Afternoon session

Here's the afternoon report through the eyes and ears of commrade David White. Apparently, there's a new fan favorite in town and it's rookie guard Mike Iupati. During the afternoon session of the nutcracker, Iupati stuffed linebackers, and drew roars from fans. Fullback Brit Miller also elicited raves for decking rookie linebacker Navorro Bowman. They lined a second time, and Miller floored him again. This guy is serving notice to starter Moran Norris.

The defense continued to be way ahead of the offense in the afternoon. During team drills, Alex Smith would have been sacked three times (they don't actually sack the quarterback in team session).

"I think right now, if you were to go across the NFL, you would find that most defenses are going to dominate their offenses, simply because on the defensive side of the ball, there’s not as much detail that you have to understand," Singletary said after morning practice.

Smith and the other quarterbacks are having difficulty throwing the ball down the field because of the smothering defense. He did find time in the afternoon to hit Vernon Davis for about a 40-yard strike on a skinny post.

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | August 02 2010 at 09:07 PM

Getting defensive

How good was the 49ers' defense last year and what does that protend for 2010? This team put up some top ten stats such as ranking fourth in fewest points allowed and sixth in fewest rushing yards allowed. The team also made some remarkable strides last year. They went from 30 quarterback sacks in 2008 to 44 last year, interceptions went up from 12 to 18 and their fumble recoveries nearly tripled from six to 15.

During the last seven seasons (not including last year) of their playoff drought, the 49ers disparity between sacks allowed and sacks made was wide. Last season, they actually sacked the opponent more times (44) than they allowed (40).

Of course, there's always a story behind the statistics. The team padded their stats against some very bad performances and teams. For example, they intercepted a thoroughly flummoxed Jay Cutler five times, and they sacked St. Louis quarterbacks eight times in a meaningless season finale. Also, the 49ers shouldn't expect to recover another 15 fumbles. According to the statistically-minded FootballOutsiders.com, fumble recoveries are random, reflecting neither the excellence of a defense nor a heightened ability to sack the quarterback. The 49ers are likely going to have to make up for that disparity and this defense is going to have to put forth a better effort against good offenses.

In fact, Arizona was the only team with a winning record the 49ers defeated last year. Otherwise, the defense struggled against Green Bay, Minnesota, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, and Houston. In most of those games they put themselves in big holes. They trailed in Philly 20-3 at one point, fell behind 23-3 in Green Bay, and 21-0 in Houston. And they consistently got torched by fast players: Eagle DeSean Jackson, 140 yards, Green Bay's Greg Jennings, 126 yards, Atlanta's Roddy White, 210 yards.

In those games, the 49ers seemed stunned by the opposition's speed and by the time they recovered, the game was over. Yet the 49ers will march into the opener this year with the exact same defensive lineup as last season barring injury. Not one change. The team did draft a fast safety in USC's Taylor Mays, but he's not likely to overtake Michael Lewis at strong safety this year.

The 49ers can function at a decently high level with the same players from a year ago. But if they don't address their inability to contain speedy players, the 49ers may have a difficult time becoming a double-digit win team.

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | July 08 2010 at 05:58 PM

Defensive Analysis

Defensive Analysis

Mike Nolan maintained that he dialed up blitzes and in the second half, but he never called more than a five-man pressure. In the nine blitzes Matt Cassel faced in the 19 times he went back to pass, he was sacked twice, had two passes batted, and completed 3-of-7 for 33 yards. Cassel was also hit as he threw by dogging safety Mark Roman.

Cassel never completed a pass over 12 yards against the blitz.

One quarrel I have with the defense overall was the lack of versatility. The 49ers went with their five defensive-back, nickel alignment 43 times in 80 plays, even going with it against run formations. I think the 49ers figured with two weeks to prepare, the Patriots would go deep into the playbook with trick plays. One way to combat them is to stay fairly basic on defense.

