My thoughts on this season and the offense

"After what the "press" has done to Kap, I'm not surprised that he gives the vibe of I don't want anything to do with you guys (the press)..."

As far as I can see, the press gives him a huge benefit of the doubt. He has always treated press conferences like interrogations. Name, rank and serial number. he's obviously been schooled by the master. I've never seen any member of the press ask him to expand on a one-word answer or specify anything. He reminds me of a petulant teenager being quizzed by his parents about why he came home so late.

Originally posted by pete98146:
A broken clock is accurate twice a day. I think we are at a point where it's very difficult to defend Jim Harbaugh. I'll repeat my thoughts yet another time because they are spot on. Jim Harbaugh is a two headed monster. As a head coach, he's a 10. Few will debate this. He's as good as they come. But the other head is Jim Harbaugh as an offensive mind. He's at best a 6. He has one very very simple vision for an offense. He's stubborn and won't deviate or make adjustments. But this is the NFL where you need to 1) acknowledge there is a problem and 2) correct the problem. He does neither. He's like a turtle who pulls his head into the shell when things get tough. He'll wait awhile, stick his head out again and continue on unchanged. He's quickly finding out that this approach doesn't work. You need to be innovative and stay ahead of the competition to remain on top in the NFL. Jim Harbaugh is not. He's about has varied as his wardrobe.

So when you combine one head (10) with the other (6), you average out to be an (8). Not bad especially when paired with a brilliant defense. But you'll end up driving the GM crazy because they will recognize the problem and come up with the logical solution of keeping Harbaugh as a head coach but bringing in a new OC to fix the problem. Easy peasy right? Wrong. Jim won't relinquish the offense so the problem persists. You are stuck in an endless loop.

But the bigger problem is that veteran offensive players are starting to get pissed off with this Neanderthal based offense. I do think Harbaugh has lost players (Crabtree, Davis, various OL) but can you blame them? They show up at work and expect changes, innovation, vision, SOMETHING. Yet it's always the same bland potato as the last week. Nothing changes ever....nor will it. Who wants to play in this environment?

So Harbaugh has worn out his welcome. Everything good that he does is not surpassed by his negatives. The two headed monster must be killed.

That's certainly a neat and convenient theory for anyone desperately wanting to absolve blame for player execution. Me? I personally think a real pocket QB could do quite a bit of winning with this stacked team. Whatever works.. doesn't much matter what any of us think anyway.

Originally posted by znk916:
defenses weren't ready for the r/o

they are now

No. SF was #1 in the first half of that year.. they dropped but only marginally by season's end.

Originally posted by Mr.Mcgibblets:
That's certainly a neat and convenient theory for anyone desperately wanting to absolve blame for player execution. Me? I personally think a real pocket QB could do quite a bit of winning with this stacked team. Whatever works.. doesn't much matter what any of us think anyway.

Problem is that you need some type of scheme and game plan in order to execute. Really with few exceptions, many of our long gains have come off broken plays, fluke plays in which CK has improvised.

I understand what you are saying. Perhaps Kap doesn't have it in him. But I'd like to give the guy a few years under a polished offensive coordinator. Do think we draft another QB fairly high in the draft. That's a must.

We need to mimick the Eagles offense 1 quick read, then either dump off to a hb or run. Plain and simple. That's why Chip is so succesful. He does not over thinn it. Get to the line, go with the play called and dont give the defense a chance to adjust. He has all types of recivers to run all kinds of routes. Kap would be a God in an offense of that nature.

Originally posted by 24plus25er:
We need to mimick the Eagles offense 1 quick read, then either dump off to a hb or run. Plain and simple. That's why Chip is so succesful. He does not over thinn it. Get to the line, go with the play called and dont give the defense a chance to adjust. He has all types of recivers to run all kinds of routes. Kap would be a God in an offense of that nature.

we'll see how Chip does vs Seattle next week

Originally posted by pete98146:

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
If Harbaugh refuses to make some changes, starting with the OC, then he needs to go as well. Being just good enough to win but not good enough to win it all doesn't pass muster. This offense has been the limiting factor for this team for like 4 seasons now. Harbaugh needs to be willing to accept another OC and give them some degree of autonomy to see if they can help fix this offense. If this offense was playing up to its potential, this team probably has 1 loss at best this season so far.


Jim Mora when he was with the Colts, refused to fire Vic Fangio as his DC, Mora got shown the door and Dungy took over which worked out well for the Colts. You can't be so loyal to your staff that you develop tunnel vision as to the issues that exist, and the biggest issue on this team is the offense's lack of progress and consistent lack of effectiveness.

