Analysis: 2011 49ers vs. 2013 49ers, and why are we faltering?

Originally posted by sdaddy101269:

Alex is that you? ?

You must've just stopped at "Colin Kaepernick is struggling" and wrongly assumed immediately this is some sort of CK hate post. If you had seen the commentary throughout this thread, and understood the rest of the post, you'd see the following is being said: (To recap)

While CK is struggling, people are failing to consider why, and putting too much blame on the player himself. QB play has to be better, but there is no magic wand CK can wave to suddenly make himself elite. The reasons for his struggles this season primarily amount to two main causses:

1) Lack of speed in general + no speed being utilized to open things up underneath.
2) Kaepernick is still learning the craft. With our offense having to shift away from the read-option, CK is forced to start from scratch in many areas as he develops as a traditional drop-back passer. Mike Shanahan explained that it's not a simple switch to flick, and Greg Roman himself said Kaepernick has a lot of "the element of 'I'm seeing this for the first time'.." going on with him right now.

Young's comments do really ring true to a lot of the discussion around here.

"I don't mind a game or two here or there, but now it's a problem. You know, throwing for 90 yards and throwing for 110 yards and being really efficient? OK. But at some point, no, that's not going to get it done. And now you're losing games that you should have won. Not just because of what happened with Ahmad Brooks. Not just because of a little turnover here or there. Fundamentally, we're not playing well enough offensively to win in this league. And that's alarming."

Young on the offensive performance against the Saints, which included 196 yards and touchdown drives of 11 and 22 yards: "It's alarming. It's fundamentally alarming. You got a phenomenal defensive effort on the road in a tough place and you come up with less than 200 yards. In the end, yards aren't everything. But yards are something. And when you are playing championship football, you don't keep coming up with almost no yards. I mean, literally, if the ball doesn't get turned over, we don't even get close to the end zone. I mean there's something amiss. Right?"


http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2013/11/21/steve-young-on-49ers-struggles-if-it-is-fundamental-to-the-qb-spot-my-gosh/

People keep talking about how we lost close games and no one should or "would be complaining because we could be 8-2 right now." Well, you know what? Even if we won, there STILL would be SIGNIFICANT concern considering the pathetic offensive performances we've seen in back to back games. Defense kept us in games we'd normally be getting blown out in if we had a middle-of-the-road defensive team. We can't rely on them to save us all the time. We can't expect Crabtree to be 100% when he comes back, so I really hope our proclaimed "offensive gurus" can figure out how to improve things. Overall, things are much worse on offense than a lot of people are willing to admit. We've got to get out of this in a hurry and show we can beat a good team or we're going to miss the playoffs.

I don't expect this thread to be particularly popular. No one wants to think about the possibility that the problem is bigger than G-Ro. That's what Young alluded to also.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
Young's comments do really ring true to a lot of the discussion around here.

"I don't mind a game or two here or there, but now it's a problem. You know, throwing for 90 yards and throwing for 110 yards and being really efficient? OK. But at some point, no, that's not going to get it done. And now you're losing games that you should have won. Not just because of what happened with Ahmad Brooks. Not just because of a little turnover here or there. Fundamentally, we're not playing well enough offensively to win in this league. And that's alarming."

Young on the offensive performance against the Saints, which included 196 yards and touchdown drives of 11 and 22 yards: "It's alarming. It's fundamentally alarming. You got a phenomenal defensive effort on the road in a tough place and you come up with less than 200 yards. In the end, yards aren't everything. But yards are something. And when you are playing championship football, you don't keep coming up with almost no yards. I mean, literally, if the ball doesn't get turned over, we don't even get close to the end zone. I mean there's something amiss. Right?"


http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2013/11/21/steve-young-on-49ers-struggles-if-it-is-fundamental-to-the-qb-spot-my-gosh/

People keep talking about how we lost close games and no one should or "would be complaining because we could be 8-2 right now." Well, you know what? Even if we won, there STILL would be SIGNIFICANT concern considering the pathetic offensive performances we've seen in back to back games. Defense kept us in games we'd normally be getting blown out in if we had a middle-of-the-road defensive team. We can't rely on them to save us all the time. We can't expect Crabtree to be 100% when he comes back, so I really hope our proclaimed "offensive gurus" can figure out how to improve things. Overall, things are much worse on offense than a lot of people are willing to admit. We've got to get out of this in a hurry and show we can beat a good team or we're going to miss the playoffs.

The problem isn't that we lost a couple close games...

The problem is that they shouldn't have been close in the first place.

