Breakdown of defense against San Fran by FO.

We need to drop 700 pounds of ass in the middle of this defense.

Fascinating post. Thanks.

Harshest quote (maybe) of entire piece:
"This play, more than the others really, illustrates why the Packers lost. The Packers were in position to stop the play here, but their front seven wasn’t talented or disciplined enough to do so."

What day did they play?

HOLD THE PHONE! It can't be the players fault, Capers didn't scheme well enough to make Burnett stand 4 yards to the left! Fuego that esse!

quote:

What day did they play?

The D played as well on sunday and they did on saturday.

I don't think it's a choice between coaching OR player performances.

When a team fails as miserably as the Packers did last weekend, there are plenty of people responsible. I think the sidebar to Muth's article on the website suggests that coaching AND players factored into the fiasco:


"The 49ers wreaked havoc on the Packers last Saturday. It wasn't just a schematic butt-kicking -- superior talent also carried the day for San Francisco."

It didn't help that the defense burned all their jets the week before to stop Adrian Peterson, then had to fly through 3 time zones to arrive Friday night for the Saturday night game against a physical and healthy team coming off 2 weeks rest.

Teams play for that bye for a reason.

This defense showed marked improvement this year and there's no reason to suspect they won't get better.

Of course had they picked it up against Peterson the week before they would have had that bye week and San Fran would have been the team flying three times zones to face them.

The defense is getting much of the attention due to their historic failure, but the team really didn't play well in all three phases. Two years and two very abysmal playoff exits from the Packers.

.....AND THE SKY IS FALLING.

Sure & it's deserved but had the games been close & Packers lose by a point or 2, does it hurt any more or less? Do any of the same changes that need to be made get discussed here?

There is no shame in losing to SF or against the NYG's last yr. From what I hear from my circle of friends and in monitoring other websites it is the way they lost those games. Last yr after a great season they appeared not ready and made numerous errors, this yr it was down right emarrassing the way the D reacted at first and then seemed to make no adjustments.

And what's even sadder is the defense did make adjustments, and they still screwed the pooch si bad most people couldn't tell. I do think there's a general lack of talent in the front-seven (injuries not withstanding) and it shows when playing very good teams like the Niners.

I think there is a difference in how GB matches up against NYG and SF based on how they lost. Even considering how much more talent there is on D for SF, GB was in that game through the 3rd Q. They had enough success in other phases of the game to have a tied game into the second half. Here's a question: what if Alex Smith plays that whole game instead of CK? Again, despite how good their OL and D are, I still think that game is a toss-up.

The NYG seem a worse matchup, even though I think SF is the superior team, if we just look at how GB lost vs. them. GB was thoroughly beat the last two times they faced NYG and I don't know how they fix that. Our receivers couldn't get open, AR didn't have time to find them if they did, and our RB's went nowhere. That wasn't the case vs. SF.

Itr's embarrassing that the Rams shut this guy down and we couldn't.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Boris:
Sure & it's deserved but had the games been close & Packers lose by a point or 2, does it hurt any more or less? Do any of the same changes that need to be made get discussed here?[/QUOTE

Great point Boris- I don't think the changes get discussed nearly as much if the game is close. I made the comment several times the week leading up to the game that there was no shame in losing to SF and that I thought they would, but it should be close. To get embarrassed 2 years in a row begs questions of coaching, especially when the best player in the game leads our offense and he isn't getting any younger

So will Football Outsiders also do a breakdown of the Packer offensive failings against the 49ers?

quote:

Originally posted by Oldtimer:
I don't think it's a choice between coaching OR player performances.

When a team fails as miserably as the Packers did last weekend, there are plenty of people responsible. I think the sidebar to Muth's article on the website suggests that coaching AND players factored into the fiasco:

Well said. The players weren't where they needed to be, and that failure falls on the shoulders of the coaches and the players both.

quote:

Originally posted by Boris:
Sure & it's deserved but had the games been close & Packers lose by a point or 2, does it hurt any more or less? Do any of the same changes that need to be made get discussed here?

If we'd lost by a few points, it would still hurt a lot, make no mistake. But I think a lot of us would have left the game with the impression that a few plays made the difference, and that we were very close to where we needed to be for next year. Losing the way we did leaves a lot of questions, and creates some uneasiness for next season. Couple that with the roster turnover, I have no idea what to expect in 2013.

I trust Ted Thompson, and think he will have us competitive again, but will we be an elite team? How far are we away from competing for a Super Bowl title again in earnest?

The Cards hired Bruce Arians as coach today and Ray Horton is leaving. Horton did a great job with the Cards defense this past year and previously was a position coach in Pittsburgh. Of course, he is a hot head coaching candidate, so wherever he lands may just be a 1 year gig if he's successful.

There is another way to look at this. A few have said they thought GB vs SF was the two best teams in the NFL and the winner would go on to win the ring. I don't fully agree with that - I think ATL would have been tough this year, and NE. But if it's true, it would mean they would have done it again with the most injuries in the league. NYG didn't make the dance, too bad for them. If SF wasn't burning the place down with Coperniucs...

Remember ... Parity. We're not as far away as some of you think we are.

The Packers probably lost to the Super Bowl champs again.

We're still a very tough team to beat. It didn't work out this year.

The Packers aren't far away at all. Anyone saying different is a ****ing idiot. It's a matter of making the appropriate tweaks.