I live in Seattle. Drove into work today and they had Mike Holmgren on the radio and he talked at length about San Francisco's offensive woes. Holmgren was suggesting there is a major breakdown on all levels. He sounded surprised that our coaches would ever let it reach such a low level. He went on to rip Kaepernick a bit (sort of in a nice way) saying his footwork is horrible. He is not stepping into his throws, not even attempting to read the defense etc.

Holmgren is spot on.

Originally posted by Mr.Mcgibblets:
SF had the #1 ranked offense in efficiency for 2012.

New 49ers safety Craig Dahl said on Wednesday that the 49ers tipped offensive plays to the St. Louis Rams last season. Dahl was the starting safety on the Rams in 2012.

"We had a few tips off of film that we were able to differentiate between run and pass early," Dahl said. "So that kind of gave us an added benefit on defense."

http://www.examiner.com/article/dahl-the-rams-tipped-49ers-offensive-plays





You can believe some random statistics or what your own eyes tell you. This team had a period where the offense did very well since nobody had any tape on Kaepernick....that has since worn off and its back to utterly predictable, ineffective offense.

Originally posted by Mr.Mcgibblets:
No. SF was #1 in the first half of that year.. they dropped but only marginally by season's end.

That's because they ganged up on the Jets and the Bills in back to back weeks, combined for 70 points against the dregs of the NFL. How did they look versus Minnesota or losing 26-3 versus the Giants?




Nobody has ever disputed that this team has done well in beating up on s**tty teams, witness the Titans and Jacksonville games last season. Its when the games truly matter that this offense fails to appear. Witness the 2011 NFC Championship Game, or last year's NFC Championship Game where Kaepernick pretty much was the offense. Down on the goalline in the Superbowl.

Originally posted by LifelongNiner:
Don't forget Ed Donatell.

Who I think would be a prime target for Harbaugh if Fangio wasn't going to come along.

If I had to change one thing it would have to the play calling... and what needs to happen to make that work then do it. But Jim and Kaep stays... there are other ways to run the ball... but if we are becoming predictable then fine toon things but not when it works against our players weakness.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

You can believe some random statistics or what your own eyes tell you. This team had a period where the offense did very well since nobody had any tape on Kaepernick....that has since worn off and its back to utterly predictable, ineffective offense.

Not sure what you are really attempting to do here. I agree with the bolded.

What I am saying is that we had a very efficient offense in 2012.. that's not some random stat.. that's a very telling and established stat. Kaep came in half-way and because defenses hadn't figured him out, we still managed a good bit of efficiency. That obviously declined sharply in the subsequent years. That does not erase the reality that... in 2012.. more so the first half of that year.. the SF offense was very efficient... with the same OL, same coaches, and even worse receiving talent than we have today.

So to further conclude... I have a hard time believing that our coaches forgot how to achieve efficiency.. that our OL forgot how to block.

The simple and ugly conclusion... and we are of course all free to make our own... is that the QB has not adjusted well to being figured out by opponents... and that is a huge part of why we are struggling... and a huge reason for why I and many fans are concerned.

Originally posted by Hopper:

Originally posted by pete98146:

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:
If Harbaugh refuses to make some changes, starting with the OC, then he needs to go as well. Being just good enough to win but not good enough to win it all doesn't pass muster. This offense has been the limiting factor for this team for like 4 seasons now. Harbaugh needs to be willing to accept another OC and give them some degree of autonomy to see if they can help fix this offense. If this offense was playing up to its potential, this team probably has 1 loss at best this season so far.


Jim Mora when he was with the Colts, refused to fire Vic Fangio as his DC, Mora got shown the door and Dungy took over which worked out well for the Colts. You can't be so loyal to your staff that you develop tunnel vision as to the issues that exist, and the biggest issue on this team is the offense's lack of progress and consistent lack of effectiveness.

I live in Seattle. Drove into work today and they had Mike Holmgren on the radio and he talked at length about San Francisco's offensive woes. Holmgren was suggesting there is a major breakdown on all levels. He sounded surprised that our coaches would ever let it reach such a low level. He went on to rip Kaepernick a bit (sort of in a nice way) saying his footwork is horrible. He is not stepping into his throws, not even attempting to read the defense etc.

Holmgren is spot on.

Originally posted by Mr.Mcgibblets:
Not sure what you are really attempting to do here. I agree with the bolded.

What I am saying is that we had a very efficient offense in 2012.. that's not some random stat.. that's a very telling and established stat. Kaep came in half-way and because defenses hadn't figured him out, we still managed a good bit of efficiency. That obviously declined sharply in the subsequent years. That does not erase the reality that... in 2012.. more so the first half of that year.. the SF offense was very efficient... with the same OL, same coaches, and even worse receiving talent than we have today.

