SAN FRANCISCO – The 49ers lost to the Rams 16-13. Here are the grades for the 49ers offense.
Offensive line: D. They were dominated by the Rams defensive line all game. They gave up constant pressure when Kaepernick dropped back, and they could not open holes in the running game. They also were flagged for numerous penalties.
Running backs: D. Frank Gore – 23 rushes for 58 yards, and one of those rushes was for 23 yards, so the other 22 were for 35 yards, which is 1.59 yards per carry.
Brandon Jacobs carried 4 times for 6 yards in limited exposure, and everybody knows what he is as a ball carrier.
Kendall Hunter was a change of pace runner with outside speed that Gore really does not have. With Hunter injured, the Rams basically played the Niners run game as a between-the-tackles package with occasional off-tackle and counter gap plays but no real outside threat.
The 49ers need a “scat-back” type to complement Gore. It doesn’t seem like LaMichael James is ready to be that back.
Gore runs like an old man at times. How much burst does he have left in his legs?
Wide receivers: B. Michael Crabtree was not targeted in the first quarter, but he ended up with seven catches for 101 yards. He’s been terrific after the catch all season. Randy Moss had 30 receiving yards, and Mario Manningham had 37 receiving yards before leaving the game with a shoulder injury. The 49ers could really use A.J. Jenkins to step up down the playoff stretch with injuries to Kyle Williams and now Manningham.
Tight ends: D. Vernon Davis was missing in action once again – he was only targeted three times. He was a big contributor in previous Kaepernick starts – why did Davis disappear today? Delanie Walker dropped a touchdown pass and followed that up with a drive-killing holding penalty.
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Gore deserve better.
No grade for the quarterback position?
Grant always saves a new post for that position.
So Kap is not part of the offense?
Or is he so good he can’t be rated by mere mortals?
Grant usually has a post for kap smithers so relax
Had to get it in before he posted i :-) We all know it is going to be an A-, so not holding by breath!
Not a Smither. Just a FutureKaper, by the way…
Just a horrible offensive game
Not Gore’s fault that the run plays were so predictable – drive killers. Remember 2 years ago when the defense was calling out our run plays? Felt the same way. Just horrible. Roman should go.
I agree! When things get tough, Roman calls the worst plays.
So, your “instant” grade for the offensive line is a D, but you judge Gore this way.
“Gore runs like an old man at times. How much burst does he have left in his legs?”
By the way, Gore had a twenty plus run called back that had the ball at the Rams twenty two yard line in the first half. Old man.
The old man seemed to have a bad left shoulder late in the game. What will the offense look like next week?
Nobody should call this the best OL in the league again. If it is then the NFL has some really, really awful offensive linemen. Two weeks in a row that line has played bad. Plus Goodwin in the shotgun is like David Akers kicking, only about half the time will the snap be any good.
Why did we lose?
#1 Harbaugh\Roman the play calling down near the goal line and before Akers missed his kick was horrible
#2 The O line was terrible way to many penalties
#3 Delanie Walker missed the winning TD and followed it up with a holding penalty. Wish we still had Konrad Rueland.
#4 David Akers maybe not during the season but before next year its time to say goodbye
#5 Last and certainly not least CK was bad today. Its kind of funny but the term game manager has become a criticism around here but today we lost because Kap did a horrible job of game management. I’m still behind Kap for the long haul but todays game should give some people a little bit more appreciation of how AS won games. All i would hear is how we were winning inspite of AS It was all about the D. Well the D was outstanding today but…..
It all started and ended with the O-line today, in our running game. They got owned by the Rams’ defense, all day.
I’m more concerned about Frank Gore than i am either QB Smith or Kaep. We need someone to step up in the backfield to lighten the load for Gore down the stretch. Jacobs in shape yet? L.James pass protection or ball security issues? Who’s it gonna be? With the kind of game plan Roman called today we were really missing the Kendall Hunter element. That guy was a speedy pinball that squirted through holes an bounced off tacklers with ease.
i expected to see ADix get some carries today, figured he would be the number two now that hunter is out. I dont understand not using him, he had a pretty great preseason, i prefer him over BJ.
