[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by O.city

Someone broke down the drives on twitter against the 9ers, but they were 2 plays from giving up 14 fewer points. Hitchens makes a tackle on 3 and 16 they punt, Jones doesn't jump offsides on 3 and 5 they punt.

SUTTON TOLD JONES TO JUMP!!!!

The blitz he dialed up that stunted Ford and put him right in Garrapolo's lap (I think that was the Jones play) was just outstanding. It's exactly what Sutton has shown a willingness and an ability to do. But his players ****ed up again because that's what they've done all year.

There was another 3rd and 8 or so where the ballcarrier should've been stopped for 3 and I think it was Parker who just bounced off him for the 1st.

Now I'll say this - there's an argument a team that plays this poorly in zone should stop calling zone coverages. It's not a bad argument. But here's the thing - you stop doing that and you leave yourself open to what I was talking about earlier - plays where Vance McDonald trucks your mediocre tackling safety and rumbles for 75 yards. When you're playing with a 3 score lead, you cannot allow that to happen. So in those circumstances, going to a zone is an eminently reasonable decision.

And the fact that the defense has actually played quite well anytime the score has been close (what was that stat? 2.49 yards per play when the game is within a score?) suggests that he's doing exactly that. But when the score is lopsided and you know you have iffy players who aren't assignment sound all across your defense, it's playing with fire to try to do that for a whole game.

So he picks his spots and as a general rule, it's working when it needs to.

I swear, 'Sutton Sucks!' is just a habit for people right now. I'm not sure if Sutton is good at the moment but ****, you can't grade him on anything we've seen to this point because these failures have been dictated by score/clock as well as abysmal execution by his players.