On Sunday, the New York Giants defense sacked Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick 6 times, hit them 3 times and hurried them 18 times according to Pro Football Focus.
On Thursday Night, the 49ers have to face an even better pass rush. Seattle’s defense has 19 sacks through 6 games. Chris Clemons has 7 sacks. Bruce Irvin, the nickel pass rusher, has 5 sacks and he’s played less that 50 percent of the Seahawks’ defensive snaps.
Seattle’s pass rush is one of the fastest and quickest in the NFL. The 49ers figure out ways to slow them down.
Here are two ways the 49ers can do that. Please share your own ideas, too.
- Run the ball. Run it with Frank Gore and Kendall Hunter. Run it from basic formations. Keep the Seahawks’ nickel defense off the field. Avoid all obvious passing situations and keep third downs manageable. If the Seahawks don’t know when the 49ers will pass, that’s plays to the 49ers’ advantage.
- Don’t cut the grass at Candlestick this week. Drench the field. Make sure it’s wet and soft to take the speed away from the Seahawks’ defensive line. If the they complain, the 49ers can just tell them Candlestick is below sea level and it’s high tide.
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Don’t cut the grass
That’s a good one Grant.
+1
We’ll have to find new tricks and excuses for Santa Clara. :P
Grant, good read. Has it been confirmed if JStaley is out? If so, if they move ABoone over to LT, who do they replace at RT, LDavis or DKilgore? I’m thinking we see more of VD on the line helping with the run and pass blocking. Thoughts?
It hasn’t been confirmed yet, but I agree with you about VD. I think they would be tempted to play Kilgore over Leonard Davis at right guard if they had to move Boone to left tackle. Leonard Davis seems like a liability in pass protection at this point.
What about D. Walker? He gets rave reviews for his run blocking, but any evidence he’s a pass blocker Grant?
Grant, thanks for the response and I agree that LDavis didn’t seem to play well albeit limited against the Giants. I’d prefer to go with the youth as well.
Grant
Kilgore was the replacement for Boone in the game. I think that means he’ll start if Staley can’t go.
Leonard Davis would go in at RG. That was their move on Sunday.
He played 25 snaps, gave up a sack and was flagged for a false start, right?
Kilgore hasn’t given up any pressure in 38 snaps.
Didn’t he play toreador on one of the late Kaepernick sacks?
At 34, he’s lost some quickness and only guile won’t replace, and they need to start DKilgore at this point if JStaley is unable to plays.
I have a vague recollection – I was very glum and slightly drunk by then – of L. Davis sort of shoving the rusher right into Kaepernick. Is there a stat for ‘sack assist’?
Sort of summed up the whole day.
*play* LOL
Kilgore has primarily only been in during jumbo packages so those numbers are a little inflated. I don’t have a preference one way or the other, that’s just what they did last week.
Leonard Davis is old and has lost a step, as Grant said he is a liability in pass protection. The one thing he can still do will is grade the road. The man is big and strong. This might be the best game for him to do what he can still do well – drive his man into the ground.
So. The Maury Wills strategy, then?
If you don’t understand, Grant, ask your dad, he probably remembers. I do.
I guess I should explain for the younger folks who lack a sportswriter dad: in the 60s, Wills was a base stealing machine for the Dodgers. So when they played at Candlestick, and Wills was due up in an inning or even close, the groundskeeepers would come out and turn on the hoses before the top of the inning. By the time the Dodgers came out to bat, and infield between first and second, and even third, was an impassible swamp of mud that would give former Eastern Front Wehrmacht tank officers some seriously ugly flashbacks. You could sink in up to your ankles in that crap. I was always waiting to see what the umpires would do if a ball ever sank into the morass.
Those were the good old days, when home field advantage was really an advantage, lol.
I remember those days well. I do believe Wills was the first one to steal over 100 bases.
Damn. Speaking of that, Giants rain delay and they’re back to giving us heart failure again!
C’mon!
Nice! Pass on first down, run on second, and 3rd all day long. Get Gore and Hunter 30 carries and we win this game! That simple! Wear them down with misdirection, jumbo, iso, and wham runs ALL DAY long. Akers if you are listening we need you to get your big boy pants on and start making your field goals. Alex well dont force the issue the Hawks picked off Brady twice, ergo take what their defense gives you and dont turn it over. We will need two turnovers on defense to win this game. We will need the extra two possesions to put points on the board. Go Niners!
I like it! Let’s add: Receivers, catch the damn ball! NO TIPS!
“…take what their defense gives you…”
That’s a KEY POINT right there.
I like your plan.
FYI Grant – A. Smith was sacked four times, and Kaepernick was sacked twice, for a total of six during the Giants game.
