If you strike out on third downs you're relying on turnovers & such. Not a winning formula over 16 games. First downs should be closer to fifty-fifty which would make the run average that much better. Having an incompletion is pretty equal to gaining two yards. (Unless your receivers routinely run 8 yard routes when you need 9 on 3rd down.

First downs are very important cuz they lead to easier third and shorts. Ill be honest i have loved some of the numbers that the 9ers are comming up tops in the league in. the numbers inside the numbers.
Things like Their 13.3 points allowed per game. The D yielding just 3.1 yards a carry. also i read The 49ers are one of only two NFL teams (New England is the other) to have scored on all red-zone chances and rank sixth in the NFL with touchdowns on 62.5 percent of trips inside the 20 and the Niners rank fourth in the league in that category on defense. Ther are also our tunrover numbers we are second in the league.

thats what i mean when i say we are winning games our way. we might have a 26th offense or whatever it is but look inside to the stuff that matters to what should be a 4-0 team!!

Great Job sing.... i have said this before but a loss 2morrow wld be a let down!

I'm guessing the Raiders avg 2.95 yards since they're ranked last.

I think the Falcons are preparing most for our highest caliber offensive weapon...VD. Which may open up some gaps for Coffee. I am expecting good production out of Glen this week. It also doesnt hurt having the 09-10 coach of the year.

Raye did it on the opening play in Vikes game and we need to see it more and that is play aciton pass on 1st down. That's what running 61% on 1st down should open up. Now lets see it!

This I think will be another run early pass late game. Since atl has one of the worst run defenses in the league. I see them trying what the cards did. Hill I think will have a huge game and I see coffee breaking a big one. But I think Gonzalez or whoever they put in the middle of the field is going to be a problem. The niners weakness is covering the middle 5-10 passing yard game. If the niners sure that up. I think we beat the falcons convincingly. And then we will no longer be a under the radar team. And I would like to see where the idiots at espn rank the niners then.

Mike in sac. I agree 100 percent with the play action. And hey what's a good bar out here to watch the games. Kinda tired of bbqn at the house. Need to broaden my horizons?

Comment: I'm guessing the Raiders avg 2.95 yards since they're ranked last.

My response: No, the Raiders avg. 3.95 yards on all first-down plays. The 49ers avg 5.05 yards on all first down plays. But if you take away those Gore runs, averaged 3.47 yards on all their other first-down plays.

On only first-down RUN plays, the 49ers average 5.36 yards. But if you take away Gore's two long TDs, the 49ers average 2.85 yards on first down RUN plays.

--Matt M.

OK Matt, if they're averaging 2.85 yds/rush on 1st down, then 2nd down must be real bad, since they're only averaging 2.54 yds/rush on all downs minus those 2 long runs. EVERYBODY AND THEIR BROTHER knows Raye likes to run up the middle on 2nd most of the time, which is why it usually ends up 3rd and long.

Where can anybody find out the percentage of runs on 2nd plus yards/rush on 2nd???

having an incompletion is different from getting 2yds on a run play. ignoring the 2 yds that CAN be the difference in when a team converts to another 1st down (inches can be a factor), it's a matter of TIME. when you throw an incompletion the game clock stops. That means those 25 seconds between plays that gets wasted, the defense has to account for that time.

let's be real here, shaun hill is a real grinder, as he self-proclaims, but watching him loft those passes up in the air is always a tricky situation. A, because they are soft, often times the spiral comes loose making it a harder catch all around. In addition, the wr have to alter their strides to catch the ball, or go up into the air allowing good DBs closure, and the possibility of sticking an arm in to break the catch. of course the pass looks so juicy that they make a play on the ball instead most times.

Everyone loves a winner but, those passes on the NFLN soundfx clip they showed, the first pass to glen coffee was behind him, he had to turn all the way around to possibly make that catch. The pass to morgan could have been lead another yard or two and it would have been a much easier catch than trying to dig an over-the-shoulder punt out of your groin, while running full speed. Yes, if you get your hands on the ball you should catch it but it's much harder than it looks, and getting the ball in weird places makes it all the more difficult.

Comment: OK Matt, if they're averaging 2.85 yds/rush on 1st down, then 2nd down must be real bad.

My response: You're correct about that. On 38 rushing attempts on second downs, the 49ers have averaged 2.34 yards. --Matt M.

I've been saying all along that our O- Line is worse in the running game than we think. We jus can't allow teams to dictate what we do on offense. I wish we would be a lot more agressive than we do on the edges. Teams are just waiting for us to run up the middle into the teeth of their defense. I can't wait until we at least start running outside a bit more. Our guards are killing us and it would be a relief to get them out in space pulling and hitting a linebacker!

Why was Allan Rossum inactive in the last game? I read somewhere that it was a coaching decision. I also read somewhere that he is injured this week and is probable for this coming game. What exactly is going on?

Why was Allan Rossum inactive in the last game? I read somewhere that it was a coaching decision. I also read somewhere that he is injured this week and is probable for this coming game. What exactly is going on?

Thanks Matt,
Using your 38 rushing attempts on 2nd down, with 57 3rd down conversion attempts there were probably 57 2nd down attempts( not accounting for any opponents 2nd down penalties) . 38 rushes out of 57 2nd down plays means running 2/3 of the time. Not a good strategy if you're only averaging 2.34 yds on those 2nd down rushes. I hope Crabtree can get a little more creativity out of Raye on 2nd down. Just a 3 step drop or something. I think I did see 1 play action pass last game or was it the Minn. game.

Can't help you on the Bar. I cant' get away from the HD and the DVR...just to much fun that way.

