When you have an elite defense.......

It's generally accepted that when you have a dominant defense the best complement is a conservative ball control offense. However, if you really think about it, wouldn't it make more sense to take a few more chances (especially on the other side of the opponents 50) knowing that you have the D to make up fo it? How much more dangerous would our defense be if we forced offenses to score?

This thread was partly in response to all the accolades Smith was getting for his low turnovers ratio....i.e......unwillingness to take chances. I'm not saying he should or shouldn't have taken more chances, but I'm curious if you think our defense gives our O a pass to be more aggressive. Or should we continue with our conservative style of offense?

Walsh's offense was a ball control passing attack, using short, and medium passes; with timely runs, to set up the deep ball.

I really hope the offense opens up with an entire off-season to work. As dominant as our defense was, we have to be more aggressive and give our defense more points to work with next season.

Watching the pro bowl right now and its clear that its a WR and QB league and it sucks because we have neither.

Originally posted by lssanjose:
Walsh's offense was a ball control passing attack, using short, and medium passes; with timely runs, to set up the deep ball.

That was Walsh, this is Harbaugh. We are entirely too conservative when we get into field goal range. Both the head coach and QB go into wussy mode....

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
It's generally accepted that when you have a dominant defense the best complement is a conservative ball control offense. However, if you really think about it, wouldn't it make more sense to take a few more chances (especially on the other side of the opponents 50) knowing that you have the D to make up fo it? How much more dangerous would our defense be if we forced offenses to score?

This thread was partly in response to all the accolades Smith was getting for his low turnovers ratio....i.e......unwillingness to take chances. I'm not saying he should or shouldn't have taken more chances, but I'm curious if you think our defense gives our O a pass to be more aggressive. Or should we continue with our conservative style of offense?

It goes hand-in-hand. Defensive performance is related to the performance of the offense/special teams to not put the defense in difficult situations. An example of this is in the NFCC game after Williams muffed the first punt. The Giants went on to score a TD right away. It also helps in giving the defense time to rest.

Now should we have been more aggressive on offense this past season? I don't think so. Why? Because our formula that we had worked. It helped us to 13 wins.

Originally posted by susweel:
Watching the pro bowl right now and its clear that its a WR and QB league and it sucks because we have neither.

Agreed somewhat. We really don't know what we have at WR til we get a QB. When have a defense like ours, you definitely should try to be aggressive(smart) provided you have a the players on O. Early 49ers had a good defense and the Offensive was explosive. I remember plenty of games that were over in the third quarter. That's where the 49ers need to get back to doing.

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
That was Walsh, this is Harbaugh. We are entirely too conservative when we get into field goal range. Both the head coach and QB go into wussy mode....

When you have a kicker, like Akers, it does take some pressure off the offense needing to score touchdowns; in some minds, it's better to be up 3-0, for a defense, than come away with nothing. I'm not agreeing with it, just explaining the reasoning.

Originally posted by 305Niner:
Agreed somewhat. We really don't know what we have at WR til we get a QB. When have a defense like ours, you definitely should try to be aggressive(smart) provided you have a the players on O. Early 49ers had a good defense and the Offensive was explosive. I remember plenty of games that were over in the third quarter. That's where the 49ers need to get back to doing.

Early 49ers teams were more balanced in approach, some say, too balanced. It irritated Ronnie Lott when the offense just ran the ball, to run the clock out.

Originally posted by lssanjose:

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
That was Walsh, this is Harbaugh. We are entirely too conservative when we get into field goal range. Both the head coach and QB go into wussy mode....

When you have a kicker, like Akers, it does take some pressure off the offense needing to score touchdowns; in some minds, it's better to be up 3-0, for a defense, than come away with nothing. I'm not agreeing with it, just explaining the reasoning.

Actually, that's a very good argument and one that gives me pause. With the ST we have, it seemed like we were in field goal range on every posession. And even though it was only three points, if you do that 4 times a game and score 7 twice, that is not bad. We were 7th in scoring......definetly food for thought.

Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
It's generally accepted that when you have a dominant defense the best complement is a conservative ball control offense. However, if you really think about it, wouldn't it make more sense to take a few more chances?

Makes sense if you have talented offensive weapons and an expansive playbook with everyone understanding of it. Really just depends on the man in charge. Seems like Jim likes to run his style of ball control offense. I think Alex is not the ONLY one out there that has a distrust of the current receiver's abilities on the field.

Originally posted by susweel:
Watching the pro bowl right now and its clear that its a WR and QB league and it sucks because we have neither.

Dude you can't even pass rush or play on the line against a wideout. The probowl is a 3 hour add against making this league an offensive snoozfest.

Originally posted by oldman9er:
Makes sense if you have talented offensive weapons and an expansive playbook with everyone understanding of it. Really just depends on the man in charge. Seems like Jim likes to run his style of ball control offense. I think Alex is not the ONLY one out there that has a distrust of the current receiver's abilities on the field.

This is a precient point. But only too a point. Alex needs to trust some of those guys more and trust his eyes more. I am very hopefull that another offseason will see more improvement from Alex. He holds the ball alot and lets some chances go. There are just a few plays here and there that could blow open games for us. I think it's not just abilities but the revolving door at reciever this season. I'd love to see us upgrade at reciever in the draft or FA. But also I would like to see us develop some of the guys on the roster more.

Originally posted by VA49er:

Originally posted by oldman9er:
Makes sense if you have talented offensive weapons and an expansive playbook with everyone understanding of it. Really just depends on the man in charge. Seems like Jim likes to run his style of ball control offense. I think Alex is not the ONLY one out there that has a distrust of the current receiver's abilities on the field.

This is a precient point. But only too a point. Alex needs to trust some of those guys more and trust his eyes more. I am very hopefull that another offseason will see more improvement from Alex. He holds the ball alot and lets some chances go. There are just a few plays here and there that could blow open games for us. I think it's not just abilities but the revolving door at reciever this season. I'd love to see us upgrade at reciever in the draft or FA. But also I would like to see us develop some of the guys on the roster more.

I wouldn't disagree with any of this. I know Alex isn't without some blame.

Originally posted by susweel:
Watching the pro bowl right now and its clear that its a WR and QB league and it sucks because we have neither.

i dont disagree thats its a qb/wr league now with the rules and such, but be realistic we run harbs O, te heavy and run game heavy, if we still had martz, we'd have more passing tds, better wr stats and whatever, but we're gonna run his O not some spread out 5 wide and throw all game s**t like some other teams are willing to.