Davis was invisible last week, so 2 out of 3 kap starts he has been invisible. I know this does not fit into grants theories, but one should at least try to get their facts correct.
We clearly missed Kendall and KW, but really it was the same pattern we’ve seen all season…two straight wins followed by a flop.
For all the mistakes, the worst was Ginn trying to do I-don’t-know-what to the loose ball that became a Rams td. He didn’t seem to want to pick it up, and he didn’t bother swatting it out of bounds. Some really weird play calling overall.
Finally, we left too much time on the clock after we went ahead. Especially given their kicker. Bad play calling, Delanie with drops again, plus CK7…runs out of bounds. Bizarre.
I have no dout Mr Kaepernick will be a great quaterback. However, he can’t read defenses like a veteran can. It doesn’t matter how fast he is the game is faster. Smith or bust this year.
All of this love for Alex Smith is amazing. So you Smithers really think that AS would have led us to victory today despite a running game that was non existent, bad penalties, dropped passes, terrible o-line play and Akers missing a kick that he would have made last year? HELLO the only reason why AS’s record is so good because the 9ers are normally great in those areas. With AS starting we were terrible in the red zone, 3rd downs, and had hardly any big plays in the passing game. Not to mention AS as terrible against the NY Giants last year and this year.
So what’s your assessment of CK since you’re such a fair weather fan? Tell us please, let us blind fans know how much you know of the game. Please do us all a favor, by all means tell us how right you are.
Sincerly Smithers (aka 49er faithful)
Yes.
Grant
“They gave up constant pressure when Kaepernick dropped back,”
I thought CK wasn’t like AS Grant. AS needs the OL to do their job. CK with his feet will make plays and avoid sacks.
Remember?
Maybe you’ll learn some lessons from this about projecting how a player will do forever based off of one stinking game against the most stinking D in the NFL. This was the worse D in our division. AS by the way beat the other two teams by the way which sport better defenses. But you didn’t give him any credit for that at all.
You better nit pick CK like you did AS if not more so. After all. CK replaced AS because he is better. That means he has tougher standards to live up to.
So true. He will never own up to that.
Who cares what Grant owns up to?
You constantly miss the point and are so hell bent-blind on preserving AS’s career that you’ll never get it. You’re comparing a 7 year vet to essentially a rookie. And that sums it up in a nutshell. A rookie is as good as Smith on his bad day. On a good day CK will be more dynamic and outshine AS’s good day. Face the facts objectively. If you really think this was the best D in our division then you’re a fool. How you can blame one player on the offense shows exactly on what your motives are.
How do you not put any blame on the poor performance of the o-line is a mystery to me. Or the game calling, or the dropped passes, missed field goal and lack of run game. CK certainly didn’t have a great game but he still put them in position to win several times and the other players didn’t come through.
*”Wasnt the best D”
Did you watch the game today?
Kaepexcuses.
I did watch the game and i think i was pretty fair in spreading the criticism all over, including Kap. Its to bad you didnt watch the game objectively and conclude that this was an overall blunder by the whole offense including coaches. What do you have to offer besides a generic cookie cutter answer to my post.
Delanie Walker used to be one of my favorite players, but his constant drops the past two seasons have been extremely annoying. He needs to go. for everything he does well, it doesn’t matter one bit if the guy drops more balls than he catches.
So painfully true. This dude is becoming major annoying. When I saw the pass let go, with Walker as the target, I said to my friend ; “watch him drop it.” Sure as sh!!
Harbaugh has ruined this season. Alex would never have given the Rams back the ball at the end of the 4th quarter and would have run down the clock in his usual brillant way. Kap is too green and is making errors of inexperience. Yes, he has potential, but this was not the time to change horses. I predict he will regret this fully after the game against Seattle.
Grant, can you please ask Harbaugh why he thinks not activating James is more beneficial to the 49ers ground game as it may provide similar outside speed like that of Hunter? Thanks
By the way according to PFF, the pass blocking was much better than you’re letting on as the only one who played poorly was Iupati who gave up 1 hit and 3 hurries. And they say Kaepernick was not under pressure for the majority of the game.