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00:00We finally get to do one of these after a win, huh?
00:03And after a dominant win.
00:05Somebody might get better than a C-.
00:07I'm excited.
00:08A lot of them.
00:09A lot of them, actually.
00:10We'll start, as always, at the quarterback position.
00:13Brock Purdy did not play the whole game at quarterback
00:15because the Niners were up by so much that Brandon Allen came in.
00:18And he threw an interception, by the way.
00:20But Brock Purdy was very good in this football game,
00:23efficient as he has been all year.
00:25Maybe underthrew a couple of passes, so I can't give him an A+,
00:29but it was an A performance for Brock Purdy on Sunday.
00:32Yeah, I agree with that.
00:33And I don't do A+, but if I did A+,
00:36I probably wouldn't give him one for the same reason.
00:39It wasn't so much the Garendo underthrow
00:42because that was just a beautiful blooper throw that he made.
00:46It was the one to Juwan where if he could have stepped into that one,
00:49that would have been a touchdown.
00:51Garendo caught the one and rolled about six yards to the one-yard line.
00:54But those are throws that are just spectacular,
00:57especially the Garendo one.
00:58I can't wait to ask Cosell about that
01:00because I think that was one where he changed the play at the line of scrimmage
01:04and he got Garendo one-on-one, and that was just an unbelievable throw.
01:08So what grade are you settling on?
01:10An A.
01:11Oh, you're giving him an A.
01:12An absolute A, yeah.
01:13Okay.
01:14Boy, everybody mark today down.
01:16Write it down.
01:17I am going to give Brock Purdy the lowest grade of the group.
01:21That's crazy.
01:22What is happening right now?
01:23Whoa!
01:24What's wrong with you?
01:25I'm not ready to give him an A because of this and this alone.
01:29And it'll be, you want to call it an A minus B plus.
01:31Brock was fantastic.
01:33I'm not taking that away.
01:34And I'm not bothered by a couple missed throws.
01:37I'd argue we're the only fan base in America that their quarterback can go 20
01:42and 25, go for over 300 yards, not turn the ball over, win by three touchdowns,
01:48and we show up Monday morning and we can remember all five incompletions
01:51and we are mad about them.
01:53It's really stupidity.
01:55It really is, in my opinion.
01:56However, I'm not bothered by the incompletions.
01:59I'm bothered by one of the completions.
02:01And he can't do this.
02:04Do you remember the play very early in the game where he was rushed,
02:08right in his face, and he threw sidearm underneath the defenders,
02:12the play that popped straight up in the air.
02:14Yeah, Juwan got it.
02:15And Juwan got it.
02:16You can't do that.
02:18That's the crap that turns into pick sixes.
02:21And you've got to find a different way to have that jailbreak,
02:26get rid of the ball thing, instead of throwing it into a collection of arms.
02:32It's what he did in Minnesota and turned into a pick,
02:34and you lost the game by six.
02:36That's the play that I would love to see Brock get rid of.
02:40And for me, I knock him down a few points for it.
02:43Wow, harsh.
02:45That's rough.
02:46That's that.
02:47That's rough.
02:48I don't remember coming to my grade book.
02:50Up next, skill positions.
02:52That's wide receivers, running backs, and tight ends.
02:54George Kittle was obviously incredible in this game.
02:57Juwan Jennings had a couple of touchdowns.
02:59Isaac Arendo, before he got hurt, was getting over five per carry.
03:03Even Patrick Taylor came in and had himself a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
03:07Deebo Samuel wasn't impressed once again.
03:10Ricky Pearsall had a hold that took away a touchdown,
03:12also slipped on a route.
03:14Overall, for skill positions, an A-, an A- for the group.
03:18I'm going to give them an A.
03:20I was not bothered by Deebo Samuel's performance.
03:23I didn't see anything.
03:24For instance, again, like if he gets tackled a yard behind the line of scrimmage,
03:29I don't blame Deebo for that.
03:31There were no drops.
03:33There's going to be a miscommunication here or there.
03:35I'm certainly not going to get on someone for slipping on natural grass.
03:39What I saw were skill position players that made all the plays that were available.
03:43The team moved up and down the field.
03:45They got a huge lead early.
03:46They held on to it.
03:48I really didn't see any of those players do anything that was worth a demerit.
03:55I give them an A.
03:56I had an A- as well, and I liked that you pointed out the Pearsall.
03:59Also, I'm sorry, but someone's got to say it.
04:02Keyshawn Vaughn, you've got to do more with your two carries.
04:07Only two yards a carry.
