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So the Niners are sitting pretty at 2-0. But what a dubious 2-0 it is. Had it not been for a last-ditch drive against Arizona (which included an improvised scamper by Alex Smith) and the six inches Wilkins missed the field goal by against St. Louis we, the NinersFaithful, could be staring at an 0-2 start. But this is not to say I am a pessimist, nor a hater. I am solely a realist, and my anguish stems from one person, and one person alone: Jim Hostler.
Yes, the stats are explanation enough: the last ranked offense in the league, a QB without a touchdown pass and a 5.3 yds/attempt, and a BEAST of a TE with only four receptions on the year. And yet, this is all Hostler has to say about the struggling offense: “The bottom line for us is the run game isn’t going right now and that’s where the inconsistency is.”
SERIOUSLY?! You are supposed to be the Offensive Coordinator of an NFL team and you can’t even identify the problem your own team has. Frank “The Inconvenient Truth” Gore, had a tremendous offensive season last year. In fact, he was (and still is) the offense and, yet, you honestly believe teams aren’t going to stack the box seven/eight/nine men strong?
"Now Coach Hostler I don't want to be an alarmist here. But the "other" inconvenient truth is we have a potentially catastrophic situation on our hands: you and Coach Nolan may completely screw over this offense. And how could you look the children and grandchildren of The Faithful in the eye after that?"The clichéd notion of “you must pound the rock to pass it” doesn’t translate at all to this years 49ers. Rather we need to open up our offense, pass on first-down a little bit, and give Gore some breathing room. Our defense and special-teams have won two games for us and my worry is that, until Hostler is able to identify his issues on offense, we won't be seeing an offensive win for a long time.
Prediction for this week: 17-14, 49ers (of course…)
1 comment:
I beg to differ. The incovenient truth is the inconvenient problem that needs to be fixed. You look at the 49ner's offense last year and one statistic should jump out at you. When Gore didn't get the ball the Niners didn't get the win. In 8 of 9 losses last year, Frank Gore had under 20 touches on the ground. Furthermore, in 6 of 7 wins, Gore rushed more than 20 times. Now I understand that when you are winning you have the luxury of running down the clock and that when you rush well, you rush a lot and this leads to victory. In many of Gore's under 20 carry days last year, aka Niner defeat days, he was rushing for at least 4.5 yards per carry, including the 5.5 ypc gore accumulated against the then miserly San Diego defense.
Now of course you say when you're down you can't really be running the ball. Well, why ever be down in a football game? The Niners have the ability to control the tempo of games with execution. Let's face it. This is not the west coast offense that could set up the run by stretching the field with bombs to rice and ownens from young or garcia. This is the Alex Smith era. Suggestions... fix the run. If the run isn't working, run it more. Id rather put the ball in the hands of Gore even if he has 15 carries for 45 yards on the day. You don't need to run the ball well to bring up the safety when you have a back like gore. The threat of what he can do when the opposition isn't loading the box is enough. Now just imagine play fakes to gore and hitting Vernon over the top one on one with a safety. I see a lot of the redskins in this 49ners team. Solid smashmouth D with a young mobile quarterback, star Running back out of the U, Explosive wide out, and a great TE. There are only two differences. 1) 49ners have better talent 2) Niners don't run the ball. 30 carries to Gore and 15 to Hicks will win games. Rely on that defense and pound that rock. This will work in the NFC. Passing game isn't a problem. Problems have solutions. The 49ners passing game would be harder to solve than fermat's last theorem.
Bottom line, Niners are a running team with some explosive weapons. Let gore pound the rock so Smith can utilize, to the best of his ability, his toys.
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