The San Francisco Examiner had an article today about how Frank Gore is not pleased with the offense's performance to date, himself included. For some reason the article is not up yet at examiner.com so you'll just have to take my word for it. The basic gist is that the team has won two games with very little contribution from the offense and it's time for the 49ers O to step up if they want to get to the next level.
So the question then is, what's up with Frank Gore? Gore has 175 yards on 52 carries, 43 yards of which came on that TD run against St. Louis. We all agree there have been serious offensive line issues. Furthermore, defenses have been stacking the box against Gore because Alex Smith is not making them pay yet. The talk this week has been about how Gore had great success against the Seahawks last season. In 2 games, Gore had 356 yards on 53 carries, averaging out to a robust 6.7 yards per carry.
So is this the week the offense kicks it into gear? If Gore is going to return to his 2006 form, Alex Smith and the passing game need to start making plays. With all the 1-on-1 coverage on the receivers, Smith has to make plays. Of course the offensive line has to join in on the fun. One suggestion from a user here was to switch to some more zone blocking schemes. What do people think about that? Any other suggestions for what the offensive line needs to be doing? There is obvious talent. Is it a problem of gelling?
The Seahawks defense will be coming at us with the likes of Julian Peterson and Patrick Kerney and the offensive line will need to stop them. The Seahawks have struggled against the pass this season so once again we have a matchup that Alex Smith should conceivably be able to take advantage of. The Seahawks roll out Marcus Trufant and Kelly Jennings with Deon Grant and Brian Russell at the safety positions. Delanie Walker could be getting one heck of a break with the Disease going down for a few weeks. We'll certainly need Walker to make some plays to keep the safeties honest.
So this is more less a lot of rambling, but I think the point is simple. The offense is running out of time to make things happen. For now the 49ers have an under performing offense. At some point if the offense does not improve, it will go from under performing to just a bad offense. Let's hope we see some improvements before then.
And a reminder, get in your Week 4 predictions before Sunday.