2012 49ers Rushing Attack

"Wham" play against the Lions, taking advantage of Suh's overaggressiveness -

The rushing attack is something Im concerned for for all the right reasons. Like... we have soooo many serviceable RB's I dont know who were gonna keep!

Out of Gore, Hunter, Dixon, James and Jacobs. I see us keeping FG,KH,LMJ.

Now if Gore even remains the starter, that remains to be seen. Kendall Hunter is coming on real strong and shows a lot of potential, but I think La Michael James is going to the the future starting half-back for the Niners in the future, and this could happen as early as this year if he tears it up.

If this happens, Gore might not reach 1000 yards, and it would make me begin to wonder what his role on our team would be because hes such a valuable asset to us and definitely deserves to be around for the possiblity we may win our first championship since 1995. Gore is the most deserving of a ring hands down.

As for the #1 rushing attack, that right is reserved for the Jaguars. They will have the #1 rushing attack again because of several reasons. For one, Maurice Jones Drew IMO is the best Halfback in the league. For two, high ranked rushing attacks these days usually coincide with teams who cant throw for crap and have to resort to using their star running backs on nearly every down. And for three, I see us featuring a much more balanced attack, so who knows if we make the top-3 in carries again. I surely hope not, because potent passing offenses have really taken over in this league. Having one of those combined with our defense and rushing attack aboslutely spells "Deep Post-Season Run." So lets hope were not #1 in rushing. (for optimistic reasons of course)

And the last paragraph is unrelated to the topic, I just hate the Seahawks so much that they deserve their own paragraph. I hope we absolutely murder them both games we play them, and rub it in after doing so. I want us to be so absolutely unsportsmanlike after the victory, that it will make us almost feel bad about ourselves before realizing that its the Seahawks and they deserve every miserable red-headed step child-like beating they get. I want Pete Carrol to be the new handshake victim, but instead of an overly manly pat on the back, I want a spinning back kick aimed at the lower portion of his spine. When Petey complains about it, I want Harbaugh's response to be "I maybe got a little excited, but I dont know what that guys deal is." Then I want the Seahawks to win the 6th spot in the playoffs and win a playoff game so they can play the #1 seed 49ers and get blown out again in a miserable fashion because not only would this be another chance for the niners to kill the seahawks again, but this would also mean they would get another late first round pick after a mediocre season where they will draft another James Carpenter that will hardly improve their roster for years to come.

But besides all that, Im very excited to see what the Running Back corps brings to the table this season. Go Niners!

Awesome posts you guys!

I'm stoked for our running game. The more and more I watch Hunter's game, the more I love the guy and realized how epic he was last year. He does it all...he had a tremendous feel for the passing game (like a TE finding the soft part of a zone defense), was the #1 outlet for Alex, had the best RAC, always made the first guy miss, can run up inside, is quick and fast, is at full speed within one step, is very secure with the ball, ad-lib (but doesn't hurt the team), shows tremendous patience, explosion when he sees the holes, follows his blockers very well, is tremendous on the edge, was unstoppable on screen passes esp. middle screens (excellent hands) and was a VERY good blocker in blitz pick-up. My only complaint was that Roman didn't use him enough (ala Sproles). Now you add an electric LMJ and you can see our tandem future. Our OL is best run blocking out in space (down field blocking and pulling guards).

But like you guys noted, the defenses for the past 9 years have had one game plan...stack the box with 8-10 guys and run blitz between the tackles. Why? B/c Gore does not have the speed to run off tackle and teams could tackle Gore between the tackles while also putting pressure on Alex in the passing game.

So how do you combat this? You combat it with speed on the outside. I'll highlight the NFCCG as a perfect example. We almost beat the Giants 3 times for TD's all with our speed TE. With Ginn out, there was no speed to contend with (Crabtree does not have speed) so the Giants just stacked the box all game long, run blitzed and we were 1 for 13 on 3rd downs consequently. They were willing to get beat once or twice to stick to this game plan and it worked.

