"Don't you think Defensive Coordinators around the league are gonna figure this

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:

Hopefully Alex will have improved to the point where he can burn the enemy w/ passes.

He has. One bad game seems to be making people forget what he has done this year.

I know one thing. Those plays yesterday where the TE blocked down on Suh and Frank ran through the gap were brilliant. Suh had two tackles. I hardly heard his name.

Originally posted by dbdublin:
I know one thing. Those plays yesterday where the TE blocked down on Suh and Frank ran through the gap were brilliant. Suh had two tackles. I hardly heard his name.

Pancakes > Suh

But really tho, Harbaugh and Roman did a great job gameplanning for him

Great article in the WSJ - thanks for posting that link! Great for the non-star Delanie to get some kudos and attention.
Back to the subject at hand. Here is the difference - COACHING to your players abilities.

Singletary/Nolan -- They wanted to power run, so just about every run had Mike Iupati pulling, follow Iupati and Norris and you find the ball. Always run on 1st and 2nd down. With that simple play well know, run blitzing was easy and an instant disruption to the passing game too.

JH -- Wants to power run the ball, but he does it from HUGE formations like 3 TE to one side, or he does it on power tosses. And it could come on any down. (Granted, they have been following Snyder on pulls a lot ). But he power runs from a lot of different angles and in a way that attacks each defense differently.

Have you noticed in the last couple of games, the run blitz that has been our nightmare (Cardinals and Seahawks used it extensively!) has largely stopped. Why? Because the runs are designed to defeat it or go away from the run blitz, its not effective anymore. FINALLY.

Thank god for good coaching!

JH will make adjustments. Just because DC's figured out the last game plan doesn't mean they will know the next one. JH is dynamic and will remain so.

Originally posted by lyer:

Originally posted by 9er_84:
The reason why defensive coordinators cant figure us out and stop the run and why alex smith is excelling...is because of our play calling, specifically our play formations...the team is lineing up in double te sets but the d has no clue if wer gonna run or pass with the way we line up and shift around.

got to love good coaching... its been a long time.

a very....very....long time.

Originally posted by PRIMETIME21:
alex smith needs to eventually take that next step and be the reason why we win games if we want to win a superbowl and beat the packers.

of our 5 wins which has he not won. what step do you want him to take?

Two things:

As opponents adjust, so will Smith and Harbaugh.

When Edwards gets back defenses will have a more credible receiving threat to worry about. Frankly, I was surprised the 49ers threw the ball as well as they did considering how thin they were at WR.

The blame on Alex Smith's 'weakness' has gotten way out of hand the last several years that it blinded any reasonable assessment of this team. 'We are a running team because Alex Smith has weakness throwing the ball'

Lets step back and think about that contention for a second. We are a running team because it's no secret Harbaugh likes to run the ball. He inherited a team that has been running the ball because that's what we have been doing best. We drafted Gore to run the ball. We drafted huge 300 pounders linemen to run the ball. We had 2 defensive HC that wants to run the ball, conservative offense. Until we drafted Crabtree, we didn't have receivers worth more than good so they could get open for Smith to throw to. And yes, we need more than one good receivers. Not just a freak TE in VD or a high draft pick Crabtree waiting for a break out game, or the just emerging Morgan. Harbaugh realized this the moment he got here that we needed receiver help. Thus Braylon Edwards. And until all of these receivers can get healthy, get on the field, why should Harbaugh abandon what this team does best and that is running the ball. It's not Alex Smith's weakness that we are running the ball, it's out of the team's strength and our receivers weakness that we are running the ball.

And I haven't mentioned pass protection....

Originally posted by 9er_84:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204346104576637441229847906.html?mod=googlenews_wsj


i think this article futher argues our point as well...its focuses on delanie and the mismatches but highlights how their formations take advantage of teams not being able to focus on the run

awesome article, thanks for posting that!

Delanie has been invisible on this team for 6 years because of ridiculous and stubborn coaching. A god damned shame. I love--f**king love--that Harbaugh is using him so much. He's becoming the threat we always wanted him to be.

