Official Greg "the mad scientist" Roman Express

Our single noticeable screw up was the trick play that had Hunter looking to throw. Luckily Hunter saw it was busted and just ran out of bounds.

Props to Roman for finally having some balls tonight to let it rip and trust his play makers. But bigger props for FINALLY getting VD involved early and often. He designed probably close to a dozen plays for him as the primary target. Of the 8 targets by CK, 6 of those designs got VD in single coverage for big gains and a TD and one was in triple coverage in the EZ on a slight overthrow (he beat that) and the other was a tight window in double coverage. He was only targeted twice in the second half. But of those 8 targets, he caught 7 of them and that ties a high for receptions by any receiver this season!

Trent Dilfer/Steve Young on Roman's play calling/designs as a huge factor in this win: "A big part of it was play calling and design. I thought it was aggressive play calling that we have not seen...out of conservative sets...they got defined looks in the back end b/c of those personnel groupings."

BTW: I somewhat disagree...we saw similar designs against GB, Detroit and esp. Buffalo.

Steve: "Colin, early in the game, it looked to me like the play calling was aggressive. Did coach tell you coming into the game, Colin I'm gonna let you let it rip a little bit or did that come out of just the nature of how the game unfolded?"

CK: "That was part of the game plan. We wanted to block some things up, take some shots, things like that. But at the same time, we had a lot of good runs in there as well so we were just trying to be balanced...everything that they did (Bears defense), we game planned for."

Trent also made a good point about running these 4 WR sets, passing out of jumbo packages (he learned from the Rams game), multiple formations, the coaches probably felt comfortable that if our guys didn't beat the single coverage, CK could at least make things happen with his legs.

But as to game plan (alone), well done Roman, well done!

Charley Casserly: "I'm gonna go with Alex Smith (to give you the best chance to win), I'm gonna go with the veteran here. CK played well last night but what was interesting to me, he (CK) started off the game 8 for 8. Those are scripted plays...game plan. He started off the second half 2 of 3. That's half time adjustments..." He goes on to talk about how if he faces a more complex scheme, it will be significantly more difficult.

Roman called a much better game...he got the ball downfield into the hands of the recievers who made some nice catches in stride and good YAC that's what we have wanted to see all year.

I hope this continues and Roman keeps it up. With CK7 finally free and starting hopefully vs Saints when can open up the offense more now.

looks like another all nighter on the office couch for Roman with the Saints coming up.

FootballScoop Staff ‏@footballscoop

Both would be great RT @BTNTomDienhart: Seeing and hearing@CoachDuzzMSU (Pat Narduzzi) mentioned for Boston College job. Greg Roman, too

Every time I think of Greg roman the first thing that pops into my mind is, "I wish it was David Shaw".

Originally posted by monsterzero789:
Every time I think of Greg roman the first thing that pops into my mind is, "I wish it was David Shaw".

LOL! Have wondered about this myself! If...?

After a brilliant game plan against the Bears (one that most likely was originally created knowing Alex was our starter and one CK executed to perfection) he comes back and puts up another "ho-hum" game plan. Like I said before, when he's on, he's on. But when he's off, he's really off.

And even with the mobility of CK, in the end, we had pedestrian stats and rarely got our best receivers the ball.

I felt this was a game he could really have exploited the Saints. To be fair, the Saints defense had been playing much better as of late, they were at home and they played this game like a playoff game (revenge factor) b/c they absolutely needed it to have a shot at making it to the playoffs.

That said, everyone and their mother KNEW they'd blitz early and often (esp. through the A-gaps) and would stack the box with 8-9 men and force CK to throw. But instead of the vanilla Cover-1 we saw against the Bears where our receivers won every 1on1 matchup on National TV, the Saints would roll more coverages and throw out some more exotic coverages (see the INT).

This was a chance to get the ball out quickly and exploit an aggressive front. Did we see a single RB screen (edge or middle)? How many sweeps did we run? WR screen? Quick slant? How many times was it obvious they were stacking to stop the run and we didn't check out (or only had two running plays called) and ran into a brick wall?

In the end, only 6 catches for our WR's and 3 to Walker and 5 to our RB's. After devising excellent, creative 1on1 mismatches for VD early and often against the Bears to get he and CK into a passing rhythm, he had 0 catches this game and once again, our passing game looked vanilla and pedestrian. 0 catches for Moss, Hunter and Williams.

The things I did like was that we finally used Miller in the passing game some, liked some of his 3rd down calls, that he stayed with the run to get some late yards (144 total) and esp. the play calling and execution on the final big drive that killed the clock.