But now, we have deep threat speed across the board...Davis, Moss, Manningham, Jenkins, Hunter & James. Just with these guys on the field, like with Ginn last year, DB's will be forced to play way off these guys and unstack the box...it will also force teams to use more DB's and less LB's playing down hill. This creates way more time for Alex (should not lead the league in pressures under 3 seconds this year) of which he's deadly, it creates receiving mismatches all over the field and equally important, it opens up the inside running game for Gore. So as a defense, now what is your alignment?

This season will come down to the effectiveness of the OL pass blocking and sealing the edges without keeping in max-protection formations leaving only one or two receiving options for Alex (usually meant ZERO receiving options). If the OL gels and excels at pass protection this season, Gore will get his 1,000+ yards and ALL of the receivers will have a field day and we'll get that Madden/Fantasy Football stats a few on this board lust for.

Very good posts throughout, and left nothing really much to add. Saw this and thought it good...

http://www.ninersnation.com/2012/7/5/3139509/video-frank-gore-has-taken-up-boxing#comments ;

Video: Frank Gore Has Taken Up Boxing

One of the stories that picked up a lot of steam earlier this offseason was the number of 49ers that were getting into boxing as part of their normal workout routine. Boxing can provide a variety of benefits, with hand-eye coordination and cardio being two areas that can benefit. Add Frank Gore to the 49ers players that have taken up boxing. Gore started up at San Carlos-based Undisputed Gym after a suggestion from Michael Crabtree.

Excellent post and comments. I could read this type of content all day. Thanks.

I agree that our rushing attack will be a force. I also think we'll have to establish the passing game early in our schedule to keep opposing defenses out of the box.

As you guys so aptly put once we open up the game our rushing attack will be off the charts.

GO NINERS!

After watching this video I can't help but think that if that was LMJ he would have taken that to the house! Can't wait to see him break some ankles this year with his quick feet!

Originally posted by oldman9er:
Very good posts throughout, and left nothing really much to add. Saw this and thought it good...

http://www.ninersnation.com/2012/7/5/3139509/video-frank-gore-has-taken-up-boxing#comments ;

Video: Frank Gore Has Taken Up Boxing

One of the stories that picked up a lot of steam earlier this offseason was the number of 49ers that were getting into boxing as part of their normal workout routine. Boxing can provide a variety of benefits, with hand-eye coordination and cardio being two areas that can benefit. Add Frank Gore to the 49ers players that have taken up boxing. Gore started up at San Carlos-based Undisputed Gym after a suggestion from Michael Crabtree.

Boxing has great football analogies...glad Gore is taking that extra mile to help with cardio, balance, etc. I'm not sure how much boxing could help unless he keeps a football in his right hand and boxes with his left. He's already a pin/wrecking-ball and has tremendous balance and feel. He also seems to be great as swiping away hands of would-be tacklers. Maybe it can help with vision, quickness (big issue esp. late last season), stamina, hand-eye-coordination, split-decision making, etc.? Anyone have any insight?

I'm gonna go on a limb and say, with all the depth we have at runningback this year, Frank Gore will play every single game this season.
1500 yard season.

Thats my bold prediction

so hord right now.

Originally posted by NCommand:
Boxing has great football analogies...glad Gore is taking that extra mile to help with cardio, balance, etc. I'm not sure how much boxing could help unless he keeps a football in his right hand and boxes with his left. He's already a pin/wrecking-ball and has tremendous balance and feel. He also seems to be great as swiping away hands of would-be tacklers. Maybe it can help with vision, quickness (big issue esp. late last season), stamina, hand-eye-coordination, split-decision making, etc.? Anyone have any insight?

Boxing training would be almost purely for increasing endurance and reaction speed

I think it will come down to how well the right side of the oline gets it going next year. Boone has to work out and Davis needs to have a good year, the left side should be fine.

Originally posted by DirtyP:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Boxing has great football analogies...glad Gore is taking that extra mile to help with cardio, balance, etc. I'm not sure how much boxing could help unless he keeps a football in his right hand and boxes with his left. He's already a pin/wrecking-ball and has tremendous balance and feel. He also seems to be great as swiping away hands of would-be tacklers. Maybe it can help with vision, quickness (big issue esp. late last season), stamina, hand-eye-coordination, split-decision making, etc.? Anyone have any insight?

Boxing training would be almost purely for increasing endurance and reaction speed

Thanks!

Jamichael Lames is gonna beastmode