2013 - Week 1: Thoughts after rewatching the game...

Nice analysis Marvin. Always a great read. I think all the read option hype worked well against the Packers even though Kap didn't use his run part of the option as he did against GB in last year's playoff game. Roman has turned the read option into a triple option by adding the play action--this is why Kap had a little more time to throw because he was freezing the linebackers and then they have to make up for lost time against the likes of VD--good luck with that. The read option wrinkle is great because it is always keeping the defense wondering what the heck is coming next. This Sunday in Seattle expect Roman to blow up their defense with a lot of running inside & outside. The Seahawks run defense isn't very good as we shall find out.

Originally posted by InHarbsWeTrust:
I'm laughing at some people crying about not checking down enough...after throwing for 3 TDs, 400+ yards and a W. So now people care about QB play?

I think it's just an area of his game that could improve. If you look at the Super Bowl and the regular season finale in Seattle, you see two teams that took away the deeper passes and the edge rushing of Kaep. Heck, Kaep and Crabtree made a living with the quick slant and YAC. I don't think anyone is saying that Kaep should have thrown more checkdowns yesterday. I think we just want to see more diversity to continue his development. Green Bay decided to take away all of the running game and left themselves vulnerable deeper because they don't have the talent in the secondary. Teams like Seattle will be able to use less man power to take away the 15+ yard completions. Kaep just needs to improve his 5 yard touch passes. Look at the rocket he fired at McDonald that would have been a first down. We certainly don't want to go back to the days when Gore lead the team in receiving and we averaged 4 yards per completion, but right now touch passes/check downs are Kaep's weakness.

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Good stuff Marvin. You summed up the "bad call" perfectly. We were the ones who got screwed because Staley should have never been flagged, and it was Matthews who started that mess, but good luck getting anyone outside of the bay area to listen. So frustrating for the national media to not even acknowledge those facts.

Agree with you on Roman. A lot of Zoners don't like him but he is a key part of our success. He comes up with great schemes. There is a reason why for the past 2+ years we've been able to open up MASSIVE running and passing lanes. He sets up plays with a purpose. Clock-management and tempo is definitely an issue, but we can't deny his ability to call plays.

Mike & Mike said this almost exactly this morning. Greenburg was livid that Staley was flagged. And of course the league has come out and said it was a mistake. I think we got our due.

The more I watch the video of the game, I wonder if some of the blame for the play clock stuff deserves to be put on how much we switch out players on offense. It seems like every play theres 2-3 new people jogging on and 2-3 people jogging off and we have to wait for them to get out before they can huddle. And then they get the play call, then he tells the huddle the play, then they line up. Maybe if they stop switching out players so much they can get right into the huddle and save some time.

As always...amazing break down. Thanks.

Originally posted by Karma:

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Good stuff Marvin. You summed up the "bad call" perfectly. We were the ones who got screwed because Staley should have never been flagged, and it was Matthews who started that mess, but good luck getting anyone outside of the bay area to listen. So frustrating for the national media to not even acknowledge those facts.

Agree with you on Roman. A lot of Zoners don't like him but he is a key part of our success. He comes up with great schemes. There is a reason why for the past 2+ years we've been able to open up MASSIVE running and passing lanes. He sets up plays with a purpose. Clock-management and tempo is definitely an issue, but we can't deny his ability to call plays.

Mike & Mike said this almost exactly this morning. Greenburg was livid that Staley was flagged. And of course the league has come out and said it was a mistake. I think we got our due.

Good stuff. Didn't have time to tune into TV or radio today so I missed all that, but I'm glad people are acknowledging it. It wasn't even mentioned yesterday.

Originally posted by SofaKing:

Originally posted by Karma:

Originally posted by SofaKing:
Good stuff Marvin. You summed up the "bad call" perfectly. We were the ones who got screwed because Staley should have never been flagged, and it was Matthews who started that mess, but good luck getting anyone outside of the bay area to listen. So frustrating for the national media to not even acknowledge those facts.

