Thoughts on the game the other night:
Only been 1 game against the Lambs so everything taken w/ grain of salt for now until more games.
Coaching:
- Love what I see out of this Chip regime so far. Players actually looked like they knew what the hell they were doing out there. Much more disciplined with cutting down on penalties. Chip even said that one false start on Tiller was Chip's fault b/c he got them confused w/ the calls he was relaying. Overall just a clean game.
Offense:
- People can trash Sunshine all they want but fact is right now, he's a much more efficient and polished QB than Kap is. Nobody in their right mind is anointing him as the franchise QB now or anything but man it was nice seeing just some smarter and more functional quarterbacking out there. Blaine took off scrambling for first downs when the lanes were open and no WR's were/or if he didn't like what he saw. He made some completions into tight windows that we all have seen that Kap has not been able to do recently. Only real :x
thing I saw out of Blaine was the odd struggle to complete a screen pass. Too many botched screen passes for my liking.
- Offense as usual w/ our Niner teams of the last few years wasn't 100% pretty. Most of the first half was pretty promising but holy hell, that 3rd quarter was :x . Started looking like Geep Chryst offense out there w/ these run plays going nowhere and passing plays that didn't seem to be conducive to being a productive play. Thank goodness for the defense and sorriness of the Lambs offense making sure we didn't pay for this abysmal 3rd quarter performance.
- Like I noted earlier, very impressive that they were able to convert all 4 red zone possessions for TD's. When it was 14-0 and they were driving, I was like oh man here we go, another short FG to make it 17-0 and we gotta grind it out again.
Defense:
- loved seeing all the pressure that was generated by the D-line. Swear that was literally next to non-existent last year. Keenum had no time in pocket and Gurley had no room to run.
- MNF said it best w/ DC Jim O'Neil's philosophy, this Niners D is gonna rush and get to the QB. Not gonna have our LB's and secondary "standing out there playing catch" like they did last year.
- Hard to explain this but loved seeing our D gang-tackle together, they all just went after the ball handler all game long. This trait while it seems like common sense for every team, just seemed lacking the last 2 years. Everyone just attacked and went after the ball. That one play where Gurley made D-Fo miss a tackle was negated shortly when rest of the D all closed in on him
Defense looks rejuvenated and ready to earn that reputation of being dominant and top flight again.
- Nice seeing Reid out there playing more aggressive and laying the wood again.
Special Teams:
- Honestly not comfortable whenever I see Pinion have to punt. Just have this bad feeling he's gonna botch it and so far it seems like his punts haven't gone that far. Was Pinion really in danger of being drafted by another team in 2015? I just went and looked back at the players taken after Pinion in that draft and luckily nobody jumps out as a missed player (although it's still a little early to judge 2015 draft). Miss you Andy Lee.
Side note: is anyone thinking like me that it's gonna take awhile to get used to the players routinely lining up on offense and then standing upright and looking over to Chip for the play?