If Jimmy Raye will attack TEN’s weak secondary this weekend.

I think it is fair to say that a lot of the offensive struggles are a result of lack of player execution. The offensive line has been wretched this year, which is really surprising to me considering how adequately they played for most of last year.

However, a good offensive coordinator would be able to see the lack of execution and adapt to the situation—namely, use what does seem to be working for you. I think most of us have noticed that the offense seems to flourish when it is spread out and Smith is in the shotgun. Why can’t Raye see it?

The best answer I can come up with is this: Singletary and Raye seem to want to prove that this is a tough, grind-’em-out team that will use the run to dictate the game, and they refuse to go away from that type of an offense unless they are down big and HAVE to throw.

for this week’s prediction games (myself included), I think everyone can agree that going into the game, even if the Niners had a legit shot at winning the game (which it turns out we did) it was going to be a slim margin of error, that if we exceeded, we probably wouldn’t win. Having said that, Jimmy Raye did not help put us into a position to win the game, when it became apparent we could win the game (entire game, up until about the 3:30 mark in the 4th Q).

I had mentioned in a post (not sure which one it is right now) that this was a game where we might need all the cheap/ trick play type points we could get in order to have a chance. Sure enough, the TD that decided the game was on a trick play (Addai passing) and Jimmy Raye gave us the same generic, pound the rock, type of strategy. Something has got to give, we absolutely need to become more creative and include more variables, and I don’t mean some tired wildcat approach- how about HB passes (michael robinson> former GOOD college QB, forget Arnaz), end arounds, flea flickers> something. We could have really benefited yesterday from some creativity, and it was painful to watch generic 5 step drops, screen passes, and runs up the gut on every down.

Who knows, maybe Jimmy Raye is into moral victories, because if that’s the case, I’m sure he slept pretty well last night.

enough said

Sing said in his press conference that Raye has to adapt so maybe Sing is going to have a talk with Raye.

I hope that doesn’t imply that there could be two sides to his argument. The only logical thing to be discussed here is how badly he deserves to be fired. But then again that’s another offensive coordinator and another season.

And yet I have to judge him differently based on pre-Alex vs now. I think the addition of Smith and Crabtree have changed the strengths and ability of the entire offense. How he is able to utilize their strengths and how the entire offense develops cohesion will play into my judging him.

I was less happy with him a few weeks ago; I think the last six quarters he’s done fine. It’s critical to remember that yesterday’s game was on the road against one of the best pass defenses in the league. Calling more passes or more runs or trick plays would not likely have changed the result, as Indy is a top team. Better execution and not turning the ball over is what would’ve won the game. Or giving our offense one final possession in the final six minutes.

That this job would not soon be mine…oo..oo…I heard it through the Grapevine…honey honey yeah!!
Yours Truly,
Jimmy “The California Raisin” Raye

because Gore is actually getting the ball and Vernon Davis gets thrown. I don’t always agree with his play calling, but everything isn’t his fault. When we lost to the Vikings, the defense couldn’t stop them in the end. The Falcons lost was both sides of the ball, everybody’s fault. The Texans game was the offense, but the o-line was horrible in the 1st half.
           I would say that although Jimmy Raye hasn’t been an oustanding OC, but until the O-line is consistent you can’t put too much blame on Raye.

As in Sean Payton, HC and play-caller of the Saints and probably the most aggressive play caller in the league.

Tonight, on the final Saints TD drive (11 plays, 81 yards) Payton called a run play on every first down play. Runs to the middle no less. You can imagine if Raye does this, even on a successful 4th quarter TD drive, what people would say about him.

During the game, Gruden noted the Payton had “3000” running plays in the playbook last season (I assume that was hyperbole) but this season cut it down to just a few, as it’s better to perfect what you do and be physical in how you do it. Sounds a great deal like our running philosophy.

Lastly, I watched the run plays of both teams closely. It seemed anecdotally to me that 4 of every 5 runs were in the Center/Guard of Guard/Tackle gap. As in, our favorite play. Both teams, but especially Atlanta, were able to bounce some of these outside because their line had collapsed the defense and created huge cutback crease. Other times they went right up the middle for a handful of yards and occasionally going for more. The difference between them and us? Blocking. I’d also add familiarity, as both QBs, O-lines and skill position players have been in the same system for at least two years (Atlanta) or four years (New Orleans).

The 49ers offered this position to Scott Linehan before Jimmy Raye right? Correct me if i am wrong? Then why is Singletary so stuck on standing behind this man?

