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One thing we frequently hear about the preseason is that schematically it is quite vanilla. This is the first opportunity to get film on opponents, so given that the games don't count, we're less likely to see too many bells and whistles. Greg Roman confirmed as much in his press conference earlier today. He said it was more about evaluating players. It was more about seeing who was in the game and what they were doing, as opposed to the play-calling.
As I've been poking around Twitter, one thing I've noticed is plenty of folks (not 49ers fans) upset with how their team performed in their preseason opener. Some did not think their team was sufficiently prepared by the coaching staff, others were not happy with the player performance. It was a mix of emotions.
Since the coaching staff is playing things fairly vanilla, and not really game-planning against their opponent, how much evaluation can we do of the coaching staff heading into the season?
One thing that I think we did see that impressed me in game one was the way the first team offense was getting in and out of the huddle between plays. One significant issue last year was clock management. Even when the team was not getting delay of game penalties, things often felt rushed.
While watching Thursday's preseason opener, that did not seem to be the case. The first string offense was efficient in getting to the line, and that gave them time for the assortment of adjustments we frequently see.
This is something that falls on both the players AND the coaching staff. The coaches need to have the plays in quickly, and Kap needs to be communicating to the huddle quickly. It's a fairly obvious point, but still one with which the 49ers struggled last season. This is something I'll be keeping an eye on in Week 2 when the first string offense gets some more playing time.