San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan watches a replay in the course of the second half of an NFL soccer sport towards the Los Angeles Rams, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Picture/Mark J. Terrill)
The 49ers survived and superior.
However now the stakes enhance and the opponents change into markedly more durable.
San Francisco might want to enhance throughout the board.
The Niners protection, which performed nice on Sunday towards Dallas, must up its sport towards Aaron Rodgers. The 49ers offense can't play prefer it did in Sunday’s second half for a single second, lest they be run off the sphere by the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
However all of these issues are simpler stated than finished.
There’s one thing that the Niners can do to extend their probabilities of successful on Saturday in Inexperienced Bay and past that doesn’t require any extra observe or efficiency.
Kyle Shanahan can cease being so conservative on fourth down.
Sunday was something however a masterclass from the Niners’ head coach. His risk-averse choices all through the sport offered a struggling Dallas crew a number of possibilities to win a sport that had no enterprise being so shut.
Shanahan twice punted on fourth-and-1 within the second half, to let Dallas again into the sport — a contest that was, partly, nonetheless in query behind Shanahan’s first-half determination to take the factors and kick a 40-yard area purpose on fourth-and-1 from Dallas’ 22-yard line.
That sort of passiveness is not going to work because the Niners face higher head coaches, higher quarterbacks, and higher groups shifting ahead.
It's stunning how Shanahan can by no means appear to get his sport administration proper. He throws when he ought to run the ball, runs when he ought to throw, and the clock by no means appears to be his buddy.
And we are able to all admit that the goalposts are perpetually shifting in the case of judging these items. I legitimately really feel unhealthy for the man, who can’t appear to get off the schneid with this. He’s this technology’s Andy Reid on this and so many different methods.
The reality is that it's in the end participant execution that decides video games. Sure, you'll be able to love a choice to go for it on fourth down all you need, however of us often second-guess if the offense doesn’t convert.
As an illustration, when the Niners did go for it on fourth down towards the Cowboys on Sunday, they picked up a five-yard false begin penalty.
The choice was sound. The execution was something however.
That’s the best way it goes generally.
So let’s be actually particular concerning the challenge right here: Shanahan is just too conservative. He has been all season.
The Niners have been within the backside half of the NFL this season when it got here to “go fee” — which means they incorrectly elected to kick on fourth down greater than the common crew.
On Sunday, Shanahan’s three choices to kick on fourth-and-1 decreased the Niners’ probabilities of successful by a cumulative 25 %, per EDJ Sports activities’ simulation mannequin.
Decry “analytics” all you need. They’re simply stats packaged into extra helpful methods, however apparently, they’re the boogeyman to the previous guard.
So let’s take it one step additional and put Shanahan’s choices in brutish, soccer phrases to take away the stigma of massive, scary numbers:
Shanahan’s refusal to place his foot on the throat of an opponent who's down goes to burn him and the Niners, a crew the place execution comes and goes.
Very similar to it was indefensible for Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy to kick a area purpose to maintain it a two-score sport, Shanahan’s determination to kick the sphere purpose early within the second quarter to make the sport 13-0 was puzzling — significantly with the best way the Niners have been working the ball.
The Niners can’t “take the factors” towards the NFL’s high-powered offenses — the sort they’ll see beginning Saturday with their divisional spherical sport towards Inexperienced Bay. Rodgers doesn't go away such crimes unpunished.
The third-quarter determination to punt on fourth-and-1 from their very own 34 could be justified by area place — and it was backed up by the Niners turning Dallas over within the subsequent possession — however it was in the end one other lifeline to a disorganized Cowboys crew that wanted 9 or 10.
However the fourth-quarter name to punt (after two deliberate penalties, in fact) with 2:51 remaining on the Dallas 49 yard line in a six-point sport is baffling.
It took all of 23 seconds of sport time for Dallas — who acquired the ball with no timeouts — to return to the place San Francisco conceded possession.
As a substitute of successful the sport proper then and there — killing the Cowboys the place they lie — Shanahan opted to take the conservative route with the sport on the road.
A conversion would have arrange a game-winning area purpose try or left Dallas with roughly half a minute and no timeouts to go the size of the sphere, ought to San Francisco have merely run it 3 times into the again of their offensive linemen.
Sure, in a vacuum, all of Shanahan’s choices have been individually defensible.
However collectively, Shanahan’s fourth-down choices on Sunday towards the Cowboys (and, certainly, all season lengthy,) confirmed a coach that refused to exert dominance in moments the place such a factor was required.
The requirement goes to a brand new stage this weekend. It’ll take every part for this Niners crew to win Saturday and past. That features the pinnacle coach not doing issues that can actively damage the crew’s probabilities of successful.
Let’s see if Shanahan is up for the duty.