- 17 minutes ago
Marc Grandi offers up his grades for the 49ers' Week 4 win over the Broncos while Willard and Dibs chime in with theirs.
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00:00All right, week four edition of Grandy's Grades here on Willard and Dibs.
00:04We go through position group by position group,
00:06and we start with the quarterbacks.
00:09Brock Purdy once again got the win for the 49ers.
00:12The numbers don't jump off the page.
00:1419 for 30, 218 passing yards, two touchdowns, did a little bit on the ground,
00:2129 rushing yards, over 10 attempts, a lot there for Brock Purdy on the ground
00:26in terms of number of attempts.
00:27I thought he was, for the standard that he set himself,
00:31average to below average for the first half of this game,
00:35but when it really counted in the fourth quarter specifically, he was great,
00:39and I weigh those fourth quarter drives, those fourth quarter moments,
00:42a lot more than, say, earlier in the game.
00:45I know it was a better defense, at least you would think,
00:47given their talent than some of their other opponents earlier this season.
00:51Still, though, I don't think it was his best game.
00:53I think he missed a couple of throws in the first half,
00:56but it was not bad by any stretch.
00:57I gave him a B-plus for his performance.
00:59Yeah, and B-plus might have been where I was earlier in the football game,
01:05but I'm going to look at this game as a whole,
01:09look at his quarterback rating, which was over 107,
01:13and try to take as many circumstances of all things into account,
01:17listening to Kyle Shanahan after the game talk about what their game plan was,
01:22which was don't make the mistake, and we really want to run the ball.
01:27I didn't know if Brock Purdy really had many opportunities to show out in the first half.
01:33By no stretch, his best game, that's not what I'm saying,
01:35but when your quarterback rating is over 107, you do not turn the ball over,
01:40you do not get sacked, and you throw two touchdown passes and own the fourth quarter.
01:45That's good work.
01:46I go A-minus.
01:47Yeah, I had a B-plus as well, and as I mentioned, I looked at all 30 of his passes
01:51today,
01:52and I see about four or five where either not on the same page
01:57or the check down was open and he chose to go deeper,
01:59and I thought that those were plays that he probably, on a normal situation,
02:05would have just gone for the easier throw,
02:07but I agree with what both of you said about the import of the later drives.
02:11The second half, I do think things opened up,
02:14and certainly that last pass to Kittle, a lot of that was Shanahan and Brendel with the block
02:19and Kittle putting on the Jets, but the quarterback gets credit for delivering the ball
02:24when he needed to, where he needed to.
02:25I thought it was a good game, but again, the bar's set pretty high now for Purdy,
02:30so I also have a B-plus.
02:31It is pretty high, but still good grades all around for Brock Purdy once again.
02:34Up next, skill positions, running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends.
02:38Because, I mean, first of all, Mike Evans, just for playing in the game,
02:42let alone having five catches for 76 yards, he deserves major props for that.
02:47George Kittle showing the speed on that 56-yard touchdown
02:51that iced the game, essentially, for the Niners in the fourth quarter.
02:55That was awesome to see.
02:56Debo Samuel taking some end-arounds,
02:59using a little bit of his running back skill set in this game as well.
03:04Had 44 yards on the ground, including a 22-yard one down the sideline.
03:09A lot of good things from the skill positions in this one,
03:12and we talk about Brock Purdy, some of the yards after catch.
03:15That was on display in this game, I thought,
03:18so that's a credit to the skill position, guys.
03:19I gave him an A-.
03:21Yeah, and I think I'm going to land in the same spot, Grandy,
03:23because you look at the positives, and there were a lot of them.
03:26There were some great plays.
03:27The negatives were, you had Kalon Black with a couple of rushes
03:32where he couldn't really get much going and cowing out of carry,
03:35and he didn't really find the correct hole.
03:38But this team, I don't know how many drops they have on the year.
03:41It's probably fewer than five.
03:43They just, they don't drop it.
03:44They don't fumble it.
03:46And by and large, when plays are there,
03:48and you talk about the Kittle, big catch on the screen and the run,
03:53and Mike Evans, Grandy, I'm glad you pointed that out,
03:55because every catch, big catches, grimacing in pain,
03:58I thought skill-wise, they were absolutely solid.
04:02They were mostly mistake-free.
04:03I gave him an A-.
