- 9 hours ago
Willard and Dibs discuss the 49ers' loss to the Falcons and break down what went wrong in order for the 49ers to pick up their first loss of the season.
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00:00Here's what I noticed. Started at halftime in the Commander game.
00:03And I have no doubt that Radio Raheem is going to come up with the solution to this.
00:10But what have we said about the Niner defense all year long?
00:13They are great at not giving up the explosive play.
00:18Well, I think other offensive coordinators, they've figured that out.
00:24Okay, you're not going to give up the explosive play.
00:27Okay, well, what will you give up?
00:30How did Washington get back into the game?
00:33Dink to the dunk to the dunk to the dink.
00:37And that's exactly what Michael Penix and Jaden Daniels were doing.
00:42And largely, that's a good thing if you're out in front.
00:44But the Niners were not able to keep their lead for long.
00:46Against Washington, they had enough of a lead that it was okay.
00:49And they still won the football game.
00:52But that's an area where if you're not getting a great pass rush,
00:58then the dink and the dunk over the middle of the field is just too easy.
01:03And so that's what I'm watching other teams do to the 49ers right now.
01:06And I have no doubt, again, I think the return of Nick Bosa will be part of this.
01:10I think the trade deadline and acquisitions on the defensive line,
01:14my opinion, are coming.
01:15And the Niners will address this.
01:17And they need to be better to the quarterback.
01:20Because right now, that's the way you can beat them.
01:22And when you only get two pressures they got yesterday.
01:26If you want me to circle one thing that stood out as the problem yesterday,
01:30that's where I'd put my pen.
01:33It's probably a fair one thing.
01:36I mean, shout out Odyssey.
01:37What's your one thing?
01:38There's always more than one thing.
01:39But that was my lead thing.
01:41I think so.
01:41And honestly, for me, it would be the turnovers.
01:45And I would throw in the Osa fourth and four jumping off sides as kind of a turnover.
01:50It turned out to be a three-point play as opposed to a full-on turnover
01:54where you lose the possession and whatnot.
01:56But you only get so many possessions on offense.
01:59And if you go through and you talk about a fumble, a couple of picks,
02:04and then another fumble and a fourth down jump situation,
02:07that was obviously a huge problem for you offensively.
02:10But, yeah, on the defense, and I'm looking through my notes again,
02:13and the opening drive of the third quarter, they got in yardage.
02:17They got 9-6-3-11, 1-3-9-1-12, and a five-yard touchdown.
02:23So no negatives in there, no explosives, to your point.
02:27But they went, well, the explosive was on the kickoff that, you know,
02:30the returner bobbled it, dropped it, had to find it, and still got 41 yards.
02:34So we can get more into the nuance of special teams down the road.
02:38But the fact that you aren't giving up explosives yet,
02:41they were able to go 59 yards down the field and score, that's a problem.
02:46Adrian and Hayward, 888-957-9570.
02:50Hi, Adrian.
02:50Thanks for calling us.
02:53Hey, how's it going, guys?
02:55What's up, man?
02:56Listen to you guys every day after work.
02:58I love your show.
02:58Thank you, Adrian.
03:00Got a few things to discuss.
03:02You know, all the fumbles and the defense.
03:05You guys can put the finger all you want.
03:07But the most expensive man and the most important man is the quarterback.
03:12And he had the ball in his hands, down six points, and he threw an interception.
03:17He has a pretty bad record, 52.9% passer rating,
03:23went down one to eight points in the fourth quarter with seven interceptions.
03:29When everything's going good, it looks good.
03:32But the road gets a little bumpy, and he breaks down.
03:36Mark, I'll leave it to you.
03:38Yeah, I don't see it that way.
03:39Adrian, thanks so much.
03:40I can't argue that he threw, you know, obviously it's a fact,
03:44that he threw an interception yesterday.
03:47It is my belief, and this is part of the whole draftism experience
03:51that we've all had with Brock Purdy, that in some way, shape, or form,
03:55he has held kind of to a little bit of a different standard.
03:59And when he throws a pick, it's sort of like an earthquake.
04:02Like, it's this event that people are like, holy crap.
04:06Brock Purdy threw a pick in the fourth quarter.
04:08You're not allowed to do that.
04:10Josh Allen threw a pick in the fourth quarter against the Patriots.
04:13They lost that game.
04:14Patrick Mahomes was irrelevant last night in Seattle.
04:19They could not move the ball at all, and it's just kind of blown off.