Ah you fixed it :)
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/8514941/nfl-houston-texans-san-francisco-49ers-common-flaw
FDM – Thanks for the link.
Thanks FDM
The Niners fell behind in both of their losses and couldn’t overcome them. That’s certainly been a flaw of the Niners so far this year.
Fair points. Good link, FDM.
Classic Niner moment vs Giants! Trailing 17-13 with 42 seconds left and needing 78 yards for a TD. This is how you do it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq4djUgwAPo
If only hey Crab 15?
That’s how you do it when you have Jerry Rice. :)
The best part of that clip is watching the 49er sideline going crazy. I remember that game – the Giants had played a very good game and shut us down all day. That and the skipping Walsh game are two of my favorite Jerry moments.
Glory days!
Grumpy – You’re right, Niners were shut down that whole game.
My memory of that day/game:
It was a Sunday in 1988, I woke up alone/hungover in some chicks apartment I met the night before and I watched the entire game there alone.
I was screaming and doing cartwheels after the Rice TD.
C15
What’s sad is how little you’ll find JR playing games on youtube.
DS – Agree
DS – I know you don’t give football predictions but what do you think this blog will be like 5 years from now? How many regular bloggers will still be around? What technological advances will there be etc?
I’m being serious. Let it marinate in your mind for a bit.
Oh…. for 23J, will CK7 be our QB? :-)
C15
Best way to predict the future is to know the history (past).
This blog has had a lot regulars come and go. FDM I think is the only one who has been here since the beginning, so if we go by that alone, pretty much none of us regulars (me and yourself) will still be around.
Of course the community wasn’t so strong in the beginning either, so that may weaken the case for the turnover to be so high the next 5 years as it has been the first 4-5 years.
I think a lot of it depends on the turnover of the blog master. I don’t think Grant will be here. He’ll have moved onto better things (I sure would if I had the chance lol). And the blog-master controls so much. What is appropriate and not. How much to interact with us bloggers and such. And of course, the PD itself may come under different management and sports editors who want to change the direction of the blog itself.
I do hope the blog gets nicer. That may be the Trekkie in me hoping for a better future.
In 5 years time, I hope the space elevator starts to begin construction. It depends on how fast nanotechnology will expand and be financially assisted by governments around the world. If so, and it is completed, then sending spacecraft (satellites which help carry information across the world) for instance become way cheaper to put into orbit. And that can have dramatic effects on all sorts of things we do/have in our daily lives that we don’t even think about. And a lot more that don’t even exist yet.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/space-elevator.html
My personal pie in the sky wish for the space elevator is to build 2. 1 for people and satellite/equipment and such, and one for Nuclear waste/other products that are so dangerous they shouldn’t be on the planet anymore. Get them up into space and fire them into the sun. Ridding us forever of their nearly impossibly long half life to deal with safely any other way.
And the Niners will be going for at least their 7th Super Bowl and the Raiders still suck (as the one constant in the universe).
A space elevator is one of those things that would be awesome to have, but it’s d@mned difficult to build the first one. It can only be built from geocentric orbit, reeling out tether cable both down and up (have to keep the center of gravity at geosynchronous orbit). That means an almost unimaginable number of rocket launches to put the material in place, and automated equipment to actually spin your cable.
It’s physically doable. Just like going to Mars or wherever. Or sending a laser sail probe to another star. But the cost is such that it is not yet politically feasible. And very likely will not be in our lifetimes, unfortunately. Once you have one, mind you, it’s easy to build more – because you no longer need large rockets to lift your materials.
As for Grant, yeah, no writer is likely to stay in place for too many years. Just like Maiocco and Branch, Grant will probably move on at some point.
Or, of course, the ‘Mayans’ might have the last laugh this December. ;)
Grumpy
Commercial spacecraft can assist in that part (rockets) They could in return get a huge discount to send their material first and at a reduced rate.
If you’re ever going to get anything going in space, you need space elevators. And unlike a Mars mission, you don’t have to worry about food stores for people to last 3 years or more. The cable of nano-fibers is the only technological hurdle (what we flat out can’t do now) I believe. And last I heard, they are less than 5 years from making the cable strong enough to handle the stresses.. After that, they need to manufacture it. That is where government funding can really help.
DS – Thank you! I enjoyed reading that!
BTW, the blog evolved a little today by implementing a poll question.
C15
You’re welcome.
“I do hope the blog gets nicer. That may be the Trekkie in me hoping for a better future.”
A utopian-socialist! I like it.
Run a “No-Huddle” offense.
Wally, maybe. According to Seahawk player’s commentary, they were able to eat up the Pats when they did exactly that.
