The 800 pound elephant in the room

Originally posted by niners_guy:
That's a damn small elephant.

Roman ate the rest of it, which explains why he was distracted last night.

Teams throw 8 and 9 in the box, you can't run at that an be successful. They want to pass to open up the run, but Roman can't create any pass plays to save his life!

Evolve or die.

Originally posted by JTsBiggestFan:

I see a lot of threads on Kap, Harbaugh, Roman, receivers dropping balls, etc....

But where is the one thread that might be more important than all?

OUR RUNNING GAME

And maybe just maybe all this talk about "we gotta run the damn ball" like it's our only offense would be 2009 stuck on repeat -- the last year IMHO that Gore was a "sick" runner. I celebrated my 30th birthday on 9/20/09 in Sicily, and found out later that night that Gore had two 78 yard TDs against Seattle....was awesome!

Whatever it is, we're not a real run threat team anymore. We ran the ball pretty well in 2011 and 2012, but then our OL run blocking dipped a bit last year and then took another plunge this year. Gore can still do well on occasion but it's been awhile since he could be counted on getting the ground game going consistently against ALL teams in ALL scenarios.

It just kills me that whenever I see Lynch playing he always gets his yards, and it opens up so much for Seattle. If our running game did even 80% of what theirs can do, we wouldn't be having anywhere near this many problems on offense.

Sure, Kap could be a better QB. HaRoman could have a better offense. For sure, I agree with that.

But this offense's identity has revolved around a legitimate run game threat. I have seen "non run teams" run against Seattle better than us -- Saints, Cowboys. The Chiefs looked outright dominant in the run game like it was Gore 2006-2009.

I really think we could fix all of our problems a lot sooner than later if we found a way to get a strong run game. At this point I'm talking next year as I don't believe the answer is on our current roster/scheme. Maybe it could be OL, but I don't recall those old Cowboy lines from the '90s getting figured out/regressing. They could play better but I have to believe at some point, RBs ought to play a role in this (along with some creative use of them in the passing game).

I didn't have off on Friday (which was when the game was on).....so I went to work and decided to check out the game on TV around 5 minutes to go in the 1st half. I see Gore get the hand off and stuffed in the backfield so damn fast, it was disheartening. The damn epitome of the last season or two.

It wasn't even that long ago that we had some sick running plays.....the Wham block from Delanie Walker in two consecutive Lions' games (speaking of which, I miss Delanie).

Am I the only one acknowledging the inconvenient truth about the inconvenient truth?

I love the guy but he's not the same.....at least as a starter.

I say we make a real play for Adrian Peterson next year. It appears he can run the ball just fine without everything being just right around him.....I'd imagine he has a lot to prove and would be pissed off.

Keep Hyde and Kendall Hunter.

Exactly right..Finally someone who knows what the hell the problem is. Gore does not have it anymore. He doesn't have the burst and hole close to quickly for a back like that. Also add the 8 man boxes to stop cap from running. It shuts down the play action passing. You can't go to a spread because you don't have the receivers who can get open in man coverage. Any team that has a good dline and plays man we have a tough time with.

Originally posted by niners94:

Originally posted by TexasGuero49:
No defense in the league is scared of our passing game so we are always running into a box that has 8 or 9 defenders in it.

This. Still Kap.

Wow. Deja vu....

Originally posted by niners94:

Originally posted by TexasGuero49:

No defense in the league is scared of our passing game so we are always running into a box that has 8 or 9 defenders in it.

This. Still Kap.

Double this. And Kap couldn't hit the side of a barn yesterday.

Originally posted by trogdor:

Originally posted by niners_guy:
That's a damn small elephant.

Got my animals wrong....good catch guys!!!

Originally posted by linkboy:

Originally posted by niners_guy:
That's a damn small elephant.

Roman ate the rest of it, which explains why he was distracted last night.

Originally posted by Murphys1:

On many teams, Hyde would have already been installed as the lead back. Look around the league, where it's RB roulette. Our coaches are being loyal to Gore, but many would have already moved on to Hyde. Like to see him get 20 touches, just to see.

This!

Along with firing Greg Roman, the Offensive line coach Solari needs to be fired too. How do we have all these high round picks on the line and they suck this much? Roman and Solari need to go!!

Who gets the majority of carries is like issue number 5 on this offense. Yea, we could give Hyde more carries (which I do agree with), but the offense would still be bad overall. It seems to many people are looking for the talent to overcome the weaknesses of the offense here.

The whole 'stacked box' argument isn't really valid.

Here's why.

1.our running game has always faced stacked boxes. Ever since Garcia and To left. 2009 isn't an exception. 2011 isn't an exception. But the run game was great then.

2.the whole if we had a better qb and fast wrs Seattle wouldn't stack the box is utterly false. Do people even watch Seattle games besides the times they play us? They do the same damn thing. Did the same thing to Saints offense in the playoffs last year. Did the same thing to Denver offense. If you don't think they didn't stack the box against Murray and Dallas, you're delusional. Seattle will Always stack the box because run game is their weaker part of the defense where they can be beat. Pass game, not so much.

Originally posted by JimA49ers:

Originally posted by niners94:

Originally posted by TexasGuero49:
No defense in the league is scared of our passing game so we are always running into a box that has 8 or 9 defenders in it.

This. Still Kap.

Double this. And Kap couldn't hit the side of a barn yesterday.

Un-huh . . . as has be recounted endlessly. And yet . . .

Gore can still function. There were a couple of first downs last night only he could have got.

Still, as one poster has suggested, I admit to thinking that I would love the Niners to snag Adrian Peterson.

Where are all the shifts and misdirection pre-snap like last year? Now they have Kap standing behind the line calling out protections like he is freaking Peyton Manning! Its aint working!

Yea throwing badly so let's target Sherman really?