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00:00It's Niners 28, Seattle 17, 28-17 is the official Noster Dibbles prediction.
00:07River Island's guest line, our man on the Niner beat, Jake Hutchinson is joining us
00:12now.
00:13And look, Hutch is a guy who reports on what's going on, not predicts, but what do you think,
00:21Hutch?
00:22What do you think of this idea, this Dan Dibley they're definitely covering tonight thought?
00:27First of all, I was, that's a lot more animosity towards Dibs than I was expecting.
00:34That's normal on this show.
00:37I mean, I don't think that's an unreasonable pick.
00:39I will say, I feel like every Thursday night game is just a toss up just by the nature
00:43of it.
00:44But you know, Seattle's also limping into this thing too.
00:48I mean, my gut, you know, if you were to rationally look at both of these teams and granted the
00:5249ers have not been rational and how they've played some of these games this year, my gut
00:57would say that the 49ers would win.
01:01But that sort of assumes that they do what they're good at, which is committing to the
01:05run and dictating the terms, which a lot of times they've gotten away from and they just
01:11haven't looked like the sort of identity of run the ball and work off of that, that we've
01:17expected this season.
01:18Hodge, let's get a reaction of the big news of the last hour, which is that Charverius
01:23Ward is not playing.
01:25What is your thought on that and what the Niners will try to do to make up for his absence?
01:29I will say, Mooney has had his worst season with the Niners by far.
01:35He's looked really rough this year.
01:38That said, I think he's usually played pretty well against DK Metcalf.
01:41That's not ideal.
01:43I think this is going to be a major task.
01:45I think Isaac Adams had some ups, had some downs.
01:49I think this is a good test for Renardo Green.
01:50And this is a Seahawks team with three really, really good wide receivers.
01:54I honestly don't think DK Metcalf is the best of them, but he's a guy where if you let him
01:59get going, it can be problematic.
02:02He's also a guy where when he gets frustrated, he throws temper tantrums and Ward is kind
02:06of a good guy to bait him into that.
02:08So I think that's something you could be missing.
02:11But I also think if he gets matched up with a rookie and Renardo Green and gets frustrated,
02:16that could really, really benefit the Niners.
02:18And Green is a guy who, he's not massive like DK is, but he's kind of a feisty corner.
02:24Lenore is too.
02:26So it's going to be interesting.
02:28It's a lot of unknowns with Green.
02:29I like what I saw from him on tape coming out of the draft and I like what I've seen
02:33so far, but it's a major, major test.
02:37Yeah, no doubt.
02:38And you've got a lot of youth back there in the secondary and it feels like the best thing
02:43for a secondary would be if the front could actually put pressure on a quarterback.
02:48Only two hits on Kyler Murray last weekend and one sack in totality.
02:53How banged up is the Niners front that would be able to help a secondary if they were impactful?
02:59Yeah, it's tough.
03:02They're basically, Malik Collins is holding together the defensive tackle group just by
03:07a thread.
03:08He's been great, I think.
03:10Kevin Givens has had a few moments, but it's mostly off of what's been created.
03:14I will say, Leonard Floyd seems to have sort of mastered the art of letting Nick Bosa get
03:19a pressure and waiting for a quarterback to step up and then just sort of taking the sack
03:26that's there.
03:27I think this is a game that, after playing in 100 degree heat with Kyler scurrying around
03:32and getting rid of the ball pretty quickly, I think they're going to feel pretty good
03:36about Geno.
03:37He's a guy that the Giants got to him a lot last week, and I think this is a pretty good
03:45opportunity for them.
03:46I think Bosa's going to feel confident about it, but it depends on if the Seahawks commit
03:51to the run and if they can slow down Kenneth Murray.
03:54Seattle got away from that last week, but it seems like they're going to go back to
03:58it a little bit more.
03:59We'll see how that plays out.
04:00I think that's going to determine their energy level and what they're capable of getting
04:04after Geno Smith.
04:07Jake Hutchinson is joining us here on Willard & Debs, our guy on the Niners beat here 95-7
04:11the game.
04:12Okay, Hutch, let's talk red zone.
04:14What do they need to do differently?
04:16Yeah, there are a lot of things they could do differently.
04:20One, I will say Jonathan Ganna had like a great game plan for them last week where,
04:25you know, when they'd set up, say, three wide receivers to the right, they would know that
04:29the 49ers are going to look that way and they would double team and pass safeties off.
04:34And then by the time Purdy would come back to the other side where someone like Iyuk
04:38is open, there was already pressure in his face.
04:41So what I would suggest is that they should make Iyuk, especially when he gets one-on-one
04:46coverage, the primary read.
04:48He runs that whip route where he snaps in and then snaps back out better than anybody.
04:54He beat Christian Gonzalez on it against the Patriots, but just didn't get the ball.
04:58I think he had another one last week.
05:00There are times where Iyuk wins, but he's not the first read.
05:04And I think, honestly, the 49ers tend not to do that, but go like basic where he's your
05:09number one receiver.