The 49ers did that to a fault, particularly in the first half, when they blitzed three times in 22 pass plays and got burned for the 66-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss, had another pass for 7 yards and an incompletion. When the 49ers rushed four, they rarely stunted.

I poured over the defense's most controversial play, the 13-yard completion to Jabar Gaffney that got the Patriots in range for a successful 49-yard field goal. The three-pointer with 4:47 handed New England a 9-point lead.

For the first time all game, the 49ers rushed three and dropped eight, hoping to force Cassel to throw short for a 5- or 6-yard gain. He did throw short, but the 49ers dropped too deep and receiver Gaffney had five yards to out-maneuver the defense and in particular Parys Haralson, who dropped into coverage.

Two problems, Haralson leads the team in sacks, so he should be rushing. Secondly, Haralson played defensive end in college and basically has been a rush end since the 49ers took him in fifth round of the 2006 draft. He shouldn't be in coverage in that situation, and Nolan or anybody else shouldn't expect him to catch Gaffney in space with 5 yards leeway.

Here's our defensive ranking:

1.Justin Smith - He seemed to be in on every play - six tackles, a sack and a hit on the quarterback.

2. Aubrayo Franklin - Surprisingly active with six tackles, a tackle for a loss and a hit on the quarterback that led to Takeo Spikes first-quarter interception. That's a lot of work for a nose.

3. Patrick Willis - he wound up with a monster day, 14 tackles, a sack, a hit, a tackle for a loss. But in the first half, he was blocked consistently. In the second half, he was a beast. In the first half the Pats averaged just over 4 yards a carry when Willis made the tackle. In the second half, if you count the sack, Willis average yards per carry against him in the run game was 0.5.

4. Isaac Sopoaga - Provided pressure with a sack and quarterback hit and a tackle for a loss. He also chipped in five tackles.

5. Parys Haralson - Putting him in space against Gaffney isn't his fault. He's becoming a solid pass rusher, particularly when he comes out of a two-point stance with a few yards to get his momentum going.

6. Michael Lewis - Eight tackles playing with a dislocated elbow.

7. Tully Banta-Cain - Half a sack and a hit on the quarterback in limited minutes. He also played the run fairly well.

8. Donald Strickland - He was tough in the run game but his zone coverage was too soft, particularly against Randy Moss, but that might not be his fault if that's the call.

9. One reason to not play so much nickel is Spikes just seems to wear down. He had nine tackles in the first half, and he disappeared for long stretches in the second half. He had a gift interception and finished with 14 tackles, but those are deceiving numbers.

10. Mark Roman - I never saw him. After last week, he was guarding grass most of the game deep down the field. The 66-yard touchdown pass to Moss wasn't his fault, and he may have prevented more deep passes later in the game by staying back.

11. Ray McDonald - He was consistently collapsed in the running game, particularly when he played against New England's powerful right side.

12. Walt Harris - In this game, he'll forever be known for his stumble that allowed a 66-yard TD.

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | October 07 2008 at 12:13 PM

Life Without Lawson

The news and notes for the week:

-Manny Lawson won't play with his hamstring injury and that means TBC! Tully Banta-Cain, who played well against the backups in exhibition games, will get his first look. It's good timing since Banta-Cain will try to stick it to his former team, the Patriots.

By the way, Nolan was asked about Lawson's scant playing time thus far, and Nolan was adamantly said he would play. He said several times that Lawson was a good player and he didn't want standing next to him on the sidelines.

-Parys Haralson will probably play in Lawson's place, but Haralson doesn't possess Lawson's coverage skills. It means the 49ers might just go with everybody's favorite defense, the Big Nickel! In fact, the team might go quite a bit with their dime defense against the Patriots' frequent three- and four-receiver sets, which would take Takeo Spikes off the field. As Nolan said Wednesday, his defense can probably find a better match-up than Spikes versus Wes Welker in the slot.

