New Award - The Stinky Pinky

[Fritz]

Okay, Rats, after every Packer loss (hopefully there will not be many) this year, we're going to have a new award: The Stinky Pinky. As the name suggests, it will go to the player or coach who plays or coaches like he's got his smallest digit firmly inserted deep inside his rectum.

For the SF game, there were a few contenders. Jeremy Ross is a surprise candidate - his only reason for being on this team is to provide a spark in the return game, but Ross was more of a wet fart than a spark yesterday. He did nothing to reverse the awful field position the Packers constantly had.

Then there are the twin candidates: the safeties. Was there anything they did right? They looked like the keystone Kops out there.

And do we dislike Finley enough to include him, just for his dumb non-catch, leading to the interception?

Finally, every good run of the first three quarters was negated by Sitton.

Whaddya think?

[Upnorth]

Either Sitton or Slocum. Sitton is obvious, mister have every good run called back. When we kept getting pinned deep why did Slocum not try to block the punts? I don't remember seeing one strong rush by tpunt return unit.

Also the ref's after the blown call, fourth and two they would have kicked.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Ross really regressed from last season. I'm giving the pinky to MM for handing San Fran an extra shot at the endzone when SF was in the redzone. That decision was made just before Clay-gone-wild outta bounds.

[pbmax]

Ross made two dumb decisions, but how about a little blocking, especially the opposing special teams ace?

[Harlan Huckleby]

Ross made two dumb decisions, but how about a little blocking, especially the opposing special teams ace?

OK, but Ross looked slow and tentative.

[red]

m3 for accepting the penalty after we just stopped them on 3rd down

[3irty1]

My vote is for Ross.

The safeties didn't have a great day but Jennings was much better than McMillan. Jennings made a few solid tackles near the line. McMillan got lost and played small. I don't know if banjo would have been better but I would have given him a try over McMillan before I gave Bush a go over Hyde. The best thing I can say about McMillan is that I want to like him. He's got good playing speed, energy, and a killshot mentality.

Sitton contributed to the loss but I have a hard time blaming him too much. I think this was an obvious case of the SF staff pointing out some crafty thing he's probably been doing and getting away with for a while now. This staff was instructed to scrutinize him probably on some specific thing. The holding certainly wasn't blatant. He could probably go back to doing it and getting away with it or clean up his game. He's a pro.

Finley's good probably counteracted his bad. Probably. That was a pretty awesome and timely TD.

Lacy didn't suck enough on his own to warrant any awards. He fumbled and didn't do enough good things to make up for it. Even with his TD and his screen, I thought his best play was in pass pro.

MM made a controversial call but waaaayyyyyy more good than bad from him on the day. Excellent game plan. Great playcalling to bail out the OL.

[mraynrand]

m3 for accepting the penalty after we just stopped them on 3rd down

I especially hated that for the message it sent the D; MM: "I have no confidence that you can stop them in short yardage." True or not, that's pulling the rug out from underneath your players and off your D-coor's head.

[run pMc]

Mason Crosby celebrates with a Riverdance for not being nominated.

Gotta think the winner is someone on defense. I think McMillian or M.D. could be nominated (M.D. played better of the two IMO). Tramon also had a lot of trouble with Boldin, but that's like guarding a power forward with a small forward.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I especially hated that for the message it sent the D; MM: "I have no confidence that you can stop them in short yardage." True or not, that's pulling the rug out from underneath your players and off your D-coor's head.

SF would have probably taken the 3 points anyway. The Packers were having little success stopping 3rd and 6 pass plays. Why not risk having to stop them on a single play, the 4th and 1? Really an odd call by MM.

[Harlan Huckleby]

Tramon also had a lot of trouble with Boldin, but that's like guarding a small forward with a power forward.

Boldin is built like a linebacker, and they were letting him push-off all day.

[pbmax]

OK, but Ross looked slow and tentative.

Agreed. But usually you get one guy blocked on kickoff return. Each of those KORs looked like punt coverage.

[pbmax]

I especially hated that for the message it sent the D; MM: "I have no confidence that you can stop them in short yardage." True or not, that's pulling the rug out from underneath your players and off your D-coor's head.

I also thought it was a dumb tactical choice for his own D. Forget yesterday, but short yardage has been where Raji, Pickett and Wilson have been at their best even when other run D was giving way.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I also thought it was a dumb tactical choice for his own D. Forget yesterday, but short yardage has been where Raji, Pickett and Wilson have been at their best even when other run D was giving way.

Excellent point. The one area the defense was really hitting on all cylanders was stuffing the run.

It will be several more sleepless nights before I let this one go.

[Pack Attack58]

Lots of candidates for this loss.
Ross for his dumb decisions of trying to return kicks in the end zone.
Sitton for killing every decent run in the first half.
Finley for dropping a pass right into a 49ers lap.
Safeties just plain sucked.
McCarthy for accepting the penalty in the first half.
Slocum for not removing Ross.

But my vote goes to Capers. I understand that with Hayward & Burnett out the secondary was thin. But if you are going to use a zone defense you can't rush only 3 guys. You need to put pressure on the QB. If he has all day to throw the ball the receivers are going to find the holes in the zone. The fact they NEVER adjusted and let Kapernick & Boldin beat them over and over by finding the holes in the zone is completely on Capers.