04:24And so I don't see Brock Purdy getting that slack.
04:28I wish he would.
04:29He's proven himself enough so that he should.
04:32He has MVP numbers.
04:34He has one of the best quarterback ratings in the league this year
04:37and the best one all time.
04:39So does that, like, for me, let's keep it to yesterday
04:43because the good so clearly outweighs the bad.
04:47And all quarterbacks, when put in the desperate situation
04:50of trailing in the fourth quarter, are going to watch their numbers go down
04:54because you're in a do-or-die, take-risks situation.
04:59Yesterday's interception, it counts.
05:01He got got.
05:03I thought the defense just made an awesome play.
05:05And I loved what Brock's explanation was where he said,
05:09you'd love to be able to say that, like, oh, I should have seen him
05:17and not done that.
05:18But he goes, but the guy made an unbelievable play,
05:21and it's not really realistic.
05:23I think we think, because we watch on TV, that quarterbacks can see,
05:28and I know everyone wishes he was 6'5", but, like, that's what the defense
05:32is hiding things and then running people into lanes,
05:36and they're trying to trick you, and everybody gets got sometimes,
05:40and they got him.
05:41And the guy made an awesome fingertip play and tipped it to himself.
05:45That's one where, yeah, it's on his record,
05:47but I'm going to give credit to the Atlanta defense.
05:49They made a great play.
05:50Yep, the first interception I would put squarely on Brock.
05:52I agree.
05:53I agree.
05:53You know, you're trying to throw it away, I think,
05:55and if you're not trying to throw it away,
05:57then I don't know where you're throwing it because no one's open.
05:59But the second one, it was a great disguise coverage,
06:02and Raheem Morris has been doing it all year where you show 7,
06:05and then four guys are going to rush.
06:07We're not sure which four, and so Brock sees it before the snap.
06:11He sees that, you know, they might be bringing 7,
06:13and you get the ball, and you realize, okay, it's not 7,
06:16so who's dropping and where are they dropping?
06:18And you look at a spot where you might have a guy open,
06:22and you try to layer the ball, and we talk about him being the layer king,
06:25and this one you didn't quite layer it high enough and far enough.
06:28And so, yeah, tip of the cap to the defense.
06:31And as to the caller, I think Adrian's point about that stat, that number,
06:35I love the stat, and I love the number,
06:37but I always like to get context when we go ahead and look at a stat or a number.
06:42So if his quarterback rating is 58.1 in the fourth quarter,
06:47down one to eight points, okay, is that, like, bottom of the league?
06:51Is it in the middle?
06:52Yeah, I don't know.
06:52I would bet it's not at the bottom, and I would bet that it's not at the top.
06:55So I would look for some context in terms of just what that number means.
07:00No, no doubt.
07:01And, again, like, Adrian, there's nothing wrong with bringing it up,
07:04but did you call the week before when he was down in the fourth quarter
07:08against the best defense in football that just won the Super Bowl in their place
07:12and went down the field and scored a touchdown and a two-point conversion?
07:16Like, does that?
07:17So I'm much more like, let's keep it into right now.
07:20What are you watching this season?
07:21And I think that this season you've seen some very good play from Brock Purdy.
07:26I think yesterday was his worst game of the year.
07:29I didn't find it to be an offensive game.
07:31And while I know some of you will say that this is an excuse,
07:36I think this is part of the conversation.
07:38For example, 209, thank you for texting in, just said,
07:41Brock was off all day throwing behind receivers and in the dirt.
07:45Just a bad game.
07:46Here's one thing that I'll openly say I don't know, but here's a guess.
07:50Like, a quarterback-receiver chemistry is a thing.
07:55And I've been amazed at how quickly Brock and Mike Evans have been able to build a chemistry.
08:01I heard Brandon Cooks say something after the game yesterday where he indicated,
08:07it is my job as a receiver to be where the quarterback wants me to be.
08:13And I think that this group is having a hard time with their chemistry and for obvious reasons.
08:22Brandon Cooks, Christian Kirk, Jacob Cowing, and Jordan Watkins.
08:28What do they all have in common?
08:29And I play a lot of games with the 49ers on Brock Purdy.
08:32Ever.
08:32Like, I notice Brock looks really accurate when he's throwing it to George.
08:37He looks really accurate when he's throwing it to Christian.
08:40And he throws it to Brandon Cooks and it's at his feet.
08:43And I'm like, that doesn't mean, like, it's not a catch-all.