-It sounds as if Jonas Jennings won't be back for at least another two weeks, which probably means the team won't see Jennings until after the Nov. 2 bye week.

-Ever since Nolan became the head coach he has tried to force fit a 3-4 alignment onto his defense. Quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan partially answered why. O'Sullivan said he'd much prefer to face a front seven with four down linemen instead of three. Stand-up players can either blitz or play in coverage, making it more difficult for the quarterback to call protections.

RESPONSES TO RESPONSES: I hate to be the heavy, and I've warned many of you personally, but please watch the swearing. Dig deep and convey your anger with better language. Also, sexist or racist comments will not be tolerated at all, and bloggers that continue to use them will be banned.

That said, great discussion on the always interesting schemes of Mike Martz. For some reason, I can't get to all comments right now (some sort of technical glitch) but someone said why don't I talk more about the defense and the inability to apply pressure?

Good point. I wanted to review the defensive film, but never got to it this week. My sense is that Saints quarterback Drew Brees got rid of the ball fast and even if the 49ers blitzed often, Brees would have cut them up.

Some of you advocated blitzing Matt Cassel, but that means possibly leaving Randy Moss manned-up, which could be instant six.

Keep the cards and letters coming but remember, keep it clean!

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | October 02 2008 at 10:57 PM

Stopping the Run

Many on this site believe the 49ers should make drafting a nose tackle a priority. However, Isaac Sopoaga and Aubrayo Franklin performed well last year in stopping the run, which is the nose tackle's main job.

I'm trying to get some figures on how well the 49ers stopped the inside run, but I think it would show they did it well. Overall, opposing teams averaged 3.8 yards per carry against the defense. Only Washington and Minnesota were better.

-As far as Michael Robinson, he needs more time to develop as a running back. He doesn't have the natural instincts and vision of a Frank Gore, but he's tremendously strong and has a habit of knocking players out of games. After colliding with Robinson, Eagles safety Brian Dawkins, one of the toughest players in the league, left and didn't return.

-Comparing Lawson and his former teammate in Houston, Mario Williams, is an outstanding point. It took Williams a year to become an effective pass rusher, and maybe that's what Lawson needs. But in his rookie year, Lawson rarely came close to the quarterback and he often looked bad doing it.

So far his combination of lack of explosion and what Mike Nolan said is his lack of lead in his tail has rendered him largely ineffective. Bigdiggyd mentioned Andre Carter, Jason Taylor and DeMarcus Ware as similar in size to Lawson, but they are 15 pounds or more heavier than Manny, who's more like 240 than 247. Chris Clemons, Julian Peterson and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila are similar and with the exception of Peterson, those pass rushers play heavier than their weight.

In the end, it doesn't matter what you look like or how fast you run the 40, it's do you get heat. So far, Lawson has been fairly cold.

Renoberger and Bigdiggyd mentioned the presence of Justin Smith at left defensive end loosing up the pass rush for everyone. That's huge. Last year, Marques Douglas wasn't a presence at the crucial pass-rushing spot of left end. Smith will be a presence.>-A pattern has arisen with Lawson, Robinson, Alex Smith, Vernon Davis and many others and it's a theme many of you have touched on, and that's the coaching staff's ability to develop players. It's a critical year for the development of talent.

-As far as Frank Gore looking heavy in a photograph, remember the camera puts on 30 pounds. Seriously, it doesn't matter what Gore looks like in March, it's how he looks in September. Players, particularly running backs and linebackers, need several weeks and sometimes months to recover from the season. Also, it's the rare player who doesn't risk burning out on training if they don't take some significant time off. Remember also Gore did play with a sprained ankle most of last year and those take a long time to heal.

Often offensive stars hit a wall after a breakout year because the opposition gears up to stop them. How Gore adjusts this season will determine his value as a player.

