and I said some of them myself in other comments after the game…that that is who Gregg Williams is, and he’s never pretended to be otherwise…if you loved ambush, you have to also take the failed reverse pitch Devery to Reggie to try and run out the clock against TB in 2007…I get that. If you loved blitzing Favre and Warner and Manning into oblivion as they went 3-0 in the 2009 playoffs, then you have to take what happened Saturday at the end.

So in what comes next, I’m not asking Gregg Williams to be something he’s not, or trying to rip him for it as he moves on…

I’m just saying that after three years of it, in which this defense has not steadily improved (which is definitely also due to player acquisition), nor established any sort of consistent identity of “here’s what we do” and doing it well, I’m ready for a change.

I am grateful for what he did, turning the 2008 GG defense into something that brought the Lombardi to New Orleans, and then doing the best he possibly could with the players he had, I’d rather not re-up him for more…

Maybe this is a mistake, but it’s what I think they need now.

the percentages of success had favored the pressure.. sure, in hinds sight an extra cover guy or more bump and run on the TE may have been better..
perhaps a total jail-break blitz forcing an immediate throw was possible, although if we had gotten burned on that, he would really be crucified..
as it is.. it’s not uncommon that a tight game suddenly “opens up” in the final minutes..
you dig-up the playbook.. the defense is tired.. you go back to your best possible plays.. some idiot defensive coordinator goes prevent, etc.
i find it ironic, also, that SF with their vaulted defense.. got burned twice late.. surrendering leads with just minutes left.. where were the bone jarring hits on sproles & jimmy then..? or the ball-hawking safeties..? riiiiiight.. they were watching the numberes 43 & 80 from the back side..
just an insane game.. with the wrong ending.. almost like we had earned enough merits, after the very sloppy strat.. to get to the finish line..
not meant to be..
i was numb for hours..

They keep up with the count, too, and pattern the player’s bets.

The D did well for most of that game, no doubt. But SF saw it all game, too, knew it was coming, knew exactly what to do to rip it up. It’s that inability to adapt and change that isn’t working. Persistence is a good thing, but when the opposition catches on, it’s time for something else. I think this year proved there’s enough film available to game plan for a GW defense from the Saints.

There’s a difference when GG blitzed in the Super Bowl. Even if worst case scenario comes true, and Reggie Wayne gets into the endzone instead of Porter jumping the route, the game is now tied 24 all with 3 minutes and change with the Saints getting the ball back. Nothing but good things can happen even if the worst case scenario comes true. So it was wise to blitz. When the 49ers are still 30+ yards away from game tying FG range, blitzing is not the wise move. You can send 4 or maybe 5 if you have a zone blitz scheme set up on the sidelines and deep. From what I remember hearing, GG sent 8 guys. 8. Players. Meaning we only had 3 in coverage. You call it ballsy, I call it stupid. Even if MJ actually locates the ball and knocks it down, that was utterly stupid.

I mean, watching Wade Phillips in Houston, I see him call billions of blitzes, but he doesn’t call a freakin 8 man blitz with the game on the line. There’s a reason he has the 2nd ranked defense in the league, and GG was coaching a bottom 10 defense.

This is my biggest grip against GG, no situational awareness whatsoever. It feels like he calls whatever he wants to on a certain play, irregardless of down, distance, or game situation.

TL;DR : I’m done with GG. Enjoy St. Louis. Bring in Spags.

lemme say that many years ago we had one of the best defenses in the league.. oh.. but we managed to get beat late by the “special” QB in just about every big game.. including several playoffs..
like i said above.. the great niner defense almost got beat late.. & no one is questioning their defensive strategies.. it just so happend that the time left favored their possession to be the last..
sometimes you lose..

for the comment on situational awareness and the difference between the Super Bowl situation and Saturday’s. Though I made the comment after the Jimmy Gras touchdown that we had scored too quick, I never would have thought we’d give up a TD. Maybe a FG, but not 7

As An Alabama fan (thousands of you just tuned me out), a team is sometimes so good in other areas that it can mask its weaknesses. But only for so long. In November for Alabama, it was the FG unit, especiially over 40 yards. Everybody who watched Alabama knew Alabama’s kicking game sucked for the past couple of seasons, especially on longer FGs, but it was never really needed, so it just lay there dormant, kind of like that last piece of pizza in the box that everyone forgets about in the fridge until Day 6. or 16.

