Been studying a few things online and looking at 49ers play calling in the past 2 games, I think it is clear why Harbaugh picked Kaep over Alex. It is not because of his arm strength or his accuracy or deep throwing ability, but it is solely due to his running ability. Kaep comes out of Nevada, where their head coach Chris Ault had developed the Pistol offense. Pistol offense can help add the read option dynamic to a team's offensive game plan.
49ers, as we know, are a running team, their team is built around running backs and they have depth there. Their offensive line is built to run-block better than pass-protect. Greg Roman's background is the running game. They were not going to suddenly abandon all that and switch to a dynamic passing game, relying on Kaep's throwing ability. Not this late in the season anyway. With Alex Smith as the QB there was no explosive element in the 49ers run-centered offensive system. The opposing teams defense accepted it was going to be a grind playing the hard nosed 49ers offense, but they didn't lose sleep over it.
If 49ers were to make a run for the Superbowl, they needed some weapons on their offense to add to their base running game plan. This weapon is the extra dynamism of the read option -- RG3 and Cam Newton have been executing this quite successfully. Kaep now provides this ability for the 49ers. However, the one great disadvantage in using a QB read option is him getting a hit and going out of the game (look at RG3). But 49ers are golden here, they can immediately switch to Alex if Kaep gets hit and they can continue with roughly the same running game plan (minus the option) -- as if nothing happened. It is a win-win either way. Not many teams in the league have two starting calibre QBs, the 49ers do. This was simply the most logical choice for Harbaugh. Having Kaep as QB adds one more piece to the running game for the 49ers -- the pistol offense with the read option.
p.s. - a blogger noted that 49ers ran the pistol formation 17 times against the Dolphins.
49ers, as we know, are a running team, their team is built around running backs and they have depth there. Their offensive line is built to run-block better than pass-protect. Greg Roman's background is the running game. They were not going to suddenly abandon all that and switch to a dynamic passing game, relying on Kaep's throwing ability. Not this late in the season anyway. With Alex Smith as the QB there was no explosive element in the 49ers run-centered offensive system. The opposing teams defense accepted it was going to be a grind playing the hard nosed 49ers offense, but they didn't lose sleep over it.
If 49ers were to make a run for the Superbowl, they needed some weapons on their offense to add to their base running game plan. This weapon is the extra dynamism of the read option -- RG3 and Cam Newton have been executing this quite successfully. Kaep now provides this ability for the 49ers. However, the one great disadvantage in using a QB read option is him getting a hit and going out of the game (look at RG3). But 49ers are golden here, they can immediately switch to Alex if Kaep gets hit and they can continue with roughly the same running game plan (minus the option) -- as if nothing happened. It is a win-win either way. Not many teams in the league have two starting calibre QBs, the 49ers do. This was simply the most logical choice for Harbaugh. Having Kaep as QB adds one more piece to the running game for the 49ers -- the pistol offense with the read option.
p.s. - a blogger noted that 49ers ran the pistol formation 17 times against the Dolphins.
p.p.s - "Basically, if the quarterback never runs, the defense has 11 and you've only got 10," "Nobody covers the quarterback. So most of your defenses are set up 11 on 10."
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