how do we stop 49ers vaunted pistol offense?

[ActualSpamBot]

Step one. Give Kaep a few looks early to get him to keep the ball and rush the edge, then have either Pollard or a linebacker ready to come around the edge and absolutely crush him. Remember, his protection as a QB goes away once he runs, so do what you have to to make it hurt. Do that a few times to open each series and he's not gonna want to keep it quite so much. That's when you start clogging the middle and rushing off the edge to disrupt the passing game.

[Hammerhead]

Just wanted to bring this thread back up. I feel like we should be analyzing their offense more. I think our offense just needs to do what they do against their defense, but where we really need our masterminds focusing their attention during the lead-up to this game is how do we stop that Pistol offense with their read-option. I don't think it's unstoppable, but I'm curious about more ideas for stopping it. I keep reading 49ers fans say that what the Seahawks did to stop them won't work again because the real reason their offense stalled in that game was due to fatigue from the previous week. Anybody buy that?

I don't buy it, but the Seahawks D is very different than ours. Sherman and Chancellor are a sight to behold. I don't know that we can just do whatever the Seahawks did and hope for the best. The matchups may not allow it. I think the key may be playing a more cerebral game. Force him to commit to the pass, but disguise coverages so that he has no idea what he is throwing into.

[NOLARavenFAN]

We need to be really tough in the red zone.........they are going to get yards, and Kaepernick will make plays, but he struggles in the red zone, where we are really good. Typically they score 28 and win at home, with that defense.
I think that 31 points is the magic number for us. I don't think they can score that many.

Ravens 31-23

[GOTA]

No team in the league uses the pistol more than the Steelers. If you are looking to stop those plays that's the tape you want to watch.

[Your Worst Enemy]

Hope you realize that the 49ers don't run the Pistol offense every single play and have faced many top 10 defenses this year. The Seahawks, Cards, and Rams have pretty good defenses

[Paintballguy]

Hope you realize that the 49ers don't run the Pistol offense every single play and have faced many top 10 defenses this year. The Seahawks, Cards, and Rams have pretty good defenses

You mean like when they lost to Seattle and St Louis?

[ActualSpamBot]

Hope you realize that the 49ers don't run the Pistol offense every single play and have faced many top 10 defenses this year. The Seahawks, Cards, and Rams have pretty good defenses

And in this playoff run, since getting our best four defenders on the field for the first time all season, we've faced 3 top 6 offenses and held them to a combined 4 TDs.

Plus two top 6 defenses (including the number 1 D by points who we scored 38 on).

[Your Worst Enemy]

The 49ers lost to Seattle and St. Louis when Justin Smith was out and it still required 2 missed field goals from Akers against the Rams. That was millenia ago.

I think overpreparing to stop Kaep in the pistol is what did in the Falcons. Should've just played straight up. There are other weapons like Vernon Davis, Moss (maybe) and Crabtree to worry about. Kaepernick is NOT RG3, because he's a much better pocket passer and doesn't rely on simply throwing it over the top. The Ravens have the players to matchup, but it could also be an ugly game like the one two years ago

[Paintballguy]

The 49ers lost to Seattle and St. Louis when Justin Smith was out and it still required 2 missed field goals from Akers against the Rams. That was millenia ago.

I think overpreparing to stop Kaep in the pistol is what did in the Falcons. Should've just played straight up. There are other weapons like Vernon Davis, Moss (maybe) and Crabtree to worry about. Kaepernick is NOT RG3, because he's a much better pocket passer and doesn't rely on simply throwing it over the top. The Ravens have the players to matchup, but it could also be an ugly game like the one two years ago

And the Ravens defense is light years better than the Falcons.

[The Excellector]

Someone brought this one up to me a few days ago. Teams make the mistake of paying too much attention to the QB. If you take away Kaepernick's options, there is less of a chance of him winning this game all by himself. So, if I were Baltimore, I focus on taking Gore away and jamming their outside WRs. With a zone/man mix in the middle, because Davis is their best weapon passing. Let him run a few times, just hit him when he does and he won't want to do it for four quarters. Especially, if someone like Ngata gets a hit on him.

