This is a subject that hits close to home for me, since I am
a lifelong Niners fan. This has been one of those years that makes it hard to
be a fan of any football team. The team came into the season with high hopes
after reaching the NFC Championship game and losing to Seattle. When the
experts looked at the NFC West they saw the 49ers right in the thick of it. I
saw that too I had the team at worst finishing behind Seattle but in the
playoffs. Early in the season they showed signs of struggling on the offensive
side of the ball, the defense seemed to be in place and all they needed was for
the offense to click and at times it did. Then came the stretch in which I thought
the 49ers could win 2 out of 3 games during the stretch in which they played
Seattle twice and faced the hapless Raiders in Oakland. Alas the actual result
was a 3 game losing streak that makes the next couple of weeks of football for
nothing more than morale. There were a couple of reasons I feel that this team
failed this season….
1.
Offensive/Defensive
Injuries – Now most people including me believe in the next man up theory,
this season has been just brutal on this team losing offensive lineman Anthony
Davis and Mike Iupati for extended periods of time. The defense was hit with
injuries and suspensions early in the season and was hit with so much injury
that the starting linebackers were a 2nd year player and a rookie
who played very admirably in place of the best backing core in the NFL today.
This did not allow the team to get into sink and find a rhythm or consistency.
So as much as its next man up a human body can only lose so much blood before
it dies. So it will have to be next year that this defense shows what it can
do. The offense on the other hand needs more work than just getting healthy
they need some more aggressive and smart play calling to make it more efficient
that it was this season…
2.
Offensive
Play Calling – I would say that is was conservative at best and I think
that is what cost them the most. Colin Kapernick seemed to have a regression of
sorts. Last year he seemed to be inching forward in reading progressions and
hitting the open receiver. This year he confirmed the “one step forward, two
steps back” theory , this kid has a long way to go before he reaches his
potential. So he came in highly touted and failed to live up to the hype he isn’t
the 1st won’t be the last to do this. If they manage to keep the
coaching staff mostly in place I believe he will progress to fit into his skin
so to speak. Now onto the play calling I personally don’t think we saw enough
Frank Gore and Carlos Hyde as we could have this season. If greg roman is
around next season he needs to remember that these two guys are his bread and
butter not Kapernick. If he can realize this he can lead another team to the
super bowl…
Now that as far as the playoffs are concerned that much is
over for this season. But the team still has two games left so let’s do what
good fans do and root on the 49ers in these two games and hope that they can
finish 9-7. If they can’t then I think there will be a lot of changes in the
49ers coaching staff and possibly the loss of a really good coach. But like the
saying goes “Win, Lose or Tie, Niners till I die!!”
If you want to listen
to the Double K’s Classrrom show on the 4ACES network…
Every other Friday
nights at 8pm PST/ 11pm EST
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