What are we doing about the OLINE though?

Barry Sims has played extremely well at Left Tackle. I have been very critical of Sims over the past year and he deserved all of it. Now he deserves the credit for stepping up and delivering for the team. Great job.

Sorry Coach this is one time I disagree with you. If you actually think Sims & Snyder are doing "outstanding" and "good" I am flabbergasted.

It isn't just the middle of the line, it is the entire line. Even if you look at our run and pass statistics by position our LT and RT productivity is near the bottom by Footballinsiders stats.

What's up?

Cmon people.....cmon whinners..:)

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I agree with you, Matt. Even though it's all well and good that Snyder is performing better at right tackle, the fact is that the guards are still underperforming and the coaches should look at putting the most effective five linemen out there. And since Sims can't play guard, that might mean Snyder moving back to the inside.

The only potential drawbacks are whether Sims can adjust to the right side, where he hasn't been as good as he's playing on the left now...and whether continuing to yo-yo Snyder around the line would be detrimental to his play.

Singletary answered, "Probably not. (Adam) Snyder is doing a good job on that side."

You keep using this word 'good'. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Thanks MM for the VD info - I was ripped on this blog two weeks ago for suggest that Vernon Davis would be on the outside looking in at the annual "popularity" contest. I would not be surprised if Witten or Jeremy Shockey are 2nd on that list and that folks will be your 2009 NFC pro bowlers at TE. Vernon is anything but a sure thing (and he deserves to go).

Word.

Where are the stat nerds? Is Green Bay's defense that good or was Tony Homo that bad?

Well, Vernon does lead the NFC in penalties so far this season (eight).

Thanks for the info MM. Sidenote, the podcast's sound quality is WAY better than it has been (no static). I don't know if that has to do with you having a new computer? If so, old comp - 0, new comp - 1.

INCONCEIVABLE! Good one. Love The Princess Bride.

Excellent Princess Bride reference.

So the receivers of the future are Crabtree, Morgan, and Hill. Seems solid but not spectacular to me but they are very young yet.

I would very much like to hear how Sims turned it around. Sounds like a good story there. Personally, I had written him off as a backup at best.

Singletary: :"He's doing a good job right now."....."No. That guy's doing a fine job right where he is."..."That guy's doing fine."..."No! That guy's doing a fine job right now!" ?????
Who the heck is MS talking too? Is he watching the game at all? The WHOLE OL sucks big time! C'mon!?

Not Good Meaning Good
But
Good Meaning Bad.

IMO the pro bowlers at TE should come down to Gonzalez, Celek, and Davis... Shockey and Witten should not even be in the conversation

Is his name pronounced Ken-wan? Silent t? The way Matt says his name makes him sounds like a character from Star Wars, some sort of Jedi.

What positions are Crabtree and Morgan playing? X, Z? I remember there was talk of Crabtree being slated to play one position, but once he signed, he began playing the other. Where does that stand now?

Here are the Pro Bowl voting stats to date - as you know this is the "fan vote" which accounts for 1/3. Players and coaches don't vote for a few more weeks (2/3 of the vote):

The 49ers' Frank Gore ranks third among NFC running backs, Peterson and the Falcons' Michael Turner rank ahead of Gore.
The 49ers' Vernon Davis ranks third among NFC tight ends. The Falcons' Tony Gonzalez and the Saints' Jeremy Shockey rank ahead of him.
The 49ers' Patrick Willis ranks first among NFC inside linebackers.
The 49ers' Andy Lee ranks fifth among NFC punters. Former Cardinals and Seahawks punter Jeff Feagles ranks first.

Matt,

In regards to the updated version of the 49er WR's you have to answer this question. So why aren't the 49ers giving ANY playing time to their top FA Brandon Jones? I mean I'm all good with the new starting 3 but the 49ers paid some good money for Jones & they can't get him in for ANY plays on offense? What gives?

If you're "flabbergasted" at the coaches, why did you suggest putting Snyder in at guard? Clearly you haven't been paying attention to his play if you somehow think he's better at guard than at Right Tackle?

He was HORRIBLE at OG. He's merely below-average at RT.

Why do you people keep forgetting there are two issues in protection. One is the line, the other is the QB creating sacks.

With Smith, right now we're giving up about 1 sack in every 12 pass plays. Which is not great by any long shot, but Smith is rusty and has obviously made some mistakes that have caused sacks. It further doesn't help the situation that he has very inexperienced WRs, with whom he hasn't worked with very much, who do not do a good job in helping him when things go sideways.

I'm sure as Morgan and Crabtree get more NFL experience they'll do a better job in recognizing tough situations and be able to help the QB instead of blithely running routes.

But as 'below-average' as the pass-protection has been with Smith, my point remains -- QBs also create sacks. Just Smith's rust creates some sacks, his superior athletic ability, as rusty as he is, still happens to be a dramatic improvement from Shaun "Create Sacks and Punts" Hill who managed to get sacked about every 9th pass play. Hill, as a QB, was sort of a Drew Bledsoe, but without any actual QBing ability... At least with Bledsoe he was good for a few 20+ tosses a game and could make up some of those sacks. Hill, no.

