High Efficiency Passing

I have a theory about our passing game woes that I'd like to share. I am no expert, but take it for what it's worth and feel free to discuss.

Our passing game sucks because we have a QB that is instinctually a "big play" QB. He is always looking downfield. We prefers to wait for guys to open up downfield while he buys time with his feet rather than quickly dumping it off to his check down. He is literally the opposite of Alex Smith in that regard. Kap struggles with touch passes and he has a hard time using the whole width of the field.

The problem is, we don't have big play receivers. We don't have anybody that can stretch the field and get separation against man coverage. Given our receiving personnel, we would be better off running a "take what the defense gives you" philosophy with the passing game. We need high efficiency passes that pick up consistent positive yards. This makes life easier on the OL. It makes the WR job easier because they don't have to be burners. We need scheme to get guys open because we don't have receivers (other than VD) that are able to get open purely on athleticism.

We were better at this against NO than against Carolina. The few longer drives that we had in the 2nd and 3rd quarters were built on short and efficient passes. But we need to keep that up throughout the game and make a few more big plays.



I believe that our problems are partly correctable. Play calling needs to be improved. I have confidence that Roman will continue to call more short passing plays. Crabtree is also a very good possession receiver (with some big play ability). He is one of the best in the game at catching short passes and picking up YAC. However, in order to REALLY improve the passing offense Kaepernick needs to learn to see the whole field. He cant zero in on somebody downfield and hope they get open. He needs to see the guys underneath and dump it off. Once the pass rush lightens up, then he can take the shots downfield. I hope coaches are working on this. Otherwise, I don't see much going on in January for us.

Thoughts?

I think it'd also help if we had an OC that knows how to design an NFL level passing game. This s**t we have now would barely be effective in a NCAA division.

Originally posted by NeonNiner:
I think it'd also help if we had an OC that knows how to design an NFL level passing game. This s**t we have now would barely be effective in a NCAA division.

Well, Roman's offense kicked ass at Stanford.... so I don't know about that.

I do wish we would go to a more traditional west-coast offense. More passes to our several talented RBs. More quick slants and TEs in the flats. I think it would both boost Kaepernicks confidence and put our offense in more 3rd and short situations, where we are usually very good.