A Tale of Two Halves

[RiverDog]

If someone knows of a site that has stats that are sortable per half/quarter, I'd appreciate it if they were to post it here.

Yesterday's game was eerily similar to the Broncos game. Our offense starts out moving the ball well, we put 20 points on the board (we put up 17 in the first half vs. the Donkeys), but then in the 2nd half, we do an el foldo. Our offensive line, after doing a very good job of pass protection in the first half, allows a couple of critical sacks in the 4th quarter. Our running game, which initially looks good in the first half, disappears in the 2nd.

After three games this season, we have yet to score an offensive TD in the 2nd half and have just 3 points to show for our efforts.

The defense has a similar problem. In the games vs. the Broncos and Falcons, we didn't force a single punt in the 2nd half.

Comments?

 

[morgulon1]

Failure of 2nd half adjustments? Fatigue? Out coached?

 

[RiverDog]

Failure of 2nd half adjustments? Fatigue? Out coached?

I doubt if it's fatigue.

I'm not sure if it was in this forum or another that I frequent where a poster pointed out that there is nothing magical about halftime, that coaches are making adjustments continually throughout the game. But regardless of how we categorize the adjustments, ie by half, by quarter, by drive, etc, it would seem that we are not making them and/or our opponents are.

 

[thegameq]

I doubt if it's fatigue.

I'm not sure if it was in this forum or another that I frequent where a poster pointed out that there is nothing magical about halftime, that coaches are making adjustments continually throughout the game. But regardless of how we categorize the adjustments, ie by half, by quarter, by drive, etc, it would seem that we are not making them and/or our opponents are.

Yeah, the whole half time adjustments thing has been debunked by former players so many times on radio and on tv that NFL teams need to stop mentioning it. The better coaches are capable of making adjustments on the fly, in game. But there are a lot of old school coaches where "the gameplan is the gameplan". Until they are in jeopardy of losing the game they won't adjust. Unfortunately by then the team has to dig out of a hole.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

The end of the game, had the ball at the 28 with plenty of time. Then geNO did geNO things. Suger coat is as much as you want, he choked when the game was on the line.

 

[JustTheTip]

The end of the game, had the ball at the 28 with plenty of time. Then geNO did geNO things. Suger coat is as much as you want, he choked when the game was on the line.

Shouldn't the coaches, knowing he is a choker, do a better job of trying to make sure he isn't in that position?

 

[hoxrox]

The end of the game, had the ball at the 28 with plenty of time. Then geNO did geNO things. Suger coat is as much as you want, he choked when the game was on the line.

Dude it was 4th and 18. Can't really be mad at that play. Be mad at the penalty that negated the play that would have put us at the 9 yard line, and in scoring position. We're walking away with a dub, and you're not posting the same damn thing on multiple threads, sounding like a broken record.

 

[sutz]

Still learning to play with a lead. Two problems Sunday.

One: The lead was not big enough to sit on. Definitely needed to score 2d half points.

Two: Our D is not good enough to hold the lead. However, our D held them to 7 points in the 2d half.

It wasn't all bad. Better than @ San Fran (at least on O), but not good enough to win yet.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Fair enough. He had a wide open field in front of him. I'll sound like a broken record as often as I like. I'm not happy with how that crap ended. Period.
I with echo what others have said, why in the hell were they not sticking to the run? Will we hear the same old excuses from Pete again?

 

[morgulon1]

I don't think Geno is a choker. He made some nice improvements, helped put up 23 points.
He was in a 3rd and long (or 4th) with serious rush and he threw a high ball. IMHO.

Defense couldve done better in this one.

Tough game.

 

[sutz]

Fair enough. He had a wide open field in front of him. I'll sound like a broken record as often as I like. I'm not happy with how that crap ended. Period.

I don't think anybody is "happy" with how the game ended. But I'm a glass half full kind of a guy and I like to focus on those areas where we did improve over the week before, like at least putting up 23 points for starters.

