Hawks-49ers "3 point stance"

An idea stolen from Mike and Mike's "5 point stance" and realizing I tend to be on the overly wordy side, so here are the first three things that come to my mind when I ask myself "hey what are the first three things that come to your mind when you think of this game?"


1. 49ers Borland is sensational.

He seemed to always be where the ball was, and if he didn't get the tackle he usually hung on until help came. Only two things I recall him missing was Lynch jumping over the spear and then on a Wilson rush he stumbled a bit early and Wilson got passed him (Wilson probably faster to the edge than he anticipated). Regardless he seemed to always be in the right place. Smart player

2. The 49ers receivers and Kaep seem to be afraid of the LOB.

Timid passing game. And even more surprising that 49ers went away from the run so early. Hyde and Gore had some success and definitely attacked and Kaep seemed like he would have had success on some runs too. I can only think that the scouting report said the Seahawks rush D is fantastic and the Seahawks pass D is susceptible so 49ers game planned that way... But yeah, the Hawks LOB seemed to scare them off when it came to gametime

3. If you're the opposing team, do NOT make Marshawn mad.

Beast mode goes ultra beast mode and I mostly recall a run where I think he definitely sought out contact on three straight defenders. Angry Beast Mode!

What about you? The three things that stick out in your mind right away without discrimination ?

1. For me, it's the complete and absolute disappearance of Vernon Davis. I know he has played poorly at times against us, but one of the Seahawks supposed weaknesses is fast tight ends. I think he had one catch tonight, I'm very proud of this defensive effort.


2. Penalties.

3. Defensive pressure

1. Our defense was hitting everyone hard, Crabtree was hurt in the first series but ended up back, Boldin was also hurt, even Gore was pissed at getting hit. Seems like they didn't like getting hit and was very afraid of the LOB.

2. For all the complaining about Wilson being short, Kaep is 6'4 and he missed wide open shots and runs out of the pocket too early, but i guess in reality Kaep is 5'11. His locking into his receivers is what cost him the INT.

3. Our Tight Ends look better with Tony Moeaki, imagine having him, Willson, and Helfet on the field together. Tony's combine speed was 4.69 for the 40, but on that 63 yarder he looked faster than that.

Moeaki feeling like that magical signing JS pulls out of his hat that contributes right when we were despondent about our TEs. Helps that Helfet and even Willson are catching everything right now also. Huge for this passing offense.

Borland is a very good player. I think he is more of a pest than an intimidating force though. Lynch made Borland look like a mid-round pick on a few plays tonight. That was good to see, SF doesn't need another ultra-elite talent in their LB corps.

!) The physically-depleted, bewildered, WTF-we-gon'-do posture of the Whiners between quarters two and four.
!!) The number of times Hawk mitts planted on Crapinsack.
!!!) "Boo. Booooo. Boooooooo. BOOOOOOOO!", cried the 'fans' of The Fogmen, proving again why no one has ever accused Frisco fans of...welll, anything positive.

hawk45":2qwwp00z said:

Moeaki feeling like that magical signing JS pulls out of his hat that contributes right when we were despondent about our TEs. Helps that Helfet and even Willson are catching everything right now also. Huge for this passing offense.

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Being a Hawkeye fan, Moeaki is one of the most frustrating players. He is ultra talented, but could never stay healthy for an entire season. Unfortunately, the injury bug followed him to the NFL after a promising start to his career in KC. Trust me, if he can stay healthy, we will look back at the Moeaki signing as one the highlights of the year, and maybe the future.

Seanhawk":2etw0c3t said:

Being a Hawkeye fan, Moeaki is one of the most frustrating players. He is ultra talented, but could never stay healthy for an entire season. Unfortunately, the injury bug followed him to the NFL after a promising start to his career in KC. Trust me, if he can stay healthy, we will look back at the Moeaki signing as one the highlights of the year, and maybe the future.

