Knee Jerk Reactions to Week 5: Pats vs 49ers

Things to consider while wondering how long it takes before OJ blames the whole incident on Bill Belichick:

* I guess you can't recap a Patriots game without first talking about how Matt Cassel did, any more than you can cover the campaign without mentioning how hot the VPILF looked. Overall it was probably his best game thus far. Certainly his most productive. I mean, no one wants the INTs, but neither was really a terrible mistake and both were the result of him trying to throw deep and (all together now) "make a play." Certainly when you compare those to the meltdown by Sage Rosenfels in the earlier game, where it looked like the Polian Crime Syndicate had gotten a hold of his family and was forcing him to throw the game, it gives you a little perspective. 22-of-32 for 259 yards and a win on the road is about the limit of what one can expect from a backup QB. To say any more than that would be the worst form of nitpickery.

*They haven't dumbed down the offense in any way that jumps out at me. They came out in a lot fewer two-back sets than they did, say, against the Jets. Primarily they spread the field with a single back and by my guess, went with a double slot formation more than half the time. The routes looked a lot like the Weis playbook, defeating blitzes and a box stacked up to stop the run with a lot of bubble screens and quick slants and hitches. And Cassel consistently threw a good, accurate ball on those all day. We could probably stand to lose the Chad Bradford sidearm throw in traffic, but again, that's picking nits.

*Logan Mankins career stats should say "Pass Attempts: 0. INTs: 1" as he is completely responsible for the first pick Cassel threw. The Pats ran a play action which froze the LB's and had the 49ers only rushing 4. There were double teams on the left (Watson and Light on Justin Smith) and right (Koppen and Yates on Isaac Sopoaga) and as Cassel stepped up into the pocket looking to go deep, Aubrayo Franklin bull rushed Mankins right into his arm as he unloaded.

*It's as if someone from CBS said "Hold on, here. Enberg and Fouts are fairly normal, rational people and there'll be nothing for smarmy, sarcastic bloggers to write about. Better send them Randy Cross too then." Cross' whole reason to exist is to take some reasonable point by Fouts and use it to introduce some graphic they gave him. The Pats keep switching up their RB, here's Randy with a RB yardage chart. The Pats offense is struggling, Randy's got a breakdown of their numbers vs. last year. Their defense is starting to pressure JT O'Sullivan, Randy wants to show us a picture of a cat with bacon taped to his back.

*It's doesn't take a football genius on the level of a Bill Walsh or an Eric Mangini to see that the offense is only going to go as far as the O-line takes it. And early on, it looked like they'd take them just as far as they did in the Miami game. There was Mankins' INT, a false start by Koppen (who hasn't looked right at all lately) and Yates and Kaczur were looking like on every drop back they were about to usher in the Kevin O'Connell Era. But by the 2nd qtr, the line settled in and gave the offense the rhythm it's been lacking. It would be an exaggeration to say they "imposed their will on San Fran" (which is my current favorite cliche) but I will say they "gave the 49ers a pretty strong suggestion."

*To be fair though, I counted at least three occasions where a Patriot ball carrier ran smack into the back of an O-lineman as he was being shoved into the backfield. It was really strange too because guys banging repeatedly into the backsides of other guys isn't the kind of thing they're accustomed to seeing in San Francisco.

*Matt Light especially turned it up. As the game went on and the Pats kept spreading the defense out with that 4 wide look, Light kept bouncing up to the second level and taking on the LB's. One sequence in the 2nd qtr. went like this:
-2nd & 5: Light pancakes Patrick Willis, Maroney for 4
-3rd&1: he pushed Willis back 6 yards, Morris for 7
-2nd & goal: Faulk follows him into the end zone.
That last one was especially impressive because Light crushed Takeo Spikes on the play, who's made a career out of being a Patriots nemesis. The Syler to Bob Kraft's Primatech Paper Co.

*This was probably the first game this season where Dean Pees went deep into the "Exotic Looks" section of his playbook. They opened in the straight-up 3-4 as he does every week. But by the second Niners possession, he started subbing in Jarvis Green for Ty Warren, going to 4-man fronts with Green, and going to a lot of subpackages that featured Adalius Thomas and Gary Guyton in switching in and out of the Mike LB spot. And the looks got funkier as San Fran was put in more passing downs including a few 2-man fronts with Green and Mike Wright.

*If the 49ers have retired "BW" in honor of Bill Walsh, does that mean if Ben Watson signed with them he'd have to change his initials?

*I had never heard of the "St. Clair" whose No. 79 the 49ers have retired, so I looked him up. It turns out they've never had a player by that name, it's one of those honorary things like when the Brockton Rox retired 49 in honor of Rocky Marciano. In this case the Niners paid tribute to the 79 women named St. Clair who've worked in California's adult film industry. Way to give back to the community, 49ers.