Daniel Kilgore is being groomed to be the successor at Center, seems only right that Kilgore starts at Right Guard. If Kilgore is going to be counted on next season to start at Center, Goodwin in his contract season, then he needs to step up now when his team needs him, altho I think Staley will play.
a 3rd option Grant–they could do what they did vs steelers heavy pass rush on last years monday night game…lots of 3 steps drops with smith getting rid of the ball quickly
i recommend the following plan to slow down the seahawk pass rush:
- Play a balance game: 50% run and 50% pass to keep the defense honest
- Run misdirection plays
- Run draws or delay run plays from the shotgun formation
- Run screen plays to RB and TEs
- Control the time and keep the defense on the field to get them tired
- Use the slot WR and TD and RBs to chip the DL
- Use quick slant passes to get the ball out and exploit defense base on the location of the blitz
I agree with everything except: “Use quick slant passes to get the ball out and exploit defense base on the location of the blitz.”
I’m OK with screen outlets on the blitz side. Never been a real big fan of the way we do slants. Either the slot guy is off a yard or two or Smith throws high. Always seems risky to me.
I miss the old screen dumps to the strong side – Montana and Craig were awesome at that.
Yes we have been very ineffective on the slants due to lack of accuracy and poor route running however with very quick wide outs: k Williams and Manningham Niners should really work on the slant plays specially out of shotgun formations!
I don’t think Smith has the consistency to be a elite QB, last year everything was working well, Akers away and a great defense, now we have holes in both those squads. He can play great tomorrow but he can also sucked. If they lose they will be 4 – 3 and he would play 3 poor games this year. Or he can play great and play 4 great games this year. Who the hell knows what will happen tomorrow.
Neal – What up bro? Would you call this a must win game? Back to back home losses would be ugly.
That would be very ugly for sure.
Adam – The upcoming schedule remains tough after Seattle:
@Arizona
Bye week
Home vs Rams
Home (Mon Night) vs Bears
@New Orleans
@Rams
I suspect the Bears game will be a tough slog. Just a feeling.
There are 2 types of game difficulties in the NFL
1 Hard
2 Insane
How to slow the pass rush?
- Don’t abandon the run too early like the the Vikings and Giants games. If within two scores, keep pounding the rock.
- The QB has to get rid of the ball. Way too many coverage sacks Sunday.
- It’s not against NFL rules to move up in the pocket (instead of backpedaling) when under pressure. Try it once in a while. Used to work great for this Farve guy.
- More 3-step drops early in the game. 5-7 step drops later when the D tires.
- Moving pocket.
- Vertical misdirection plays like draws to Hunter, screens and so on.
- Vary the snap counts more. Some quick counts early, then longer counts to make them jump.
- Promote Sopoaga to starting quarterback. Dare D-linemen to try to hit him. Watch the fun.
Run screen plays to RB and TEs
I’d be all for this, if the 49ers had successfully run a screen sometime during the 21st century. They try, but I swear, they are one of the worse teams at the screen. When we run one, it just gets sniffed out and stuffed. It is a weapon that would be great to have in our arsenal.
But it just ain’t there.
- Vertical misdirection plays like draws to Hunter, screens and so on.
I love Franky, but I get this feeling every time I watch Hunter with the ball, that he is just about to break one. He has such burst, and speed. Gore gets the touches, and is arguably more effective when he does, but I look at Hunter and see a guy that is perhaps underutilized. I’m sure he’ll have his time, but maybe the future is now. Or will be, in about 5 minutes.
Alex smith will bounce back from last week and shine against a seahawks team that has been dominated by the niners in recent history!! We wrote more about this here http://nfllatestnews.com/nfc-west-battle-for-first/
To take away the Seahawks pass rush you run it right at the DE’s. Seattle’s DE’s push upfield so fast they run right out of any run plays. As long as you get some lead blocking on the LB and safety you can gash the Seahawks easily in the run game. This is the same strategy they used to employ with the Colts. Freeney and Mathis would have huge sack numbers but they were a horrible liability in the run game. When their big time safety, Bob Sanders, was hurt they were absolutely terrible against the run. IMHO Freeney and Mathis were two of the most overrated players in the league. They may have had 17 sacks a year but they were giving up 100 rush plays a year that were big plays in each game. If that’s what they were coached to do then shame on the coaches. If they completely took themselves out of run plays in order to pad their sack totals then shame on them for being so selfish. The Seahawks DE’s play the exact same way. They push upfield to get the sack completely losing containment and allowing big runs. If the 9ers return to emphasizing the running game this week I look for big numbers from Gore and Hunter.