04:09Not great.
04:10Unacceptable.
04:11Not great.
04:12Up next is the offensive line.
04:15Interesting because they were down to both their second-string left tackle
04:18and left guard to begin the game.
04:20Then Ben Bartsch goes down, so the Niners down to their third-string left guard
04:24for the majority of this game.
04:26But all in all, it was still a relatively successful day for the O-line.
04:30They opened up holes in the run game all game long.
04:32I felt Brock Purdy was pressured still a decent amount,
04:35even though the sack numbers weren't there for the Bears' defense.
04:39A B-plus for the offensive line.
04:41I gave him an A- because of everything you said.
04:43The one that kind of got me is when Brock took that absolutely massive hit
04:48in the fourth quarter where he was kind of tangled down low,
04:52and then he got bent all the way back.
04:54That was a scary, scary hit.
04:56But you're right, Grandy.
04:57They didn't have one sack, I think, on the day,
05:01and the offensive line only had a couple of penalties.
05:03I thought it was one of their best games overall.
05:06You mentioned the Ben Bartsch injury, and he was already the backup,
05:10so he had to go even deeper.
05:11Spencer Burford siding, and he came in and did pretty well.
05:14It was a good game for the O-line.
05:16Yeah, I give him an A.
05:17Again, I just don't think it's fair to look at an offensive line
05:20and be like, there was a sack.
05:22You can't win every single individual battle throughout the game.
05:26What I saw as a collective was Brock Purdy had time.
05:29He had time a lot.
05:31The running backs had holes.
05:33Largely, I looked for two things with the offensive line.
05:37Does the quarterback have time, and did you not commit penalties?
05:40For me, both of those were A-level work.
05:44Yeah, the big guys get an A from me.
05:46Let's switch over to the defensive side of the football.
05:49We begin with the front seven.
05:50That's the defensive linemen and the linebacking core.
05:53If I can split this up into two groups,
05:55I thought the D-line was absolutely awesome in this game.
05:57Of course, you had Yitor Grossmatos, who had three sacks.
06:00You had Leonard Floyd, who had two sacks,
06:02even Malik Collins from the interior with a sack as well.
06:05I wasn't overly impressed with what the linebacking group did,
06:09so the front seven as a whole gets an A,
06:11but that is buoyed by an incredible performance by the D-line.
06:14Yeah, I'm going to move that down a little bit, B+,
06:17because like you said, first of all,
06:20the defense gave up two yards in the first half.
06:23We can say that largely everybody was doing their job,
06:27but I am much more impressed by the defensive line.
06:30And look, they don't have their best pass rusher,
06:32so I acknowledge that too,
06:34but I also think that some of the success the D-line had
06:39was because of young player mistakes by Caleb Williams.
06:43I think a more experienced quarterback doesn't get sacked nearly as many times.
06:47They did have time to get rid of the ball in a lot of cases,
06:50so some of those were coverage sacks or young quarterback sacks,
06:54but it's all nitpicking.
06:56But yeah, B+, for me, for that group.
06:58So far, this gradebook is like my kids' grades in high school.
07:02It's straight As right now.
07:04Today, for the front seven, seven sacks,
07:07and Caleb Williams didn't have a chance to beat you with his legs.
07:11Also, it needs to be said that Devondre Campbell
07:14had probably his best game as a 49er.
07:17Devondre Campbell, again, played very well.
07:20He had seven tackles as a linebacker,
07:23didn't make any real coverage mistakes.
07:26The front seven was awesome in this game, and today.
07:29There was one moment where Caleb Williams
07:31was able to break a tackle of Fred Warner.
07:33I don't know if you saw after the fact
07:35when Caleb Williams spun around him,
07:37the two were kind of jawing after the fact.
07:39It wasn't Fred Warner's best game either,
07:41but we know he's playing with a broken ankle.
07:43Up next is the secondary.
07:45Good to see Telenova Hufanga back.
07:47Made a couple of plays playing with the club on his hand.
07:49That was fun to see.
07:51And then there was a moment in the second half
07:53where Malik Mustafa goes out and he was shaken up for a little bit,
07:56and Jair Brown had to come back in,
07:58and Jair Brown immediately gets beat over the middle
08:00for a Roma-Dunze touchdown, his second.
08:02A-Dunze also beat Mooney Ward for a very nice touchdown
08:05in the back right corner of the end zone.
08:07Secondary was good, not great.
08:09A B for me for the secondary.
08:11That's the letter that I had in mind.
