We lead the league in 3 & outs

Originally posted by WestCoastNut:
Gore is very good at catching passes out of the backfield. Now that Hill is in sync with Vernon, with Frank back, the 3rd down outlook brightens tremendously. The O line won't be on its heels so much and should protect better.

We haven't even started playing our wide receivers yet. Even working Battle in more on third down would help.

Then---when Crabtree is in there, we have some weapons. Gore, Davis, and Crabtree can all take plays designed for medium yardage all the way to the house! Look out Colts!

one of the things that I LOVED last year, was how we were moving the chains with plays on 1st downs....as well as 2nd downs.....basically having plays called that got us 10 yards or more in the early downs..... I'm not saying we need to pass it all the time....or try to look for big gains....just that, lets pass early on 1st downs just as much as calling runs.....I think the defenses would be less aggressive and wouldn't know what was coming.

I just don't like the fact that we have to wait till 3rd down to convert to try to convert a 1st down.

one of the keys to why we are not converting 3rd downs is because frank gore isn't playing , he extends the field as a receiver also like i said in another post , its all about the OLINE they dont block aint nothing gonna happen , its all about the trenches

Originally posted by bambam52:
one of the keys to why we are not converting 3rd downs is because frank gore isn't playing , he extends the field as a receiver also like i said in another post , its all about the OLINE they dont block aint nothing gonna happen , its all about the trenches

I think it's Shaun Hill's pathetic arm mostly. It's hard converting because teams know he has a pathetic arm and Hill does too, so they play their defense accordingly, and all Hill has are check-downs to the RBs 5 yards short of the marker.

Maybe, just maybe, if Hill had a little more time to throw, he'd be doing better. But I don't think by much. He's too limited. Guy can't even throw a spiral. It's really hard defending someone with such a lack of talent that it's obvious just by watching him throw (no accuracy or spiral). Plus, the way he throws causes a lot of passes to be batted down. I guarantee you that if we had a good QB like Aaron Rodgers, we wouldn't be having so many three-and-outs.

I'm not going to blame Hill for everything, because he hasn't had good blocking, the WRs aren't getting much separation, and the running game has been pathetic so that we're always stuck in third-and-long. But, these aren't excuses. A good QB can still find the open guy even if he's covered good, and he can make his OL better by making quick decisions, scrambling, etc. Hill doesn't. The fact you have a duck-armed QB in there is all fine and dandy, if you can make up for it with other things, like the ability to scramble, good accuracy, etc. Unfortunately, Hill is lacking in ALL areas, and it's showing. I'm not anti-Hill. I'm just calling it as I see it. Will Smith fare any better? Doubtful, but it's possible. At least teams have to respect that he CAN actually make the throws, so they have to defend accordingly, and that alone could net us a better percentage on 3rd down.

When the OL can't block on your 1st and or 2nd down run and the qb either gets sacked or has to throw it away because he only got 1.2 seconds of time your offense is going to punt alot. thank god for a.lee