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | April 10 2008 at 08:50 AM

Big Nickel Exploration

The last few days, we've discussed whether the Big Nickel defense (four lineman, two linebackers, five defensive backs) should be used more next season and whether it could be employed as the 49ers' base defense even against standard offensive personnel (two wide receivers, two running backs, one tight end).

The 49ers used variations of the Big Nickel in two games, against Seattle on Sept. 30 and against Cincinnati on Dec. 15. Here are some conclusions after poring over tapes of both games.

Against Seattle, the Big Nickel struggled against Seattle's standard personnel. The 49ers got wise against the Bengals, modifying the Big Nickel and using it only once against Cincy's standard personnel.

The Seahawks ran 16 plays with their regular personnel (two backs, two wide receivers and one tight end) against the Big Nickel. Shaun Alexander ran 9 nines and gained 52 yards against the nickel.

Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck threw seven times, went 6-of-7 for 112 yards. At least against the Seahawks' base offense the Big Nickel got scorched. Maybe that's one reason the 49ers didn't use that defense in the game in Seattle.

Later in the season, the 49ers used the Big Nickel against the Bengals, with a different lineup and different results. Here's how the difference broke down: Read More 'Big Nickel Exploration' »

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | February 12 2008 at 01:11 AM

Mo' Nickel and Dimed

So many interesting comments about the Big Nickel, it's hard to know where to start. Really, the Big Nickel (five defensive backs, two linebackers, four defensive linemen) and its brother, the dime (six defensive backs, one linebacker four down lineman) were the 49ers' prevailing defenses.

Combined, these defensive packages were used more than the team's base 3-4 or 4-3 alignment. And with teams like the Colts, Seahawks and Patriots using multi-wide receiver sets on nearly every play, the nickel and dime are likely to be on the field more.

College football is also forcing this change. Seventy-percent of the major college football teams now play some form of a spread offense. Take a look at Michigan, the prototypical Big-10, big-body, running team is now going to a offense with the hiring of Rich Rodriguez.

With that in mind, it might make sense to sign Lance Briggs, who's a tackling machine and terrific in coverage. However, Jeff Ulbrich really played that role well last year, and as we all know, the 49ers have several other needs in free agency.

Finding a Ted linebacker through free agency or the draft shouldn't be a top priority. First, those linebackers aren't hard to find. Secondly, as many of you have written, the 49ers already have one in Brandon Moore. Thirdly, with increased emphasis on passing, the Ted won't play nearly as much as he has in the past.

That's one reason why it doesn't make sense to pay Derek Smith a huge wage. No Ted in the NFL should make $3 million or $4 million salary unless that player can also play in the nickel or dime.

Wilfork in the Road: EastCoastNiner pined for Vince Wilfork, and the 49ers had a chance to draft him in 2004, in fact the Chronicle's Ira Miller advocated for it strongly. Instead the 49ers, who had the 16th pick in the first round, traded back twice and took Oklahoma State wide receiver Rashaun Woods, who's on a bass boat somewhere with first-round millions in the bank.

By the way, with the extra picks acquired from trading back, the team drafted linebacker Richard Seigler in the 2004 fourth round, took Adam Snyder with the 2005 third pick and cornerback Derrick Johnson with the 2005 sixth pick.

Seigler was cut after one season, went to the Steelers in 2006 and last May was charged for being a pimp.

Snyder turned out well and will be a starter somewhere on the offensive line in 2008, and Johnson lasted a year before being released.

3-4, 4-3: The reasoning behind a 3-4 according to Mike Nolan is many-fold. Theoretically, with 3-4, an offense never knows where the fourth pass rusher is coming from. Also, 3-4 pass rushers are easier to find because many 4-3 teams won't consider 'tweener rush linebackers who weigh between 250 pounds and 270 because they don't fit the scheme. Lastly, 3-4 means more linebackers on the team and they come in handy on special teams.

