Frank Gore and the Spread Offense (Steve Young article)

Originally posted by FL9er:

Originally posted by 190836:
I don't think the Yorks care much about Young.

ha nolans living it up in denver!!!

I wish Young would have helped himself out , and beat the packers a few times .

Originally posted by tohara3:

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Mookster:
The frustrating thing is that Raye seems to be compelled to make Smith fit one style of play NOW. Why not let him play predominately out of the shot gun where he is comfortable and is performing well and then mix in a few under centre I formations as the Niners get control of the game? Seems to me the logical process would be to take advantage of a skill Smith already has while developing the ones he doesn't.

That would make too much sense for sing / raye to adopt it...

This for sure!

Agreed! This seems to make wayyy too much sense. I would love to see them meld the two philosophies much better than they do now. But no, all we get is black and white. Either the playcalling is conservative as hell behind center, or we go into gun-slinging mode, where every snap is out of the shotgun...

Originally posted by Ninerman49:
why doesnt young mentor him??? thats my question and is what the niners need

While I love the Niners Dynasty from the past I agree the Yorks are blowing it by not reaching out to the great players from the past like Young, Rice, Lott, Haley and others to pass on some knowledge to some of our promising players that might need that extra push to help push them into a successful career

Nate Davis may have a learning disability but Alex Smirh has a NFL learning disability. Urban Myer even insinuated it. I am beginning to think that Alex is "Special". He needs everything modified for him because of his uniqueness of not being able to undrstand the fundamentals of dropping back. I am beginning to thin Alex is more special than Nate Davis and that Davis will be able to learn quicker than Smith as has Vince Young and just about every other NFL QB. Alex needs too much attention. I think he rides the short bus to the offensive meetings.

Originally posted by Joecool:
Nate Davis may have a learning disability but Alex Smirh has a NFL learning disability. Urban Myer even insinuated it. I am beginning to think that Alex is "Special". He needs everything modified for him because of his uniqueness of not being able to undrstand the fundamentals of dropping back. I am beginning to thin Alex is more special than Nate Davis and that Davis will be able to learn quicker than Smith as has Vince Young and just about every other NFL QB. Alex needs too much attention. I think he rides the short bus to the offensive meetings.

..........................

This is more of what steve said:

Quote:
Alex Smith still needs to step up. The conversation seems to be the same every week for the 49ers' would-be franchise quarterback. I thought Steve Young put it best during his recent radio interview: "He is a people-pleaser. He wants the coach to think that he is a great player and, 'I read the route and I did the right thing and we punted.' At some level, it's, 'You know what? I read the route, I read the play, I went through my reads and it didn't work out, but I'm not going to punt, all right? We're going to do something else that is going to make it so I'm going to will this thing so that it gets done.' And I think that is what I want and I said the same thing about Matt Schaub last week. At some level, Matt Schaub has the same issue. Very proficient quarterback. Leading the league in a lot of different areas and the bottom line is, you've got to grab it at the end. You've got to take this team, you've got to be the guy, the reason why this is happening. The guys that play a while -- five, six, seven, eight, 10, 15 years -- they become the reason. It's just the nature of the position at quarterback."

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/9847/final-word-nfc-west-6

He basically says he has some skills and he makes some of the right reads but he needs to grab this team and make it his and get some wins. I like Alex and I'm on his side, but I think we all agree it'd be a great thing if he did that. I also think that if Steve thought he sucked or he wasn't behind him, he wouldn't say he had the ABILITY TO DO THAT. He says "that is what I want" out of Smith. I think that's fair. Even if we don't make the playoffs(unlikely at this point) seeing him get in someones face, make this his team, will this team to a win, etc. would be very positive signs. We're starting to see production from him but the one thing that HAS bothered me is he hasn't taken a real leadership position yet. He needs to.

Originally posted by ZRF80:

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:

Originally posted by ZRF80:
This is Young's way of calling Alex a bust. Like he said, you must be able to "adapt" to gametime situations. Cant go in evey week with the spread and hope that Alex will bail us out. Unfortunately, Alex has shown he cannot play under center, even with a good oline (06). Time to move on.....

LOL.

-9fA

I know......I'd LOL too if a HOF b***h slapped me in my face. Here's to Alex Smith, the G.O.A.T

Man, I went to this link and read all, wow! Anybody here who is on Smith's nuts should read this. It is almost cruel in it's reality check. We are so hurting this season, and the shame is, it started out so promising.

And, also, wait.. look at all the back tracking on the meek comment. I brought this up a day ago before it was "news", and now it is a big deal..

He sooo nice! Sad, in a bad way.. Grow a pair will ya Smith and get in someones face, anybodies, WTH!!

This season, you just gotta throw yer arms up in the air and say, What the f**k ever, just make it look like we know what we are doing..

Originally posted by WillistheWall:
This is more of what steve said:

Quote:
Alex Smith still needs to step up. The conversation seems to be the same every week for the 49ers' would-be franchise quarterback. I thought Steve Young put it best during his recent radio interview: "He is a people-pleaser. He wants the coach to think that he is a great player and, 'I read the route and I did the right thing and we punted.' At some level, it's, 'You know what? I read the route, I read the play, I went through my reads and it didn't work out, but I'm not going to punt, all right? We're going to do something else that is going to make it so I'm going to will this thing so that it gets done.' And I think that is what I want and I said the same thing about Matt Schaub last week. At some level, Matt Schaub has the same issue. Very proficient quarterback. Leading the league in a lot of different areas and the bottom line is, you've got to grab it at the end. You've got to take this team, you've got to be the guy, the reason why this is happening. The guys that play a while -- five, six, seven, eight, 10, 15 years -- they become the reason. It's just the nature of the position at quarterback."

