San Francisco 49ers v New Orleans Saints - Talking Points

Vernon Davis (85), celebrates after catching a touchdown in the third quarter of the 49ers loss Sunday night.

By: Matt Tuckness

It was a crushing defeat for the San Francisco 49ers, who lost 23-20 to the New Orleans Saints on a Garret Hartley 31-yard field goal as time expired. The 49ers played a strong second half, but couldn’t come up with the points they needed in the fourthquarter to win the game. The offense was once again unimpressive as they were unable to reach 200 yards of total offense. The defense had a very strong game containing Drew Brees and creating turnovers, which kept the 49ers in the football game. Unlike last Sunday when I thought the 49ers lost the game, the Saints took this one.

Some brief thoughts I had after the game

1. The 49ers special teams unit played very well and without them they wouldn’t have been in the game. The punt unit especially looked great, recovering a muffed punt by Lance Moore and pinning the Saints deep in their own territory multiple times; including one on the Saints 3 yard line. Unfortunately, while they played great all day, their final showing ended with a Kareem Osgood 15- yard kick catch interference penalty. With 1:41 left in a tied game the penalty gave Drew Brees and the Saints a short field. They were able to capitalize and put in a field goal for the win.

2. The defense played very well and did a good job of making the Saints one-dimensional. It was a bend-but-don’t- break kind of day from them. They allowed a lot of yardage through the air, but were stout in the red zone holding the Saints to two field goals in their four trips. Ahmad Brooks made an excellent interception on the Saints first drive of the second half, which led to aVernon Davis touchdown and the lead.

3. The loss of Michael Crabtree was more apparent this game than any other game I have watched all season. The only time the 49ers offense showed a flash of its former glory from the second half of last year was when Anquan Boldin was able to get open. The connection that Kaep and Crabtree had last year was one that made this offense potent.

4. Colin Kaepernick is a good quarterback who needs weapons to be successful in the NFL. Some quarterbacks in the NFL can be good no matter who is in their receiving core. For example, Drew Brees and Tom Brady play with mediocre weapons but make everyone better. Some quarterbacks need good receivers to make them better. In this case, Matthew Staffordwould be a perfect example because if he was without Calvin Johnson he would be a very average to below average quarterback. Finally, there is the bad quarterback who is bad no matter what the talent around him. These would be the Mark Sanchezes of the league, quarterbacks who have decent weapons but are just too horrible to use them. I believe Colin Kaepernick is in the Matthew Stafford range talent wise. He may not be as a great of a thrower but overall he has the ability to make plays. He just needs the weapons around him to be successful

This Saints team right now is much better than the 49ers. I thought this game was going to be a blow out early until the Saints gifted the 49ers with a muffed punt. They then took a Colin Kaepernick pick-six and fumbled it out of the back of the endzone. The 49ers looked very bad in the first half and the scary thing is, I have seen them play worse this year. Jim Harbaugh also had two very questionable challenges in the first half, which resulted in the 49ers having no challenges for the rest of the game. The second half(and really the third quarter) looked like the super bowl team from last year. They dominated on both sides of the ball and controlled the whole game. They failed to convert in the redzone again in the fourth quarter which is something they need to fix if they want to make the playoffs this year. The rest of the 49ers schedule, excluding the Seattle Seahawks, is relatively easy and should give the 49ers a good chance at a wildcard spot. Next up for San Francisco is the 3-7 Washington Redskins.