I loved this one particular play call during the third game of the 2012/13 season when the 49ers played Minnesota Vikings. Frank Gore fumbles the ball which was recovered by the Vikings, but on the next offensive play for the 49ers, they hand the ball back to Gore, reposing their faith in their man, their bell cow, their work horse. This says it all, the 49ers offense is built around Frank Gore and his running game. When Gore runs well, the niners win, the co-relation is stunning. Since 2005, Gore has accomplished the feat of 100 yard rushing in 32 games, and 49ers have won 25 of those games.
The loss v/s the defending Superbowl champions -- the Giants -- was hard to take as this was a statement game. Ahmad Bradshaw, the giants running back, proclaimed after the win "You gotta beat the man to be the man". 49ers, the anointed team-to-beat before this game, failed to show up. What was bizarre was Greg Roman's play calls, with many drive killing "Wild-kap" calls. 49ers were so backed up in the second half that Gore did not run at all in the second half. But it wasn't about the second half, the question is why did they dial down the running game after the first 2 drives in the first half, it didn't allow the offense to get into any sort of rhythm.
I like Alex Smith, despite the fact that he isn't in the "elite" class of quarterbacks such as Rodgers, Brees, Manning and Brady. Every team wishes for a Joe Montana but not every team gets one. We have to make the best of what we have, and Alex isn't too bad when used the right way. He isn't known for his deep passes or his accuracy, but he understands the 49ers system well, makes reasonable judgement and has the capability to give the ball to his playmakers such as Vernon Davis.
Real football is blocking and tackling. The passing or the running game is built around these two aspects. “If you watch NFL games I almost think NFL wide receivers are becoming bored,” Harbaugh said before the 2011 season. “They’re not significant in that they might get two to three balls thrown to them a game. But where is the running on the back side of the route? Where is the blocking? I want to make wide receivers relevant again in the game of football to where they’re playing 65-70 plays a game and feel relevant on every single play.”
After the loss against the Giants on sunday, 49ers took on the Seattle Seahawks on thursday night. These are two strong physical teams and some one tweeted that it felt like a game former Ohio State coach Woody Hayes and former Michigan coach Bo Schembechler would have loved to watch. Can you imagine a game in this era and age where the O-linemen are the stars? They were indeed the playmakers in this game, successfully blocking and creating holes for Frank to run through. I sense Roman and Harbaugh will come up with even more innovative play-calls that will take us back to football's roots -- blocking, tackling and the rushing game. It is an ode to the throwback style of football.
Post Script: NFL is known as the copy cat league, where success is imitated and replicated. If you look at the NFC West division, where in the absence of elite class quarterbacks, all of these teams are starting to build their game around a strong physical defense, a formula that 49ers used with great success in the 2011/12 season -- take what you have and work with it.
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