Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Defensive Injury Woes, A New Guy on the Practice Squad, and the Week 5 Power Poll

There’s bad timing, and then there’s losing your nose tackle right before the Buccaneers come to town. Isaac Sopoaga has reportedly come down with a staph infection (per Matt Barrows of The Sacramento Bee) and wasn’t practicing on Wednesday. That’s the kind of thing that typically lingers for a while, and I’d be pretty surprised to see Sopoaga practicing anytime soon or playing on Sunday. I’m guessing they want to keep him quarantined from his teammates.

The 49ers haven’t allowed a 100-yard runner since a November game at Green Bay when Ryan Grant did the honors, but Tampa Bay’s LeGerrette Blount is precisely the type of big, physical burly back that you need Sopoaga for. It’d be one thing if they were facing a guy like Shady McCoy with the Eagles, who spends most of his time outside of the hashes anyway, but Blount is a between-the-tackles runner who likes to punish defenders and wear them down over four quarters. We know the 49ers aren’t likely to blow out anybody with their offense, so expect the game to be tight the whole way through. They can’t afford to get fatigued and stuck on the field during long stretches of the final quarter.

Ricky Jean Francois will likely start in Sopoaga’s place, and while he’s an athletic guy, he’s not as strong on the point as Sopoaga is and has been known to be rag dolled at times by opposing linemen. With DE Will Tukuafu on Injured Reserve because of a wrist injury he sustained at Philadelphia, it appears that both DT Ian Williams and DE Demarcus Dobbs (the preseason sensation) will be making their regular season debuts on Sunday. If Sopoaga’s ailment is as serious as feared, then you can expect the 49ers to sign another defensive lineman. Having just five able bodies there is playing with fire, and there aren’t any others on the practice squad.
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The 49ers are also a bit shorthanded in the secondary. Tramaine Brock apparently aggravated his broken hand against the Eagles or in practice leading up to the game, because he has already been declared out for this week. Shawntae Spencer missed practice with a toe injury and it remains to be seen if that’s serious enough to keep him out this week. Rookie Chris Culliver, who did okay against the Eagles playing in the fourth quarter, may be forced into an extensive role on Sunday.

Safety Donte Whitner who missed almost two full games with a hip injury, practiced in full on Sunday, so at least the Niners are getting healthy there.

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Tukuafu’s injury enabled the 49ers to promote rookie safety Colin Jones, who’s pretty much just a special teams guy, onto the active roster. That meant they had a vacancy on their practice squad, which they’ve filled with receiver John Matthews.

Matthews, 25, is the standard 6-0, 200 and played for Jim Harbaugh at the University of San Diego during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. He had 195 receptions for 3,615 yards and 50 touchdowns in his collegiate career, but interestingly enough, had his best year as a senior (102 catches, 1,478 yards, 21 touchdowns) in 2007when Harbaugh had already left to coach Stanford.

Matthews was signed by the Colts as an undrafted free agent and has also spent time with the Jaguars and Dolphins. From what we saw in practice Wednesday, he was on the scout team, impersonating Tampa Bay receiver Arrellious Binn.

I guess for a perennial fringe guy like Matthews, being on the scout team is a case of Binn there, done that. (HEY-O).
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Power Rankings (I hate the Eagles edition)

1. Green Bay (4-0):
That game against Denver was every bit as easy for them as it looked on the schedule (good thing this genius took the Broncos to cover). When a guy is wide open, Aaron Rodgers hit him. When a guy was mostly covered, Rodgers darted the ball into a tight window. Other times, when he felt like it, he just ran with it. All in all they had 49 points and he accounted for six touchdowns. I know it’s early, but I’m starting to question if they can be beaten if all their main parts are healthy.

2. New Orleans (3-1):
I think you can forgive them a little bit for not exactly putting their best foot forward at Jacksonville. C’mon, it’s Jacksonville. Who could possibly get up to play that outfit? Tight end Jimmy Graham continues to emerge for them, and Brees has Darren Sproles to throw check downs to, and Lance Moore and Marques Colston for short stuff and Devery Henderson and Robert Meachem for long stuff and quite frankly I’m just not buying that they only scored 23 points because of something the Jaguars did.