Lots of things to work on, yes, but there was improvement in execution.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Noted. Choker is probably a little harsh, I will admit that. On to next week. Overall, it was a good game and the offense was much improved. It was a very entertaining game overall.

 

[Chukarhawk]

the defense sucks, like really bad. Cant hang this on Geno.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Shouldn't the coaches, knowing he is a choker, do a better job of trying to make sure he isn't in that position?

This is the NFL, if your QB doesn't play well in 2nd halves of games and chokes under pressure......then you need a new QB.

This defense isn't NEARLY good enough to make up for bad QB play in 2nd halves.

So get used to this movie, we're going to be seeing it all year.

 

[JustTheTip]

This is the NFL, if your QB doesn't play well in 2nd halves of games and chokes under pressure......then you need a new QB.

This defense isn't NEARLY good enough to make up for bad QB play in 2nd halves.

So get used to this movie, we're going to be seeing it all year.

I would contend we are going to see it until Pete is gone unless he can find another QB like early Wilson. For all of his faults, Wilson did fit Pete's coaching style in the "you win in the fourth quarter" bullshit portion of Pete's philosophy. Of course, the defense was also a big piece of that.

 

[BASF]

One thing that I have not seen mentioned is during the first half of games the defensive linemen are learning the tells of the offensive linemen. It is a lot like boxing where you are throwing feints to set up your opponent for the win later in the fight. So, our line is giving things away in the second half. Blythe being a veteran should not have been so easily set up for the stunt that got us into fourth and eighteen, but Jarrett absolutely ate his lunch on that play.

As the young guys on the line mature and as the line gels they will be able to mitigate some of the defensive line wins later in the games.

 

[RiverDog]

One thing that I have not seen mentioned is during the first half of games the defensive linemen are learning the tells of the offensive linemen. It is a lot like boxing where you are throwing feints to set up your opponent for the win later in the fight. So, our line is giving things away in the second half. Blythe being a veteran should not have been so easily set up for the stunt that got us into fourth and eighteen, but Jarrett absolutely ate his lunch on that play.

As the young guys on the line mature and as the line gels they will be able to mitigate some of the defensive line wins later in the games.

Good point. I like the boxing analogy.

I've noticed the same thing. We seem to have good protection in the early part of the game, but it seems to break down towards the end of the game. Both in last week's game and in our game with the Broncos, we gave up sacks at critical times late in the game.

Vs. the Falcons, we gave up two sacks the entire game, but both occurred after the 6-minute mark and on the last drive of the game when it counted most. Against the Broncos with less than 5 minutes left when a couple of first downs would have put the game on ice, we gave up a critical sack on 3rd down, forcing us to punt.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Again, you can't hang this JUST on the defense. The play calling and Geno in the 4th quarter were also part of it. Can you imagine this place if that was the "last guy" who didn't get it done on Sunday?
Again, I'm not saying Geno is THE reason they lost, that's just not reality. But some people are acting like he had NOTHING to do with them losing.
They have scored 3 total points in the 2nd half of the 3 games. That falls on the QB too. Yet if you have an opinion on it, you get blasted and/or are just a "geno hater"
I guess it's just odd that all the sudden the QB seems to be above legit criticism.

 

[themunn]

Nobody expects Geno to be the next Rodgers or Mahomes or Allen.

But the defense had 7 drives (excluding those to end each half), which ended in 3 TDs, 2 FGs, an unforced fumble and a single punt.

If anything, the fact that Geno was able to keep the ball moving - by my calcs, converting 9 of 16 3rd downs and 2 of 3 4th downs for effectively 11-16 conversion rate is the only reason we were completely obliterated by the Falcons offense who were able to pretty much whatever they wanted.

If this was last year's offense where we were consistently going 3 and out and failing to convert third downs the Falcons could have easily put 40-50 on us this week.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

But where are the points in the 2nd half? Gotta' be able to finish games and put teams away. When the game was on the line, him and the offense didn't get it done.
They scored ZERO POINTS at Santa Clara. Let me guess, it has nothing to do with Geno, he's above any criticism.