RedZone Offense

Why does our red zone offense suck so bad? It's been like this for years and doesn't look like it's getting any better this season. We didn't trust Alex in the red zone and now we don't trust Kap. Well piece together beautiful drives only to stall inside the 20's.. How the heck do we fix these issues once and for all?

Brah today they kept on doing some goofy play with Mike Davis in the red zone same play over and over again

We are bad in the red zone because of Kap :

1) He can't (or let's just say not very good) read defense

2) He is not good in throwing fades when he has to put a lot of air under the ball to arc it perfectly

3) His progression read is just too slow to get the ball off in time.


For many QBs, is actually quite natural to throw the ball with a high trajectory, but just not Kap. It really doesn't come natural to him and everytime he tries to do it, it feels forced.

Originally posted by jays9ers:
Why does our red zone offense suck so bad? It's been like this for years and doesn't look like it's getting any better this season. We didn't trust Alex in the red zone and now we don't trust Kap. Well piece together beautiful drives only to stall inside the 20's.. How the heck do we fix these issues once and for all?

When Alex Smith was our QB we had one of the best redzone percentages in the NFL for a couple of years.

Originally posted by Rascal:

We are bad in the red zone because of Kap :

1) He can't (or let's just say not very good) read defense

2) He is not good in throwing fades when he has to put a lot of air under the ball to arc it perfectly

3) His progression read is just too slow to get the ball off in time.


For many QBs, is actually quite natural to throw the ball with a high trajectory, but just not Kap. It really doesn't come natural to him and everytime he tries to do it, it feels forced.

Um we have been bad in the red zone long before Kaep was our QB

Score touchdowns from the 21 yard line. Problem solved.

Gotta add penalties in the mix some how. Not sure if they got stats on redzone holding calls but Niners gotta be at the top of that list.

Originally posted by jays9ers:
Why does our red zone offense suck so bad? It's been like this for years and doesn't look like it's getting any better this season. We didn't trust Alex in the red zone and now we don't trust Kap. Well piece together beautiful drives only to stall inside the 20's.. How the heck do we fix these issues once and for all?

i'm gonna guess it's because we promoted the guy who was in charge of our crappy RZ offense last year, to OC.

Thanks Jed.

Originally posted by wailers15:
Um we have been bad in the red zone long before Kaep was our QB

If you are talking about during Alex's era then he didn't have many opportunities to throw in the red zone, not to say he was good at it. Basically, Harbaugh didn't want to chance it and he basically just stuck to his power brand of football. As such, it became quite predictable and it didn't help when we didn't really have a big enough power back to pound it in for short yardage. Frank was too slow and obviously not powerful enough and then all we had was Dixon, but Harbaugh hardly played him or may be could have played him more. And we then went out to get Brandon Jacobs and we all know what happened with that. That was why in 2011 our scoring was so low cos all we did was we ran the ball basically, kind of like what we did against the Vikings last week.

As for Kap, he just kind of continued the trend for similar reasons eventhough Kap did throw the ball more, but that is only really before he gets to the red zone. Overall, I would say everything about the 9ers are just too reliant on running the football. I don't mind running the football predominately, but we are so extreme so much so I would argue we have almost made ourselves scared of throwing the football in the red zone.You add that to Kap's weakness in throwing high fades, that is why we are continuing to be bad at it. I would argue we probably have a better chance in scoring a passing TD from say 40 yards out or more.

We are incredibly scared to throw in the red zone and the penalties have been killing this team... It's almost a guarantee we will be called for holding once inside the 20's

Because more than half the OL is terrible. You can't punch it in on the ground when you don't dominate the LOS. Or when you take costly penalties turning 1st and goal into 1st and goal at the 18.

Our RBs have no room to run down there, and the QB has no time when he needs it most down there. We're going to either have to get more creative, or we're going to have to run the fade routes or QB draws much more often down there. Heck, even a trick play may be necessary.

Need quick hitters in the redzone Seems like the 49ers call long slow developing Red Zone plays and its not working.

if kap could read a defense, he'd audible to something that would at least give us a chance. but since he cant, we're screwed.

Originally posted by ElephantHaley:

Need quick hitters in the redzone Seems like the 49ers call long slow developing Red Zone plays and its not working.

Quick slant please! Run Vernon on a quick 5 yard out on a bootleg... Where are these plays at?

Originally posted by Rascal:
We are bad in the red zone because of Kap :

1) He can't (or let's just say not very good) read defense

2) He is not good in throwing fades when he has to put a lot of air under the ball to arc it perfectly

3) His progression read is just too slow to get the ball off in time.


For many QBs, is actually quite natural to throw the ball with a high trajectory, but just not Kap. It really doesn't come natural to him and everytime he tries to do it, it feels forced.

Agreed, Kap has a lot to do with it. The Red Zone is about being able to execute short, finesse passes, and that's obviously not Kap's strength.

Now that I think Kap is a respectable QB with some legitimate strengths, but I do think his weaknesses contribute to Red Zone issues.