Eight Bench Warmers
#1) QB Nate Davis. Emergency QB.
#2) K Joe Nedney. He has a bad leg injury and is definitely out for the game. Injury Inactive.
#3) CB Nate Clements. At this point I’m still wondering…why not just IR the guy? Injury Inactive.
#4) WR Isaac Bruce. Bruce is still stuck at doubtful and unexpected to return this season, if ever. Injury Inactive.
#5) RB Glen Coffee. Coffee managed to get banged up pretty good. He is doubtful but hopefully can make a return for next week. Injury Inactive
#6) LB Diyral Briggs. No reason to put him in games when we have our trio of terror developing at OLB.
#7) ILB Matt Wilhelm. The way I see it, DET is hardly a team that is going to try and run over us. That said, we still have McKillop at ILB who is more effective on ST units.
#8) OT Chris Patrick. Here is my logic on this one. Wallace will be active. Plus we have 4 OTs healthy and Sims can play both sides.
The Active Forty-Five
QB: Hill, Smith
RB: Gore, Robinson
FB: Norris, Miller
TE: Davis, Walker
WR: Crabtree, Morgan, Jones, Hill, Battle
OT: Snyder, Sims, Staley
OG: Baas, Rachal, Wragge
OC: Heitmann, Wallace
DL: Franklin, Sopoaga, McDonald, Smith, Evans, Jean-Francois.
LB: Lawson, Willis, Haralson, Brooks, McKillop, Spikes
CB: Bly, Brown, Spencer, K.Smith, Hudson
S: Lewis, Roman, Goldson, R.Smith
K: Schmitt
P: Lee
LS: Jennings
Five Matchups For The Armchair QB
1) The 49ers OLBs against DET QB Stanton. I don’t know if it could get a lot worse for a young QB. Stanton has no starts to his record in three years. His offensive line hasn’t helped keep their rookie ?QB nor their backup upright either. This looks like quite a good chance (and next week too) for our defenders to pile on their stats a bit.
2) NT Aubrayo Franklin on OC Dominic Raiola. On one side, a NT at the top of his game who is showing excellent quickness and ability to penetrate the interior OL. On the other, a short and lighter than average OC who has never lived up to his billing as a 2nd round run blocker. Franklin should have no trouble getting around and through this OC and simply wreak havoc on the middle of the OL. Another good reason we don’t need Wilhelm, Franklin should keep things moving more lateral in DET’s ground game.
3) TE Vernon Davis on OLB Julian Peterson. As big a name as Peterson has ever been, I still stand by my opinion of him. He has always been just very good and never great, he didn’t deserve the all-pro type money SEA paid him, and he doesn’t dominate. He had 2 very good years in SEA, averaging about 10 sacks, 2.5 FFs, 1.5 INTs and 4.5 PDs. He will make a big play here and there but it always felt like he piled up small contributions for big sacks. Throw in 4-5 late game, useless sacks with. That said, Peterson has his hands full with covering Davis, who I am sure is campaing so that he can hit 1,000 yards and keep the TD lead too.
4) The Bubble Screen against DET’s secondary. DET not only has the 4th worst pass rush in the league, but they’ve got youth and inexperience at S along with CBs not know for being good tacklers. If there is a better combination of our WRs getting time to be in position, being able to make tacklers miss and get a big play this is it.If the Bubble Screen can’t work against DET, can we finally bring it out behind the locker room and shoot it?
5) The 49ers Secondary against WR Calvin Johnson. His role is unmistakable. With RB Smith not playing, Johnson has over twice the yardage production of the teams next best receiving target. We can also count on the young QB not to be able to hit weapons like his RBs and TEs regularly and will look for Johnson to get open. Destroy their run game and aggressively take away Johnson. that forces the young QB to adjust and make mistakes.
The Stats That Matter
21 - Ranking of the Lions passing game
24 - The ranking of the Lions anemic rushing attack (and that’s with Smith, who will not be playing)
24 - The ranking of the 49ers passing game
26 - The ranking of the 49ers running game.
54.7 - DET’s average QB Rating.
78.7 - SF’s average QB Rating.
How We Could Win This Game
Don’t shoot ourselves in the foot like we did against SEA. But DET is so depleted and sad at this point that we may yet still win in that type of contest. I’d pin in down to three keys. One is to keep heavy coverage on Jonson all game long and force DET to beat us with the rest of their passing game. Second is to keep a good mix offensively of ground and aerial attack to wear down what little their defense brings. Put them to sleep with 4 yard runs and 7 yard passes and get up by a score or two and then nail the with some double move patterns for big plays. Third is to attack the LOS consistently. This means run blitzing and pass blitzing. We can take out their running game and rattle their unproven QB at the same time.
How We Could Lose This Game
By playing like the 2-win team in this contest instead of what should be a playoff contender. If we let Johnson create big plays, their anemic pass rush to get at our QB, and we commit stupid turnovers offensively, we deserve our fate.
My Prediction
These next 2 weeks are important in my opinion. Why? Because at this point in the season, heck at any point, we should steam roll teams like this. Part of getting a solid 10-win season is making sue you nail down and win each of your games against bottom dwellers. If you can’t win those 3-4 games without trouble, you’re forced to win a greater share of the harder games. Plus, DET is coming home for the last home game of the season in December outdoor weather, 2 more edges for us. I see a 28-10 victory.