05:10If you see that he's got one-on-one coverage and he can snap in and then out, throw it
05:15to him.
05:16I'm not saying just throw a fade every single time because that's the most inefficient play
05:19in football, but there is something to running the ball in the red zone, trusting that Mason
05:25is going to get it done, and then trusting your number one receiver.
05:28Because Ibo Samuel's not separating and George Kittle's getting a lot of safety help and
05:33Juwan Jennings, he's great in contested catches, but they're always contested.
05:38Ibo Samuel is one that Mark and I have been talking about since the Sunday game, and Mark
05:41thought he looked a little sluggish and I was looking at the same thing.
05:45What are you seeing from Ibo, particularly coming off the Arizona game in terms of separation?
05:50Yeah, Ibo doesn't really separate in man.
05:53I think that's one of the main reasons the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, is they mostly
05:58put Trent McDuffie on him and Ibo couldn't get an inch.
06:01Listen, Ibo is one of the most talented football players I have ever seen, but as a true wide
06:08receiver, he does not create separation in man coverage.
06:11That's just known and that's how teams play him, and that's just the reality of it.
06:15And 49ers haven't gotten a lot of those soft zones where Ibo can get easy catches and runs
06:20after catch, and even when they do, you're right, I haven't seen him look like he's moving
06:26at top speed.
06:27And for all the talk about how good he looked in training camp, and he did, he hasn't reached
06:32those heights, and the 49ers, he hasn't even broken it on some of those tunnel screens
06:38and some of those short passes that the 49ers seem to thrive on with him.
06:41So yeah, he's not really separating and he hasn't had a lot of those good chances that
06:46he gets on run-after-catch plays.
06:48Hudson, I'd love for you to weigh in on something I hear fans talking about a lot.
06:54Whatever issues you see on defense, whatever they are, is this a coaching thing or a personnel
06:59thing?
07:00I think it's mainly personnel.
07:02I think it's easy to blame coaches because it's sort of a catch-all and you can say,
07:07oh, it's the coaching, and then you go, well, what about the coaching?
07:10And they go, oh, don't worry about it, it's the coach's fault.
07:12And you go, okay, well, we're not having a conversation here.
07:15I think it's something where the 49ers, they've got two young safeties.
07:20Jair Brown, I think a lot of people have had high hopes.
07:24He's not quite getting there yet.
07:27Like he's had some good plays, like he can come downhill and make tackles in the box,
07:30but I'm not sure he's a true free safety.
07:33Malik Mustafa is a rookie.
07:36Safety's a really hard position to play and 49ers count on a lot of that.
07:40Devondre Campbell just has not been the answer next to Fred Warner.
07:43It's very, very clear Fred Warner's playing defensive player of the year caliber and just
07:49getting a monumental drop-off next to him.
07:51And then Nick Boses, it's him and then Leonard Floyd sort of cleaning stuff up,
07:56and Malik Collins doing a decent job, but there's not a ton of depth there.
08:00And then you just lost your number one corner.
08:01So, to me, it's personnel.
08:04It's a lot of new pieces, a lot of young pieces, and I think it's going to take time,
08:10and it's going to take Devondre Campbell either turning it around or the 49ers turning
08:15to someone like Dee Winters or some of their other young linebackers to help and just getting
08:20lucky at safety because they don't have any other option than their two young safeties.
08:24And I think this is a game where they could really be tested against a team that loves
08:29to split all three wide receivers out.
08:32Campbell's played the fourth most snaps on defense, and he'll surpass Traverius Ward
08:36on that list today, and Flanagan Fowles is out as well.
08:39So, short of Dee Winters, what are the options and what have you seen from Dee Winters since
08:45the game on Sunday that would indicate maybe he can play more snaps coming off the ankle?
08:50Yeah, it's interesting with Dee Winters because, to me, it's a matter of, like, do you think
08:55he can play in almost every downed roll?
08:57He's much smaller than Campbell and Warner.
09:00You know, Dre Greenlaw's obviously not a massive linebacker, but he plays like he has no fear
09:05of anything in the world, and Winters seems to have a little bit of that.
09:08But I think you wonder if he can hold up, you know, in that will roll.
09:13I think if you do feel confident that he can do that, I think you should play him over
09:18Campbell because he plays with a lot more speed, he showed me a lot in training camp
09:23and coverage, he made some nice coverage plays, and I think that's what you would need next
09:27to Warner.
09:28I think that's something that they probably won't do this week, but if Campbell doesn't
09:31look right again and they have, you know, 10 days before the Chiefs, I wouldn't be stunned,
09:36you know, if they were to go to Winters and then, you know, keep Campbell, I guess, as
09:40your number three or look somewhere younger with, you know, Jalen Graham or Tatum Bethune.
09:45Hutch, when we look at sort of what Kyle Shanahan's script will be, whatever his first shot will
09:54be, we were somewhat surprised against Arizona that it was the passing game.
