Gore up the gut on first down

[zman1527]

This is not a criticism of Gore, but I wonder about his stats. How often do we do we run Frank up the middle on first down, and have done that over the last few years? What is his average on these runs? How many fail to get more than 2 yards? It sure seems that all of our coaches have relied on this very heavily, and the rate of success is not good. Do we do this more than other teams?

As a minor additional point, Aikman was on this all day, how the defense was set up to stop the run in first down. But the Niners did it anyway, with nothing to show for it. Then finally, they did a play action fake to Gore and did what wild and crazy thing? Threw it to Bruce Miller in the flat for 2 yards! Wow. Exciting. Sure to keep all the defense coordinators awake at night.

 

[spacedoodoopistol]

The problem is the biggest thing about offensive football is to avoid 3rd and longs. And when the passing game isn't completing a high % of attempts, you have to look to the running game to at least get some short gains and help move the sticks. Its never gonna be good if you're being stopped short on runs, but the alternative right now is a bunch of 3rd and 10s, and success rate on those is very poor for most teams including ours. The success rate difference between those and 3rd and 6s or 5s is huge.

 

[TobyTyler]

This is not a criticism of Gore, but I wonder about his stats. How often do we do we run Frank up the middle on first down, and have done that over the last few years? What is his average on these runs? How many fail to get more than 2 yards? It sure seems that all of our coaches have relied on this very heavily, and the rate of success is not good. Do we do this more than other teams?

As a minor additional point, Aikman was on this all day, how the defense was set up to stop the run in first down. But the Niners did it anyway, with nothing to show for it. Then finally, they did a play action fake to Gore and did what wild and crazy thing? Threw it to Bruce Miller in the flat for 2 yards! Wow. Exciting. Sure to keep all the defense coordinators awake at night.

He's right. The 49ers walked right into it. Harbaugh is lost when his original game plan doesn't work. He cannot implement changes. I think its partly out of stubborness and ego though.

 

[dredinis21]

Not only running Gore on first down, but HOW they did it is counter to Gore's talents. Gore is a RB with AMAZING vision and patience in allowing his blocks to set up before hitting the hole yet we use him in this quick run option that doesn't allow the play to develop.

 

[Jikkle]

This is one big thing I was complaining about when it comes to our play calling.

We should've taken a couple deep shots with play action pass and make them pay for selling out to stop the run.

Even if you don't complete them you at least put that idea in there heads and it might force them to sell out a little less against it.

If a defense sells out to stop something that leaves them open for other things and you have to exploit that and force them to adjust.