I agree with most of what you're saying WDC, expect the part you're glad GW is gone. Our D is what kept us in the game. Our D let us down with a minute left to go... but our turnovers is what cost us the game. You lose the turnover battle by our margain, 90% chance plus you lose the game.

Fact.

Well, if I may interject ..... and it's just my perspective because I just can't seem to stay out of a good football conversation ..... turnovers are the most important stat in football, and that's not to point fingers at the offense either. SFran scored, what?, 14pts on the turnovers? It made all the difference.

These two quotes stuck out the most in the article to me: "First and foremost, the 49ers simply made more big plays than the Saints." ... "Forget all the talk about the running game and defense winning championships. In today's NFL, games are won and lost by big plays." Both ring true.

Today's game is light years away (and I feel a blog coming on) from what it used to be, and you win by thinking 'outside the box'. Greg Williams was thinking 'outside the box', he had 'em on the ropes and he was gonna' finish 'em. He just blitzed 'em on the previous play and figured no way they would expect it again. It's the killer instinct you want to see in a defensive coordinator. Personally, I think it was a bonehead move in that type situation, but as it has been so eloquently pointed out, "hindsight is 20/20". Who's to say what I woulda' done in that situation, go for the glory or err on the side of caution? Be the hero, be the goat ..... that's what was going through GW's mind. He took a shot. IDK, maybe he knew he was on the way out?

Not sticking up for Williams, I'd rather have Spagnualo anyway, just think the turnovers were more a factor then your defense. I keep going back to the four lead changes in the last four minutes ..... SFran didn't beat you guys, they just outlasted you.

One week later and I've moved past the horrible start (falling behind 17-0), the 5 turnovers, and the overall inconsistent play. What I'm still frustrated about is GW’s playcalling down the stretch. We can argue about everything that happened in the first 59 minutes of the game and how we should have had a bigger lead. However; regardless of what happened during the first 59 minutes we had a 3 point lead with 40 seconds left and niners were on their own 33 with only one timeout left. Then the play call that I still can’t get out of my head happened; GW called man-blitz leaving their only offensive weapon one on one with a safety, the next thing you know it’s 1st and 10 niners from our 20 yard line. It is completely inexcusable to lose a game in regulation in that situation, especially against a weak offense. Now I’d be willing to give GW a break if he went prevent defense early in the drive and the niners were moving the ball at will but they weren’t. Against our prevent defense, the niners had moved 18 yards in 57 seconds on that drive up until we decided to blitz. In the NFL playoffs, most games come down to the final 5 minutes and who executes the best. Last Saturday, GW let us down when it mattered most and deserves most of the blame.

The last 5 minutes of this game pretty much summed up GW’s tenure here with us. The defense relies solely on turnovers and heavy blitzes to make stops. When we weren’t getting turnovers or the blitz wasn’t effective we couldn’t make stops. As a result, we gave up a ton of big plays under GW. We spent over half of our payroll in 2011 on the defense but you never would have known it from watching them play. It was time for a change and I’m really excited about Spags being our D Coordinator and feel good about him being able to turn our D around.

The only reason we lost that game was the turnovers. Bottom line.

Offense takes every blade of grass...... Defense defends every blade of grass. The D has not defended their grass the last 2 years. The offense speaks for itself. Without this O that we have we might get 5-6 wins a year, our D could not win for us or keep a game close without the O. I do agree about the turnovers, but they did happen.