So to further conclude... I have a hard time believing that our coaches forgot how to achieve efficiency.. that our OL forgot how to block.

The simple and ugly conclusion... and we are of course all free to make our own... is that the QB has not adjusted well to being figured out by opponents... and that is a huge part of why we are struggling... and a huge reason for why I and many fans are concerned.

They had an efficient offense because they beat up on s**tty teams.


Go back and look for yourself, they beat up on the Jets and the Bills and yet that offense was so efficient that it scored a total of 16 points vs the Giants and the Vikings. They beat up on some really bad teams and sucked it up against the better ones, pretty much par for the course, the way it has been since Harbaugh got here. In 2011 they bombed in the NFC Championship Game, couldn't convert on third down at all and barely beat a mediocre New Orleans team at home, even after they were spotted 5 turnovers.

So no, not much to crow about, they've sucked in the redzone consistently, they've had problems with the playclock consistently, nothing has really changed one way or the other.




Look, I get that you have this wild love affair with Alex Smith, but seriously, take your agenda elsewhere, you're not really fooling anyone with your passive aggressive attempts at trying to say "I told you so." Take it to the Chiefs thread and go root for your Captain Checkdown there.

Sherman was watching Kaps eyes. It wasnt because he knew exactly whet the ball would be thrown because of Romans play design.

Kap is the second leading rusher in the NFL with 353. Defenses have figured out ways to stop the read option, and with the rule change per 2013 the NFL made it brutal on the QB to act like a ball carrier.

The NFL didn't have tape on Kap in late 2012. Now they do, and we do t run the RO much at all because they can shut it down more often. His run threat is part of what limits his passing game. He takes his eyes off revivers when he thinks run, or scramble.

If we're talking about giving Kap more designed runs then ya, that may work out, as far as being more productive but he has a spy on him if they start doing that.

It seems like they're trying the right thing, to turn him into a better pocket passer. It goes against his instincts. And he does look uncomfortable. I saw the change in his face when they did a couple RO plays lastnigjt. He looked more determined. Focused.

But still, the RO isn't fooling anyone and even designed runs aren't going to last (unless we play Green Bay-lol). At a certain point in games, and in his carrer, he's going to have to master the pocket, or go the way of Michael Vick.

He needs to be working with Whitfield and the recievers daily. If he does that I think he has a chance to firmly step up his pocket game. Mechanics, footwork, touch, velocity, game awareness, ability to read defenses etc. starting with daily redzone drills or drills in the short horizontal game. Daily. Like a maniac. And all offseason. Daily. Like a maniac. So certain things become second nature and not so forced. Every passing down feels forced. Like taking a big crap while constipated. The timing, the flow, the throws, heck, even getting the ball off.

Not sure if it would be wise to mess with his throwing motion, but that may be a part of the reason his short passes arelacking. A lot if mental stuff going on too. Just forcing it into double coverage on his first or second read is like pulling teeth. Too many high or overthrown deep balls for lack of a consistant arch. He's very accurate firing the ball in on middle to long range passes.

Too much inconsistency with other passes. Bad decisions, open guys left on field. Too much thinking "run" and taking his eyes off the recievers. He's too big to be able to do what Wilson does (with consistency).Scramble around behind the line and find recievers downfield on a broken play. Don't know how many times Wilson has done this to us. 6 or 7 at least.

They had to simplify the offense for him too. The language was firing and the more developing passing plays. Nevada didnt prepare him for a pro passing game.

I think Jim may have blown too much smoke up Kaps rear end for any hardcore critisisms of his game to take place. Instead of saying Whitfield was there to work with the backup QB's, he should have been there for Kap. Working daily in the offseason. Going over the same issues constantly, under various game situations daily. Try to erase his 4 years in Nevada out of his mind. His muscle memory, or comfort zone.

Bring a guy like Steve Yoing in, if egos can handle it. Replace Roman, coach Kap on the fundamentals and draft a QB, bring in a vet and have an all out competition under a new offense for 2015. The sooner they bring in a new OC the better. Also tell Kap that they're drafting another QB. Light that fire under his assiifiatly. Also draft online early.

That new contract, with his breakout 2012 year and the sucsess running in the playoffs may have stunted Kaps view of himself. I don't think he put in a massive amount of work into making the transition into a pocket passer. He's clearly not ready. Bit if he ever does do so, and maintain the run threat, he could/would be one of the best.