04:04Okay, see, now, I flipped it a little bit.
04:07I ended up with a B-plus here.
04:09And again, it's not to disagree with anything you guys threw out there.
04:13Mike Evans, you're a warrior.
04:14George Kittle, you're incredible.
04:16Kyle Juszczyk, salute.
04:18We'll see you in a few weeks.
04:21And no major mistakes in terms of turnovers or penalties,
04:25though Debo did fumble, that was on special teams,
04:28so I'll hold that over here to the side.
04:31But Christian McCaffrey, three and a half yards a carry.
04:34Kalon Black, 2.2 yards per carry.
04:37I'd love to see that a little more dynamic.
04:39And in a way, I gave him a B-plus,
04:42not for the guys who did touch the ball, but for the guys who didn't.
04:45In this situation, the Niners are waiting for another wide receiver
04:49to step forward and take the role.
04:52Jordan Watkins barely got on the field.
04:54Brandon Cooks was on the field a lot, only targeted once, no catches.
04:59Jacob Cowling, same thing, one target, no catches.
05:03I'm looking for someone else to step in and really contribute,
05:07and I did not feel that in this game.
05:09B-plus for me.
05:11Up next, we transition over to the offensive line.
05:14Fourth straight game where they do not allow a sack of Brock.
05:25Back hits with no sacks, you will take that every single day.
05:30As you're talking about, though, Willard, not a lot on the ground in this game.
05:34Debo averaged almost 15 yards per carry.
05:37He had some good ones, and those were not on straight running plays,
05:40at least not all of them.
05:41There was end-arounds and things like that.
05:43But McCaffrey only 3.5 per carry.
05:46Kalon Black 2.2 per carry.
05:48Those are numbers that I put more on the offensive line than on those running backs themselves.
05:53And this is a Broncos defense that has kind of been had on the ground the first three weeks of
05:58the season.
05:58So, again, it was not bad by any stretch, but I don't think the sacks immediately make this an A.
06:03The lack of a run game makes it a B-plus for me.
06:06Okay, so for me, and again, taking into account that lack of yards per carry that you want to see,
06:13I thought Denver, like teams have tried to do to the Niners in recent past,
06:17really tried to focus on stuffing that run.
06:21And they haven't been great at it so far this year, but that was their full focus.
06:25You could see, and why it kind of became a rock fight.
06:28Because those numbers were low, I won't give them an A.
06:31But, when you're the offensive line, and I leave a game, and I say, no sacks, no penalties,
06:38then you're getting at least an A-something.
06:40So, it's an A-minus for me.
06:41I'm looking at the short yardage and going back to the Purdy sneak on fourth and one.
06:47They didn't get it, and they had multiple third and ones and third and twos.
06:50They were four for nine on the ground when they had two yards to gain or less.
06:56And that, for me, is largely on the offensive line.
06:58I like what you said, Mark, about no sacks, no penalties.
07:01And that is about as good as it gets in terms of a clean performance.
07:05But still, they're having a hard time running the ball.
07:07Denver's defense is good, so I give them a nod for that.
07:10But, all in all, I look at the short yardage failures,
07:13and I have to bump them down to a B for the offensive line.
07:15Now, we move over to the defensive side of the football.
07:19Now, we start with the front seven.
07:20That's your down linemen and your linebackers.
07:23Obviously, Dre Greenlaw.
07:24He had himself a really, really good and emotional day.
07:27Led the team with 12 tackles, almost every single one of them.
07:31He was yapping at Sean Payton on the sideline after he was good.
07:34Fred Warner had a couple of passes defensed.
07:36He's always good as well.
07:38Didn't really get that much from the defensive line.
07:41And look, I know that this is an injured group right now,
07:44but you still do have Osa Odigizua out there.
07:46You got Romello Height back.
07:47Grayson Halton has shown an ability to be a legit NFL player,
07:52and a guy playing a lot of snaps at the NFL level.
07:55And you didn't touch Bo Nix basically all day.
07:58You had a couple of quarterback hits on him, no sacks,
08:01and you didn't have a single tackle for loss.
08:04The Broncos' run game wasn't great in this one,
08:07but they've been unable to run the ball at all this season.
08:11So the numbers in this game was actually better than their season averages.
08:14I wasn't totally impressed by this performance,
08:18but again, it wasn't terrible.