08:12It was nothing disastrous,
08:14but a couple of touchdowns for Roma-Dunze,
08:16and I am now officially in the uncomfortable zone
08:19with Jair Brown.
08:20And that's terrifying because Hufanga gets hurt a lot,
08:23and it's a young group,
08:25and they've suffered injuries and all kinds of problems
08:27in that group,
08:29and so their depth at that position
08:32is severely challenged right now,
08:34and to know that they're going to constantly be one play away
08:37from relying on him is a scary thought.
08:40He's had a very poor season,
08:41and it was not a great game there,
08:43but the rest of the group was really strong.
08:45Yeah, A- for me, only two mistakes
08:47in the plays that you pointed out.
08:49They had no explosives in the past game.
08:51They had no completions for more than 20 yards,
08:54and Jair Brown gets beat by Roma-Dunze for the touchdown,
08:57but we already were in garbage time mode,
08:59so plays are going to happen against your secondary.
09:02Other than that, they were spectacular.
09:04You mentioned Hufanga and Mustafa in run support,
09:08again, rolling up.
09:09I thought the defense was so aggressive
09:11and so strong early in the game,
09:13and that was the secondary as well.
09:15In run support, I gave him an A-.
09:17Yeah, first half especially.
09:19Man, they were so good everywhere.
09:21Up next is special teams, and surprise, surprise,
09:24worst grade of the day goes to special teams.
09:27A C- for me.
09:28I know there wasn't anything terrible,
09:30but you had multiple penalties on kickoffs,
09:32and this is still a group that just cannot get out of its way
09:35with making simple mistakes that almost few other teams
09:38in the NFL make on a consistent basis.
09:40I wasn't as offended as a C-, but I will go C+,
09:43because as you said, there's no disaster,
09:45but Kyle Shanahan addressed it today.
09:47If anybody wants to know why Jake Moody twice
09:49couldn't get his kickoffs to the 20-yard line,
09:52you want to know what he said?
09:54Just straight shanked him.
09:56He shanked him.
09:57He shanked a ball that's not moving
10:00with nobody rushing him.
10:02He shanked him, and he did it twice.
10:04We are officially,
10:06I know a lot of you have already been there for a while,
10:09we are officially in the
10:11I do not know about Jake Moody zone,
10:13a third-round draft pick just a year ago.
10:16It is leaning in the wrong direction
10:19with regard to Jake Moody right now, in my opinion.
10:22Special teams had a great game
10:24relative to what they've done all year.
10:25I gave them a B.
10:26That's a low bar.
10:27They have a new punter.
10:29Mitch Wishnowski will not be back as the punter.
10:31Pat O'Donnell is a better punter.
10:33He's more consistent,
10:35and he was able to pin Chicago
10:37inside the 10-yard line again.
10:39The Jake Moody kickoff is a bit of a curiosity.
10:42I think one of them, he was trying to bounce it,
10:44and he didn't get it to the kicking zone,
10:46but other than that,
10:48Jacob Cowling was fine on punt returns,
10:50didn't fumble,
10:51and I know I'm setting the bar extraordinarily low,
10:53but this is what we've had all year.
10:55I gave him a solid B.
10:56Fair enough.
10:57If you're grading on a curve, it makes sense.
10:59And last but not least is coaching.
11:01I'll be quick.
11:02They finally break their streak of me giving them Fs
11:05and A for the coaching staff.
11:07Saw some creativity.
11:08I saw the juice from the opening kickoff,
11:11from the very beginning.
11:12This was a well-prepared team.
11:14It was a well-coached game.
11:15Shanahan going for it on fourth and short.
11:17Shanahan making the right calls on two of his three challenges.
11:20A good game from Shanahan.
11:22And even at that, when he challenged the spot,
11:25he probably knew he was going to lose,
11:27but he was going to call timeout anyway.
11:29So you might as well challenge it.
11:31You're going to call timeout to set the right player,
11:33make sure that you know what you're going to do on fourth down.
11:36So even that one didn't bug me.
11:38And guess what?
11:39They ran screens, Mark.
11:41They ran a couple of screens.
11:43They ran a couple of draws.
11:45I've been waiting all year for that.
11:47Shanahan had a great day of calling plays.
11:50And, you know, give Sorensen credit.
11:52His defense came out, and they were revved up.
11:54I co-sign on it all.
11:56I've said a couple times Kyle Shanahan's best play calling day of the year.
12:00And while Nick Sorensen still didn't get too creative,
12:04he was right, at least in this one, that he didn't have to.
12:06So I'll co-sign on that and give the coaching staff an A.
12:09Good stuff, Grandy.