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00:00All right. I'm so excited. We're doing this once again this year for those that were not listening last year.
00:07We break this up into seven different groups and we give out a grade for each one of those groups.
00:13Quarterback, skill positions, offensive line, front seven, secondary, special teams, and then coaching to round it up.
00:21We begin as we always do with the quarterback. It was just Brock Purdy on Sunday and I gave him a C-plus grade.
00:29He got the game-winning drive in, but two really bad interceptions.
00:34The second one specifically, the game-winning touchdown pass was questionable at best in my mind.
00:39I know the offensive line wasn't great. I know Kittle went down. I know Jawan left. I know all of that.
00:45But for the majority of that game, I wasn't that impressed by what Brock did, but he got the job done. A C-plus.
00:52I actually went to bed with you on the C-plus and then I woke up and I've thought about it some more
00:58and I'm going to bump it up to a B-minus. Yes, far from perfect.
01:01And the interceptions happened. But as Dib said, he was down to start the fourth. He won.
01:06He was down with three and a half minutes to go. He won.
01:09And then as we learn, all the things that he's dealing with, star players going out, the worst pressure rate for one game in his entire career.
01:20You've got the very loud Seattle crowd at the stadium.
01:25And, oh, by the way, please score touchdowns because you don't have a kicker.
01:29Put all those things together. And now, by the way, he was also, he had multiple injuries in the game.
01:35And I don't really know when they happened. I'm going to bump it up a little bit. Still wasn't great.
01:40Yeah, I got him in a B-minus also. And the interceptions were both ghastly.
01:45The touchdown throw to Tonjes, it counts. It may not have been the way they drew it up, and it certainly wasn't.
01:51But if you look at that final drive, he was perfect. He was a 5-for-5 on the drive.
01:57A couple of throws he made to Pearsall were elite.
02:00So, upon reflection, I also bumped it up a little bit to a B-minus for Purdy.
02:05All right, up next here on Grandy's Grades, it's skill positions.
02:09This is running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends. I gave him an A.
02:15There were injuries. I'm not blaming any of the guys for that.
02:18Kittle leaves and Juwan leaves. All right.
02:21But McCaffrey, despite the calf issue, if there was even a calf issue, touched the ball 31 times.
02:27Brian Robinson wasn't amazing, but considering that he's a new niner, looked pretty good.
02:32Ricky Pearsall had one of the biggest catches of his career by a mile.
02:38And then two reserve tight ends, who are not known for catching passes.
02:42They catch a fourth down pass, and they catch three passes, including the game-winning touchdown on the game-winning drive.
02:49Nothing to be upset about in the skill position group, other than injuries for me, an A.
02:52You thought that it was a little bit high, because they didn't do anything really that special.
02:57And I had them with a B, because they were good.
03:00And McCaffrey, 31 touches you mentioned.
03:03You only got three-plus yards on the ground.
03:05And, yeah, you had to go to a lot of your twos, and you didn't have Kittle or Juwan for a long stretch.
03:11But Brian Robinson was fine, and Tonjes made the catches that he needed to make.
03:16Overall, I thought that they were good, not great, which is why I gave them a B.
03:20I'm going to go a little bit closer to Grandy's answer and give them an A-.
03:24I can't make it an A, I guess largely because, yeah, it wasn't overwhelmingly impressive.
03:30Plus, you did have all of these patchwork wide receivers running around trying to figure out where to go,
03:36and they couldn't even get a target in the game.
03:39So there's that.
03:40But so much adversity thrown at this group, starting with Christian on Thursday,
03:47and then going to Kittle's injury, Juwan's injury, backup tight ends are in there making huge plays,
03:55and Christian gets 31 touches.
03:57Add all that in together, and I think you've got to be impressed.
03:59And no major mistakes.
04:01No drops, no fumbles, none of that.
04:02Yeah.
04:03So I give them an A-.
04:04All right, we move along to the offensive line.
04:07I gave them a C-.
04:08I was not impressed.
04:10And I know the staff that you've thrown out this week, Willards, the most pressured rate,
04:15highest pressured rate of Brock Purdy's career.
04:17They clearly were struggling at times.
