Staley gave up 3.5 sacks in that game last season, as he said he let the fact he was playing against Strahan get in his brain. (Staley used a bit more of a colorful term, but, hey, this is a family blog.)
Staley said when Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora sustained a season-ending injury in the season-opener, he was rooting for Strahan to come out of retirement.
"I wanted that rematch to redeem myself," Staley said. "I knew I wouldn't do what I did in that game again. I'm a different player now - more confident now than I was then. But it would be good to go against one of the best D-ends in the league again.
"I just think I learned a lot from that game. You can't react. You have to be the aggressor. You have to have a game plan going in, and you can't be reactive. I didn't do that in that game."
Of course, Staley has switched positions. He has moved from right tackle to left tackle. So if Strahan had returned, he would've been Barry Sims' problem.
As for this season, Staley admitted to getting off to a rough start against the Cardinals.
"I feel like I'm getting better every game," Staley said. "The first game I didn't play very well and I was very upset with myself. Going forward, I feel like I'm making progress as far as my technique goes. There are always things you can work on. That's why these practices are important."
* * *
Just got off a conference call with Giants coach Tom Coughlin, who said quarterback Eli Manning is a little sore but he'll be fine to practice today and will play in Sunday's game.
--As far as the Giants' 35-14 loss to the Browns, Coughlin said, "We got a lot of stuff to correct. We have a lot of things to deal with."
--Coughlin said his team has done a good job with its focus and avoiding the complacency that generally comes after a championship season.
--Coughlin said the 49ers have a lot of weapons on offense. Defensively, he said the scheme is very good and they're playing hard. He noted that the 49ers have been in every game until the end, and said he was particularly impressed with the way the 49ers played against the Giants' NFC East rival Eagles.
* * *
On a sad note, former 49ers running back Lenvil Elliott, a key member of the team's 1981 championship season, died Sunday in
Elliott was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals, and played there from 1973 to '79. He played three seasons under assistant coach Bill Walsh. When Walsh became 49ers head coach in 1979, he acquired Elliott in a trade. Elliott retired after the Super Bowl-winning season.
* * *
If I'm Staley I don't know if I would be bringing up a 2nd chance to go against Strahan. With the way the O-line has played thus far this season Staley should just stay down with the rest of his unit & work alot harder to get better.
Nice read Matt. I'm a bigger fan of Staley than ever before. A competitive desire and passion to always get better as a player. Attributes that #11 lacked.
Lenvil Elliott,
Very underrated and overlooked player from the 1981 season, especially his contributions in the NFC Championship Game against Dallas in January of 1982.
..."He noted that the 49ers have been in every game until the end"- until JTO turns the ball over...
"I just think I learned a lot from that game. You can't react. You have to be the aggressor. You have to have a game plan going in, and you can't be reactive. I didn't do that in that game."
Matt,
Can you ask Staley to pass this mindset on to Nolan and the D? We have the talent on D to dictate, yet all we do is sit back and react =(
That's exactly what I thought. Let's see someone action on the field before we hear some words off of it. Once again the OL play has been sub-standard. Why did we keep Warhop? We conceded 55 sacks last year and are on pace to concede over 60 this year. JTO has been running for his life far too often already. It's a good job that he's such an amazingly good scrambler. The only pockets he's benefited from this year are the ones in his jeans. I know the system is high risk, high reward, but that's no excuse for such poor protection. There is hope though. There are a few decent OT's high-up in the draft, as well as a couple of potential FA's, so we should be able to pick up a decent RT. With Baas and Rachal waiting in the wings to take over from Snyder and Wragge, respectively, we have the makings of an improved line, if not this year, then next. Gotta tighten up on the protection though, which we did do for 3 quarters Vs. the Eagles. It was just the 4th where they overwhelmed us, sadly. We were doing well up until then. Probably just Jimmy Johnson getting creative and dialing up some blitzes as they were down and needing the ball back. If only our high-priced, highly touted defense could have returned the favour...but i won't bash them again today, did that plenty earlier in the week. On a positive note, the weather was nice on Sunday.
Yep, it pains me to see someone as good at press coverage being told to line-up 8 yards off the WR. He was playing much tighter earlier in the year. I wonder if the long Randy Moss TD burned the coaches into having the corners playing much softer coverage for fear of being burned again. That sounds like something Nowin wwould do, but would be illogical. Everyone knows that Moss is not only the best deep threat in the game today, but probably ever. But we don't face him every week, and Nate can own most WR's he faces, with few exceptions. Let him do his thing, play tight, and dominate and harass the WR and impose his will, rather than the other way around, as has been happening.