08:46Like, oh, Brock, you never, it must be Brandon's fault.
08:50But there's a chemistry issue that I felt you could see between Brock and that receiving core.
08:56It's on everybody.
08:58But it wasn't, yeah, it wasn't right.
09:00That group's not right.
09:01For, again, for obvious reasons.
09:03And they had a couple.
09:04There was at least one that he threw to McCaffrey where they weren't on the same page,
09:08which is some, you know, somewhat rare because those two are usually on that same page.
09:12And, I mean, George Kittle had a lot of throws that were right on time.
09:16And, you know, credit Atlanta, there was one late in the game where Kittle goes up to get it
09:20and the defender came in and broke it up and it wasn't a drop.
09:23And I think about the Watkins pass that it was, he was the only receiver on the field,
09:28the one deep down the seam.
09:30And I think that if he would have led him a little bit further in front,
09:33he might have been able to catch it and score.
09:35But to your point, I think that when you're dealing with receivers you don't normally throw to,
09:39there is a little bit of that cautiousness for a quarterback
09:42and you don't have the same level of security.
09:44And I know Mike Evans is new in the scheme, but he's going to the Hall of Fame.
09:49And so if you have a play that is a 12-yard in or a 14-yard comeback route,
09:55he's going to know exactly how to run it.
09:57And Brock's going to know exactly when he's going to break off the route.
10:01And so you don't need to have played together for eight years.
10:04Meanwhile, Watkins and Cowing, these guys are pups.
10:08They're new, not only in the scheme, but new in the league.
10:11Yeah, 8-8, 9-5-7, 9-5-70.
10:15There was plenty.
10:16I think it's one of those games to go around.
10:18If there's four turnovers on the offense, then sure, you can circle that.
10:23I think any time in the NFL that the defensive line looks like they're walking into a brick wall
10:29on almost every single play, you're going to have a really hard time.
10:33I was actually amazed that B. John Robinson didn't have a bigger game
10:36because they just weren't in the backfield.
10:39And he's so good.
10:40I think a better football team beats the 49ers yesterday by double digits.
10:45Michael Penix had some easy throws that he missed.
10:49And then obviously we saw in the defensive secondary, shout out to Upton Stout.
10:54You're a difference maker, it turns out.
10:56Turns out you're a difference maker because Jack Jones was on the field and he was terrible.
11:00Yeah.
11:01He was absolutely terrible in this game.
11:02He's a next man up, I think, and so Upton Stout is really good
11:06and I think he was made to look better because Jones came in and he struggled so much.
11:12But that's one of the things that I came away thinking.
11:15I'm like, either, because Price got in at the end of the game
11:17and it's like, let's either take the bye week
11:20and see if you can push him a little bit and elevate him.
11:23I think Stout will probably be ready to go,
11:26but that's a position that I don't hear anyone talk about at the trade deadline.
11:31And if you so badly want to bolster the wide receiver room,
11:35can we talk about bolstering that room?
11:37Because it feels like they are, as we saw yesterday,
11:40one injury away from being really affected negatively.
11:45Yeah, it depends on how you want to approach the game.
11:48And it felt to me yesterday like maybe it's because Upton Stout wasn't there
11:52and you didn't have Nick Bosa.
11:53It felt to me like they were content to do almost what Robert Sala did all last year,
11:58which is the old bend but don't break.
12:00And you didn't give up anything over the top.
12:03There were a couple of big-ish pass plays,
12:05but they weren't like deep balls where you sold out
12:09or you didn't have a lot of seven-man pressures, if any at all.
12:12So it felt more like kind of a Robert Sala scheme
12:16than it did what we've seen from Raheem Morris.
12:18Let's go to Jonathan in the city.
12:20Hi, Jonathan.
12:21Thank you for calling.
12:21We're taking your calls on the Niners.
12:23And what sort of frustrated you yesterday, 888-957-9570.
12:28Hey, Jonathan, what's going on?
12:30Hey, guys.
12:31Thanks for taking my phone call.
12:34It's good and bad.
12:35And the good is perfect timing to look yourself in the mirror.
12:39Going into the bye, what do you need?
12:41They need another reliable target.
12:43I've been watching this sport for so long.
12:45I just noticed in the NBA and in the NFL,
12:47you need kind of like that triangle attack, you know?
12:50You need a wide receiver, two wide receivers in a tight end.
12:52We need a running back, a tight end, and a wide receiver.
12:55They're clearly missing Evans.
12:58You know, they had Kittle going and CMC going.