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Hell, just get through 2 more months healthy and it's a huge win. Get injured next year, after we've already scrounged up and/or developed more depth at TE. Having even a serviceable, much less GOOD TE like Moeaki appears to be, is such a huge win for this team, a little good luck to partially offset the other kind.

Our season is over! Many cried, when we lost Miller and Wags and Mebane and then Unger. Then we got Moeaki and got Lemuel JeanPierre back, got Wagner back, got Kam and Maxwell back, and it's LOOK OUT, rest of the league, #1 defense is back! And an offense that can actually threaten in the passing game is back!

49ers came out and went up the middle with some success then completely went away from it. Real curious if we took it away or they just outsmarted themsekves

ok Ill play. I wanted to do this without reading everyone elses response.

1. Seattle's defense is once again. I think it is a combination of focus and #54 with a healthy Chancellor.

2. just enough offense

3. Playing to win (loose)

mikeak":1kwm8kp5 said:

49ers came out and went up the middle with some success then completely went away from it. Real curious if we took it away or they just outsmarted themsekves

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Bobby Wagner, and the LOB was tightening the noose on the gut.
All of Kaeperdweebs targets were afraid to catch anything after they realized that they would all suffer the same treatment that Crabtree got.

I think the defense dared them to go in the middle and then hit them as hard as they can. It was more than enough to stop them from trying anymore, i think they all want to survive for the next game.

It is really hard to do anything when your first play (a KO return) gets laid out and then your actual first play from scrimmage, one of your top receivers is laid out by Kam Chancellor clutching his ribs

Love the points on Moeaki. He's got really good hands. I haven't been paying attention to his blocking on any of my re-watches. I'll have to look for that next time.

Regarding the Borland comment above being more of a pest than intimidating force, agreed. Sometimes a pest is all you need though. Lynch did get the better of him a few times, but I would say more often than not Borland was able to hang onto him until help arrived. Re-watched the game, the Lynch "jump" (looked like ballet in slow motion) was one run. Later in the game, much later, Lynch also ran Borland over. But by then I'd say Borland was likely pretty tired. Lynch ran him over, then he went out and Turbin or Michel came in. So we were subbing in runners, but they weren't subbing in for Borland. He had to play most snaps. That's got to be discouraging


Also regarding the earlier point about the 49ers abandoning the run from mikeak. "49ers came out and went up the middle with some success then completely went away from it. Real curious if we took it away or they just outsmarted themsekves" Yup I had the same idea. There were a few runs that were smacked back, but there were a few that were successful too. I think they were just as successful as the Seahawks early on. But later in the game (3rd quarter I think?) they put an infographic up of the plays and I think it was just about 50/50 split for the Seahawks going with run vs pass. But the 49ers were something like 30/70 run/pass. They definitely just abandon their run. Who knows why? Maybe the same reason the Seahawks abandon it too in our losses

And good points too about Wagner being back. And the defense pressure in general. Stood out in my mind too. There are so many variables here on the Seahawks D getting back to its game: could be Wagner coming back, Kam finding his Bam, or the Sunflower Seeds speech, or all the above and more. Maybe just a lot of little things falling into place

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That right tackle from Miami seemed to help our pass rush. The Hawks lined Avril and Bennett up together on that side several times. Seems like Quinn is on it now. It seems to take some time to figure out what works best as far as rotations and combinations and like last season our best pass rush is at the end of the season.

kearly":30el1zqh said:

Borland is a very good player. I think he is more of a pest than an intimidating force though. Lynch made Borland look like a mid-round pick on a few plays tonight. That was good to see, SF doesn't need another ultra-elite talent in their LB corps.