04:20And the run game didn't give you a big run.
04:24I was waiting for a McCaffrey to break one for 20 or 25 yards.
04:28That did not happen.
04:29I think they got enough in the run game, particularly down the stretch,
04:33to allow them to stay with that run game.
04:36Was not a good game by any stretch of the imagination.
04:39But considering Trent was in and out, Pony went out for a moment as well.
04:44C- is what I gave the offensive line.
04:46I'm going to bump it up a little bit there to a C+.
04:48I think everything that you say plays.
04:51And so that's all very, very fair.
04:54The pressure rate was high.
04:56But, again, I also looked to where were the major mistakes.
05:00Brock gets some credit for this, too.
05:02But the fact is he was only sacked one time.
05:05You've got to give the offensive line a little something for that.
05:07But they did, I think, sort of prevent McCaffrey and B-Rob from getting hit behind the line.
05:15It wasn't amazing.
05:17But I just saw it as obviously pieced together enough for them to do what they needed to do to win the game.
05:24So I'll bump it up to a C+.
05:25Yeah, I've got the highest grade in the group at a B-, and it's because they did enough to possess the ball 38 minutes of time of possession.
05:34They didn't have a ton of penalties.
05:35The Trent Williams hold a couple of false starts, which are very forgivable in that environment.
05:41And you converted on half of your third downs.
05:43And if your kicker and your special teams would have made those two field goals, I think the overall number, the overall margin would have looked better.
05:51But, yeah, the pressure rate wasn't great.
05:54Trent Williams got rolled up on early, and he was hobbled.
05:56But all in all, they did enough to play the Shanahan style.
06:00I gave them a B-.
06:02All right.
06:02We move to the defensive side of the football.
06:04We begin with the front seven.
06:06So this is the down linemen and the linebacking core.
06:09I give the front seven an A-.
06:11I know it was not a big sack day.
06:13The only sack was the Nick Bosa strip sack, if you can really even call that a sack.
06:18He gets credit for a sack, but he just pushed Abe Lucas into Sam Darnold, causing the fumble.
06:23He also recovered it.
06:25But considering what the Seahawks did or didn't do in the run game, and considering that they got the job done in the biggest moment,
06:32and, man, watching D-winters all over the place in that game, I thought the front seven was awesome, an A- for me.
06:39Take the minus away from me.
06:40They get an A, and it's because of just what you said, Mark.
06:43They dominated the game, and Charbonnet and Walker, 22 carries for 67 yards.
06:49That's three a tote, and their run game was nonexistent.
06:54Bosa made three or four plays that were phenomenal, including shutting down that funky screen on the throwback
07:00and the big play, the game-ender, where he walks the tackle into the quarterback and recovers it.
07:06That's the play you're expecting from your high-paid guy.
07:09He made it.
07:10I gave him an A.
07:11I'm going to stick with the minus on this one for a couple of reasons.
07:16You're not wrong.
07:18Nick Bosa was fantastic.
07:19I'd like to highlight a little bit more of Fred Warner.
07:21I think we just get used to this, so we don't say it much.
07:24Fred Warner was an absolute star in this football game.
07:30And then I agree with your Dee Winters take, and there were some other moments, obviously,
07:34where things get mixed in.
07:36I know it was their first game.
07:38I would have loved to see something a little bit more pop off the screen from some of the rookies.
07:44Michael Williams and C.J. West are in there.
07:47You also had a lining up in the neutral zone from Huff.
07:50Little things like that are why I'm going to go.
07:52I'm going to stick with A-, but largely very good.
07:55All right, up next is the secondary, cornerbacks and safeties.
07:58I was really eager to see both Upton Stout and Marquis Siegel in regular season action.
08:04I gave the secondary a B+.
08:06It was not bad by any stretch of the imagination.
08:09Upton Stout did get picked on a little bit, specifically by Jackson Smith and Jigba.
08:13That's going to happen.
08:14He's a rookie.
08:15JSN is one hell of a receiver.
08:17But when you consider that the Seahawks did not do that much on the ground,
08:21it's not as if they were dominating through the air either.
08:23It was just JSN, a handful of big plays, and that was about it.
08:28I thought Siegel held his own on the back end.