I was talking about Nate Clements in my previous post. Not sure why I did it as a reply to your post about Staley, though. I guess my mind wandered...
Yes, with the talent in our secondary, we should be a lot more aggressive up front in our play calling. Other than McDonald and maybe Smith, we don't have any pass rushers on the DL. Playing more 3-4 will allow us to get more pressure.
Unfortunately, it seems Nolan is too stubborn to try anything other than his big nickel...
I wish Caughlin (and all opposing coaches) could say what they really think about an upcoming opponent. I bet it's not what he said above.
I'm surprised that you think a 3-4 is the way forward with this personnel. I was thinking a 4-3 would better suit our current players. DT's of Soapoaga an Franklin/Fields: DE's of Smith and McDonald, who would both move inside to DT on passing downs, with Haralson and Green coming in at DE. With the base LB's being Manny, PWilly and Spikes from strong to weak. I firmly believe that this system would utilize our current "talent" the best. I just don't think we can afford to play the 3-4 with our NT quite often getting blown 5 yards off the line. The NT need's to be stud in the 3-4, and ours isn't. In the 4-3, the MLB need's to be the stud, and ours is. Build it round the best player, imho.
TJ...
I agree your lineup for the 4-3. However, we've been rushing 4 with no pressure whatsoever. If the 4-3 is the case then we need to send Manny or Spikes and sometimes Willis with some blitz packages to be effective. Whatever happened to the zone blitz the use to run, where the DE's peel off in coverage and send the LB's instead? I like the 3-4 with the exception of the NT, a key missing ingredient in this current defense. With a stud NT and Fields/Sop as the DE's and J. Smith and McDonald as OLB's wouldn't be bad either. Again, we're missing the NT. Neither Franklin or Sop can get the job done at Nose. IMO they should stick with the 4-3 and disguise some blitz packages.
As for he offensive line, Sims is seriously getting owned out there. I think this is a good time to try out Rachal at RT to see what he's got. He should be better that Sims on athletic ability alone.
We've actually been playing more 4-3 than 3-4 lately. Like I say, we're short on pass rushers on the DL. I'd much rather see Willis, Spikes, Haralson and Green blitzing, rather than relying on our front 4 to get pressure. As you can see, it hasn't worked yet and won't with this hybrid D that Nolan and Manusky are trying to run.
I forgot to mention TJ... I totally agree about the liability in Franklin at NT in the 3-4. However, blitzing the gaps more frequently would definitely help until we can get a true NT. Although if/when Nolan is fired, who knows what the new HC or DC will decide to run...
TJ,
I have to agree with Randy in that 4-3 has been pretty much ineffective as far as any pass rush. At least with the 3-4 there's a certain amount of surprise & guessing from the opponent's O-line on where the blitz is coming from. And speaking of the 3-4 defense wasn't the plan when Nolan got here was to implement the 3-4 defense? never mind it's a waste of time & blog space to bring that up again.
Hey Franchise -- I'm a big Staley fan. He has the toughness the OL has lacked since Newbury left. I remember watching a game last year where at the end of a play Staley was on the ground, he grabbed and opposing player to help himself up and then walked away like nothing happened. That's kinda ballsy, and to just turn your back on your opponent, like he was a 10 year vet instead of rookie was awesome to see.
While we're on the topic of offensive lineman with an attitude, check out Pete Prisco's column today at cbssportsline.com. Harvey Dahl, who was cut by the Niners, is a leader on the resurgent offensive line of the Falcons. Besides excellent run-blocking, he's shown a mean streak that has set a tone for the rest of the guys on the OL with him.
Matt,
How come we're playing NYG 2 years in a row, and
both years in NY? Obviously we're playing the NFC
East this year so why did we get NYG last year as
well? Keep the faith Niner fans, somehow someway
we'll see this thing turned around (I hope!).
IMHO Staley's been average at best. He seems to get beat off the ball alot. Barry Sims has been awful. Dare I say our line misses the play of a healthy Jonas Jennings.
On the defense... our D-line play appears terrible to me. We rank in the bottom 3rd of the league in Rush yds per game. Does all the shifting of Justin Smith hurt our d-line? I've noticed Willis is getting blocked alot more this year than last. It was obvious in the Patriots game as Matt Light had his face mask buried in Willis' chest the entire game. Manusky obviously needs to do something different with scheme or lineup. Nolan's typical "Just play better" response is one of the hallmarks of his patented 5 game losing streak.
Matt,
I think Nolan will be fired in the bye week if the team is 2 &6. The odds are maybe 50/50 that the 9ers lose to the Giants but beat the Seahawks the following week. If the 9ers are 3&5 going into the bye do you think Nolan gets fired? Instead of your GPS game, the Seahawks game could be a GBN (GoodBye Nolan) game.