But to me, this was a prime game where Roman knew from the beginning CK would be our man and aside from a few risky designed roll outs (mostly to run, not throw), I don't feel like he took advantage of his skill set or of our best receivers against a defense that was prime for the taking. I think the 14 points put up by the defense and the non-TO's masked a poor game plan by Roman IMHO.

http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2012/11/30/lamichael-james-or-brandon-jacobs-as-frank-gores-backup/

"Imagine what highly-innovative offensive coordinator Greg Roman could do with James. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick might be quite comfortable with James because they both come from similar college systems. In fact, the 49ers have the opportunity to go full on pistol/Oregon offense in this game with Kaepernick and James. They could even go with the Chip Kelly, nonsensical placards on the sidelines, when they hold up a picture of a screw driver, Barney and Jerry Seinfeld. Kelly, the Oregon head coach uses the placards to symbolize the play call. Who wouldn't want to see that?"

Originally posted by NCommand:
After a brilliant game plan against the Bears (one that most likely was originally created knowing Alex was our starter and one CK executed to perfection) he comes back and puts up another "ho-hum" game plan. Like I said before, when he's on, he's on. But when he's off, he's really off.

And even with the mobility of CK, in the end, we had pedestrian stats and rarely got our best receivers the ball.

I felt this was a game he could really have exploited the Saints. To be fair, the Saints defense had been playing much better as of late, they were at home and they played this game like a playoff game (revenge factor) b/c they absolutely needed it to have a shot at making it to the playoffs.

That said, everyone and their mother KNEW they'd blitz early and often (esp. through the A-gaps) and would stack the box with 8-9 men and force CK to throw. But instead of the vanilla Cover-1 we saw against the Bears where our receivers won every 1on1 matchup on National TV, the Saints would roll more coverages and throw out some more exotic coverages (see the INT).

This was a chance to get the ball out quickly and exploit an aggressive front. Did we see a single RB screen (edge or middle)? How many sweeps did we run? WR screen? Quick slant? How many times was it obvious they were stacking to stop the run and we didn't check out (or only had two running plays called) and ran into a brick wall?

In the end, only 6 catches for our WR's and 3 to Walker and 5 to our RB's. After devising excellent, creative 1on1 mismatches for VD early and often against the Bears to get he and CK into a passing rhythm, he had 0 catches this game and once again, our passing game looked vanilla and pedestrian. 0 catches for Moss, Hunter and Williams.

The things I did like was that we finally used Miller in the passing game some, liked some of his 3rd down calls, that he stayed with the run to get some late yards (144 total) and esp. the play calling and execution on the final big drive that killed the clock.

But to me, this was a prime game where Roman knew from the beginning CK would be our man and aside from a few risky designed roll outs (mostly to run, not throw), I don't feel like he took advantage of his skill set or of our best receivers against a defense that was prime for the taking. I think the 14 points put up by the defense and the non-TO's masked a poor game plan by Roman IMHO.

We were annihilated by penalties all day. Vernon dropped a pass, then had a catch that was called back. Crabtree had a big play catch that was called back. That was about 70 yards of plays lost right there.

I do agree that Roman got far too cute again with the play calling. All the cute stuff got shut down. Why the heck can't we just drop back and pass the football? That seems to work best for us most of the time. We don't need that other crap.

Originally posted by PTulini:
http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2012/11/30/lamichael-james-or-brandon-jacobs-as-frank-gores-backup/

"Imagine what highly-innovative offensive coordinator Greg Roman could do with James. Quarterback Colin Kaepernick might be quite comfortable with James because they both come from similar college systems. In fact, the 49ers have the opportunity to go full on pistol/Oregon offense in this game with Kaepernick and James. They could even go with the Chip Kelly, nonsensical placards on the sidelines, when they hold up a picture of a screw driver, Barney and Jerry Seinfeld. Kelly, the Oregon head coach uses the placards to symbolize the play call. Who wouldn't want to see that?"

This guy!

Roman & Alex going to AZ or KC

The Worst Called Game of the Harbaugh Era.... IMOFWIWTBPH

Originally posted by Garcia:
The Worst Called Game of the Harbaugh Era.... IMOFWIWTBPH

The playcalling in this game was horrendous. He aint no dam scientist.

Originally posted by 49rz4Life:

Originally posted by Garcia:
The Worst Called Game of the Harbaugh Era.... IMOFWIWTBPH

The playcalling in this game was horrendous. He aint no dam scientist.

Agreed!