08:20I gave the front seven a B-.
08:21It's a full-on front seven,
08:23and I think you're right about the front four or five in this game,
08:26although I'm looking at a Valdez pressure.
08:30Keon White had a pressure.
08:31I think the front, by and large, did what they needed to do.
08:34And for me, it's about Dre Greenlaw
08:37and Fred Warner to a lesser extent in this one.
08:39But Dre Greenlaw, he wrecked the game.
08:42He set the tone.
08:43He was an absolute heat-seeking missile out there.
08:46And so we always do front seven,
08:48and at times I focus too much on the D-line,
08:51so I looked at the linebackers especially in this one,
08:54and I gave the front seven a B-plus.
08:56Interesting.
08:56Yeah, I think there's a lot to work with here,
08:59especially because you're talking about a lot of different people on front seven.
09:02Dre Greenlaw is the headline, for sure,
09:04and he always plays on the line and sometimes threatens to cross it,
09:10and there was no doubt that this was one of those games as well.
09:13But he was the best player on the defensive side for the 49ers.
09:17They were not able to get to Bo Nix.
09:19That was frustrating.
09:21Also, and this is Dre Greenlaw and Fred Warner too,
09:24they were so aggressive that there was almost slight overaggression at times,
09:29and they missed some tackles on R.J. Harvey.
09:32But I want to bring up a name that I thought, I was like,
09:35you know what, for grabbing him off of the street,
09:37you know, Matthew Judon didn't look too bad.
09:40They had some guys that did at least change some plays a little bit.
09:44So all in all, far from a perfect performance,
09:48but again, no penalties and no disasters either,
09:53and you only held the other team to 14 points.
09:57B-minus for me.
09:58All right, up next is the secondary, your cornerbacks and your safeties.
10:02Niners, of course, play nickelbacks pretty often,
10:04so oftentimes we're talking about five guys on the field in the secondary.
10:08Look, Bo Nix threw 42 passes in this game and only had 214 passing yards.
10:15By comparison, Brock had four more passing yards on 12 fewer attempts.
10:20So Bo Nix dropped back to pass a ton,
10:23and the Niners didn't give up all that much,
10:25kind of similar to what happened the week prior against Jacoby Percet
10:29and the Cardinals.
10:31R.J. Harvey had 10 of the 25 completions.
10:34That's a running back.
10:35Those are almost all in the flat,
10:37and the Niners were willing to give that up.
10:39I thought this was a really well-schemed-up game defensively
10:43by Raheem Morris,
10:44and the defensive backs did a pretty good job
10:46just keeping everything in front of them.
10:49Jalen Waddell only had five catches for 35 yards.
10:52That's one of the more talented receivers in the league.
10:54So I was impressed by the secondary in this game
10:57considering the number of passes they had to defend.
11:00They did a pretty good job.
11:01They get an A- for me.
11:02Okay, for me, this was a B.
11:04I thought the safety play was fantastic,
11:07and salute Marquis Siegel.
11:09We'll see you in a few weeks.
11:11But I thought they tackled well.
11:12I thought they covered well.
11:14Again, I'm mindful that I do think some of the things out there
11:18were not caught by Bo Nix,
11:20as Mark Schlereth told us earlier today.
11:22The secondary also owned the only penalty in the game
11:26for the 49ers,
11:28even though it was a funny one for D'Amador Lenore.
11:31So, look, it's very difficult to cover
11:35when your front seven is not getting a ton of pressure
11:38on the quarterback.
11:40I acknowledge that.
11:42However, also, there were some open receivers.
11:45There were missed tackles.
11:46There was that penalty.
11:47I go B for the secondary.
11:49I just look at the overall numbers
11:51that Grandy was throwing out there,
11:52and I'm just looking at my notes,
11:53including one of the underrated biggest plays of the game
11:56when Denver was on the move,
11:58third and five,
11:59and Malik Mustafa sold out to break up the pass to Engram,
12:03which provoked a punt,
12:05and the 49ers would go down
12:06and get their first score of the game.
12:08I thought they brought their lunch pail
12:10to the run support,
12:12and you could see the linebackers and the safeties,
12:14and at times the corners as well.
12:16And they only gave up two explosive pass plays.
