A Football Life - Tom Landry and the 2013 SF 49ers

Something to think about.

I'll caveat this with - I know little of Dallas Cowboys 1960s and 1970s history. But I did watch "A Football Life - Tom Landry" - largely by accident this morning and was about to change the channel when this happened...

They lay down the premise that Landry runs one of the most complex offenses in the league and after breaking down into tears after a tough season, the Cowboys became dominant but couldn't win the SB.

"for five straight years the Cowboys fell short in the post-season..."
"next year's champion...can't win the big one..."
"it must have been galling to know how good they were and how close they were."
"They get to SB 5, and they are better than the Colts, but EVERYTHING goes wrong...tipped passes...turnovers"
"Dallas should have been well-ahead..."

Staubach: "On my paper (our offense) was exactly what we needed to do, but it was too complicated."
"You only have so much time..."

"In 1971, the NFL's Smartest Coach did the hardest thing - he dumbed down his system"
"He changed, made it a lot more flexible and simplified it."

After the change in offense, the Cowboys won 9 straight and Super Bowl VI.

So that takes us to now - where the team had 5 yards to go and collapsed and ultimately did not put their top talent in positions to succeed.

The 49ers have one of, if not the, most talented rosters in the league. In 2013, is it time to simplify, simplify, simplify and just allow the players to play?

Please clarify - exactly what want "simplified" and why the things you want changed will improve our performance.

Thanks.

Nothing is wrong with our offensive philosophy, IMO. We just need to execute better. No need to "dumb" it down.

- 98

They don't have to cut back on anything offensively. The formations used by the 49ers are unmatched. As far as the Cowboy teams of the 60' and 70's they played a flex defense which was based on read and react. Their offensive line would stand up before the snap and then go into their 3 point stance. This movement was meant to confuse the defense while the backs would shift. No other teams played the flex or ran the shifts the Cowboys used. Whereas most every team adopted the Bill Walsh WCO. For all those great cowboy teams they won only 2 Super Bowls. Check out the movie North Dallas Forty written by Cowboy tight end Pete Gent..

Landry was a great coach and also was probably good at playing chess . The Niners schemes aren't as problematic/hard for the players to learn and get it down to a science. They have smart players/good coaching! BUT, just like ($h!t) - mental mistakes/poor execution happens once in a while...

Originally posted by kidash98:
Nothing is wrong with our offensive philosophy, IMO. We just need to execute better. No need to "dumb" it down.

- 98

execution is exactly what this team lacked in the championship game and superbowl.

a simplified approach I wish we would have done is ran gore all 4 downs..he was on fire

The only thing we need to fix is the time it takes to call and run the plays. We need to shave about 3 secs on average, and we'll be good. We probably would've score on that read option play, on the last SB drive, had it not been for the delay of game penalty.

Originally posted by LasVegasWally:
Please clarify - exactly what want "simplified" and why the things you want changed will improve our performance.

Thanks.

The incoming play calls and pre-snap reads would be a start. I haven't heard anyone make the argument that that process is working well.

Originally posted by kidash98:
Nothing is wrong with our offensive philosophy, IMO. We just need to execute better. No need to "dumb" it down.

- 98

I suppose to some extent it becomes a matter of determining if some of the mistakes are "execution" or the play-calling/process. Did Crabtree not execute causing the illegal formation on the first play - or did the coaches not put him in a position to succeed?

And for the sake of clarity I do not disagree with the "offensive philosophy" per se - just found it an interesting historical perspective that ran through a series of tough losses like this current team and how they were able to finally get over the hump.

I do think this team has got to simplify getting the play calls in and allow the players to play. At some point you aren't Stanford anymore trying to scheme to beat U.S.C. - at some point you become U.S.C. with superior talent and need to make adjustments.

If I remember we did "dumb" it down @ Seattle, and you saw what happened. We just need to get the plays called faster, and we need to improve the hand-signals/communication, especially for the away games.

Nothing wrong with the way our offense has played lately ( esp. with kaep !)

Our defense got SMOKED the last 3 games of the season, actually from the new england game on..... we were giving up alot of points !

We were averaging only 17 points allowed up untill then.

I like the way our offense can finally catch up and put points on the board !
I think in 2011 we were only allowing 13 ? points a game !

WE WOULD OF HAD A SUPER BOWL WIN WITH A BETTER SECONDARY PERFORMANCE ! HANDS DOWN.

2011 K williams 2012 Culliver

But I am worried that the mystik of the niners is in jeapordy........

Time will tell... Mabee its just ment to be that we will win super bowl 49 in our own stadium in 2016 !

Cowboys,steelers,pats, great teams with SB losses Got to be in it to win it ! We were in it !!!!

Weve got the team to beat for years to come !

GO NINERS !!!

Originally posted by SFTifoso:
If I remember we did "dumb" it down @ Seattle, and you saw what happened. We just need to get the plays called faster, and we need to improve the hand-signals/communication, especially for the away games.

YUP!!

I think we could simplify it some so we can snap the ball on time. I see 31 other teams in the NFL snap the ball on time and don't get 5 yard penalties.

I think the OP is on to something here.

I think that there are definitely times in a game and in a season to simply the game plan. You can't be formulaic at all times. We started the game tense, the Ravens started the game loose.