success on the ground and will be able to limit the possessions and make it awfully hard on us to comeback on them. 

Big Deebo and CMC games needed. 

[757-NINER]

14 minutes ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

The bad angles he took were far and between though. Most of the time the angle was not the issue. He is naturally an aggressive player and sometimes misses the tackle but at the very least, he slows the runner down. That is not happening at all the last two weeks, and really since his absence. 

 The Chiefs game is going to come down to how we start and if we can take a early lead and always play from being ahead. If not, the Chiefs will end up having too much success on the ground and will be able to limit the possessions and make it awfully hard on us to comeback on them. 

Big Deebo and CMC games needed. 

I was mostly referring to his angles to the ball, in coverage.

But your point is a valid one.

[Forge]

The ringer:

"This comeback was fake"

And

"What does Brock Purdy do well?"

(FYI, the answer was stress management and no fear)

[jonnguy2015]

1 hour ago, J-ALL-DAY said:

 We really need this man to be at full health and get in form to have a chance to reach the SB. 

He certainly helps, but uh we just reached it without him

[J-ALL-DAY]

10 minutes ago, jonnguy2015 said:

He certainly helps, but uh we just reached it without him

Correct, but we could have easily lost the last two games. We have a big problem without him on the field and there will be some players leaving and no guarantee the replacements will be better. 

I stand by what I said. 

[John232]

30 minutes ago, Forge said:

The ringer:

"This comeback was fake"

And

"What does Brock Purdy do well?"

(FYI, the answer was stress management and no fear)

How mad was Ruiz? Haven’t listened to it

[JIllg]

15 minutes ago, Forge said:

The ringer:

"This comeback was fake"

And

"What does Brock Purdy do well?"

(FYI, the answer was stress management and no fear)

XD. I mean, it would be false to not acknowledge the luck involved in the comeback. Two high leverage fourth down stops were good work, but also just high variance events that could have gone the other way. Going empty and throwing is a very weird decision for the situation given our run defense and trouble covering guys on check downs. Recovering the one fumble in the game is positive fumble luck. The ball bouncing off a defender's face was very fortunate.

On the other hand, Brock had to make some truly heroic plays to keep the team in the game. The Lions have a bad pass rush, but Feliciano and McKivitz were getting killed again (ah, the right side of the line). Because of this, he made some really crazy off schedule plays (the play in the first half that Aiyuk dropped, the Jennings catch on the field goal drive, the Juice toe tap on the sideline) and really impressive scrambling plays.

Brock was pressured on 42 percent of dropbacks. Some of that's on him - he did worse against blitzes than he did on non-blitzes (but not nearly as calamitously badly as Goff). Brock wasn't great on those pressured dropbacks, but he was a functioning quarterback - he put up 8 ypa on those plays and the INT was because he got hit as he threw. Goff was under pressure less (and was blitzed much less in spite of being terrible against the blitz), but when he was under pressure, he melted into goo. When Goff was under pressure, he posted a downright dire 2 ypa.