Ok the news people caught wind, The Falcons' defense still isn't of Super caliber

[Aftermath]

this D bailed out the O on multiple occasions during the season, just like the O bailed out the D on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, neither unit showed up in the second half of either of our playoff games. to only blame one side or the other is crazy. This team as a whole was finished playing by the second half, been that way in every playoff game under Smith. He is the only constant.

[RFlagg]

(01-22-2013 09:02 AM)Aftermath Wrote:  this D bailed out the O on multiple occasions during the season, just like the O bailed out the D on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, neither unit showed up in the second half of either of our playoff games. to only blame one side or the other is crazy. This team as a whole was finished playing by the second half, been that way in every playoff game under Smith. He is the only constant.

My main issue with this thinking is that it implies the D showed up in the first half of the Niners game. Here are their possessions:

First Half
Punt
Punt
Touchdown
Touchdown
End of Half

Second Half
Touchdown
Missed FG
Fumble
Touchdown
Punt

It got so obvious what San Fran was going to do I started calling the plays before they even lined up (including once in chat) and still we couldn't stop it.

[Aftermath]

(01-22-2013 09:31 AM)RFlagg Wrote:  My main issue with this thinking is that it implies the D showed up in the first half of the Niners game. Here are their possessions:

First Half
Punt
Punt
Touchdown
Touchdown
End of Half

Second Half
Touchdown
Missed FG
Fumble
Touchdown
Punt

It got so obvious what San Fran was going to do I started calling the plays before they even lined up (including once in chat) and still we couldn't stop it.

They didn't really show up in the first half but they didn't necessarily get blown out either. We went into the half up 24-14. If you told me at halftime of the 49ers game that the 49ers would only score 14 more points I'm packing my bags for the Superbowl. Like I said in another thread we knew we would have to score 30 coming in to this game and the game against the Seahawks. Our D didn't stop them but they did slow them down a bit, if we score even a FG in the second half before that last drive we are not having this conversation. Our D kept the game within reach, which is all we could really ask for, the O just never showed up.


Looking at the halves individually the O and the D played about the same

Defense

1st Half Seahawks - 0 points allowed
1st Half 49ers- 14 points allowed
2nd half 49ers- 14 points allowed
2nd half Seahawks- 28 points allowed

Offense

2nd half 49ers - 0 points scored
2nd half Seahawks- 10 points scored
1st half Seahawks- 20 points scored
1st half 49ers - 24 points scored

The O had two amazing halves, once mediocre half, and one terrible half
The D had one amazing half, two mediocre halves, and one terrible half

Offense scored 54 points (against probably the 2 best defense we have faced this year)

D surrendered 56 points (against probably the 2 best offenses we have faced this year)


The playoffs was the tale of the two halves (especially for the offense), ball out in the first, don't show up in the second.

Offense scored 10 points in 60 minutes of play (2 2nd halves)
D gave up 14 points in 60 minutes of play (2 1st halves)

offense score 44 in 60 minutes of play (2 1st halves)
Defense allowed 42 in 60 minutes of play ( 2 2nd halves)

neither unit should get a free pass imo.

[ATLBound]

I dont think anybody is giving either side a free pass but you seem to be blaming the offense way more than the defense. 24 points should be enough to win a football game period. Would it make you feel better about the offense scored like below?

1st quarter - 7 points
2nd quarter - 7 points
3rd quarter - 7 points
4th quarter - 3 points

Does it make it more or less a success if it happens all in one half? What about if it is reversed?

1st half - O points offense, 14 points defense

Down 0 - 14 at half

2nd half - Score 17 straight points to take the lead 17-14

Defense gives up a touchdown (just like it happened Sunday) Score 21 - 17 49ers

Offense scores another touchdown 24 - 21 Falcons

Defense gives up yet another touchdown and 49ers eventually win 28 - 24 after failing to convert a 4th down at the 10 yd line.

Now instead of our offense failing, its our offense made a massive comeback, responded well to adversity, made great halftime adjustments, but ultimately could not overcome the defense responding negatively to the Falcons taking two lead changes in the second half.

[Aftermath]

(01-22-2013 10:58 AM)ATLBound Wrote:  I dont think anybody is giving either side a free pass but you seem to be blaming the offense way more than the defense. 24 points should be enough to win a football game period. Would it make you feel better about the offense scored like below?

1st quarter - 7 points
2nd quarter - 7 points
3rd quarter - 7 points
4th quarter - 3 points

Does it make it more or less a success if it happens all in one half? What about if it is reversed?

1st half - O points offense, 14 points defense

Down 0 - 14 at half

2nd half - Score 17 straight points to take the lead 17-14

Defense gives up a touchdown (just like it happened Sunday) Score 21 - 17 49ers

Offense scores another touchdown 24 - 21 Falcons

Defense gives up yet another touchdown and 49ers eventually win 28 - 24 after failing to convert a 4th down at the 10 yd line.

Now instead of our offense failing, its our offense made a massive comeback, responded well to adversity, made great halftime adjustments, but ultimately could not overcome the defense responding negatively to the Falcons taking two lead changes in the second half.

