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Week 5: Defense Crumbles Again In Another Blowout Loss
No pressure on Smith allowed big plays all day long.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:
Ryan Fitzpatrick badly overthrew Johnson when he was wide open down the sidelines for an easy touchdown. You can't miss those kinds of plays if you want to win in San Francisco. Fitz also threw it a tad behind Donald Jones on a critical third down pass at the goal line. Grossly underthrew Jones on his only interception. Only threw for 126 yards.
Grade F: Too inaccurate to be a starting caliber NFL quarterback.
Running Backs:
Fred Jackson had just 29 yards on nine carries.
C.J. Spiller had 24 yards on seven carries.
Grade F: Didn't really figure in the game plan after the blow out started.
Receivers:
Stevie Johnson led the team with six catches but gained only 39 yards. Had his man beat deep for a score but was overthrown.
Donald Jones should have hauled in the pass by Fitz on the goal line early in the 2nd quarter. It was behind him but it's a clutch catch a receiver needs to make if you are going to pull off the upset. Only had two catches for 13 yards.
T.J. Graham had a nine yard grab and a 19 yard catch and run.
Brad Smith had a nice 35 yard run out of the wildcat but only one catch for one yard.
Scott Chandler fumbled the ball away in the closing seconds of the first half and the 49ers scored on the next play. Led the team with 40 yards receiving on four catches.
Grade D: More the QBs fault but not getting open enough.
Offensive Line:
Colin Brown got the start for the injured Rinehart and Urbik. When he got hurt, Rinehart came in.
Chris Hairston held up well in his first start at left tackle this year.
Grade D: Allowed only one sack but there was no room to run.
Defensive Line:
Mario Williams had two tackles and one pressure. Played on both sides of the line and was ineffective in both places.
Marcell Dareus recovered a fumble just before halftime ending a 49ers scoring threat. But was ineffective as there were huge holes in the middle.
Kyle Williams helped make a stop on the goal line forcing the 49ers to settle for a field goal in the first quarter. Did little else the rest of the game as there were huge holes where he should have been as well. He also got called for an offsides penalty.
Mark Anderson had three tackles and was very quiet with no pressure.
Chris Kelsay had one tackle.
Grade F: No pressure from this expensive and very overrated unit.
Linebackers:
Nick Barnett helped Williams make the big goal line stop early in the game. Forced a fumble late in the first half that ended a 49ers scoring threat. Only had four tackles in his second subpar game in a row.
Kelvin Sheppard only had two tackles.
Nigel Bradham got some reps instead of Moats and led the way with six tackles. He was burned badly on a play action fake.
Bryan Scott had three tackles.
Arthur Moats was burned a few times by the play action fake and replaced for a while.
Grade F: This unit is a mess.
Secondary:
Stephon Gilmore was beaten badly by Michael Crabtree on the 28 yard touchdown pass.
Aaron Williams was badly beaten for a 43 yard touchdown pass by Kyle Williams in the 2nd quarter. He didn't make the adjustments then got faked out again after the catch. He was the completely burned by Mario Manningham's fourth quarter touchdown.
Justin Rogers only had one tackle and wasn't much of a factor as they played the base 3-4 defense much of the time.
Jairus Byrd was quiet in this game and was caught out of position on a few plays.
George Wilson was beaten badly deep by Vernon Davis on a 53 yard completion. Didn't help that Smith had all day to throw. He had six tackles.
Da'Norris Searcy had three tackles.
Grade F: They failed too but didn't get any help from the front four.
Special Teams:
Shawn Powell averaged 47.7 yards per punt with a net of 41.2 yards and two downed inside the 20 including one at the two yard line.
Rian Lindell hit his only kick a 31 yard field goal.
John Potter both of his kickoffs were returned.
Leodis McKelvin returned the first punt for a score but it was called back on a dubious holding penalty on Byrd. He also had a 59 yard kickoff return in the first quarter.
Brad Smith had a 28 yard kickoff return.
Coverage Units allowed a 6.3 yard average on three punt returns and two kickoff returns for 45 total yards.
Grade B: Not their fault they got blown out.
Coaching:
Chan Gailey should have gone conservative at the end of the half and ran out the clock. The turnover ended this game before halftime. So much for mental toughness. After the Chandler fumble the defense quickly gave up the touchdown and the team simply gave up.
Dave Wannstedt has no answers after giving up 1,201 yards in the past two games!
Bruce DeHaven his unit played ok but who cares?
Grade F: What more can you say?
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