The 49ers play the Dolphins Sunday at Candlestick. In the meantime, I’ll break down five key matchups.
DC Kevin Coyle vs. Jim Harbaugh, Greg Roman, John Morton and Geep Chryst
The 49ers offensive brain trust got embarrassed last week by Jeff Fisher.
Kevin Coyle is no Fisher, but you can bet Coyle will try to duplicate what Fisher accomplished against the 49ers on Sunday.
The Rams stopped Frank Gore and Brandon Jacobs with their front seven. The Dolphins have a better run defense than the Rams (Miami is ranked No.8 against the run). The Dolphins are going to believe they can play the 49ers run game as a between-the-tackles attack with no outside threat. The Dolphins are going to believe they can stop it without committing an eighth defender to the effort.
That means they’re going to play a soft, two-deep zone and invite Kaepernick to check down, just like the Rams did.
The 49ers know what they’re going to face. That should make it easy for them to create a game plan to defeat it.
They’re probably not going to be able to start the game pounding Gore up the middle to open the rest of the offense. That didn’t work against the Rams.
The 49ers are going to have to free up the inside running game with the short passing game. That means Roman needs to use Crabtree and Vernon Davis as possession receivers. Roman should call hitch routes and slants early and often. The 49ers should be able to get at least six yards per pass easily and keep the chains moving.
Also, Roman is going to have to establish an outside running threat now that Kendall Hunter is out for the season. LaMichael James is the only viable option on the roster. Roman is a creative run game coordinator – look for him to get James involved on zone reads, fly sweeps and screens.
Advantage: 49ers
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What about the screen to James with Boone/Davis as a convoy?
If this goes well, I see a us going into Pats land and manhandling them.
JH will have this team firing on all cyclinders.
Stop it!
It would follow this year’s pattern though. 2 good games, followed by a crappy game.
As I’ve said before, Fisher outcoached our guys last week – but it wasn’t because Fisher was so smart; he did what any intelligent coach would do – stack the middle of the line to stop the run until the 49ers stopped beating their heads against a wall. He outcoached us was because our play calling was totally incompetent. Fisher must have been delighted that Roman showed himself to have no strategic insight and kept running the ball into the teeth of the defense, even though any casual fan could see that it was hopeless – while pass plays were available for the taking.
I assume that Roman will do better this week – specifically, be more aggressive, as a reaction to last week’s debacle. But the problem is that if Roman was that clueless when faced with a situation he didn’t anticipate, he’ll be clueless when faced with a different situation he didn’t anticipate somewhere down the line. He is tone deaf with regard to strategy. The 49ers might win a Super Bowl with him as play caller, because of their defense, but they won’t reach their potential unless they get a brilliant offensive mind to choose the plays.
When the 49ers reverted to ultraconservative play calling in the second half, it made me wonder how much better Alex Smith would have been with really good play selection and maybe just a touch more aggressiveness on his part. With a great play caller, I think either of those guys could take us to the Super Bowl.