The Pre-Game Thread: Wk.7 vs SF
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
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Andrews returning is huge. HUGE. Mason will help as well. The OL should be in good shape and ready to steamroll.
I can't wait to see Uche play.
I can't wait to see Uche play.
Byron Cowart is also back at practice and off the COVID list per all of the beat writers.
In terms of SF, they are a talented but extremely banged up team. Jimmy G just started to look like himself on Sunday night after his high ankle sprain. Here is the list of notable 49ers on IR or Reserve/PUP: Nick Bosa, Solomon Thomas, Zeke Ansah, Tevin Coleman, Dee Ford, Ben Garland, Richard Sherman, Jalen Hurd, Weston Richburg, Jordan Reed, Tavon Austin.
The 49ers offense will attack the defense in a number of different ways with a number of players. Expect a balanced attack by Kyle Shanahan with a lot of play action and getting the ball in space to his athletes. They will run the ball with multiple backs, receivers, and even Kittle. I would also expect Shanahan to use Aiyuk and Deebo out of the backfield to run routes against Bentley. Shanahan is one of the best in the game at exposing opposing defense's weaknesses. Expect some jet sweeps and reverses to Deebo and Aiyuk as well. Also expect Kittle to get some screen passes along with his usual routes. I would expect we will see him double teamed when split out and played very physically when in-line similar to how they treated Kelce. Make Kendrick Bourne, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel beat you down the field.
Defensively, they have a very talented LB unit with Kwon Alexander and Fred Warner. But, their pass rush is not nearly what it was with a healthy Bosa and Ford. The OL(as long as Andrews and Mason are back) should be able to both protect Newton and open up holes for the backs(SF is giving up an average of 4.1 yards per carry). Their secondary was struggling up until last week when they held LAR to only 16 points. Jason Verrett has been a revelation for them as he's finally healthy and playing like a #1 CB.
After Sunday's complete debacle, this is a must win for the Pats if they have any ideas about winning the division. With Buffalo playing the Jets, the Pats could be looking at falling behind Buffalo by 2.5 games heading into next week's head-to-head matchup.
In terms of SF, they are a talented but extremely banged up team. Jimmy G just started to look like himself on Sunday night after his high ankle sprain. Here is the list of notable 49ers on IR or Reserve/PUP: Nick Bosa, Solomon Thomas, Zeke Ansah, Tevin Coleman, Dee Ford, Ben Garland, Richard Sherman, Jalen Hurd, Weston Richburg, Jordan Reed, Tavon Austin.
The 49ers offense will attack the defense in a number of different ways with a number of players. Expect a balanced attack by Kyle Shanahan with a lot of play action and getting the ball in space to his athletes. They will run the ball with multiple backs, receivers, and even Kittle. I would also expect Shanahan to use Aiyuk and Deebo out of the backfield to run routes against Bentley. Shanahan is one of the best in the game at exposing opposing defense's weaknesses. Expect some jet sweeps and reverses to Deebo and Aiyuk as well. Also expect Kittle to get some screen passes along with his usual routes. I would expect we will see him double teamed when split out and played very physically when in-line similar to how they treated Kelce. Make Kendrick Bourne, Brandon Aiyuk, and Deebo Samuel beat you down the field.
Defensively, they have a very talented LB unit with Kwon Alexander and Fred Warner. But, their pass rush is not nearly what it was with a healthy Bosa and Ford. The OL(as long as Andrews and Mason are back) should be able to both protect Newton and open up holes for the backs(SF is giving up an average of 4.1 yards per carry). Their secondary was struggling up until last week when they held LAR to only 16 points. Jason Verrett has been a revelation for them as he's finally healthy and playing like a #1 CB.
After Sunday's complete debacle, this is a must win for the Pats if they have any ideas about winning the division. With Buffalo playing the Jets, the Pats could be looking at falling behind Buffalo by 2.5 games heading into next week's head-to-head matchup.
I don't know about it being a "must win." There's a lot of season remaining. But it is a "right the ship" week. I'd settle for a team that looks like it can be a playoff team, as we saw in the first three weeks of the season.
If they want to make the playoffs this is a must win. You could make the argument that this banged up 49ers team at home is the easiest game they'll get from now on aside from both Jets matchups.
Yeah, this is pretty much a must win for me. Lose this and you are 2-4 with games at Buffalo and Baltimore at home looming. This is not a talented enough team to reel off a ton of consecutive wins so I think this one is very important. That putrid Denver loss really did kill a lot of our margin for error.
The Niners have been wrecked by injury this year. In addition to the guys you list above, Raheem Mostert (their best RB) is likely to go on IR, Kwon Alexander missed the Rams game, K'Wuan Williams (their best slot corner) and Dontae Johnson (a backup CB) are out. Jaquaski Tartt (the starting SS) left the Rams game early, Trent Williams (the LT) has a sprained ankle, and it's unclear if either will play this week.
So the Niners are missing:
- Their top two edge rushers
- Their 1st, 3rd, and 4th CBs.
- Their first and second-string centers
- Their top two RBs
- Their starting DT.
- Their second-best LB
- Their second-best TE.
- Plus their starting LT and starting SS are questionable.
Plus, Garoppolo, Kittle, Samuel, Aiyuk, and Moseley have all missed games this season.
Like all Shanahan teams, the strength of the 49ers offense is outside zone run from a million different formations plus tons of variations and fakes and counters based off it. No offense is better at stretching a defense horizontally in so many different ways (outside runs, counters, reverses, screens, fakes of all the above leading to passes the other direction, etc.). And no offense is better at using formations and motions to create mismatches and favorable blocking angles. The 49ers excel at using shifts, fakes, and play design to get their playmakers in space, and they are a great YAC team. The weakness of the offense is that they are not a particularly good downfield passing attack, particularly outside the numbers, and especially in obvious passing situations where play-action (3rd and long, or when trailing) is not a threat. They lack a true deep threat WR, throwing bombs is not Garoppolo's strength, and the line is better at run blocking than pass protection.
