Don’t.
PANIC.
What The 49ers need to do to endure trying times
By Christian Liliedahl-Allen
After the tidal wave of injuries at the seemingly cursed MetLife Stadium in New York, the San Francisco 49ers will next play… at the seemingly cursed MetLife Stadium in New York. Again. Here is what the 49ers must do in order to keep pace in the NFC West, where no team other than San Francisco has lost.
Know your personnel ! -Running back Raheem Mostert has the nickname “ Mosterati” because he is one of the fastest players in the league. Mostert, who ran track and field at Purdue, excels when given space. Over the first few games, coach Kyle Shanahan has rammed Mostert between the tackles far too many times with absolutely no set up or movement before the snap. Tevin Coleman (226 lbs) and Jeff Wilson are far more of the inside “banger” types when running between the tackles, and they must be utilized in that fashion in order to butter up the defense. What happens when you take a high end sports car (Mostert) and go four wheeling with it? The car breaks. Right now, Mostert is injured, and ( look at how he broke his arm) if Shanahan continues to use him as a blunt force instrument and not a precise tool, he will break. It is hard to tackle the likes of Jet and Raheem because of their speed; it will be nigh impossible to tackle them after your gas tank has been depleted because Tevin Coleman and Jeff Wilson smashed into you the previous play.
Movement ! Movement!- No wide receiver has a carry this year; that is a problem. Running the ball even once on receiver sweeps keeps the opposing defenses honest and receivers engaged; it is an underrated dynamic component of Kyle Shanahan’s offense that makes the defenses honest and takes pressure off of Jimmy G. Speaking of Jimmy Garoppolo or any 49ers quarterback ; the San Francisco 49ers need to start to move the pocket to diversify their angles of attack and take pressure off of the quarterback. The 49ers have become somewhat predictable on offense, leading defenses to key in on a quarterback that has shown a more limited ability to navigate the pocket and improvise since his torn acl. I often wonder how much that left knee bothers Jimmy G; his front knee bend is incredibly inconsistent and he shows very little spring off of it when he sets up or needs to reset in the pocket (which honestly, he isn’t great at). Let’s look at an example of mobile Jimmy G:
Who is this guy?! This is Garoppolo’s first drive with the 49ers. His very first play, he steps up in the pocket for a great heads up gain ( this is mop up time, but we are looking at the mobility and ability to avoid a rush). On his touchdown pass to Dante Pettis, we see a spry and aware Jimmy G easily avoid the rush, moving the pocket for a touchdown pass. Could Kyle Shanahan be intentionally keeping Jimmy in the pocket for his safety? If that is the case, I suggest that they consider that a bootleg or two might actually keep a defense honest in the long run, leading to higher qb safety.
Defensive adjustments- E-Man and K’Waun are solid as corners, but K’Waun is an inside nickel guy, so here’s the thing ; whoever plays corner needs to make some sort of contact if they’re supposed to be jamming the Wide Receiver. Too many times I catch Niners corners (specifically Ahkello) whiffing on jams.
Kwon Alexander gets caught up in the shuffle way too much. It’s like when Kwon doesn’t blitz, he becomes tentative. In the first week, he was spun around twice trying to make a tackle; that’s not going to happen if he’s going downhill. Maybe try to run blitz him once or twice; he seems less lost if when he is blitzing with a clear target.
I LOVE Tarvarious Moore’s speed and length; if Jason Verrett gets torched and Akhello can’t play, I would actually lean on Moore’s speed and length for the next couple of weeks.
The Niners have to manufacture some sort of pressure. They won last week, but they need to dial up some plays to get in Daniel Jone’s face.
