Welcome to 'First and Goal', your guide to everything Niners. This week, we'll dive deeper into some expected changes to our offense this year, as well as review some interesting comments coming out of Arizona concerning our franchise QB. As always, be sure to check out our Hero of the Week.
Let's get to it!
Three Yards and a Cloud of Puke
God bless Jim Harbaugh, he galvanized a talented team and took them to new heights. But he also sold us on an idea; a plan to descend into the basement at 49ers headquarters where they hold my cousin Bill's video collection, and using this vault of information to bring back the principles that once made this franchise the leader in all sports. All the information we needed was there, everything about how to run practices, how to run meetings, how to plan travel, how to script games, etc, etc, etc. The secrets we needed were right there, and Jim said he would attack this information with an enthusiasm unknown to man.
Except that he didn't. By all accounts, practices were not run with much intent. Game scenarios were not practiced. Playbooks became too large and unsynchronized. Kap's fundamentals were left to Kap. The offense was SLOW AND BORING. We kicked field goals for fun. We never seemed to have a sense of urgency. I could go on all day, but we all saw the same thing on the field. The offense was broken, the exact offense Jim was hired to fix. If the secrets to all this were hiding in the vault, what gives? That's because we didn't seek to become what we once were. We tried to play Michigan-style football, from more than 30 years ago. PUKE!!!
Which brings us to today. A recent sit down with new OC Geep Chryst gives us glimpses into the plan for our new offense. Up-tempo practices you say? Incorporate our young players? Are we talking about the 49ers here? I have but 3 hairs left on my head after last season, when multiple close calls with the play-clock would send me into a rage unknown to man. And don't get me started on the lackadaisical offensive tempo when down in the second half of games, or sitting Patton and Ellington while using Brandon Lloyd. Cousin Bill was screaming from the grave.
It was painfully obvious last year that we couldn't attack deep, we couldn't attack the flats and we didn't get players like McDonald involved with the game plan. It's awful hard to catch a fastball when it comes at you once every 2 games. Enter Reggie Bush and Torrey Smith. These two additions alone should tell you Baalke's vision for the offense, which is exactly what we used to do in the 80's and 90's. We will aim to attack all areas of the field. We will use this thing called screens. And we'll clean up Kap's mechanics in order to tie in his movement with his routes. Like I said to a friend… it's infuriating that we have to look backwards in order to innovate; this is the NFL for Chryst's sake!!
Three people that will have a huge impact on our new-look offense will be Steve Logan, Tony Sparano and our new combo WR coaches. Sparano is criminally underrated as a coach. Our old WR coach was so bad we could have replaced him with a parking cone and seen improvements. The arrow is pointing up my friends, there's plenty of room on the bandwagon; personally, I'm saving a seat for a pretty strawberry blonde in a Joe Montana jersey.
Which brings us to the best news of last week…
Kap's a BOSS!
Just like any other team, our playoff hopes ride on the shoulders of our franchise QB. Unlike most franchise QB's, ours has the legs to break your back too. The thing about Kap that people need to realize is, he's been a stud since the first moment he hit the football field. Usually when people are this good in their respective fields, they keep doing the things that got them there. Only the people who truly want to be great seek ways to improve themselves. Harbaugh did him no service when he said that Kap's mechanics were 'fine'. Many armchair GM's saw little things here and there that needed cleaning up.
The recent news coming out of Exos training facility in Arizona has been music to my ears. Everyone knew when we drafted Kap that he was a work in progress. But this year that progress is being directed by some good QB men, including Dennis Gile, Mike Giavondo and Kurt Warner. Kap has all the talent in the world. His floor was last year, playing on a team beset by injuries, with piss-poor play calling in the toughest division out there and we still go 8-8. Taking that talent and making it consistent is the name of the game and that can only come by practice. The offseason is the time for practice, and by all accounts the 50 days of sessions was filled with just that.
Film analysis of Kap's play last year clearly shows that he made improvements, even if his numbers suffered. He was better at going through reads and he completed more check-downs. But Haroman held the entire team back. Now Kap's working on adding touch. He's working on his finesse game to all parts of the field. He's working on seeing the field better. He's picking the brain of Warner, one of the best gunslingers I'd ever seen. And, as Gile has said, he's cleaned up his mechanics while also outworking everyone in the room. If this doesn't make you happy about the Niners franchise QB then you're probably a Seattle fan.
If you're not getting better you're getting worse, I think someone said that. Our QB is working as hard as he can to get better, including throwing to Patton and Ellington in order to build chemistry. These are all positive signs for the upcoming season. I'll be putting my money where my mouth is and drafting Kap as my fantasy QB. The dude is a baller and 2015 is the year he'll prove it.
Hero of the Week!
We here at 'First and Goal' believe in mankind. We believe in the drive for greatness. I've already said enough about Kap in this article, but I'm putting him here for all the naysayers and Debbie-downers who want to ridicule our QB for things like his Instagram habits or his style of dress. The man can only be as good as the people around him and this year I think he finally has the right people around him. Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to see what Gase or Kubiak could have done with Kap; but the fact that our offense doesn't have to change can only help us as we transition to a new set of coaches.
He works hard, he's humble, he's coachable and he really wants to get better. That's the kind of hero I think we can all look up to. Our HOTW, Colin Kaepernick.
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