It's not negativity. Hill got injured in a half against Minnesota. He's in his mid 30s and has never been a durable guy. Davis got clobbered today. And the claim that Hill wouldn't have taken those hits is complete BS. Hill might not have taken all the hits...but he would have taken most of them. And I doubt he would have taken them half as well as Davis.
Hill isn't Michael Vick. He wasn't going to escape that pass rush.
Jerry,
Let me ask you this, you are one of the guys I think really "gets it" on here, so I would like to think we could have a decent discussion on this topic.
SF has done little blitzing throughout their first 4 games. That being said, I fully expected them to bring blitzes throughout the night, especially after falling behind. A lot of people are pointing fingers at the Offensive line for the pressure, but after being at the game, then re-watching it, MOST of the protection issues came from blitzes where they overpowered TEs (Harkey and Kendricks were brutal), or RBs (Mason twice). In every single case, these blitzes were not well disguised, and Davis just doesn't' seem to recognize them at all. He seems to be f ocusing on where HIS team is lined up, or when to put guys in motion, and spends very little time trying to get a pre-snap read of any kind of the defense.
Maybe its just me, but I have serious doubts that Fangio would have incorporated the high number of blitzes if Shawn Hill were in the game, which in turn, would have limited the number of "hits" on him altogether. I realize there were breakdowns in protections, Long getting beaten clean on the first sack.. Not Davis' fault at all. Those things are gonna happen in every game.
I also think one of Davis' biggest shortcomings, is he doesn't get thru his progressions, and like most young QBs he has a tendency to bail on the pocket way too early. If he doesn't see that first or second target, he just bails and tries to keep extend the play, and usually it ends up with him forcing the ball somewhere. For every "highlight" play he makes doing this, there are 4 "bad" plays.
There were many instances last night, where Davis had plenty of time to get the ball out, and either missed on the throw, or ended up "feeling" pressure and stepped right up into it. These are things I just don't see Hill doing. As ordinary as SF's secondary is supposed to be, Davis just wasn't good enough against them, to give this team much of a chance. And with Seattle coming to town this week, it will be even worse IMO.
I think Fisher has backed himself into a corner here by naming Davis the full time starter. And I don't anticipate him making any changes. But for me at least, I think the next few weeks are going to be very difficult for young Mr. Davis, and we are about to see why he was a week away from being back to coaching at Westmisinster.