Tom Tolbert made an interesting point, I think in the form of a Ralph worthy question--rambling. He said that last year the other team would stop a play and Singletary would want to keep running it until the offense could impose its will on the D. This year the opponent stops a play and Harbaugh has a playbook full of options to take advantage of what the D did to stop the first play...very Walsh-like.

It isn't too difficult to see that you can't win in todays NFL with a Singletary type offense unless your players are bigger, stronger and better than the opponents.

On the other hand, WCO has thousands of plays and the opposing Ds have to figure out what you are going to do...but they can't tell from formation because most plays can operate from mutliple formations. They won't be able to see a pattern because Harbaugh adds, changes, tweaks every week. The offense isn't playing up to speed yet because they are not fluid. When they become really in sync it will be like watching Stanford the past few years with total mayhem beating up defenses.

Another comment I liked was from NFLN, can't remember the coach who made it, saying they are uglying up the games...basic and low scoring, for the most part, by running a lot and playing field position. Don't think this is totally accurate but somewhat. The D and STs are playing lights out, the offense is not there yet but will be by playoff time...I hope!

My GOD Man! This is the beauty of our team now. True West Coast Offense.

IT DOESN'T Matter is they figure it out. All the analysts say "The Niners don't do anything special" and they're right. But what we do is extremely precise and well practiced. Teams know what we do but we keep teams off balance even though they know the plays, they don't know when they're coming.

Meanwhile we continue to add plays and formations and variations. So they're not gonna "figure it out" as long as we keep executing. The Pats and Packers and Saints all run the same stuff but they execute it well. You can't scheme against execution.

Originally posted by dtg_9er:
Tom Tolbert made an interesting point, I think in the form of a Ralph worthy question--rambling. He said that last year the other team would stop a play and Singletary would want to keep running it until the offense could impose its will on the D. This year the opponent stops a play and Harbaugh has a playbook full of options to take advantage of what the D did to stop the first play...very Walsh-like.

It isn't too difficult to see that you can't win in todays NFL with a Singletary type offense unless your players are bigger, stronger and better than the opponents.

On the other hand, WCO has thousands of plays and the opposing Ds have to figure out what you are going to do...but they can't tell from formation because most plays can operate from mutliple formations. They won't be able to see a pattern because Harbaugh adds, changes, tweaks every week. The offense isn't playing up to speed yet because they are not fluid. When they become really in sync it will be like watching Stanford the past few years with total mayhem beating up defenses.

Another comment I liked was from NFLN, can't remember the coach who made it, saying they are uglying up the games...basic and low scoring, for the most part, by running a lot and playing field position. Don't think this is totally accurate but somewhat. The D and STs are playing lights out, the offense is not there yet but will be by playoff time...I hope!

Jealous coaches and commentators made the same negative comments about Bill Walsh's offense when it first started. It wasn't until after the 1984 beat down of the high-flying Miami passing game that the talk finally quit.

If the 49er offense continues to develop, and I believe it will, especially after Edwards returns, all the negativity will subside just as it did back in Walsh's day.

I've said this before but I am convinced the main reason the offense has not opened up more is because Harbaugh hasn't needed to show more. I suggesting there are many more plays they could run but want to save them for later in the season. (Also the offense will open up more with Edwards' return.)

Originally posted by dj43:
Jealous coaches and commentators made the same negative comments about Bill Walsh's offense when it first started. It wasn't until after the 1984 beat down of the high-flying Miami passing game that the talk finally quit.

If the 49er offense continues to develop, and I believe it will, especially after Edwards returns, all the negativity will subside just as it did back in Walsh's day.

I've said this before but I am convinced the main reason the offense has not opened up more is because Harbaugh hasn't needed to show more. I suggesting there are many more plays they could run but want to save them for later in the season. (Also the offense will open up more with Edwards' return.)

No doubt true regarding saving plays. It just makes sense that they can only run so many plays per game and they choose the ones that they think will work against a given D. Even then they can only use some of those plays. Great to see a thinking coach making adjustments and outcoaching others.

Illogical comment. Just because a team knows that we are going to feature the run doesn't make our linemen or RBs less effective. Smith has proved to be good enough to mix up the game plan. Haters gon hate.