[The Excellector]

Someone brought this one up to me a few days ago. Teams make the mistake of paying too much attention to the QB. If you take away Kaepernick's options, there is less of a chance of him winning this game all by himself. So, if I were Baltimore, I focus on taking Gore away and jamming their outside WRs. With a zone/man mix in the middle, because Davis is their best weapon passing. Let him run a few times, just hit him when he does and he won't want to do it for four quarters. Especially, if someone like Ngata gets a hit on him.

It's kind of like when the Dallas Mavericks decided to take away James and Bosh, essentially saying that Wade couldn't do it all by himself, which he couldn't.

[Your Worst Enemy]

And the Ravens defense is light years better than the Falcons.

Couldn't agree more. And it's going to be a good show either way. Can't wait to see against the most versatile offense in the league. And on the other side of the ball I think the game will be good to see if Flacco can keep up this nice streak of his. He's definitely playing the best I've ever seen from him. No more "deer in the headlights" look for Flacco, and Torrey Smith is a BEAST--period. He humiliated Champ Bailer in ways that would make T.O. jealous.

That offense just needs the run game to wake up

[Paintballguy]

That offense just needs the run game to wake up

Bernard Pierce https://www.profootballfocus.com/blo...lusive-rating/

I don't know what Rice's deal has been. When Pierce has been in the game, he's been running a lot better than Rice. Rice has still been a big threat catching the ball though.

[Your Worst Enemy]

Bernard Pierce https://www.profootballfocus.com/blo...lusive-rating/

I don't know what Rice's deal has been. When Pierce has been in the game, he's been running a lot better than Rice. Rice has still been a big threat catching the ball though.

Why not run Ray Rice when out of sets that don't signal to the world that it's a run? Why not out of a 3-4 WR set or something. Maybe even a draw from shotgun? Just to make the defense defend both instead of stacking against RR

[Paintballguy]

Why not run Ray Rice when out of sets that don't signal to the world that it's a run? Why not out of a 3-4 WR set or something. Maybe even a draw from shotgun? Just to make the defense defend both instead of stacking against RR

Yeah, I agree. Rice seems to be better out of a 1 back set. I think they just got too predictable in the first half against the Pats. They opened it up in the 2nd half when they came out in 11 personnel.

[callahan09]

OK, well I did a bit of research on our Defense versus Atlanta's lately, and it's pretty interesting what I found.

I went back to the last 3 games of the regular season + the post-season.

For Atlanta, that represents 6 games, 4 at home and 2 on the road.
For Baltimore, that represents 7 games, 3 at home and 4 on the road.

In this span, here is a bit of comparison, with what Atlanta allowed first, Baltimore second:

Passing Yards: 1696 < 1552
Total Yards: 2483 < 2393
Yards Per Game: 413.8 < 341.9
Passer Rating: 88.5 < 77.6
Completion Percentage: 63.5% < 56.7%
Yards Per Pass Attempt: 8.15 < 5.95
Yards Per Rush Attempt: 4.86 < 3.93
Rushing + Passing TDs: 14 < 13
Yards Per Play: 6.71 < 5.04
Plays Per TD: 26.4 < 36.5

Looks like we've been playing much better defense than them down the stretch. Their defense had been on the field for an entire game and 105 plays less, but has allowed more yards and more touchdowns!

The completion percentage and yards per pass that they allow is very, very high. Comparably, we allow much fewer completions per attempt and we allow far fewer yards per play (pass, rush, and overall).

I think Colin Kaepernick had such success against that defense because they haven't been playing very well down the stretch, and they are a team that notoriously chokes in the playoffs.

It won't be so easy against the Ravens.

Recall as well that the majority of our games in this stretch have been on the road, while most of Atlanta's have been at home.
Also, we had to do it against teams ranked the following in the relevant categories:

Yards: 1, 4, 4, 5, 10, 14, 22
Points: 1, 2, 2, 4, 6, 12, 19

As opposed to Atlanta, who did it against teams ranked:

Yards: 3, 9, 11, 12, 14, 17
Points: 6, 9, 11, 13, 17, 19

See the difference here? They faced 1 top 5 team in yards, we faced 4. They faced 0 top 5 teams in points, we faced 4. They played 4 games at home, only 2 on the road. We played 3 games at home, 4 on the road. And our numbers are that much better than theirs.