On defense it really depends on who is healthy. They base out of a 4-3 Cover-3 (DC Saleh is from the Carroll tree) but they will mix things up and like most teams these days they play a lot of nickel. Last year with a dominant front 4 they didn't blitz much, but this year, without Bosa, Ford, and Buckner, they are blitzing more frequently to try to generate pressure (blitz rate is up to 32.9 from 20.9 last year). Warner has been their best defensive player this season and is an elite MLB with great range, good tackling, and solid coverage skills. The starting safeties are also quite good (although Tartt may be injured).
Running QBs have given the Niners lots of trouble over the last couple years, so that's also something to watch against NE. SF is not good at containment on scrambles and for reasons beyond me it is always takes them at least a half to figure out the scrape-exchange assignments against the read-option.
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Great write up, thanks. The multiple formations and motions he uses are so challenging to defend.
Especially when your LBs are slow as shit. This would be a great game for Uche to return.
White absence was not injury related, according to Reiss
I seem to recall he was on the “if we would have practiced today, this would have been the participation” report last week for a non injury related reason as well.
I wonder if he’s taking the extra day to be in Florida with his mother who is hopefully recovering from the accident.
I seem to recall he was on the “if we would have practiced today, this would have been the participation” report last week for a non injury related reason as well.
I wonder if he’s taking the extra day to be in Florida with his mother who is hopefully recovering from the accident.
I disagree: no out-of-conference game is a "must win:" they are the least valuable wins of all. The five remaining division games, otoh...
I think it is. A loss and they're 2-4 with tough games coming up against Buffalo and Baltimore. This team ain't reeling off 5 or 6 straight. They need to win Sunday.
It's a must win because 2-4 isn't a hole they can expectedly climb out of with their remaining schedule. Let's give them the two Jets games and put them at 4-4 in that scenario, that leaves them 8 games, two of them against the Bills, then on the road you'll face Miami, Houston and both LA teams, and then you'll have the Ravens and Cardinals at home. I think going 5-3 against those opponents would be exceeding expectations and 9-7 doesn't even guarantee you'll get the added playoff spot. Jets aside, which team remaining on their schedule can you guarantee the Patriots are better than? I'll give you the Chargers, the Texans and Dolphins as of now, but all those games are on the road and I could see every one of those teams being improved when the time comes to face the Pats.
Nothing can be a technical "must-win" game this early, but come on - if they lose here the playoff chances are pretty close to nuked.
They have to win this game because Buffalo is most likely going to beat the Jets. If the Pats lose, they are 2.5 games back of Buffalo with a chance to go 3.5 back plus the tiebreaker the following week. So yea, Sunday is a must win if they have any ideas about winning the AFC East.
Buffalo's remaining schedule
at NYJ
vs NE
vs Sea
at Ari
vs LAC
at SF
vs Pit
at Den
at NE
vs Mia
I see them losing to Sea and Pit, with additional possible losses to Arizona and SF (both on the road). That would put them at 4-6 losses (they already have two). Then they have two against NE. If NE loses this week and Buffalo wins, and NE is 3.5 back with 9 (or 10 for NE) to play, the key games clearly become the H-2-H matchups. And yeah, right now Buffalo looks stronger, but would it really be crazy to see New England winning both those games? If they do, then the rest of the schedule looks like NE could catch up.
So I'd argue that yeah, this week's game is hugely important, especially after last week. But really, the H-2-H matchups are enormous this year.
at NYJ
vs NE
vs Sea
at Ari
vs LAC
at SF
vs Pit
at Den
at NE
vs Mia
I see them losing to Sea and Pit, with additional possible losses to Arizona and SF (both on the road). That would put them at 4-6 losses (they already have two). Then they have two against NE. If NE loses this week and Buffalo wins, and NE is 3.5 back with 9 (or 10 for NE) to play, the key games clearly become the H-2-H matchups. And yeah, right now Buffalo looks stronger, but would it really be crazy to see New England winning both those games? If they do, then the rest of the schedule looks like NE could catch up.
So I'd argue that yeah, this week's game is hugely important, especially after last week. But really, the H-2-H matchups are enormous this year.
Teams like the Bills could well end up going through a 3-week COVID-19 slog as the Pats already did. No doubt, the best route to the playoffs is beating the Bills twice.
The H2H matchups go without saying in their importance. However, it would be much easier to win the division by winning the next 2 weeks and being tied in the loss column at the halfway point. After the Bills game on 11/1, the Pats have the schedule as follows. It is very difficult as well. The Ravens game is obviously hard, the Cardinals are tough, and they have 3 straight road games in 14 days before coming home to face the Bills again.
at Jets
Ravens(SNF)
at Texans
Cardinals
at Rams
at Chargers(TNF)
at Dolphins
vs. Bills(MNF)
vs. Jets
at Jets
Ravens(SNF)
at Texans
Cardinals
at Rams
at Chargers(TNF)
at Dolphins
vs. Bills(MNF)
vs. Jets
"It's a best of seven, you're down one game to nothing, would you consider this a must win game?"..................No.................
He murders me, very talented comedian.
To update this, not only has SS Jaquaski Tartt been ruled out, but FS Jimmie Ward strained his quad in practice this week and won't play. The Niners now down 8 of their best 14 defensive players. This is getting comical.
LT Trent Williams is still questionable.