This isn't 1980, 24 points isn't always going to be enough to win a game and I pray to god that isn't the mentality that this team has. 24 points especially wont be enough when you have a sub par defense going up against a good/great offense. This team was built to be an offensive team, the offense is designed to put up gobs of points. We knew the O was going to have to carry the D coming in to the season, we are not a defensive team.

It doesn't really matter what order you put it in, either way the offense did nothing for an entire half and like I said this isn't the first time that has happened. 17 points in the second half of our last 4 playoff games. That isn't an anomaly, its a trend. I'm not absolving the defense of any blame, they played like complete shit in the playoffs. But the Offense is designed to carry this team, it didn't.

[AUTiger7222]

(01-22-2013 08:35 AM)swanlee Wrote:  I think Nolan schemed well this year and will improve the D going forward. We made alot of Future HOF QB's look stupid this year. We just had some bad D play in the second half of both of our Playoff games. Tackling is an issue but at least we did better on 3rd down and were 5th in scoring.

I always think it is stupid that Defensive stats don't put more importance on points allowed. Who cares how mnay yards you give up if the other team is not scoring. We did alot better at that this years and did very good in not allowing passing TD's.

3rd down defense was one of the very few areas we improved in on defense but it was still an issue as we still allowed teams to convert at a 40% clip. That simply is too high. That number needs to be 35% or less. Our 4th down defense wasn't much better as we allowed teams to convert at a 54% clip.

Really? You're going to ask that question. We just lost a game because we couldn't stop the other team from moving the ball at will. Let me explain how this works yet again since some people don't seem to understand.

The Falcons did a great job of not getting beat with big plays season. But teams had no problem driving down the field at will against us at times. When that happens that means they're going to be going on a lot of time consuming drives. When that happens, that limits the number of offensive possessions you get, putting that much more pressure on the offense to try to score every time they have the ball.

People think the Falcons shutdown the offense in the 2nd half against the Seahawks. But that didn't happen. The truth was the offense didn't have but 4 possessions in the 2nd half of that game. Only 1 in the 3rd quarter and that was a touchdown.

[AUTiger7222]

(01-22-2013 10:58 AM)ATLBound Wrote:  I dont think anybody is giving either side a free pass but you seem to be blaming the offense way more than the defense. 24 points should be enough to win a football game period. Would it make you feel better about the offense scored like below?

1st quarter - 7 points
2nd quarter - 7 points
3rd quarter - 7 points
4th quarter - 3 points

Does it make it more or less a success if it happens all in one half? What about if it is reversed?

1st half - O points offense, 14 points defense

Down 0 - 14 at half

2nd half - Score 17 straight points to take the lead 17-14

Defense gives up a touchdown (just like it happened Sunday) Score 21 - 17 49ers

Offense scores another touchdown 24 - 21 Falcons

Defense gives up yet another touchdown and 49ers eventually win 28 - 24 after failing to convert a 4th down at the 10 yd line.

Now instead of our offense failing, its our offense made a massive comeback, responded well to adversity, made great halftime adjustments, but ultimately could not overcome the defense responding negatively to the Falcons taking two lead changes in the second half.

That's exactly what I keep saying too.

[Beef]

I think conditioning might be a much bigger factor than any of us realizes?

Notice we shut them down completely in the first quarter. I think 49'ers ended up with -6 yards of total offense in the first quarter. But as soon as the 49'ers stopped going 3 and out and their drives started getting longer, the defense began getting worse. This was even more evident in the second half when we started turning the ball over and punting. The defense was out there a lot with very little rest on the sidelines.

[Aftermath]

(01-22-2013 03:43 PM)Beef Wrote:  I think conditioning might be a much bigger factor than any of us realizes?

Notice we shut them down completely in the first quarter. I think 49'ers ended up with -6 yards of total offense in the first quarter. But as soon as the 49'ers stopped going 3 and out and their drives started getting longer, the defense began getting worse. This was even more evident in the second half when we started turning the ball over and punting. The defense was out there a lot with very little rest on the sidelines.

I agree, and that is probably why we just let our strength and conditioning coach go. It also probably has a little to do with the fact that 4 of our starters on D are 30+ years old (Abe, Samuel, Dunta and Babs) and Stephen Nicholas will be 30 in May. We have two safeties that are 27, a MLB that is 25 and a DE that is 27. Corey Peters and McClain are the youngest at 24. I'm not really a fan of having two starting corners over the age of 30. We need to get a bit more youth and athleticism on this team so that we don't blow our load so fast on defense.

[AUTiger7222]

(01-22-2013 03:43 PM)Beef Wrote:  I think conditioning might be a much bigger factor than any of us realizes?

Notice we shut them down completely in the first quarter. I think 49'ers ended up with -6 yards of total offense in the first quarter. But as soon as the 49'ers stopped going 3 and out and their drives started getting longer, the defense began getting worse. This was even more evident in the second half when we started turning the ball over and punting. The defense was out there a lot with very little rest on the sidelines.

I said after the lost to the Panthers that we had a conditioning issue. Our defense shouldn't tire this easily.