one of my fears for this season. That and Colin pulling a Cam Newton and stinking up the place. Hope he's reading defenses.
Of course, talk to people in Seattle and San Francisco, and they'll tell you that neither Russell Wilson nor Colin Kaepernick took those hits. Both operate outside the pocket and -- unlike Washington's Robert Griffin III -- don't usually carry the ball through the middle of the field, instead using the sidelines to their advantage to avoid harmful blows.But then I watched Kaepernick in Super Bowl XLVII when Baltimore had linebacker Terrell Suggs glued to him, and I remember one hit in particular -- after Kaepernick completed a handoff -- that convinced me Lewis is on to something. Suggs buried Kaepernick, knocking him to the turf and, in the process, sending an unmistakable message: Keep playing that game, and I'll keep hammering you ... with or without the football.
So if we get rid of one of the least effective parts of our offense, we're going to be worse off?
I can't WAIT for us to get rid of the read option. Kap is light years better from the pocket, and when he needs to scramble he picks up huge yards anyway. The read option hurts our offense and the sooner it is gone, the better.
It doesn't matter if the read option will surprise people this season. The only way to stop the read option is to have the defensive ends play the QB. That means fewer players to stop the Gore/Hunter/Lattimore/James run up the middle.
The defense has a choice to make. The defensive ends will either crash down the line to help with the rush up the middle which opens up the read option OR the defensive ends will stay home to combat the read option which means one less player to stop the inside run.
The beauty of the read option is that it gives the offense another weapon to combat the defense's style of play.
Originally posted by NinerGod:
We don't run the read option so I'm not sure why it matters.
The read option is only one type of play in a very large playbook. We used the read option heavily in two playoff games. Against the Packers the defense ends crashed down on the inside running leaving the outside open for Kaepernick. In the next game the Falcons played the read option opening up the inside run. If I recall correctly, both Gore and James scored on read option runs.
We don't run the read option so I'm not sure why it matters.
Actually we do. We run the pistol as part of our offense and use the read option as a staple of that formation. You would know if youve been watching the past year...
Originally posted by rum53:
It doesn't matter if the read option will surprise people this season. The only way to stop the read option is to have the defensive ends play the QB. That means fewer players to stop the Gore/Hunter/Lattimore/James run up the middle.
The defense has a choice to make. The defensive ends will either crash down the line to help with the rush up the middle which opens up the read option OR the defensive ends will stay home to combat the read option which means one less player to stop the inside run.
The beauty of the read option is that it gives the offense another weapon to combat the defense's style of play.
This. People try so hard to make the argument that we can't run the read-option all the time. Here is the thing, we're not trying to. It's one more play at our disposable. We could call it a lot, a little, or not at all. Either way, the defense has no choice but to commit a defender to spy.
Originally posted by DonnieDarko:
Kaepernick is a top 10 QB regardless if he has 0 mobility.
Not worried.
Yup. The naysayers don't want to believe it. Even Simms said during the Super Bowl that he was mesmerized by Kaep's throws in the pocket. He would be elite even without scrambling ability.
Originally posted by cciowa:
if our offensive coordinator has any brains he will be working on adjustments for the adjustments people will be using to try to stop our offense.
And fix our redzone offense. It's been subpar the past 2 seasons, despite our success in so many other areas.
The premise of this concern is that Kaepernick runs out of the read option at a similar rate to Cam Newton, but the premise is wrong. Of the four QB's who ran a read option last season, Newton, RGIII, Wilson and Kaepernick, Kaepernick had the smallest percentage of run plays. He ran out of that formation on a little less than 3% of his plays. Newton was at about 14% and RGIII was at about 11%. Wilson also didn't run out of it nearly as much as Newton and RGIII - he was at about 6%. If you remember, it was either Barrows or Maiocco who wrote a column on this at the end of the season.
My prediction is that Kaepernick will be throwing this season and when the pocket breaks down and he sees open field, just like in the Packers game, he will get big chunks of yardage scrambling.