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Yup, Lynch adapted to his ankle tackling and the line to his tiny, lil, trex arms in the 2nd half. He'll revert to average/scrappy next year.

byau":2lk0qshn said:

Timid passing game. And even more surprising that 49ers went away from the run so early. Hyde and Gore had some success and definitely attacked and Kaep seemed like he would have had success on some runs too. I can only think that the scouting report said the Seahawks rush D is fantastic and the Seahawks pass D is susceptible so 49ers game planned that way... But yeah, the Hawks LOB seemed to scare them off when it came to gametime

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More so that the 9ers run game has been in shambles for a bit now. The 9ers don't match up well with the Hawks, but that's PARTICULARLY the case right now. Before the game I had posted that you guys might be surprised when the 9ers tried to attack the Hawks through the air. That's what happened, it was just laughably ineffective. :lol:

rjdriver":2lk0qshn said:

1. For me, it's the complete and absolute disappearance of Vernon Davis. I know he has played poorly at times against us, but one of the Seahawks supposed weaknesses is fast tight ends. I think he had one catch tonight, I'm very proud of this defensive effort.

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This isn't particular to this game. Vernon has been a complete non-factor this entire year. In the month (4 games) leading up to the Hawks game he had all of 7 receptions for 54 yards combined. The tragedy is that what you saw against the Hawks is right about average for what he's been doing. Sheesh.

kearly":2lk0qshn said:

Borland is a very good player. I think he is more of a pest than an intimidating force though. Lynch made Borland look like a mid-round pick on a few plays tonight. That was good to see, SF doesn't need another ultra-elite talent in their LB corps.

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Yeah, posted about this before the game, but Borland's big plays in the backfield come at the expense of guessing too much. As for Lynch, it's against guys like Lynch where Borland's physical limitations are going to show up the most. To Lynch's credit though, he makes 95% of the LBs in the NFL look like mid-round picks. I think Borland can still be a force (not just a pest) as long as he's never forced into the Jack role in the 9ers defense.

theincrediblesok":2lk0qshn said:

2. For all the complaining about Wilson being short, Kaep is 6'4 and he missed wide open shots and runs out of the pocket too early, but i guess in reality Kaep is 5'11. His locking into his receivers is what cost him the INT.

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Really just a horrible game by Kaepernick. Easily his worst of the year. Just embarrassing. He was clearly rattled, and I haven't seen him struggle with his accuracy that much in a long, long time. Both Kap and the 9ers have a major Hawks problem.

PDXCHawk":2lk0qshn said:

!!) The number of times Hawk mitts planted on Crapinsack.

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Avril versus Jonathan Martin was really the linchpin, IMO (Anthony Davis was out). 9ers are never going to win that matchup, and the dominoes fell from there.

Hawks got huge production in the middle line from Hill and Dobbs. With Mebane out, this was a huge factor in that game for sure. Dobbs is playing with a chip on his shoulder and Hill is just trying to make any impact. It's a win-win for the Hawks in spite of Mebane being out.

Chancellor, Thomas and Wagner have the Sgt. of Arms mentality going strong and this doesn't bode well to whomever the Hawks play.

kearly":m2kfptyg said:

Borland is a very good player. I think he is more of a pest than an intimidating force though. Lynch made Borland look like a mid-round pick on a few plays tonight. That was good to see, SF doesn't need another ultra-elite talent in their LB corps.

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Borland is the preeminent ankle tackler in the NFL. Which isn't saying much. Smart kid but obvious physical limitations with those t-rex arms.

Melencause":ysfzvld1 said:

kearly":ysfzvld1 said:

Borland is a very good player. I think he is more of a pest than an intimidating force though. Lynch made Borland look like a mid-round pick on a few plays tonight. That was good to see, SF doesn't need another ultra-elite talent in their LB corps.

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Borland is the preeminent ankle tackler in the NFL. Which isn't saying much. Smart kid but obvious physical limitations with those t-rex arms.

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While ankle tackling is not glamorous, it did do its job for a good part of the game. And as others have mentioned, to be fair, Lynch runs over just about everyone.

Borland was making plays for a large majority of the game against Lynch and others. And being where the ball is, whether guessing or not, is a good skill to have. I think he's got to be extremely smart because he definitely does not seem that quick. Definitely not big and physical. To me that makes it even more impressive

Also like someone else said, it'll be interesting to see what he can do to get better each year. And what happens when Willis and Bowman return.