Personally, I think as Smith shakes off the rust of a two-year absence, he'll do a better job of avoiding the sacks. I think history shows us that he can. Remember, back in 2006 our line gave sacks in about one of every 15 plays.

You know, the line with the much fan-praised back-up Snyder and much hated starter Kwame "responsible for all the o-line woes" Harris. Of course, Snyder wasn't any better AND, unlike Harris, he also can't run block. As poor as Harris was as pass-pro, by gosh he could clean house in run blocking. Something that has been lacking here since he left.

Anyway, I'm sure Smith will get a bit better at avoiding sacks. He did in 2006, no reason to believe he can't do that in 2009. I'm sure it'll just take some time.

Mike Sando posted those early NFCW Pro Bowl ballots, please credit accordingly.
Notably also, Aubrayo wasn't mentioned at DT. (Ditto, Jay Ratliff.) The Williams Wall are #1 % #2, with Pat leading the position & he plays NT. Haynesworth & Dockett are #3 & #4.
*cough" *cough* Allen Rossum is #5 at kickoff returner.

Coach is right about one thing...Sims has done an excellent job at LT. He's wrong about Snyder at RT, though. Right now, Sims & Heitmann are about the only two OL I'd say are playing consistently well. Baas has his moments...mostly in run-blocking, but neither he nor Rachal are very consistent in their pass blocking. So, if Coach thinks his OL's playing well, then that's a problem. Alex faced a lot of pressure against Da Bears, a team that hadn't been playing good defense. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of our OL. Hate to sound like a broken record, but I believe the best way to fix our OL, RB corps and overall offense is to hire Mike Shanahan. I know it's another coaching change...but Singletary's vision of the offense isn't going to get us back to the playoffs, and I question his judge of talent/performance.

I feel that your frustrations with the offense may be misguided... if the 9ers are going to get consistent production from an offense it needs to be improved on the level of personnel. No tangible improvement in the offense will be seen until the front office addresses the major deficiencies at OL and backup RB. We are going to need a Thunder to our Lightning (Gore), and some OL that can create running lanes CONSISTENTLY.

Continuity on offense and improved personnel will lead us to the promise land, not another change in coaching and philosophy. The only coaching change I would support would be if Raye was replaced by someone inside the staff that would run the same system. I doubt that any change will happen until atleast the end of the 2010 season.

I tend to agree that we have personnel shortcomings. O-line is obviously a major aread of need. QB play has bee sub-par so far. On the backup to Gore. I still can't figure out the Coffee thing. He is Frank Gore light. They have exactly the same strenghts so he's not really a change of pace back. I thought they had a promising RB in Sheets. I'd really like to know why they let him get away. What were coaches seeing that made them think he wasn't going to develop into a good speed back to compliment Gore?

blitzonic - Are you my editor now? Obviously I was not personally counting the votes therefore I got the information from somewhere else.

53Niners – What happen to me being an idiot for saying Vernon will not be in the top 2 of pro bowl votes?

I still think that Vernon deserves to be in the Pro Bowl over any other TE in the NFC.

He is 3rd in Yards: 493, Gonzalez 501, Celek 533, Shockey 444, Witten 438.

He is first in TD catches: 7 , Gonzalez 4, Celek 5, Shockey 3, Witten 1.

He is 3rd in REC: 45, Witten 49, Celek 46, Gonzalez 44, Shockey 37.

He is in the top 3 in every category and first in TD's. The fans may not see what is obvious, however I feel that the coaches and players will vote for him because they see he deserves it.
Sorry about the idiot comment, maybe I was having a bad day.

Plus VD is the best blocking TE of the bunch. His previously big mouth may hurt his rep with the coaches & players though.

I love Matt Maiocco's blog, and would never talk bad about it. but, if you guys want a better blog to read, that posts more often, you need to check out matthew Barrow's of the Sacramento bee. He posts way more blogs than MM.
http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/49ers/

et tu brute?

I hope the 49ers either win this game and give HOPE or get their asses handed to them so they can finally move on to Nate Davis. I don't want to see another just enough to lose like the Vikings, Colts, and Texans.

Are you serious? You want us to lose just so we can see how well developed a rookie QB is? Do you read this blog regularly? Nate is nowhere near ready to play. He's been playing DB on the scout team. Not even taking any reps at QB at all. They don't want to take practice reps away from #1 and #2. I want us to win. That's it. If we lose, it sucks, whether it's close or a blowout. If you want to be a glass half full kinda guy, then yeah, a close loss would actually be better. You could actually gain confidence from that. Not if it happens too often, but once in awhile, not the end of the world. A blowout is devastating. Loss of confidence is something that this team would have a hard time coming back from.

My response: Your comment made me curious. Indeed, Barrows did post more entries than yours truly during four of the past 12 months. --Matt M.