Agree with you on Roman. A lot of Zoners don't like him but he is a key part of our success. He comes up with great schemes. There is a reason why for the past 2+ years we've been able to open up MASSIVE running and passing lanes. He sets up plays with a purpose. Clock-management and tempo is definitely an issue, but we can't deny his ability to call plays.

Mike & Mike said this almost exactly this morning. Greenburg was livid that Staley was flagged. And of course the league has come out and said it was a mistake. I think we got our due.

Good stuff. Didn't have time to tune into TV or radio today so I missed all that, but I'm glad people are acknowledging it. It wasn't even mentioned yesterday.

Yeah, I think Aikman has always hated us and the Packers are more of a darling team because of Rodgers. I think that will change over the course of the year. Kaepernick is a rising star and the media usually goes with the hot ticket.

A general comment about the run/pass mix. With Alex Smith under center, quite frankly, the 49ers had to become a run-first team. Colin Kaepernick is an emerging star at QB with a completely different skill set. As such, the 49ers shouldn't be expected to maintain the exact same offense both formationally and in the run-pass ratio. The 49ers have the ability to run a lot, but with Kaep it appears we can also throw it around quite effectively too.

Prior to the Packer game the big question for me was whether they trusted Kaep enough to risk throwing the ball around with Rodgers on the other side. Clearly, the answer is yes. And that may mean a slight gameplan rethink moving forward. Less running than we're used to?

Originally posted by socalniner:

Originally posted by chico49erfan:

Per the off-setting penalty... we still would have won if we had just kicked the FG.

Speaking of that, I was pretty disappointed to see Phil Dawson miss a 48 yarder.. I'll chalk it up to Game 1, but we absolutely need those FGs. It would have been 9 points with 2 minutes left if he had made that. Game would've been over and not quite a stress-filled last drive by GB.

His kicks come off weird like knuckle balls but more times than not, they go through the uprights. Is it possible that the wind was a factor? Snap and laces looked good.

To me, it looked like wind was a big factor on the miss. The flags were almost horizontal and when the ball came off the foot it looked like it would be to the far right. It hooked pretty hard and just missed. May take him a bit to adjust. Just hope it doesn't end up costing us

Originally posted by bzborow1:
A general comment about the run/pass mix. With Alex Smith under center, quite frankly, the 49ers had to become a run-first team. Colin Kaepernick is an emerging star at QB with a completely different skill set. As such, the 49ers shouldn't be expected to maintain the exact same offense both formationally and in the run-pass ratio. The 49ers have the ability to run a lot, but with Kaep it appears we can also throw it around quite effectively too.

Prior to the Packer game the big question for me was whether they trusted Kaep enough to risk throwing the ball around with Rodgers on the other side. Clearly, the answer is yes. And that may mean a slight gameplan rethink moving forward. Less running than we're used to?

I think that will depend on the game. It would be foolish to ignore the run throughout the season. This is really the mark of many great teams. The Patriots used diversity in their offense to create their dynasty. If you look back there were games where Brady hardly threw the ball more than 10 yards down field, and others where he was firing it downfield on every other play. You also saw games where they pound the ball on the ground or ran screens in every variety. The true mark of a great offense is that they can do everything well.

OK...

...to everyone who is talking about how much time is on the clock when the ball is snapped.

Its intentional.

Many teams are trying to speed up the pace, tire a defense, and prevent substitutions.

The 49ers aren't trying to do that. They wait till the last second to force the defense to declare. Thats why there are a number of shifts and checks BEFORE the snap. Thats why there used to ALWAYS be 2 plays called at the line and the QB could "let it roll" or "Kill, Kill, Kill". Now I think its "Green, Green, Green" and Kill, Kill Kill". At Stanford, Luck had THREE playcalls at the line.

This is just the way the offense is built. Even when Alex was in there they would almost always snap the ball with only a few seconds on the clock. Kaep is still a young player. Thats just the way it is and he'll improve as time goes on. There is justa ton of stuff that happens before the snap and it partially how we end up with recievers running WIDE OPEN at times because they get into the correct alignment most of the time before the snap.