*Adalius Thomas had probably his best game as a Patriot. If there was a time last year where he took over a game in all phases like he did in the 4th qtr. yesterday, I don't remember it. He was Urlacherrific.

*And Rodney Harrison was vintage. Vernon Davis is rightly considered one of the premier young TE's in football, but Rodney completely took him out of the game. And I still get all warm and tingly inside when they talk about him being the only player in NFL history with 30 sacks and 30 INTs. In fact, I'd like them to start pointing out that he's also the charter member of the "30/30/30/30 Club." 30 sacks, 30 INTs, 30 Unnecessary Roughness Penalties, 30 fines.

*Like I said, I like Fouts. But nothing is more entertaining then two analysts trying to outdo each other with stupid non-sequitors. Fouts did his best after Moss' TD catch saying something about "Randy Moss always says 'If I'm even, then I'm leaving'", which while totally nonsensical, might be an actual quote from Moss. Some WR trade jargon or something, I don't know. But Randy Cross, not to be outdone, watched the replay and said "Do you think the doctor ordered that one up or what?" Um... what? Can I guess "what?" You knew at that point, Fouts realized he was fighting out of his weight class and tapped out, having no chance for a Petruzzelli-like upset win.

*The one thing that's utterly lacking in the Patriots attack though is a viable TE. I know we live in a time of hope and change, but is there a man, woman or child among us who still thinks Ben Watson will ever live up to what we thought his potential was? Even on the Moss TD, Watson came from the same side as Moss, crossed him, and came on a deep corner route across the field . The FS on that side appeared to have responsibility on Jabar Gaffney so Watson was basically alone between the numbers but Cassel went to Moss in double coverage instead. Correctly, as it turned out. Watson just appears to have little or no impact in an offense predicated on a controlled passing game. At least you notice Watson when he's out there, though. Dave Thomas might as well be wearing Field Turf camo. And it seems to me they're lacking that big, run-blocking, road grader, third tackle-typ TE that they can send in motion then follow as the first blocker through the hole. Daniel Graham was expendable because they had Kyle Brady.

*Sorry to go negative there, from now on I promise to keep this campaign focused on a positive vision for the future.

*I'll take crap for this, I know, but I still like the job Ellis Hobbs is doing in coverage. Granted, he's taken on the role Asante Samuel had on that lousy 2005 defense of "DB Who's One Yard Behind the Receiver on Every TD," but we all know where Zant went from there. On the TD pass to Gore, I though Hobbs was in excellent position, it was a perfect throw by JT O'Sullivan (how often do you hear those words together?) and Gore showed he's got cowhide-magnets for hands. To the Ellis-bashers though, I'll concede that he got flat out beat on Isaac Bruce's first TD though. No excuse there.

*With Gore and Arnaz Battle, the Niners unofficially lead the league in the category of "Most Players Named After Reasons for a Video Game to Be Rated M."

*And what's with Bruce scoring two TD's anyway? The last time he did that I had him on my fantasy team and we had to go to the pub on Thursday nights to pick up our sheets. Is it 1997 again already?

*Speaking of people who won't go away, I used to watch Dick Enberg host "Sports Challenge" during the Canary Yellow Sportscoats Era of TV, and he was 75 years old then. I'd like someone to check to see if he and Al Davis are drinking the blood of unicorns or something.

*And I could mock him for calling Brandon Meriweather a "rookie," but when you're Dick's age, you call John Madden a punk kid.

*I'm trying to figure it out with Laurence Maroney. Honestly, there are people who's opinion I respect, not the least of whom is Belichick, who thinks he gets what he can out of most plays. But I see him come to a complete stop on his cuts and it's anything he gets after is a fight for inches. Right now I'll take Sammy Morris over any of them. He's got that flat-footed, low center of gravity thing that I can't help compare to a middle class man's Corey Dillon.

*By my unofficial count, CBS showed 57 shots of Mike Martz before acknowledging that... oh, yeah... Mike Nolan is the head coach. Granted, Martz has been pretty much discredited as a head coach and can design and offense with the best of them, but still you get the feeling that any coach who's forced by the owner to take him on his staff feels like he's supervising the boss' kid. Martz probably has "Next Interim Head Coach" on a name plate on his desk.

*When I'm the NFL commissioner, and it won't be long now, I'm going to outlaw bringing out the chains when Kevin Faulk goes for a first down. He's inherited the Superimposed Yellow Line Vision from Troy Brown, and gets exactly the distance he needs 100% of the time. We'll all just assume he has it and not delay the game with a measurement.

*I'll end it here with the "Applicable Emmitt Smith Quote of the Week: "Wes Worker is a possession receiver that make things happen." So true.