Originally posted by Jakemall:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Young's comments do really ring true to a lot of the discussion around here.

"I don't mind a game or two here or there, but now it's a problem. You know, throwing for 90 yards and throwing for 110 yards and being really efficient? OK. But at some point, no, that's not going to get it done. And now you're losing games that you should have won. Not just because of what happened with Ahmad Brooks. Not just because of a little turnover here or there. Fundamentally, we're not playing well enough offensively to win in this league. And that's alarming."

Young on the offensive performance against the Saints, which included 196 yards and touchdown drives of 11 and 22 yards: "It's alarming. It's fundamentally alarming. You got a phenomenal defensive effort on the road in a tough place and you come up with less than 200 yards. In the end, yards aren't everything. But yards are something. And when you are playing championship football, you don't keep coming up with almost no yards. I mean, literally, if the ball doesn't get turned over, we don't even get close to the end zone. I mean there's something amiss. Right?"


http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2013/11/21/steve-young-on-49ers-struggles-if-it-is-fundamental-to-the-qb-spot-my-gosh/

People keep talking about how we lost close games and no one should or "would be complaining because we could be 8-2 right now." Well, you know what? Even if we won, there STILL would be SIGNIFICANT concern considering the pathetic offensive performances we've seen in back to back games. Defense kept us in games we'd normally be getting blown out in if we had a middle-of-the-road defensive team. We can't rely on them to save us all the time. We can't expect Crabtree to be 100% when he comes back, so I really hope our proclaimed "offensive gurus" can figure out how to improve things. Overall, things are much worse on offense than a lot of people are willing to admit. We've got to get out of this in a hurry and show we can beat a good team or we're going to miss the playoffs.

The problem isn't that we lost a couple close games...

The problem is that they shouldn't have been close in the first place.

I thought Young hit the nail on the head: If you're consistently getting no yards, you're in trouble. That's not what Championship football looks like.

Him touching on the fact that without ugly gimmee the Saints gifted us inside their own 20, we pretty much never got anywhere near the end zone. Scary.

Originally posted by OnTheClock:

Originally posted by Jakemall:

Originally posted by OnTheClock:
Young's comments do really ring true to a lot of the discussion around here.

"I don't mind a game or two here or there, but now it's a problem. You know, throwing for 90 yards and throwing for 110 yards and being really efficient? OK. But at some point, no, that's not going to get it done. And now you're losing games that you should have won. Not just because of what happened with Ahmad Brooks. Not just because of a little turnover here or there. Fundamentally, we're not playing well enough offensively to win in this league. And that's alarming."

Young on the offensive performance against the Saints, which included 196 yards and touchdown drives of 11 and 22 yards: "It's alarming. It's fundamentally alarming. You got a phenomenal defensive effort on the road in a tough place and you come up with less than 200 yards. In the end, yards aren't everything. But yards are something. And when you are playing championship football, you don't keep coming up with almost no yards. I mean, literally, if the ball doesn't get turned over, we don't even get close to the end zone. I mean there's something amiss. Right?"


http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2013/11/21/steve-young-on-49ers-struggles-if-it-is-fundamental-to-the-qb-spot-my-gosh/

People keep talking about how we lost close games and no one should or "would be complaining because we could be 8-2 right now." Well, you know what? Even if we won, there STILL would be SIGNIFICANT concern considering the pathetic offensive performances we've seen in back to back games. Defense kept us in games we'd normally be getting blown out in if we had a middle-of-the-road defensive team. We can't rely on them to save us all the time. We can't expect Crabtree to be 100% when he comes back, so I really hope our proclaimed "offensive gurus" can figure out how to improve things. Overall, things are much worse on offense than a lot of people are willing to admit. We've got to get out of this in a hurry and show we can beat a good team or we're going to miss the playoffs.

The problem isn't that we lost a couple close games...

The problem is that they shouldn't have been close in the first place.

I thought Young hit the nail on the head: If you're consistently getting no yards, you're in trouble. That's not what Championship football looks like.

Him touching on the fact that without ugly gimmee the Saints gifted us inside their own 20, we pretty much never got anywhere near the end zone. Scary.

Good points! When watching CK try to force the ball down the field rather than take the short first down one wonders about the game plan. I thought Harbaugh/Roman believed in moving the chains and winning the TOP each game, but it seems counter to what they are doing lately. Would love to be a fly on the wall of the QB room during weekly meetings. Is CK being told to a) not take chances, b) throw long or run, c) play badly to lose contract leverage...so much we don't know! LOL!