Jackass Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Ok, Alex Smith works better out of the spread offense. I get that. But why would you re-work the offense so drastically to accommodate Smith and completely phase the running game out of the offense? Can someone please explain this to me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpwallace49 Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Mike Singeltary obviously drafted Vernon davis in his fantasy league and he didnt draft Frank Gore. Duh . . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfer Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 I was just having this conversation with a buddy last night. We are perplexed. I think 49ers brass are protecting Smith similar to Tyler Thigpen in KC last year. They've accepted Smith isn't their long-term option and the spread is their best chance to win. Either that, or this is a way to showcase Smith's skillset for trade value. Vernon Davis would excel in a base offense anyways, Raye's system relies on it. The puzzling part is Gore. The guy puts up 200 yards on the Seahawks the first meeting and last week he is hardly used? Ridiculous, and a nice early xmas gift to Seattle... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ts Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 (edited) Ridiculous, and a nice early xmas gift to Seattle... Like others, I've been trying to understand this rather dramatic SFO philosophy change for a couple of weeks myself, without any real success. As regards the SEA game in particular however, what I found most perplexing was this play call by SFO with the game tied and 39 seconds remaining: 3-3-SF18(:39) (Shotgun) A.Smith pass incomplete deep right to J.Morgan (D.Grant). No running play when you have Gore and need 3 yards? No swing pass? No short slant to a WR? No over-the-middle to the TE? They needed THREE YARDS to get the 1st down and keep the ball away from SEA for the remainder of regulation ... of course we know what happened following the above incomplete, subsequent punt & SEA drive into FG range for the win. As has been the case for the past few weeks, color me confused. Edited December 12, 2009 by ts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfish247 Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 It's a copy cat league and the spread offense is 'in' now. Teams are winning with it. Or at the very least doing better on offense. Much of it has to do with the gradual changing of rules to marginalize the defense. It also has to do with the death of the NFL RB. Except for maybe 2 or 3 RBs in the league, guys just can't hold up from the heavy use. Gore is no exception. Another thing... what's wrong with coaches using their personnel to their full potential? I mean, would it make more sense to play to the weaknesses of Alex Smith, Davis, Gore, and the OL? Namely, run a traditional offense with a traditional power run game? Alex Smith doesn't do well in it. Gore can't hold up. Davis is flourishing. And the OL stands a better chance when the QB isn't a sitting duck by endless drop backs and slow reads. That's not to say there won't still be some HC/OC decision head scratchers... but that's hardly a new thing regardless of the game plan or style of offense or personnel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ts Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 (edited) It's a copy cat league and the spread offense is 'in' now. Teams are winning with it. Or at the very least doing better on offense. Much of it has to do with the gradual changing of rules to marginalize the defense.... While I can buy most or all of what you state above including the parts of your post that I did not quote just for the sake of brevity, what still confuses me about the SFO situation is the TOTAL abandonment of anything resembling an attempt to run the football ... not even using the run to "set up" the passing game. A tiny sample to be sure, but as an example, let's compare the ratio of passing plays to "pure" running plays over the past 3 games (for both teams, I eliminated QB runs & WR end-arounds from the totals) for SFO and NEP, the latter a team known far and wide as a "passing" offense, no? - Week #11: 33-8 ... 41-29 - Week #12: 41-16 ... 40-25 - Week #13: 45-9 ... 29-25 Yep, the 1st team listed above is SFO, the 2nd is NEP. Again, a tiny sample, but serves perhaps to illustrate the point ... SFO (with Gore - not Maroney, Morris, et al) is no longer even pretending to give the appearance that they will ever run the ball - that's the part I find confusing - a switch to a spread / pass oriented attack I can follow, what I don't get is the totality of the switch, to the point where running the ball is not even being considered. By way of full disclosure, I do own Gore, but on the same FF team own Davis ... at this stage, I wish I owned Smith as well, LOL ... but this really isn't about FF in my mind, rather, it's about trying to understand this SFO game plan business. Anyways, while I can understand the concepts / tendencies, etc that you mention, I still am struggling to grasp the SFO thinking behind the complete disregard for the idea that running the ball from time to time is at least in part, a piece of the puzzle to having a successful offense ... or at a minimum, to understand the reasoning behind the total & abrupt change in focus to the "every single play is a passing down" philosophy. Edited December 12, 2009 by ts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Shaun Hill got benched at halftime of the Houston game, down 20-0 (I believe), and Smith came in to throw 3 TD's in the second half, nearly bringing them back for the win. Ever since then, I think the Niners' philosophy has been that they will use what works best (which has been the spread). The game-management, don't turn the ball over, play not to lose, rather than playing to win, style that won so many games last year just wasn't working very well this year. Shaun Hill wasn't playing as well as last year, and more importantly, Gore wasn't running as effectively. Gore's big games this year were a result of a couple of long runs... In the Seattle game, if I remember right, he pulled off two long TD runs (something like 80+ yards each). So, the 200 yards he gained in that game is pretty misleading, really. He hasn't really had a game where he's run effectively for four quarters. The games where he did gain a lot of yards were a combination of one or two long runs, an a bunch of runs for little to no gain at all. Plus, other than giving up those couple of big runs to Gore, Seattle's run defense has been pretty decent this year. So, to expect a big game out of Gore against Seattle this time was probably hoping for too much. Gore is the ultimate team players... He hasn't complained one bit about running the spread, or getting less touches. The bottom line is that the Niners weren't running effectively before the spread, and they're not running effectively with it either. Ultimately, they don't have enough quality players on this team, in my opinion, to take a step to the next level, which is to become a playoff team. I thought they might do it on effort, coaching, and execution alone, but this season is proving that the talent level just isn't quite there. They've got a few studs (Willis, Gore, Davis, etc.), but a lot of their other starters just aren't quite good enough to get them past being a 6-8 win team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 Looks like they have gone back to the running game (and it appears to be working pretty well). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfer Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 after watching Philly attempt to "tackle" Giants receivers last night I'll assume the spread will return next week but for now....gore gore gore! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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