Randy, 9erDino and F49er: While I totally understand what you're saying, and welcome the opportunity to have a positive and constructive exchanging of views and opinions with you guys, I just can't condone the 3-4 while it has Franklin on the nose. I agree that P.Willy has had more blocking to contend with this year, and I believe that is down to the poor line play. When we're in the 3-4 we get crushed with the run. We have no-one who can withstand the double team on the nose that the 3-4 requires to be successful. And for that reason alone, I don't think we should run it. Having said that, I respect you guys' opinions, so we'll agree to disagree :-) Would like to see, regardless of the scheme, much more aggression and creativity in the D. gameplans though. We're always being out coached and out thought, especially in the 3rd and 4th Q's. Trying not to mention Mike Nowin in every post, but ultimately, that's our biggest problem. Here's hoping that Singletary gets the call after we're destroyed by a very angry Giants team.
GBN = Funny one Houston........I think we can all agree JTO throws 3 interceptions....ok 4 int in NY....Our O-line has played much better than our QB.
This is only my opinion but JTO is well below average. The JTO = Just Turn Over acronym fits him perfectly. I can't imagine him ever getting better with experience. Every play with this guy feels like a desperation play. Unfortunately, he's made at least 10 more great plays in his first 6 games than Alex ever made over a few years. Along with those 10 great plays, he's made about 25 bad plays. JTO is a 1 year stop gap until the team can find a legitimate NFL QB. Perhaps if Chudzinski from Cleveland replaces Nolan, he can bring Brady Quinn with him. Not sure if he's any good but at least he'll know Chudzinski's offense.
Of course it is easy to challenge a player who is retired. I want to see how he does this weekend against his actual opponent. From an offensive line that leads the league in giving up sacks, 23, I would think twice before showing bravado
TJ,
I was thinking of the 3-4 in terms of obvious passing downs. But then again when the 49ers are in the 4-3 on early downs they're still getting gashed on run plays so I guess it doesn't really matter. Either way the 49ers D-line is not very good plain & simple. I don't see how that can be fixed with the personnel that they have.
of course he his below average,,..I have never seen anything like JTO in my life....He has the passion and drive of a leader that wants to win but continuosly makes mistakes that make you wonder..."WTF his he thinking"...what pisses me off the most is that JTO guy was suppossed to be an upgrade at the position, looking at his experience in the league and THE FACT HE HAS BEEN WITH THIS SAME OFFENSE FOR TWO YEARS....it bungles my mind how someone with his experience keeps making this incompetent mistakes EVERY WEEK.......
9RFAFUL,
Part of the 49ers schedule every year consists of all 4 teams of AFC division, their own division & some teams of every division of the NFC Conference. That's why the Giants are on the schedule again this year.
oneniner - here's an idea: GIVE IT A F'N REST ON JTO. You are obsessed - and very boring. Get a grip.
Fully agree... The spamming is getting old.
Maybe Staley will settle for a rematch against
Trent Cole, who gave him plenty of trouble last
Sunday.
TJ,
I agree that the line play has been horrible this season, but the scheme doesn't help. Nolan's scheme has the line playing very soft and timid, they react instead of just going after it. There's also the lack of BY's leadership and motivation. I still don't get why they drafted balmer to have him on the bench. He is after all, a first rounder, and he can't be any worse than Franklin/Sop as a 4-3 DT.
oneniner- at least run a spell check or get an education before continually ragging on someone else's mistakes. Or are you trying to set a record for level of ignorance?
Because 3 years ago vs. NFC East, the Giants game was @ Candlestick. Then last year, the rematch against the E opp. coincidentally happened to be @ NEw York. Playing the East now 3 years later, based on playing the Giants @ Candlestick 3 years ago, the game is NOW in New York. It does seem confusing I know, but that formula is based on 3 years ago, NY was @ Candlestick and now since we are playing E, NY game is @ New York, again.
49ers schedule in 2009, if this is right:
NFC North, where we are 2 and 2 + rematch losses to Bears/Vikings/win over lions
AFC South, where we are 1 and 3, with the only win over Texans. The Texans Game will be @ Reliant.
East opposition: Should be home I believe. Where we finish in #2 or 3, our E opp. is the #2 or 3.
South opposition: Should be road, and with luck, could be @ Tampa Bay or New Orleans.
Our usual division, the Crap league.
And I would like to thank Staley for motivating the opposition. He didn't have to do that for we were going to get our you know what handed to us courtesy of The Suit. Boot the Suit. Boot the Suit! Boot the Suit. That's ongoing at Sando's blog alos, Boot the Suit.