Does anyone remember the Tennessee game this year? How much difference was there really between that ending, and what happened Saturday? That’s right, the Saints D got sliced and diced at the end of the Titans game for two long drives, one a TD and one inside the 10 yard line that mercifully ended when the clock struck zero. Except then the opposition was led by a rookie seeing his first meaningful action of his rookie year, instead by a 7-year pro former first-round No.1 pick.

I’ve just seen the GW show too many times this past three seasons, though the Brees express on offense has been good enough to cover for it. I’m done.

P.S. Anyone else notice how GW’s defense got lame after the 2009 season when it no longer had a healthy Darren Sharper prowling the secondary?

he didn’t blitz on the last play of the game. Both plays were failures for the defense. That tells me that neither blitzing nor playing coverage was going to work on that series, it was just meant to be. The last play of the game was zone, Shanle was right before the gooal line and Harper was right past the goal line. Harper hit Davis and had his arm in there and a lesser man would have not made the catch. It was Vernon Davis’ day. It was the 49ers day.

If we had a pass rush, which is our only real weakness on this team (as the defense improved throughout the year in other phases but not pass rush), we would have gone to the SB.

We went 13-3 and won the NFC South, last year we came within a missed FG of winning the NFC South. Three years of playoffs and a SB. All without an elite pass rusher.

Someone made a good point on the other thread. With that little time remaining and within FG range already, why not just hold the receivers at the line of scrimmage? Ten yards, ten yards, a series of half the distance march offs … eventually they’re out of time and have to settle for the FG. Of course, they may get ballsy and try a draw, but I think we’re better off going that route.

This was a year that won’t be duplicated anytime soon on offense. Next year we’ll be good again, I have no doubt, top of the league. But if our D doesn’t improve by at least a quarter mile, we may not see the playoffs. New coaching at TB, new coordinators at ATL, Carolina will be better…if we regress (or stay the same) on defense, 2008 comes to mind.

Dropping into a prevent when all they needed was a FG probably would have sent us into overtime at the very least. Frankly, I’m just not in a frame of mind to talk about it much right now. I’m still obsessing over a missed opportunity.

and draft at least one of those AL guys. They know how to play defense.

While Ralph makes some good points, if your offense gives you the go ahead score with less than 2 minutes in a game, then there is no reason why you can’t hold the other team to at least a field goal. I’m still sick about this.

Well done. I just don’t agree with the charge of hypocrisy for anybody who thinks this aggressive style works when you get the turnovers, but nearly as well when you don’t.

I’m not one of those people who needs to have Williams’ head on a platter or rode out of town. But, I’m not sorry he’s going. We either need the turnovers or something more fundemental.

It’s not hypocritical to like the 2009 blitz and not the 2011because in 2009 it worked. Mainly due to Sharper having a career year.
Since 2009 it hasn’t worked. We’ve gotten no pressure with the blitz. Yet we keep calling it. We keep getting burned deep. GW used up all of his 2009 credits this year. The final drive of the 49er game was inexcusable. We had just been beaten by a big play the drive before for christ sake. And he makes the same mistake again 1 minute later. It’s the playoffs! There’s 40 seconds left! The only thing that can lose the game is giving up a big play and you don’t do everything to avoid it? Because it’s your M.O.? F*** that! Be gone Gregg Williams.
You didn’t have to die with your boots on because we didn’t have to die at all.
Pickett’s Charge wasn’t brave. It was stupid.