08:30Jason Pinnock also making his Niners debut.
08:33I don't think I heard his name called once.
08:35And to hear the safety, that's generally a good thing because you're not getting beat.
08:39Lenore had a bad penalty after the whistle in the first half,
08:43but he was good on his side of the field.
08:45I thought the secondary was good as well.
08:47A B-plus for me.
08:48I'm a little further down than you.
08:50I'll go B.
08:51But, yes, a lot of good things to point to there.
08:55Lenore was untouchable.
08:56The penalties I could do without, but they literally did not complete a pass on Lenore.
09:01He did absolutely nothing wrong.
09:03Upton Stout, up and down.
09:05It was his first game.
09:07If you like PFF, I don't always, but PFF actually said Pinnock did not play very well in this game.
09:13But you're right.
09:14His name didn't get called.
09:15Renardo Green was a little here or there.
09:17I think he got a break.
09:19He made the play, but he got a break with that ball getting kind of stripped on the connection to the ground from the receiver.
09:27That would have been a game-changing play.
09:29Cooper Cup just straight dropped a ball.
09:32That would have been a very big play.
09:33So I felt like there were some holes out there that could have been filled up.
09:38I'll give him a B.
09:38I also have a B, and I see the Green play a little differently because he stayed with that.
09:43I thought he might have been called for face guarding, but when the receiver had it, and he had it too, by the time they went to ground, he was able to rip it free.
09:53Siegel with the fumble recovery when Sam O jarred it loose.
09:56And I thought Upton Stout, throughout the course of the second half, started to look much, much better.
10:01And yeah, that fourth and goal, he got P.I. on him, and that was a terrible, easy call P.I.
10:07But the guy's making his debut.
10:09He was in a very tough spot.
10:10I liked it.
10:11I gave him a B.
10:12Yeah, some of this obviously is expectation-based, and you expect JSN and maybe even Cooper Cup at times to be able to beat up in Stout.
10:18So I agree with you guys there.
10:20Up next is our favorite category, special teams.
10:25I basically just gave this an F every week last year, and I'm sticking to it.
10:29Week 1 of 2025, two missed kicks.
10:33You had penalties on punts where guys are running out of bounds.
10:37You have Jake Moody not kicking the ball into the end zone for a touchback, giving the ball back to the 35-yard line.
10:44It felt like 2024 again, and until further notice, by the way, we have had further notice now,
10:50but when I gave these grades out on Sunday, until further notice, special teams gets an F.
10:55That's what I gave him.
10:55I gave him a D- because of a couple specific plays, and you're right about the Moody,
11:00and I was just re-watching the blocked field goal, and Seattle just overwhelmed that left side.
11:07And one guy pushes, and the other guy jumps over, which is legal when you line up on the line of scrimmage.
11:12I had to check the rule just to be sure, but the one thing that bumps it up from an F,
11:17Sky Moore, the final kick return, he was able to get it out to the 32-yard line.
11:22He got it at the 10, he didn't bobble it, he caught it, and he actually ran with it and got him out to the 32,
11:28and that turned out to be a big play, a D-minus, I'm a softie.
11:31All right, I'm going to give special teams a B.
11:34What?
11:34Here's why I'm going to give them a B.
11:36Just listen close.
11:37How high are you?
11:39I'm going to give them a B.
11:40You guys brought up a lot of really good, kind of finer points of some of the awful things that happened,
11:47and not all of them are Jake Moody's fault.
11:50You had a brand-new special teams coach, and I really, really wanted this to look a lot better,
11:57and I can tell that they do, too.
11:59This coaching staff, they're ticked off on that sideline, and they want this to look better.
12:07And today, they took freaking steps to make it better, so they get a B for buh-bye.
12:14Okay?
12:15Bye-bye to the kicker.
12:18Let's get a new kicker.
12:20You get a B for buh-bye.
12:23And welcome Eddie Pinheiro, the new kicker, who we'll see debut on Sunday.
12:27Eddie D, so give him a D.
12:28I'll give him a D, because he's Eddie De Niro.
12:31Well, a D would be better than an F.
12:33Yes, it would.
12:33We'll see.
12:34It would be.