[Bigfish]

We have to hold our own in the trenches with the run game. The run defense has improved in the playoffs probably due to finally getting our best defenders on the field. Hopefully the lower numbers against the run against the Patriots point to a trend. The double overtime against the Broncos skew the numbers to a certain degree.

Colts - 152yards, 5.1 average
Broncos - 155yards, 4.0 average
Patriots - 121 yards, 3.9 average

The 49ers are better at running than all of those teams.

We've been productive on the ground in the playoffs, but certainly have not dominated.

Colts - 170 yards, 5.3 average
Broncos - 125 yards, 3.0 average
Patriots - 108 yards, 3.7 average

The 49ers are a stronger run defense team than any of our previous play off opponents. We'll need to step it up on both sides to keep the running totals from being too lopsided. There's reason to believe we're peaking at the right time, but it's doubtful that we can dominate them on the ground. The X factor to me is Pierce. He has had a much better average yards per carry over Rice. Rice has been effective in screens and dump offs in space.

I believe we can only win this game with a superior passing attack and not losing the turnover battle, something we have been good at except the Colts game. Flacco will need to repeat the performances he has had in the playoffs this year. The defense needs to confuse Kaepernick with exotic coverages to limit his effectiveness.

[Shambla]

One promising stat I saw, even though we were an uncharacteristic 20th in run defense during the regular season is that the Ravens actually finished 8th in yards per attempt (4.0). We didn't get behind big aside from the Texans and Broncos games, I guess teams were just ready to run a lot when they came to play. Indy had a lot of success but it looks like the Ravens are getting healthier and/or clamping down in the post season:

Indianapolis: 5.06 YPC
Denver: 3.05 YPC
New England: 3.86 YPC (I believe their lowest all year)

I know Kaep has a good arm, but I still think the key to winning is to keep Gore and Kaep under wraps from a rushing standpoint. If the Ravens can do that I think the D will limit the SF offense and Joe's going to have his success on the other side.

[Paintballguy]

One promising stat I saw, even though we were an uncharacteristic 20th in run defense during the regular season is that the Ravens actually finished 8th in yards per attempt (4.0). We didn't get behind big aside from the Texans and Broncos games, I guess teams were just ready to run a lot when they came to play. Indy had a lot of success but it looks like the Ravens are getting healthier and/or clamping down in the post season:

Indianapolis: 5.0 YPC
Denver: 4.0 YPC
New England: 3.67 YPC (I believe their lowest all year)

I know Kaep has a good arm, but I still think the key to winning is to keep Gore and Kaep under wraps from a rushing standpoint. If the Ravens can do that I think the D will limit the SF offense and Joe's going to have his success on the other side.

I think a big part of it is Ngata is getting healthier. Ngata has been looking better every week IMO.

[Ravens44]

All the comparisons are great and they shed some light, but what they don't show is how this Ravens team is not even the team that dominated the Giants.
This team is unrecognizable from what they were against Denver the first time.
That throws all comparisons for a loop.

The current Ravens team took shape for the Colts playoff game...not the week before or the week before that or the week before that. But it did take the entire season for this team to take it's current shape and identity.

That is why it is hard to identify with hard numbers where the current Ravens are.
I personally think the two teams have differences but they even out.

If anyone told me before the playoffs what the Ravens defense was going to do in these 3 playoff games, I would have said, wishful thinking. Our guys are playing out of their minds. And they absolutely believe something bigger is driving them. They are beating the opposing players man-to-man across the board. Shutting out Brady in the second half was the culmination of this amazing 3 week run.

In the end, IMHO, it will be one of two things that produce victory: The 49er youth at key positions being too much physically OR our gifted players with experience NOT making the mistakes that youth brings.
This whole game could and probably will turn on just a very few key plays.
Namely, a turnover or two OR a fantastic individual play or two.
The entire rest of the game, I think, will be even and extremely hard hitting.
Our old warriors will lay it out there like it is their last breath.
Should be an incredible game.