12:19One was a broken play,
12:21and the other one was a 30-yarder
12:22where they put the lick on Bryant,
12:24and he got hurt.
12:25I thought the secondary was patently excellent.
12:28I gave him an A-.
12:29All right,
12:30and up next,
12:31as we move on to special teams,
12:34look,
12:34there were a couple of big plays in this game
12:36on special teams.
12:37The most notable one
12:38was the Saran Neal forced fumble,
12:40fumble recovery on the punt
12:43by the Bronco,
12:44punt by the Niners,
12:45punt of return by the Broncos.
12:46That set the Niners up,
12:47and that really turned this game around.
12:49This was a hard-fought game.
12:51It was a really low-scoring game.
12:53And then from that moment on,
12:54the Niners go touchdown,
12:55touchdown,
12:55touchdown,
12:56and they win the game 24-14.
12:59That, to me,
12:59is by far the biggest play of this game.
13:01And whether you got lucky,
13:02is the wrist part of the arm,
13:04or is it the forearm,
13:05or is it the hand,
13:05whatever,
13:06it was a play made by special teams.
13:08And I know there was also
13:09the blocked punt
13:10or the blocked field goal
13:12at the end of the first half.
13:13There was a big return
13:14by the Broncos
13:15at a point in this game,
13:16but I put way more emphasis
13:17on that one play
13:18by Saran Neal
13:19on special teams
13:20that really turned this game around.
13:22As a result of that,
13:23how do I give special teams
13:24a B-plus?
13:24That was a big play,
13:25and that certainly
13:26was a full-letter grade for me.
13:28But I look at the
13:29opening kickoff reception
13:31of the second half
13:32where Debo just,
13:34I mean,
13:34you flat fumbled it,
13:35and the ball flew
13:36into the hands of Willis.
13:38And so that is a gigantic,
13:40huge sigh of relief.
13:41The blocked field goal
13:42can't happen.
13:43And honestly,
13:44if you look at the replay,
13:46five or six different Broncos
13:47could have blocked that.
13:48And Channing had said
13:49on the way to the locker room,
13:50he's like,
13:50yeah, 99's a good player.
13:51And I'm thinking,
13:52what about 97 and 96 and 94
13:54who all were there
13:56chilling with their hands up?
13:57They're all good players and stuff.
13:58The punter,
13:59is it Waitman,
14:00I think?
14:00Yep.
14:00He had a great game.
14:02Yeah, he sure did.
14:03Including the big boomer
14:03where Neal was able
14:05to provoke the fumble.
14:06I thought it was a kind
14:07of an uneven special teams day,
14:09including the last kick return
14:10where Denver's down 10
14:12and they get a 37-yarder
14:14unnecessarily.
14:15So other than the big play
14:16by Neal,
14:17I didn't think it was good.
14:18I gave him a C-plus.
14:19Yeah, I was down at a C-minus
14:21except for Neal's play
14:23was the game-turning play.
14:24And I'm with you.
14:25That's a full letter grade up,
14:26so it got me up to a B-minus.
14:28But outside of good punts
14:31and a fumble that was,
14:33at minimum,
14:34a nice break,
14:36outside of that,
14:36I didn't think it was
14:37a very good special teams day
14:38for the 49ers.
14:39You mentioned the things.
14:40Long return,
14:41Debo fumble,
14:42and a block kick.
14:44So that's a C-minus performance
14:47except for Saran Neal.
14:49Knocks it up to a B-minus.
14:51All right,
14:51last but not least,
14:52we jumped to coaching.
14:53I said earlier,
14:54I thought it was a well-coached game
14:57defensively by Raheem Morris.
14:58We talked a lot
14:59the last couple of days
15:00about the overall game plan.
15:01I know you guys
15:02were doing it earlier
15:03when talking about Brock Purdy.
15:04This was a plan
15:06for the Niners offensively
15:07to try to get the run game going,
15:09specifically early,
15:10and it didn't really work.
15:12And I was a little frustrated by,
15:15I don't know if the right word
15:17is the stubbornness
15:18of Kyle Shanahan,
15:19but I wanted to see him
15:20let Brock Purdy
15:21throw the ball
15:22a little bit more.
15:22I forget exactly
15:23at what point
15:24in the second quarter,
15:25but it was late
15:26in the second quarter
15:27and Brock had just
15:28five pass attempts.