12:34I mean, their first punt was a 25-yard net, and then the next punt, 55-yard net,
12:40so a little bit better the second time they had the punt.
12:41And then the last category, coaching, I have a hard time splitting some of the special
12:46team stuff from the coaching category.
12:49I gave coaching a C.
12:51Maybe I should split this up in the future to multiple different categories,
12:54because Robert Sala defensively, I mean, he gets an A+.
12:57He was absolutely amazing.
12:59But kind of what you're talking about, Willard, going into this season with Jake Moody as your
13:04kicker, that's unforgivable for me.
13:06That's a big part of this grade.
13:08We talked about it a little bit yesterday.
13:10I did not understand Kyle Shanahan at the end of the first half just getting into ultra-conservative
13:16mode, trying to kill clock instead of trying to score a touchdown.
13:20And Ricky Pearsall kind of disappeared from the middle half of this game.
13:24I wanted Kyle Shanahan to scheme up more throws to Ricky Pearsall, because he was getting open
13:29pretty often, it felt like to me.
13:31So kind of a difference there between Sala and then Shanahan, and even Brent Boyer on special
13:37teams, so I kind of evened it out and gave coaching as a whole a C.
13:41Okay, I'm going to give it a B, and it is tough, because there's so many different aspects
13:44to go to.
13:45But again, I'll point to an overwhelming amount of adversity that this team faced.
13:51But I'm with you.
13:53You showed up to this game with Jake Moody on the plane, and that was already a very,
13:58very large mistake, and they're very lucky that it didn't bite them.
14:02But I'm also mindful of, A, the adversity that the offensive side faced, and then on
14:08defense, Robert Sala is coaching a bunch of new people.
14:12This is just whether some of them are rookies and some of them aren't, but it's a bunch of
14:16new people.
14:17And my hope was that they would not keep it very vanilla, and that he would be able to
14:22really stunt and put some people in different positions, and that would give some confusion
14:27to Seattle, and that's exactly what happened.
14:29And he kept both the pass and the run down, and so he gets an overwhelming A, and that
14:36just pulls, you know, a rising tide there for everybody.
14:39All things considered, and the adversity with the injuries on the offensive side, I think
14:45a B is fair.
14:46I got him as an A-.
14:47I thought it was a Shanahan master class.
14:49When you lose George Kittle, your game plan goes out the window.
14:53The opening drive, the script, 14 plays, touchdown.
14:57Shanahan, another great script and another great game plan.
15:01And when you lose Kittle, you got to pivot, and then you lose Jennings, and you got to pivot
15:05again.
15:06The fact that he was able to go with two tight ends and two running backs a lot and still
15:10not be so predictable, he was able to run out of that, pass out of that.
15:15But I am kind of with you, Grandy, on the end of the half, and just looking through the
15:18notes, if they could have converted, they had first and goal to six, and they, CMC
15:25loses three, two incompletes, and then you kick the field goal, which is of course no
15:29good, and now Jake is gone.
15:31I didn't think that it was totally botched, the end of the half.
15:35They were a little conservative, but they still got down to the six with timeouts and
15:40opportunities.
15:41Yeah, it's just one of my sticking points with Shanahan.
15:43And he tends to do that at end of halves.
15:45He seems to maybe value the idea of doubling up, even if it means he's maybe lowering the
15:50possibility of actually scoring a touchdown the first time.
15:53Right, right.
15:53And correct me if I'm wrong, Niners got the ball to start the second half?
15:57Yes.
15:58Yeah.
15:58Yeah.
15:59But they ended up leaving enough time on the clock for the Seahawks to ultimately get
16:02a field goal before the half ended anyway.
16:04Right.
16:04And then they did get the ball there to start the second half, drove all the way down the
16:08field, and then drove the, like, their ears flew off of their head.
16:12They were so angry with what happened next.
16:14Well, first, no, it was the possession.
16:15They threw the pick.
16:17And then they got it back three and out for Seattle.
16:18And then the blocked field goal.
16:20Yeah.
16:20Okay.
16:21Okay.
16:21Anyway, there's Grandy's grades.
16:23We want to do it.
16:24I love it.
16:24Yeah.
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