Kaepernick or Gore?

Which do the Seahawks try to shut down? Shutting down Gore and forcing Kap to carry the team seems like the obvious choice, but a quick look at each player makes me wonder if the opposite isn't in fact the best strategy to take.

Gore has an elusiveness rating of just 19.1, ranking him 42nd amongst RB's. He's only forced 20 missed tackles. He's showing his age. He's a step slower and a yard shorter.

Meanwhile, one thing jumps out at you when you look at Kap's stats: on play action, which the Niners run on 28.3% of their pass plays, Kaepernick completes 60.2% of his passes, has eight touchdowns, one interception and averages 8.5 yards per attempt, with a QB rating of 113.3. When he's not using play action, his completion percentage drops to 56.7%, he has seven touchdowns and six interceptions, he averages 7.3 yards per attempt, and has a 78.9 QB Rating.

He seriously needs the extra time he gets from play action to find his receivers.

Keying on Gore gives us overkill vs the run game IMO, while letting Kap find the time he needs to get the ball out. Keying on Kap and forcing Gore to beat us puts the onus on an aging RB who can't carry the team like he used to do while making life hell on the young QB who wilts under pressure.

I say we would be better off forcing Gore to carry the team and focus on shutting down Kap.

Given San Fran's offense, we do both. Kaep tends to be a 1-2 read QB that then scrambles, or relies on the Read Option. Gore is pretty much what you've said.

This works against normal zone type defenses, but Seattle's modified 4-4-3 press-man cover 1 (or deep cover triangle as Gruden called it) is an extremely bad matchup for San Fran's offense since it takes away both Gore's running, and Kaep's read-option ability and dares him to make completions against our secondary.

Try to shut down both, id assume.

Like we have to choose only one?

RolandDeschain":2huag9xf said:

Like we have to choose only one?

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Agreed, we pretty much shut down the Whiners, not a specific portion of their game. We have their number until proven otherwise IMO.

I would say try to stop Gore. I don't believe Kap can make the right reads and choices given the pass rush/pass defense.

Make Kaepernick win the game with his arm. Well, his arm isn't the problem, his ability to read the field is.

Frank Gore is one of those guys I wish played for another team because I like the hell out of him.

Stopping Gore will likely be the "biggest" thing, but they obviously have to do both.

Gore having success can easily equate to Kaepernick having success. Much less likely to happen the other way around imo.

My vote is to focus Gore and keep Kap in the pocket. That would make for a long day in 9er land

Just based on the time of possession factor alone I think you almost always have to focus on defending the running game first.

The Saints were able to shut both of them down (Gore - 48 yards rushing; Kaepernick - 127 passing, 25 rushing). I can't see why the Seahawks would have any difficulty doing the same.

If SF has a chance to win this game, it's by running the ball down our throats with Gore. We have the DB's to shut down Kap and his weak ass passing game. Focus on stopping the run. If not, could be a long day for our defense.

Stopping Gore is always the first key. If the 9ers are running well, it does two things. One, it means the 9ers are sustaining long drives most likely, which shortens the game; and two, the play action pass is that much more effective. If SEA can stop Gore in their base D, which they have the past two meetings, then they can plan for the pass. I don't think gameplanning for the 9ers (or SEA for that matter) is all that complicated. It comes down to execution. Sounds cliche, but it is the truth imo.

Saying you want to do something and going out and doing it is always the situation in the strategy of NFL games, Holmgren used to say we are going to run the ball and don't care if you know where, we will execute it's your job to stop us.

We have taken that mantra on defense, were going to stop this or that it's your job to beat us another way or prove we cant stop your run or passing game.

If Indy could go in there and win, we certainly can. Granted Indy was playing out of their minds when both us and sf played them but we are playing out of our minds right now. The Hawks are just going to play their normal defense, and we either stop them both or not.

AsylumGuido":br5kfuzt said:

The Saints were able to shut both of them down (Gore - 48 yards rushing; Kaepernick - 127 passing, 25 rushing). I can't see why the Seahawks would have any difficulty doing the same.

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This man deserves a chicken dinner :th2thumbs:

Stop Gore. He much more dangerous when he's giving 100%. Problems if he can gash us and that opens up their play plass. Important that we're up more than a score in the late third quarter and dare Kap to be as good as he thinks he is...

AsylumGuido":19j4xfye said:

The Saints were able to shut both of them down (Gore - 48 yards rushing; Kaepernick - 127 passing, 25 rushing). I can't see why the Seahawks would have any difficulty doing the same.

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Agreed. In fact I was far more worried about the matchup problems the Saints offense gave Seattle than San Fran. [I wasn't worried about Seattle winning mind, but I think the Saint's offense in all respects is harder to stop than the Niner offense.]

I look at it as a two step process, not an either-or.

1. Stop Gore

2. Stop Kaep

It's kind of a cliche, but it's true. Stop the running game, and you don't have to respect the passing game in that 28% of times they try play action. :229031_shrug:

If they go pure passing offense, well that's why we have one of the best secondary's in football and signed all those pass rushers in the off season. San Fran's biggest problem is that there's nothing to fear there. Respect? Sure, you respect them because they are an NFL team with a pretty good w/l record. But there's nothing to fear.

Gore! Old one read will shut down like a dime store musical santa on an old battery, as usual. This game will come down to officiating I think. If the Zebras call this game like they have the last three we will be spotting them 75 to 80 yards on penalties. Those numbers can be drive sustaining and that's going to be critical.