                 It is ever so apparent that he has yet to grasp where the talent lies on the 49ers. And after 7games that is hard to believe. And even more since Alex Smith and Michael Crabtree got involved in the offense. To some extent i understand his “conservative” play calling when Shaun Hill was QB as he has physical limitations that disables such “liberal” play calling. But since Alex Smith has taken over i have not seen him really adjust the offense to fit our new signal caller. This of course with the exception on the 2nd half against Houston, when we had no choice down 21-0, and in the two minute drill ending the first half yesterday. Barry Sims came in a played good against Freeney after the Staley injury. Why not open up the offense in the 2nd half to fit Smith’s strengths? And the strengths of our playmakers? He cannot have a good answer for that

                     Look at it this way. When in a spready 3 WR/ TE formation the playmakers and our QB have made plays. It fits to their abilities more so then a 2 WR set. Line Crabtree and Morgan out wide with either Bruce/Jones/Hill in the slot and Davis outside the tackle. This will spread the defense wide in order to cover the 3 WR formation, possibly even bring a safety over to cover Crabtree, because in the coming games it will be apparent many QB’s will have a hard time with him in single coverage. This obviously take away the 8 man box and opens up the running game a bit, Davis is still just lined up outside the tackle so he can have a block/receiving option without giving it away to the defense. What this would do is have a spread lane for Smith to pass through, single coverage on Davis most likely from a safety which would be a mismatch and 2 WR’s lined up in single coverage or even all 3 depending on how the defense game plans against Crabtree. Really after all this explaining is it brain surgery?

How many of those 37 drop backs were in a spread/shotgun formation? Most likely between 7-10 right? At least looking at the games replay that is what i saw. You can pass more often without actually opening up the offense. By this i mean it is possibly that Raye believes “opening” up the offense is just passing more. And that isn’t the case. a 2 WR formation although passing isn’t really opening up the offense much.

                   I want to see 3 or 4 WR sets out of the shotgun, or spread sets behind center with Davis outiside the tackle so you have a run/pass option. Get what i am saying?

I am just stating some common sense. When you have a QB that is more comfortable in a certain offense and playmakers that excel in that same offense why not run it?

                     I understand that soles running the spread offense doesn’t work in the NFL but if you mix it in then it can become another tool. They have to some extent, i just want to see more

anybody remember this game?
http://espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=270923023

This feels like a looong time ago—back before Alex’s shoulder injury, before Mike Martz, before JustTurnOvers, before Rossum was part of the 49ers (in fact, he took a TD back against the Niners in this game).
The reason why I bring it up is because it was one of the games in which the play calling was actually decent. And that was with Jim Hostler as the OC. Hostler kept the Steelers defense off balance by calling counters in the run game, I think there was an end around for Arnaz Battle taken for 8 yards, and in the pass game there were play action passes and roll-outs that took advantage of Smith’s mobility.
Let me reiterate: Jim Hostler kept the Steelers off-balance.
 The Niners 2007 offense was craptastic as the 2008 offense under JTO was turnover-tastic. Yet the Niners were in the game until halftime.
You can say that the Niners are having protection issues, but what I have seen is a lack of creativity by Jimmy Raye. He has avoided play action like the plague (they’ve maybe run about 4 play-action passes the last 2 games), he avoids roll-outs, he avoids making Smith anything but a pocket passer.

I’m not a big shotgun advocate because it hurts your run game, and I think an offensive philosophy which strives for balance is actually a good thing in terms of time-of-possession/ball control and not throwing the ball away. But there are many ways to do that. Calling more off-tackle runs, calling more pitches, calling screens, and then calling play-action passes off of that—that’s how you slow opposing defenses down.
You can say you want to go strength-on-strength and give your o-line a chance to just drive the d-line off the line. But chances are that the d-line is going to be stronger and meet your o-line faster if they know that the dive play is coming.

" The Niners 2007 offense was craptastic as the 2008 offense under JTO was turnover-tastic. Yet the Niners were in the game until halftime."

If being in the game until halftime is a sign of success, then clearly last Sunday’s game was a success, as we actually LED at halftime.

I’m boggled that you point to that game, in which we scored only 16 points, in which Alex Smith and Frank Gore were WORSE than they were on Sunday, as a success.

It seems very difficult to sort out the ‘coaching’ from the ‘execution’. Especially from the outside. I would presume than Sing and the coaching staff actually discuss what they are trying to do internally, and they can evaluate whether or not it’s working to what extent.

We “know” that Sing and Raye want to run the ball, and control the game. We KNOW that they are singularly unsucessful at doing that. But are they unsuccessful because the Defense knows too? Or because they just can’t block? Or because they don’t know “the system” well enough… Or because they don’t adjust well to the defensive adjustments?

Even assuming you had a infinite amount of time to review game film… how would you even distinguish this? I guess at some superficial level you could look at defensive alignment, and offensive play called and try to judge how badly “fooled” they were at the snap… but I think fans overrate deception in play calling and underrate stuff like blocking and tackling.

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/8330/what-raye-and-the-49ers-were-thinking#more