3. Baltimore (3-1):
On one hand they had three defensive touchdowns and the usual awesomeness from their running back tandem of Ray Rice and Ricky Williams. On the other hand, Joe Flacco continues to alternate good games with horrific ones and he’s completing less than half of his attempts, which in this day and age is unheard of. The good news is, they might not need him to throw a pass to beat half the teams in their schedule.

4. Houston (3-1): They’ve played superbly on defense in three of four contests, and they would’ve won at New Orleans if the offense hadn’t spazzed out in the red zone all Eagles style. Arian Foster has returned to form at last, but now they’ll miss Andre Johnson for a month, and they don’t have nearly the depth at receiver they had at running back. What they do have, however, is too good tight ends and a quarterback who excels at play action, so I don’t think they’ll miss Johnson as much as people think.

5. New England (3-1): Anyone who says Tom Brady and Wes Welker are putting up video game numbers has never played Madden on “All-Madden” mode. That shit is way hard. Meanwhile, on defense the Patriots don’t even pretend to try anymore until they’re in their own red zone, kind of like how the Niners played at Philadelphia, but every week. Still, I’ve got an annoying feeling that Brady will figure out the Jets defense this week more than Mark Sanchez will stop being terrible.

6. Detroit (4-0):
Being able to throw just any old pass to Calvin Johnson anytime you want is a nice luxury to have, but at some point I’m thinking that falling behind by three touchdowns to mediocre teams on the road is going to hurt them. I can’t say I have any confidence in their secondary, but at least those guys have shown they have ball skills when they are within the same zip code as their guy.

7. Tennessee (3-1):
I can’t deny it any longer, Matt Hasselbeck is just playing out of his mind. Also, the defense hasn’t missed Jason Babin one bit. They just toyed with Colt McCoy, letting him have as many 3-yard completions as he pleased, and were happy to knock the stuffing out of those poor receivers. No Kenny Britt? No problem, Hasselbeck just threw to Nate Washington and Lavelle Hawkins. Interesting roadie coming up against a banged up Steelers team.

8. Tampa Bay (3-1):
The thing about the Bucs is that while they’re not flashy, they’re not really bad at anything. They hang around, keep things close with their young talented defense and ample doses of LeGerrette Blount, and then have Josh Freeman win it for them late. If you’re a Niners fan, aren’t you nervous on Sunday with anything less than a 17 point lead going into the fourth quarter?

9. San Diego (3-1):
Hard to get much of a read on them. They’ve played three terrible teams and at New England. No games against those 8-8 to 11-5 range teams that we can use to give us some kind of idea. All I know is they’re still missing Antonio Gates, that Malcolm Floyd has been terribly disappointing and that Takeo Spikes’ sack dance was all kinds of wrong.

10. New York Giants (3-1):
Has Eli Manning put together a three game stretch like that since January of 2008, you’re asking. Why yes. He does it pretty much every damn October. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera have the flashy reputations for this month in New York, but Manning has just been a beast over his career (21-4) in October. December, of course, is a different story. For the record, I think the dead ball call at the end that won them the game was the right one.

11. New York Jets (2-2):
They’re like the Ravens, but less so. I’m starting to think Shonn Greene belongs in that pile alongside Jahvid Best, Reggie Bush and Marshawn Lynch as guys who are way worse than backups like C.J. Spiller and Toby Gerhart. Yet, that defense, man, that defense.

12. Washington (3-1):
Speaking of defense, I’m all aboard on the Redskins. They’ve convinced me that they’re legit. Great pair of ends in Ryan Kerrigan and Brian Orakpo, a super middle linebacker in London Fletcher, and a destroyer of worlds in safety LaRon Landry. Three decent backs, a pair of tight ends and Santana Moss on offense. If Rex Grossman can’t make them look terrible, then they must be pretty good.

13. Buffalo (3-1):
Pretty inexcusable loss at Cincinnati. When you have a 17-3 lead on anybody you should win, but when it’s a rookie QB? What gives, Bills? Ryan Fitzpatrick looked very ordinary, and apparently didn’t get the memo about just throwing to whoever Nate Clements is on. No, that’s unfair to Clements. He did try that. Just a bad day all around. As you might guess, I’ll be following their game against the Eagles pretty closely. If they don’t score 30, then the party is over, yes?

14. San Francisco (3-1):
Not sold yet. Oddly enough, I’m more encouraged by the offense than the defense, even though I like the front seven a lot. It’s just troubling how easily teams with good quarterbacks move the ball between the 20’s on them. I mean, why even bother calling a running play against the 49ers at all? And shouldn’t a defense facing so many pass attempts have more of a consistent pass rush? If they manage to beat the Bucs, you might as well print up those division champ T-shirts.

