Monday, September 26, 2011

San Francisco 49ers Week 3

By Kalen Patrick

In week 3 of the NFL Season, the San Francisco 49ers traveled to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals. Going in to this game, the 49ers had notable problems playing on the road at 10am PT. The 49ers lost a heart breaker to their long term rivals the Dallas Cowboys last week in overtime. This was the 49ers chance to rebound, and this game was also very important with a tough trio of games coming up in weeks 4-6 (@Philly, Tampa Bay and @Detroit).
CARLOS ROGERS INT IN THE 4TH QT

This game started out extremely slow, by slow I mean the scoring was nowhere to be found. The teams traded field goals back and forth, up until the 4th quarter which is when the 49ers had the one big drive to seal the game. The drive ended with a 7 yard run by rookie RB Kendall Hunter. 49ers went up 13-6 at that point with a matter of minutes left. A Carlos Rogers INT then essentially sealed the game. The 49ers took an intentional safety with no time left to end the game 13-8. This now places the 49ers solely atop the NFC West with a 2-1 record. The NFC West Standings as of week 3 look like:

San Francisco 49ers  2-1
Arizona Cardinals      1-2
Seattle Seahawks      1-2
St. Louis Rams          0-3

What to Improve Upon
The 49ers still have many problems that need attention, and it's all on the offensive side. The run game has been a disaster the first 3 games. Frank Gore has been a huge disappointment so far. All those previous injuries may be slowing him down. He doesn't run with the same drive, speed, confidence and determination as years before. However, I cannot put all the blame on Gore. The offensive line has yet to really gel together and provides little to no gaps for Gore to run through. This is something that the 49ers really need to work on fixing. When your passing game is never gonna be dominant, you gotta be able to run the ball with some level of productivity.

ALEX SMITH HAD A SOLID PERFORMANCE IN WEEK 3 VS THE BENGALS
As for the passing game, overall I have been very impressed with Alex Smith. He looks more confident than ever before and he is doing an excellent job with his reads and decision making. His pass to Vernon Davis over the top of the Bengals CB, was very impressive. He finished 20/30 over 200 yards with no TD's and most importantly 0 INT's. Alex Smith is who he is, he will never be the constant 300 yard passer. But he can make some plays if given the chance. I think we have yet to see the best of Alex Smith this season. New system which everyone is still trying to learn, offensive line play will improve over time and most importantly he has been missing either Michael Crabtree or Braylon Edwards or both for games.

Once you can have Vernon Davis, Michael Crabtree, Braylon Edwards and Frank Gore on the field consistently, then I believe we will start seeing some much improved offense output. For now, the 49ers gotta keep playing great defense, great special teams and make enough plays on offense to win games and minimize mistakes.

The 49ers will stay on the road this week and take on the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. Its questionable whether Michael Vick will be playing for the Eagles after sustaining a hand injury against the Giants. If Vick is out I like the 49ers chances of keeping it close and possibly pulling out the W. With the tough schedule ahead, the 49ers need to take 1 of their next 3. To go 3-3 in to the bye week, have a tough portion of the season over with and be able to work on weaknesses, its possible we could see the 49ers make a playoff appearance. But I cannot get too ahead of myself. We are only just finishing week 3. Lots and lots of football yet to play.

49ers Stats Leaders
Alex Smith - 504 Yards 68.9% COMP  TD's INT. 91.3 QB Rating.
Frank Gore - 148 Yards 2.5 AVG 1 TD
Vernon Davis - 15 Catches 179 Yards
Navarro Bowman - 30 Tackles

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