13:01But, you know, a lot of, you know, the better defenses would take away the two.
13:06They weren't able to take away the two.
13:07But the problem is we didn't have another option for Purdy.
13:10And I totally agree with you, Mark.
13:12Those interceptions were, you know, a great place by the defense.
13:15Sometimes it just happens, right?
13:17Brock's not perfect.
13:18He's great, but he's not perfect.
13:19So, yeah, going to the bye, what do you need?
13:22You need a wide receiver.
13:24And the defense, the defensive line didn't get to the quarterback.
13:27So, you need to also address that part of the ball.
13:32But what frustrated me in the game is the penalties,
13:35especially the way they gave, you know, the Falcons that drive.
13:39What's that?
13:39Late in the third quarter, early fourth quarter.
13:41It's like 80 yards, 60 yards of penalties.
13:43Just stick attack, BF goals.
13:45I've been watching this sport since the 80s.
13:48And, you know, they used to have car collision and car wrecks, right?
13:51The cleaners.
13:52They took away all that, take care of their player's hill.
13:56But, I mean, an illegal contact penalty in a full contact sport?
14:01Hey, dude, you're going to be – give me a more defied ball.
14:05Like, did the guy impedes his way to the route?
14:08Did the guy grab his arm and twisted him?
14:11I mean, they can't be just, hey, they hand-touch and it's a penalty in a 15-yarder
14:16and a first down for the offense.
14:18And that's the bummer.
14:19But, hey, like I said in my previous call, I don't want them peaking.
14:22So, clearly, they're not peaking.
14:23But let's peaking at the right time.
14:26Fix what's wrong.
14:27Go Niners.
14:27Jonathan, thank you very much.
14:30There's two things going on here on the penalties.
14:32To me, there is a larger issue that can be discussed across the NFL.
14:39I mentioned it on the crossover.
14:40We are on target right now for the most penalized season in the history of the National Football League.
14:47And I mean, like, not close.
14:49It's like a blowout in terms of both flags and accepted penalties.
14:54It's tracking at a very, very high number.
14:57That said, I thought that the officials did a pretty good job yesterday in this game.
15:06When they showed highlights, the one that frustrated me was the Watkins touchdown that wasn't.
15:11Although, after watching it a hundred times, I could at least see where they were coming from.
15:17It's tough when it's called a touchdown and it gets overturned.
15:21And I don't know that we're going to be alive long enough to really know what a catch is.
15:26Like, that just changes every year.
15:29But, like, if you're mad about the defensive penalties, I tell you what, brother, when I watch the highlight every
15:36time they throw on the flags, I'm like, that's a penalty.
15:39That's a penalty.
15:40So that's on the Niner defenders yesterday.
15:42Yeah, and I think the one that I'm looking at is earlier in that same drive that Jonathan was referencing,
15:48you had the Malik Mustafa helmet to helmet.
15:51They threw the flag.
15:52They talked about it, and they picked the flag up.
15:55And they were right to pick the flag up because he was no longer defenseless, which that's another one that
15:59I think is hilarious.
16:00Because how are you suddenly not defenseless?
16:03Because you have the ball, and you turn, and now you're a football player, so now I can light you
16:08up with my helmet.
16:09But if I get there a half second before, before you're able to land or turn, now you're defenseless.
16:15Whatever gray area, I thought that it was good they picked it up.
16:18But I'm looking at it right now.
16:19The illegal contact, you had about 15 yards of, I'm just going to hold you and grab you.
16:25And it was second down and 20.
16:26And those are the ones where you can look at all of the offensive stuff.
16:30You know, two fumbles, two interceptions.
16:32You need to be more disciplined.
16:34But defensively, you can't jump off sides when it's fourth and four, and you can't commit this sort of a
16:40penalty when it's second and 20.
16:41Those are the ones that crush you.
16:43Yeah, we're going to let you hear some from what Kyle Shanahan said after the game on some of these
16:47issues.
16:47And oh, by the way, he's scheduled to have his conference call here shortly in about 10 or 15 minutes,
16:52get an update on McCaffrey's thigh and everything else going on with the team.
16:56But all you need to know is they pulled Jack Jones out of the game.
17:00I don't think they pulled him out to be like, dude, it wasn't your fault.
17:03The refs were totally awful today.
17:05No, they pulled him out because he played horribly and he was committing penalties.
17:10And sometimes those little arm bars that we think are, hey, come on, stop the wussification of football.