15. Dallas (2-2): Nothing in the NFL is more enjoyable than watching a Tony Romo meltdown. Nothing. What made it particularly surprising was that their offensive line was playing annoying well and Ndamukong Suh never got a chance to find out if Romo’s head was a screw top. Romo just threw up (in both senses) three balls into coverage for no reason whatsoever, after spending the better part of three quarters hitting one open receiver after the next. Also, the Cowboys have a rookie kicker who has a filthy habit of booting every kick right down the middle like he’s facing arena league goal posts. I don’t want to live in a world where Dallas has a better kicker than Philly.

16. Oakland (2-2):
That game against the Patriots should’ve been closer, and it was Jason Campbell’s fault that it wasn’t. Also, as someone who didn’t watch the game really carefully, I can only assume Campbell was also the guy assigned to cover Wes Welker, yes? 19 points seems a tad low for a team with 504 yards, and they let the Pats run for damn near 200 on them, which is mind-boggling. It’s one thing to get shredded by Brady but…

17. Pittsburgh (2-2):
I made the roster update in my Madden game for the Max Starks signing before the Steelers actually signed him. Sometimes you can see these things coming.

18. Chicago (2-2):
Even with Matt Forte running for 205 yards, they really had no business beating Carolina. I hate literally everything about their passing game.

19. Atlanta (2-2):
I don’t get the sense they can beat anyone remotely worth a damn, but just for shits and giggles, let’s see how they do with the Packers coming to town on Sunday. This is why they drafted Julio Jones, right? I want to see if that investment, where they surrendered pretty much half their draft, plus a first rounder next year, was worth it instead of taking, oh, I don’t know, a defensive back let’s say.

20. Cincinnati (2-2):
I can’t quite figure it out, but they seem to have an excellent defense. I need to watch them more to get a handle on it. It won’t be next week though, because their next game, at Jacksonville, promises to be particularly ugly. Also, I like A.J. Green more than Julio Jones, just because.

21. Philadelphia (1-3):
A 15-place drop in the Power Rankings and it should be 25. What an abomination. Can’t stop a running game when you know they’re gonna run. Can’t manage more than three sacks on the 49ers woeful offensive line. Can’t stop turning it over in the red zone. Can’t kick field goals. Can’t keep people healthy. Can’t draft worth a damn anymore. Buffalo game should be a real blast.

22. Arizona (1-3): Anyone notice that Patrick Peterson, the No. 5 overall pick of the draft, has been awful at corner so far? I know, I shouldn’t pick on a rookie so early. But remember, there were warnings that he was too big to play corner and that he needs to be a safety at this level. Something to keep an eye on.

23. Carolina (1-3): They throw the piss out of the ball, and now they’re starting to run a little bit with DeAngelo Williams and Jonathan Stewart, too. Pretty soon they’re gonna be impossible to play against. Fortunately, the defense blows.

24. Cleveland (2-2):
Secretly terrible. They’re bad at everything. Also, their quarterback is a dink who dinks. 350 yards on 40 completions and 61 attempts? That’s just goddamn awful. Whispers of locker room problems too between Peyton Hillis and some of his teammates.

25. Seattle (1-3): Say what you want about them, it’s all true. But they do have a pulse at home.

26. Jacksonville (1-3): Kinda good on defense. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m so fed up with the Eagles I’m bumping up the rankings of any team that can stop somebody.

27. Denver (1-3):
Eric Decker? Brandon Lloyd? Pretty good. The rest of them? Not so much.

28. Kansas City (1-3):
Back-to-back not terrible performances deserve a bump. I have no idea how they ever move the ball anymore.

29. Indianapolis (0-4):
They still haven’t quit. But they will. Oh yes, they will.


30. Miami (0-4):
With Chad Henne out, they’re starting Matt Moore. Not that anyone will notice or care. “Suck For Luck” fully underway.

31. Minnesota (0-4):
Because they’d find a way, somehow, to lose to each of the 30 teams above them, that’s why.

32. St. Louis (0-4):
I can’t believe an offense coached by Josh McDaniels is struggling this terribly. It’s almost as if Tom Brady had that success on his own or something.

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