Is the 49ers Defense The Answer For the Offensive Red Zone Woes?

Of course the defense is the answer. The defense is always the answer for our offense

against Tampa; of course, that’s the game which cost us Joshua for the season but we still put up 48…and now that our red zone scoring issues have ‘supposedly’ been addressed, i’m not all that concerned about New Orleans (provided they beat Detroit this Saturday) because 1) that game would be @ Candlestick ~ 2) our entire team will have had the benefit of an extra week of rest to ‘heal-up’ and ~ 3) 2 of the Saints’ 3 road losses this season came @ the hands of St. Louis and Tampa while ours came @ the hands of Baltimore [1st round bye and 2 seed like us] and Arizona [.500 overall season]

That said, the Saints (if it’s them we face in the divisional game) are beatable…even more so if they’re the road team and their opponent has had an extra week off). Besides, Brees will be forced to win this one on his arm seeing as we’ve yet to give up a 100 yard rusher or TD on the ground @ home this season. If his average starting field position is somewhere back at his own 15 yard line, that’s a tall order to complete

Red zone offense is just part of the picture. We are also very poor at converting 3rd downs and getting tough yards when we need them. If we want to be this conservative we at least have execute the power running game well, and we don’t.

If we could at least execute the power running game, then fine, be as conservative as you want and eat up a quarter every drive and run David Akers out 7 times a game. I’d love it. I’d do cartwheels and dance a jig. The problem is you can’t line up with 2 backs and 2 tight ends and run right at the defense. Line up like that and you put 10 men in the box and the defense is still in their base look and gives up nothing in coverage.

If you want to line up in that heavy a set you’re going to have to make the counter, trap, reverse series your bread and butter or switch completely to a zone blocking system. There is just too much size and speed on defense in the NFL to line up like that and run straight at the defense.

It works against the much lesser athletes in the PAC 19, but not in the big leagues, and the sooner our coaches figure that out the better. In fact I’m starting to get disappointed that they haven’t. It shows we are not doing a good job of self scouting our tendencies. Our dominant runs this year have all come on counters, whams, traps, and other misdirection running plays. When we line up heavy and crash into the line — failure after failure after failure.

And if they are 6-9 in their most recent attempts, things should look better moving into the playoffs. Also, taking 3 pts over “aggressive” play calling is the better way to go in the playoffs. Again, we have an ELITE defense. Points, turnovers and field position are premiums. The Detroits, Bills (at one point), Green Bays, NO’s of the league take the approach of scoring a lot more than the opponent to help the defense. The niners have the opposite and if history serves right, elite D’s/great Special Teams/Efficient O’s win Super Bowls.