17:17Like, come on, you ought to be.
17:19No, no, no.
17:19That's a penalty.
17:20And if it was a Niner wide receiver running around trying to get somebody off of his jersey or run
17:26through an arm bar on third down, you'd be pissed if it didn't get flagged.
17:30So I thought that the officials in this particular game, there were definitely a couple of reviews that I would
17:38have loved to have been a fly on the wall.
17:40I'll put it that way.
17:41But from a flag perspective, annoying.
17:45Yes.
17:46Correct.
17:47Mostly.
17:48Yes.
17:50I completely agree on that.
17:51The two Watkins catches and my heart kind of went out to Jordan Watkins because he was on his way
17:56to having it already was a career day because he hasn't had much of a career.
18:00But he was going to be a part of maybe a road victory and the catch down the middle where
18:06he had it and it was a couple steps and down by contact.
18:09Cool.
18:09Great catch.
18:10It's not a fumble.
18:11And they blew it dead.
18:12And it's like, oh, no.
18:13After further review, turns out it's not a catch.
18:16It's incomplete.
18:16And now I was thinking, I can see it because when you slow it down, he's kind of losing it.
18:22And then the one in the end zone, same thing.
18:24All of us, including the broadcasters, it's like, his feet.
18:27Did he get them both down?
18:28It took me 18 tries before I realized I was looking at the wrong thing.
18:32Well, I looked at his feet.
18:33I'm like, I still am not.
18:34I'm not sure if he actually got his feet down.
18:36His feet to me are in.
18:38I felt very, very firm.
18:41The more that they're looking at it, I'm thinking, well, if I'm seeing it differently, I thought the feet were
18:46in.
18:47And then you look at the ball.
18:48It's like, oh, yeah, the ball, it kind of moves around a bunch.
18:51But for me, I don't know.
18:52Yeah.
18:52Like, if you lose control a little bit, that should be okay.
18:57Like, it didn't hit the ground.
18:59Right.
18:59He still had it.
19:01Well, this is a great question.
19:02You need to survive the ground.
19:05You hear this phrase.
19:06You need to survive the ground.
19:08Well, did he?
19:09Hit the ground.
19:11Well, he got up and played more.
19:12He survived.
19:13The ball never came out of his hands.
19:16Right.
19:17It never hit the ground.
19:18He never didn't catch it.
19:21But it moved.
19:22A lot, yeah.
19:23It went from his hands to his forearm and then to his stomach and then back to his hands.
19:27And I get that that means not possession.
19:29However, that comes after there was already possession.
19:33And it is different when it's in the end zone.
19:36That's the thing.
19:36It's different when it's in the end zone.
19:38Because in theory, if your feet are down and you possess a ball in the end zone,
19:43well, the plane has been broken and the play is over.
19:47So there's all, this is where in the end, and I don't feel this way during the game,
19:51because during a game, I want nachos and screaming.
19:55That's what I want during a game.
19:57But after the game, it does dawn on me that I'm like, this is kind of an impossible job.
20:04Like, I don't know.
20:06The same way we don't know, I don't know how the hell they're supposed to translate this
20:10in real time.
20:11Are your feet down?
20:12Did the ball move?
20:14Did you survive the ground?
20:16When precisely did you gain possession?
20:20Has sort of turned into a thing.
20:22Brock's first pick.
20:23I'm like, the ball hits his hand, and your feet are still touching.
20:28But literally, the instance that the ball hits his hand, the right foot goes up off the ground.
20:34Close.
20:34And now you go out of bounds.
20:36And I'm like, has that been an established possession?
20:39That seems like a leap to me.
20:42But as a ref, and now when we review it, it's super slow-mo.
20:47That's the thing.
20:47It's just like, dog.
20:50I don't know.
20:50It's kind of like the safe out call at first now where, you know, we're going to go ahead
20:55and review it.
20:56Is it like, does the ball hit the mitt?
20:59And that's when we go ahead and determine if the foot's on the base, if you're trying
21:02to beat out a ground ball or not?
21:04Or do you have to squeeze that thing?
21:05And so a lot of these are, I think, kind of ruined by the super slow-mo.
21:11It's also good that we actually have this now.
21:13And if only we could have the, quote, unquote, definitive nature of ABS in football, because
21:19we're watching baseball now.
21:21And it's like, they'll review it.
21:24And you look, it's like, ooh, that was 0.2 inches outside.
21:26It's wildly entertaining.
21:27I wish we could do that in football.