09:58He really came out wanting to throw the ball.
10:01What do you think they want to come out and try first tonight?
10:05I think they want to run the ball.
10:08I think it's something where, you know, Seattle's got some big guys on their interior front,
10:15and so did the Cardinals.
10:16Like, the Cardinals are not a talented defense, but they did have some, you know, big beefy
10:20boys on the interior, and, you know, Seattle's got a little bit of that, too, and that could
10:25be a challenge for the 49ers front, but, you know, if you get some of those crack toss
10:29plays, I honestly think if you were to go back to some of the week one stuff of running
10:34two tight ends, running stretch runs, getting back to like a little bit of 2019 where they
10:40ran stretch runs and play-action boot off of it, I don't think that's the worst idea
10:44in the world.
10:45They've run like the fourth fewest play-action in the league, Seattle's dead last, but you
10:51look at it and Brock Purdy is the number one quarterback in the league on play-action passes,
10:57and he's just not gotten very many opportunities in that respect.
11:01And you have to establish the run in order to run play-action, I mean, it's not brain
11:05surgery to make that statement or think about it, so Jordan Mason, coming off a game where
11:10he had just 14 carries, would you imagine that he's going to get to shoulder a lot more
11:15of the workload even though it's on a short week?
11:18I think if he is clicking and the run game is going, Kyle Shanahan will say, listen,
11:24you got a nice rest after this one, this is basically our season on the line here, and
11:29we've seen that regardless of whether a guy's coming in sort of banged up or not, Mason's
11:35got nothing on the injury report, but Kyle Shanahan, he plays his players when the games
11:39matter, and again, there's been talk, is this a must win?
11:43It basically is, because then you're 0-3 in the division and 2-4 if you don't win this,
11:48so I don't think they trust Isaac Arendo yet.
11:51I talked to him this week and he said he's been a little bit more hesitant than he wants
11:56to be.
11:57I think they could get him involved on swing passes because he's so fast and doesn't really
12:01know the position.
12:02I think it's a good way to get him involved if they do, but yeah, I think they're just
12:05going to lean on the guys they trust, and unless they're rattled by that one fumble
12:10for Mason, I think they're just going to ride him.
12:12Our guy covering the night is Jake Hutchinson with us as we are less than an hour away from
12:17kickoff in Seattle in a massive game.
12:20Hutch, I know this one doesn't have much to do with tonight, but while we have you, I
12:24do want to get your best guess, and we will present it as that, so no pressure here, but
12:31your best guess when we see Christian McCaffrey and Dre Greenlaw play football this year.
12:38I cannot take a guess on those guys.
12:42Like McCaffrey, I don't know.
12:44If it was in a month, it wouldn't shock me.
12:46If it was two months, it wouldn't shock me.
12:49I don't know.
12:50Is he going to play this season?
12:52Kyle Shanahan has been very tight-lipped about it.
12:56McCaffrey keeps his health under tight wrap.
12:59There are some national guys whose entire job is breaking that stuff, and they don't know,
13:03so I can't even possibly take a guess on McCaffrey.
13:07With Greenlaw, I think he's a guy that I feel like the initial timeline was somewhere in
13:13November.
13:14If their linebacker group is still looking sort of rough, and Greenlaw can work back,
13:19I think down the stretch of this season, somewhere maybe like December, where you
13:24get him a little bit involved and ramp him up going into the postseason, I think that
13:28would be their ideal scenario, but again, you know, it's a guy coming off an Achilles,
13:33so you don't know what to expect, but yeah.
13:36For me, I think Greenlaw, probably late in this season, at least in terms of getting
13:42him worked back and seeing if he can do anything.
13:45Pending Matthew Wright's performance tonight, how much will the 49ers be eager to bring
13:50Jake Moody back after his injury?
13:52Yeah, you know how Kyle Shanahan is.
13:55He basically, you won't admit it, but I think if you really got him on a side, just having
14:02a beer with him, he'd probably say, you wish the special teams didn't exist, because it's
14:07something that just seems to stress him out entirely and bring him almost no joy whatsoever,
14:15he just, you know, he just wants the kicker to make the kick and not think about it.
14:20And yet the 49ers often have like these mind-boggling special teams errors.
14:24So yeah, if Matthew Wright can make anything inside of 50, I think they'll be pretty stoked
14:30about that.
14:31I think Kyle is going to be really, really sweating it, you know, inevitably when they
14:35have like a 54-yard field goal to win this game and it's Matthew Wright kicking it.
14:41So we'll see how that goes, but I bet he is, he's not feeling stoked about this situation.
14:46Oh, word is that he's warming up right now and knocking through 55-yarders with ease,
14:53Jake.
14:54Well, there it is, I guess it's locked and loaded.
14:58All right, so Matthew Wright goes 4-4-4 tonight, the Niners win by 83 points.
15:03Hutch, thank you very much, great stuff.
15:05Appreciate you guys, thanks.
15:07All right, there goes our guy Hutch.