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/9847/final-word-nfc-west-6

He basically says he has some skills and he makes some of the right reads but he needs to grab this team and make it his and get some wins. I like Alex and I'm on his side, but I think we all agree it'd be a great thing if he did that. I also think that if Steve thought he sucked or he wasn't behind him, he wouldn't say he had the ABILITY TO DO THAT. He says "that is what I want" out of Smith. I think that's fair. Even if we don't make the playoffs(unlikely at this point) seeing him get in someones face, make this his team, will this team to a win, etc. would be very positive signs. We're starting to see production from him but the one thing that HAS bothered me is he hasn't taken a real leadership position yet. He needs to.

Simply an awesome comment by Steve.. Kind of ends any discussions about who needs to do what and why.. IMO

Crap I was there when he made that crazy TD run in, what was it, nearly his debut with the Niners when Joe got hurt..

I worked security when he had a gathering for his charity, and we had a brief conversation, killer guy and pretty freakin big too.

Ha, among other things I told Merton I loved the Chicken Walk.. and his INT in the Dallas NFC Champ game.. he gots a big smile I'll tell ya.

I got in trouble though, too much fraternizing with the players.. great night that was bros..

Originally posted by Joecool:
Nate Davis may have a learning disability but Alex Smirh has a NFL learning disability. Urban Myer even insinuated it. I am beginning to think that Alex is "Special". He needs everything modified for him because of his uniqueness of not being able to undrstand the fundamentals of dropping back. I am beginning to thin Alex is more special than Nate Davis and that Davis will be able to learn quicker than Smith as has Vince Young and just about every other NFL QB. Alex needs too much attention. I think he rides the short bus to the offensive meetings.

I wuv you Joe! Is it circus time yet or what? Uh ohh ohh,, here come SD49er to defend our brilliant meek, underwhelming QB!

Hope he pulls his head out his as* and makes a ton-o-plays this Sunday without game ending INTs. How about a win..

LET"S GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Young says it shouldn't be hard to master playing in the I formation...and he's right. The difference is he had good-to-great OL's in front of him. Alex hasn't had that, not even close. Hopefully, he can progress, as can the OL. They go hand-in-hand...it can't be all up to Alex.

Originally posted by Mookster:
The frustrating thing is that Raye seems to be compelled to make Smith fit one style of play NOW. Why not let him play predominately out of the shot gun where he is comfortable and is performing well and then mix in a few under centre I formations as the Niners get control of the game? Seems to me the logical process would be to take advantage of a skill Smith already has while developing the ones he doesn't.

Without a doubt that's been what we've seen. I'm just not sure if it's Raye's decision to only call those plays when we're down by 14+ or if it's been Singletary's decision to limit the play calling. And we'll probably never know.

The thing that's so frustrating about the 49ers and in particular the Smith/Play Calling is that they don't start having any success on offense until they are so far behind and the defense is worn down. Even last week when they started chucking the ball all over the field and scoring points, I knew the game was over. And in typical Smith fashion, he threw that pick deep in our side of the field.

I don't know what the issue is, but these are things I think that prevent us from opening it up in the first quarter:
* Coaches lack of trust in Alex
* Coaches are afraid to pass the ball until the game is already lost
* Coaches over confidence in our ability to run the ball
* Coaches confidence in our defense (which is playing well)
* Coaches fear of "time of possession" so they prefer to run 1 yard than risk an incompletion early in the game

Whatever combination of the above, I see a theme here.

If you don't put Alex in a position to succeed, he wont. He needs to be given the opportunity to fail before you take away the opportunities to succeed. In other words, you have to take the training wheels off the bike some time. Until then, Alex will not be as good as he can be. And unfortunately, that's not good enough for the 49ers to win.

This brings up my point that I've been repeating - Smith is not the niners future plans. Singletary wants to run his style of offense so the players that will be hear for the long haul have continuity. Why switch to a shotgun or spread for a QB that will only be hear to the end of the year?

Originally posted by socal81:
This brings up my point that I've been repeating - Smith is not the niners future plans. Singletary wants to run his style of offense so the players that will be hear for the long haul have continuity. Why switch to a shotgun or spread for a QB that will only be hear to the end of the year?

Because spread QB's are all over in the draft. It would actually shorten the learning curve for a rookie QB coming in. Everyone talks about not drafting certain QB's because of the spread they played in in college. If we are running the spread, the largest concern for some of these QB prospects is suddenly a non issue. The spread is going to get a lot more prevalent in the NFL in the next few years because it works, and the rules favor it.

Originally posted by SanDiego49er:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Nate Davis may have a learning disability but Alex Smirh has a NFL learning disability. Urban Myer even insinuated it. I am beginning to think that Alex is "Special". He needs everything modified for him because of his uniqueness of not being able to undrstand the fundamentals of dropping back. I am beginning to thin Alex is more special than Nate Davis and that Davis will be able to learn quicker than Smith as has Vince Young and just about every other NFL QB. Alex needs too much attention. I think he rides the short bus to the offensive meetings.

..........................

Don't pick on Joe, he is "special".