This DOES create issues when players can't hear tho. I'm very curious how they will adjust next week in Seattle.

Originally posted by Marvin49:
OK...

...to everyone who is talking about how much time is on the clock when the ball is snapped.

Its intentional.

Many teams are trying to speed up the pace, tire a defense, and prevent substitutions.

The 49ers aren't trying to do that. They wait till the last second to force the defense to declare. Thats why there are a number of shifts and checks BEFORE the snap. Thats why there used to ALWAYS be 2 plays called at the line and the QB could "let it roll" or "Kill, Kill, Kill". Now I think its "Green, Green, Green" and Kill, Kill Kill". At Stanford, Luck had THREE playcalls at the line.

This is just the way the offense is built. Even when Alex was in there they would almost always snap the ball with only a few seconds on the clock. Kaep is still a young player. Thats just the way it is and he'll improve as time goes on. There is justa ton of stuff that happens before the snap and it partially how we end up with recievers running WIDE OPEN at times because they get into the correct alignment most of the time before the snap.

This DOES create issues when players can't hear tho. I'm very curious how they will adjust next week in Seattle.

That makes sense, but I think the concern is that we often put ourselves in a position where we have to burn a timeout or take a penalty. I guess that's the price you pay, but it feels like a double whammy when we shoot ourselves in the foot and we end up killing drives our cost ourselves time at the end of the game. I think we just want to see this improve.

Marvin, I hadn't heard that before. It sure didn't work very well last time up in SEA....and if we really were doing that, SEA is one place where it should be contraindicated.

Whomeam, that sounds like a precise evaluation of what was going on. Honestly, usually the first two plays in each series, we looked like a fuster cluck about to happen. And, usually in the first two calls, that's what did happen. This is a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face....or, translated, we are waiting until D commits and then calling the play. Boy, I bet that works great up in SEA. Roman and Coach better not even consider that up there, because KAP cannot, as in definitely change things mid count up there. I kept wondering WTF was going on, but your observation just put the name on what I saw....but I couldn't figure it out. I think you did. Whatever, if we go the line in SEA, we probably should stick wth the play, and have a bailout TE or RB for every play that we needed to change out of. On those, the RB or TE become defacto bailouts. Changing plays in SEA is a non starter, because there is no way to do it. Can't believe they really did that up there last yr. jeez.

Originally posted by Karma:
Mike & Mike said this almost exactly this morning. Greenburg was livid that Staley was flagged. And of course the league has come out and said it was a mistake. I think we got our due.

Has the NFL apologized for the Superbowl yet? We have the Sports Science video to prove it now. LOL

Originally posted by pasodoc9er:
Marvin, I hadn't heard that before. It sure didn't work very well last time up in SEA....and if we really were doing that, SEA is one place where it should be contraindicated.

Whomeam, that sounds like a precise evaluation of what was going on. Honestly, usually the first two plays in each series, we looked like a fuster cluck about to happen. And, usually in the first two calls, that's what did happen. This is a little like cutting off your nose to spite your face....or, translated, we are waiting until D commits and then calling the play. Boy, I bet that works great up in SEA. Roman and Coach better not even consider that up there, because KAP cannot, as in definitely change things mid count up there. I kept wondering WTF was going on, but your observation just put the name on what I saw....but I couldn't figure it out. I think you did. Whatever, if we go the line in SEA, we probably should stick wth the play, and have a bailout TE or RB for every play that we needed to change out of. On those, the RB or TE become defacto bailouts. Changing plays in SEA is a non starter, because there is no way to do it. Can't believe they really did that up there last yr. jeez.

Correct...It didn't work so well in Seattle.

They know that tho. I'm very currious what they do in Seattle.

Wouldn't it be funny if all of the sudden they went uptempo in Seattle and catch Seattle flat footed?