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Atlantic Ram
I mean the niners are I think last in the league defensively (yardage) and despite the gift goose egg the Rams handed them they are still averaging giving up 22 points a game.
And I do believe that the Rams are throwing the ball down the field more. So I do think Boras is trying to be more successful. I credit him for that.
They were throwing the ball downfield last year, including games with Boras at OC and Keenum at qb. In fact the percentage of attempts on long passes is not that different from last year. So in terms of throwing the ball downfield, the SF game is one exception out of 9 Boras/Keenum games.
Here's what I think happened.
First, what SF did was not just crowd the box, they ran stunts and games and made the OL have to figure out on the fly who to block. With a relatively inexperienced OL in a new system they did not quite have down yet, that just caused a lot of confusion and hesitation.
As D'Marco Farr says---who is the one who spotted this and first talked about it---when the OL hesitates so does Gurley.I saw an offense out of sync. For a lot of reasons including what I just listed.
I think the 9ers pulled a number with their defensive attack and it worked, is what I think. In fact we did not see that attack last year with Boras/Keenum and this year we not only saw SF do it, we saw every defense since copy it.
And remember. This is not "they crowded the box." That's only PART of it. They were also mobile and shifted players through stunts etc. and made this OL figure out on the fly who they were supposed to block. The defense didn't help either. In fact we know the Rams changed the defense up after that game.
If SF could figure out the exact plays...which, with all due respect, I just doubt in the extreme...then why couldn't the next few teams. Especially Seattle and Arizona, who know the Rams and (in the case of Seattle) played the Keenum/Boras combo at the end of the year last year.
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I think the OL thing has been a constant and my concern is that the OL is 1. Thinking too much. 2. Not that good, not bad, but not experienced enough yet. 3. Defenses are crowding the LOS and causing pressure.
But what appears different is the pass distribution. I don't think I am seeing the passes at the LOS as much. It appears to me that Boras is starting to throw vertically more. I don't mean the deep stuff necessarily. I just feel like that is an evolution that I am seeing. Perhaps its an aberration.
I agree that other defenses have copied, to some extent, what the niners did. But I think Boras is taking some advantage of that at this point. And I didn't see much different in the attack against the niners nor an ability to adjust. But I do agree that the offense was out of sync and ineffective.
As far as the stunts etc. What I saw many times was holes opening for the blitz or rusher DL or LB etc... Now I have no problem with saying that was due to the affect of the defensive scheme, its just that it seemed like every time it worked and there was someone at the ball at the LOS. So to me, it appears that the niners had a good idea of what to expect but perhaps the law of averages or something just worked in their favor. But when a player on the other side says they knew what was coming, I don't call it apocryphal because why say it? he has nothing to gain. At a minimum I take it with a grain of salt.
The way I see it is that Boras played right into their hands and never adjusted. I think the niners had a good idea of what the strategy would be and many times had a good idea of where the ball was going. The offense isn't good enough to say "here this is what we do, try to stop it". It was a shut out and a complete domination by a pretty poor defense. We disagree.