There is solid, young talent on this team. We went from a holy schit! offensive season to a team that won ugly with a compliment of bad luck.

You can't discount another year of maturation and team building centered around some true superstar players.

quote:

Originally posted by Henry:
The Packers aren't far away at all. Anyone saying different is a ****ing idiot. It's a matter of making the appropriate tweaks.

There is solid, young talent on this team. We went from a holy schit! offensive season to a team that won ugly with a compliment of bad luck.

You can't discount another year of maturation and team building centered around some true superstar players.

The frustrating part is that they are so close! They are too good to be completely embarrassed like they have been in the playoffs the last 2 years! They need to take advantage of having the best player in the league again soon!

It seemed to me our defense looked very slow against the 49ers. Were they tanked because of our offense kept them on the field or are they really that freakin slow? Or, perhaps I had too many beers? I do not know. What I do know is I gots one more day to wear that FREAKIN 49er's cap! It's been a brutal week for me folks. The loss could have been easier to handle if we didn't get spanked so hard.

Getting back to the original post, if the guy is stating the truth, he leans the defensive woes away from coaching and toward personnel. He cites Burnett for onw pivotal play and says Raji played like complete crap.

Points more toward the players and less toward Capers.

I've lost confidence in Capers. Some of the players have as well based on their comments. My fear is that we will be talking about the next complete defensive failure next year at this time and Rodgers will be another year older.

quote:

Originally posted by phaedrus:
Getting back to the original post, if the guy is stating the truth, he leans the defensive woes away from coaching and toward personnel.

I think you have to give a ton of credit to the 49ers coaching staff more than anything. It's very rare in the NFL that you can win on tactics that your opponent hasn't seen before. Credit to them for knowing all season long the likelihood that they'd have to get through the Packers to get to the Superbowl and having a plan in place and a style of play reserved for the playoff game that the Packers would have no chance to prepare for. 49ers certainly have a hungrier, more innovative coaching staff at this point. The Packers got bamboozled in that game and it's embarrassing on all levels. I think it's fair to say MM gets overconfident in how good his team is at times and thinks they can just do what they do and win.

I have confidence enough in MM to learn from the experience and borrow from the style in the future. We all see how obsessed they are with getting at the Bears ST's at their own game. They will certainly save some stuff for the 49ers next time.


It's certainly fair to ask if the defense is prepared going into the games. The Packers certainly lacked personnel but at the same time it should never ever be that lopsided. Things happened in that game that have never happened in 90+ years of professional football. For it to all be personnel one would have to believe that's the worst defense ever assembled and that's far far from the truth.

It's tough not to lose some confidence in Capers. I certainly have. I do cut some slack based on just how young a lot of this defense is but he really has to prove himself all over again in 2013. He's done enough in his career to deserve the opportunity but fairly or unfairly he's going to be on the hot seat next year.

The most concerning thing to me is MM's in game management. He's perhaps the best in the league at corrections in the off season. He's done an admirable job of correcting from year to year. His in game management drops to horrid levels at times though. He needs to do a much better job of making the correct in game decisions with regards to time management, down and distance, and field goal decisions next year. He seems flustered at times during the games.

I don't get the completely embarrassed crap. The game was tied in the 3rd quarter.

I get the completely embarrassed crap. Fourth most yards given up in a game? That's ridiculous.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Pistol GB:
It didn't help that the defense burned all their jets the week before to stop Adrian Peterson, then had to fly through 3 time zones to arrive Friday night for the Saturday night game against a physical and healthy team coming off 2 weeks rest.

Teams play for that bye for a reason.[QUOTE]

Yeah, the Packers had a chance for the bye, but blew it buy losing to an inferior Vikings team. After that Vikings game I knew we were in trouble with a defense that couldn't play worth anything. If the defense showed up at all at the Vikings, SF would have had to come to Lambeau, but no, the defense gave up tons of yards and 38 points. Something needs to be done. Capers, Thompson and the players are all to blame for this defense being historically bad. The defense is a disgrace.

Harbough wacked MM's pee pee real hard with a ball bat. He made MM look clueless out there. Harbough had a much better game plan. MM made no adjustments during the game.

quote:

The defense is a disgrace.

wow... such a painful offseason... must obtain vicodin...

Boston Jim, you forgot to mention the strength and conditioning coach when assigning blame.

Who is Harbough?

long. painful. offseason.

quote:

Originally posted by ChilliJon:
Boston Jim, you forgot to mention the strength and conditioning coach when assigning blame.

Oooh, that would make a great topic for a new thread.

quote:

Harbough wacked MM's pee pee real hard with a ball bat.

Now that's F N funny!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Henry:
The Packers aren't far away at all...

Agreed, although I think we're closer on offense than we are defense.
If the offense can get the the line settled, we should be set. We keep assuming WR is a strength, but this offseason may produce as much turnover at that position than we've had for several years.
Defense is definitely a work in progress. If the line can get fortified, and get some new blood at LB, we could be in good shape there.
Turnover may be a concern as well; DE needs upgraded and Pickett will have to be replaced sooner rather than later, in addition to the LBs mentioned above.

Fix the LB corps. Getting Bishop/Perry back helps, add another in the draft or perhaps Manning is that guy

Get a mauler at Center.

Win Super Bowl

PROFIT