Unfortunately, the 49ers have only cashed in on the last advantage. The element of surprise has failed to result in a bushel of sacks. The 49ers had 31 last year, 3.4 below the league average, nearly half (14) coming from the linebacking corps.

The search for a 'tweener resulted in Manny Lawson (2 sacks in 18 games) and Parys Haralson (2.5 in 23 games) who haven't yet developed into feared pass rushers. The team got more production from a player they cut a few times in Roderick Green (6 sacks in 16 games) and Moore, (10 sacks in 32 games) who the team sees as a backup.

Whether its a 3-4, or 4-3 what the 49ers need is pass rushers. In the last decade, two players have notched double-digit sacks in a single season (Bryant Young with 11 in '99 and Andre Carter with 12.5 in 2001. Lawson's and Jay Moore's return from injury could have an impact. Of course there's always the draft and free agency.

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | February 11 2008 at 11:16 PM

Nickel and Dimed

Interesting idea by Berger to run the 49ers "Big Nickel" as the base defense. It would mean playing five defensive backs, two linebackers and four down linemen.

The 49ers played most of two games with this alignment last year with mixed results. In week four, they went with Donald Strickland as the nickel back, but he usually played near the line of scrimmage like a linebacker. In that game the 49ers lost 23-3, Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck completed 23 of 31 passes for 281 yards, two touchdowns and an interception for a passer rating of 109.7.

Hasselbeck had ample time to throw.

Later, the 49ers broke it out against the Bengals on national television with Jeff Ulbrich instead of Derek Smith as the linebacker beside Patrick Willis. In that one, Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer completed 19 of 31 passes for 252 yards for a touchdown and a rating of 97.8 in the 49ers' 20-13 win.

A weakness of the defense should be stopping the run, with the removal of a linebacker for the hard-nosed, 187-pound Strickland. But the Seahawks were held to 97 yards on 33 carries by the running backs, an average of just under 3 yards a carry.

The Bengals gained 61 yards on 19 carries, a 3.2 yard average.

At least in these two games, the weakness was pressuring the passer. Hasselbeck was sacked twice; Palmer wasn't sacked at all. Now maybe Manny Lawson could make the difference with pressure. But he didn't prove to be a good pass rusher in his rookie season and has since been known as a coverage guy.

Read More 'Nickel and Dimed' »

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | February 09 2008 at 10:11 PM

Willis' Wins

Rookie linebacker Patrick Willis was just named Defensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press.

According to NFL statistics, Willis' 174 tackles led the league by a 33-tackle margin. Willis also added four sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 fumble recovery, and 5 passes defensed. By the 49ers coach's charting, Willis had 226 tackles. By any measure the guy's good and he's the fourth 49er so named to the award. Bruce Taylor (1970) and defensive tackles Dana Stubblefield (1993) and Bryant Young (1994) are the others.

The 49ers might find today whether they will play coach the Senior Bowl this year, something they've done the last three seasons. Willis was named the Senior Bowl South Team MVP and won the admiration of 49ers linebackers coach Mike Singletary during that week of practice.

Willis was particularly impressive at the end of the year, with all three of his 20-tackle performances (according to 49ers' statistics) coming after the 10th game of the season, when rookies are supposed to be hitting the wall. Willis also played most of the year with broken hand, which he shattered in the Oct. 21 game against the Giants.

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | January 04 2008 at 11:56 AM

Defensive ends

Here's a look at today's defensive ends:

-Chris Long (Virginia) Projected to be a first-rounder and is the top-ranked defensi

-Lawrence Jackson (USC) Another outside linebacker type at 6-5, 268. He had 9.5 sacks this year and is projected as the third-best defensive end by draftscout.

ve end by NFLdraftscout.com. The son of Howie, he's 6-4, 275 pounds and had only 14 sacks this year with 18.5 tackles for losses. He would probably be used as a rush outside linebacker by the 49ers.

Posted By: Kevin Lynch (Email) | January 01 2008 at 01:38 PM