15:29You have,
15:30through three weeks
15:31of the season,
15:32maybe it's too early
15:32to talk about it,
15:33but for my money,
15:34the MVP of the league
15:35as your quarterback,
15:36I wanted to see him
15:37air the ball out
15:38a little bit more.
15:39I was really confused
15:40by the fourth and one.
15:41It really was more like
15:42a fourth and two
15:43the decision
15:44to quarterback sneak
15:45Brock Purdy on that one.
15:46I like going for it,
15:47but I hate that play call
15:48on fourth
15:49and more like two
15:50than fourth and one.
15:51He also ran
15:52a Brock Purdy quarterback draw,
15:53I think,
15:54inside the 10-yard line
15:55in the first half,
15:56which confused me.
15:57I immediately flashback
15:58to Trey Lance
15:59breaking his ankle.
16:00And look,
16:01it doesn't mean
16:01that a quarterback
16:02is going to get hurt
16:02on every quarterback draw.
16:04There were just some moments
16:05though where I was confused.
16:07And then the second half
16:08was a whole lot better.
16:09And maybe Shanahan
16:10would say,
16:11well,
16:11what worked offensively
16:12in the second half
16:13was set up by the first half.
16:15And if that's the case,
16:16then okay,
16:16maybe I should change my grade.
16:18But I was confused
16:19by the first half
16:20play calling by Shanahan.
16:21I gave coaching a C plus.
16:22Okay.
16:23So I was,
16:24you know,
16:24it's interesting.
16:25You mentioned
16:25the quarterback draw.
16:26I couldn't tell
16:28if that was the play call
16:29or if something got broken
16:31and Brock just did that
16:32because I felt the same way.
16:34I'm like,
16:35don't go in there.
16:36Don't go in there,
16:36little man.
16:37It looked to me anyway
16:38like it was a call draw.
16:40Yeah.
16:40I couldn't tell.
16:41So there's that.
16:42I share your frustration
16:43in the first half,
16:44but listening to him
16:46talk after the fact
16:47and the way the second half
16:48played out,
16:49the question becomes
16:50do the ends justify the means?
16:52And I think in this case,
16:54the answer is somewhat.
16:56And then also,
16:57I know when we do coaching,
16:58we focus in on Kyle
17:00and he not the only coach.
17:02And so Raheem Morris,
17:04I thought was wonderful
17:05in this football game.
17:07And Kyle,
17:08again,
17:09his approach in the first half
17:10debatable,
17:11but the second half
17:12played out in such a way
17:14where it made a little bit
17:15more sense once we got there.
17:17And so sometimes
17:18you need that blind faith.
17:19I don't think a perfect day,
17:21but I went B plus.
17:22Yeah,
17:22I went even higher than that.
17:24I actually gave him an A minus
17:25and the things that
17:26just kind of irked me.
17:28I don't think that on fourth
17:30and whatever it was,
17:31is one and a half,
17:32like kick the field goal.
17:33It's early in the game.
17:34It's okay.
17:35It would have been a 52 yarder
17:36for Eddie Pinero.
17:37Hot day.
17:38Ball was traveling.
17:39I thought that might be
17:41a points on the board.
17:42Okay,
17:42you're going to go for it.
17:44Too far to sneak,
17:44in my opinion.
17:45So I didn't like the play call.
17:47And then beyond that,
17:48I do think the overall approach
17:50for Shanahan was,
17:51let's get to the second half.
17:53Hopefully,
17:54we will have the time of possession.
17:56Denver's on the sunny side
17:57of the field.
17:58It's a hot day.
17:59If we soften them up,
18:00we can go ahead
18:01and take advantage.
18:02And they did.
18:03After the fumbled punt,
18:04they went touchdown,
18:06touchdown,
18:07touchdown.
18:07And I think that Shanahan
18:09had everything set up his way.
18:11I liked what you said
18:11about Raheem Morris.
18:12He's showing six.
18:14He's pulling it back.
18:14He's showing four
18:15and bringing six.
18:17I think he was in his bag.
18:18I gave coaching an A minus
18:19with the only demerit,
18:21that cockamamie quarterback sneak
18:22from fourth and forever.
18:24And that confused me.
18:25All right,
18:25and that's week four
18:27of Grandy's Grades
18:28for another win.
18:3024-14.
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