Another point on the lack of creativity factor is Raye's putting his O-line in the same situation Martz did. The defense has a real good idea what the Niner offense is going to do thus making it a lot harder for the young inexperienced O-line to execute and get their confidence up.

Totally agree Jordan. I think Coffee has adequate speed to run a sweep. Gore I'm not sure, but I believe so. He shocked me on his breakaway runs.

Mike in Sac....I'm DYING here. I watch all the games online. I think I'm with that other guy & will have to hit some bars soon esp on the big games. Maybe tomorrow. HD with replay?? Oh man I'm in caveman times. No dish reception here.

When I finally caught the Sing mic'd up on TV (the picture was focused) it was the first time I saw Hill's duck flutter to Morgan. Man it was ugly but he gets it there.

When we makes Sheets active we should get more sweeps. He ran inside during preseason so it shouldn't be an obvious outside run when he's in.

I'm also with more play action on 1st down. If we do go there I believe teams are still run blitzing us esp with the ILB's so the RB & FB should be immediately ready for the blitz pickup to give Hill his time.

Another option is to just go ahead & THROW on first down straight up from that formation we usually run on.

We can still be the run dominant team that Sing wants but mix it up on 1st downs to keep the D guessing some.

Matt, I'm sure their goal is to get more in the neighborhood of 4 yards per run. If they ever get there, they will be dominant.

True that! I have the same. Thought I would check out a bar for once. Next game I'll be at isn't till CHicago.

The 49ers don't do well on first downs because the head coach, who is a great motivator, and his OC, told the world the 49ers would be a running team. That would be a great motivation for his line to step up to the challenge. But, unlike the defense, they haven't. Of course, it would have helped if our GM had gotten better talent for the offensive line in the off-season. It would also have been a good idea to try to get a better back-up for Gore than a 3rd round rookie.

YOu know Matt, last Sunday you said we were a "6-10" team that was going to win more than six games. I know exactly what you meant but didn't want to make huge posts in your interactive blog.

The bottom line is, in four games, we've scored 8 (just 8, a rather poor number) of offensive touchdowns. Of those eight, two came on bad run-blitz plays by the Seahawks defense that left the field open for huge plays if the back made it past the run blitz. Gore did that twice, but otherwise floundered in that game. That leaves us with six TDs off of drives. Hardly anything to be proud of...

Our defense looks pretty good. On paper. Unfortunately, only one of the offenses we played was any good (actually, it was pretty much average) and they scored 27 points against our defense.

So I'm not optimistic. I think it's obvious (and will become obvious as we get to the difficult part of our schedule) that we've been padding our defensive stats against bad (all but Minnesota) offenses. And we've barely been able to score against teams with average, at best, defenses.

Out of the next seven games I would not be surprised to see us loose at least four, and as many as six if the Titans can right the ship and the Jags become consistent on defense...

Which will make this, to me, 1980 all over again... Only, of course, Montana isn't on the bench...

Two things I'm hoping to see are better execution on the swing passes to the RBs and more crossing patterns underneath the coverage.

If our Offense has any success sustaining Drives with short passes I think we break their will against the run later in the game.

By the same token, if we don't cover and stop Gonzalez on similar attempts, they can easily turn the tables due to a week of rest and fresher legs.

Just as an aside: The word is spelled lose, not loose.

Before the season I also was worried about this stretch of the schedule. However, I am much more optimistic now because of the way Coach Singletary has the Defense playing. Franklin has been a ROCK in the middle. I think teams will have to pass the ball to beat us. Heres's a list of QB's we will face in the next seven weeks: Ryan, Schaub, P. Manning, Collins, Cutler, Rodgers, Gerrard. The only two I am worried about are Manning and Schaub. I think 4-3 over the next seven weeks is very realistic.

After this tough stretch of seven games, we end with Seattle, Arizona, Eagles, Lions, and Rams. Only the Beagles appear tough in that bunch. A 10-6 record is well within reach. NFC west is there for the taking. Go Niners.

The Minnesota offense did not score 27 vs SF. It scored 20. Perhaps the Minnesota offense is average, but to date, Seattle and Arizona are better (though still average). Of their next 7 opponents, Atlanta and Chicago have worse offenses than the 3 opponents mentioned above, Houston and Green Bay are about the same as those 3, Tennessee and Jacksonville slightly better. These "rankings" are based on yards per game. I don't think that this is any kind of in depth analysis and I don't think 4 games necessarily accurately predict the other 12, but I also wonder what data you are using to reach your conclusions.

Comment: you said we were a "6-10" team that was going to win more than six games.

My response: Just to set the record straight, on Sept. 4 (before the 49ers' last exhibition game), said the 49ers were looking like a 6-10 team. The reason I wrote that is because in training camp and the exhibition season, I did not see any semblance of pass rush and I had major questions about the play of the offensive line and passing game.

Since that time, the defense has really stepped up, making this -- perhaps -- much better than a 6-10 team. Those questions about the offense remain. Because the Cardinals and Seahawks are far worse than I believed they would be, the 49ers should do far better than six victories on the season. --Matt M.

Question: Why was Allan Rossum inactive in the last game? I read somewhere that it was a coaching decision.

My response: As I wrote after returning from the locker room Sunday after the game, Mike Singletary wanted to suit up an extra outside linebacker in order to keep Haralson and Lawson fresh. He wanted the return man to have value in other areas. We'll see what they decide today. --Matt M.

Article on Yahoo this a.m. that the Panthers have the toughest schedule remaining of any team in the NFL. Bodes well for that first round draft pick.

Not really worth reading the article, but here's the link:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ys-forbesskeds100809&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

I get sick of people saying we shouldn't count the two big runs by Gore. Our Line and Gore earned those runs. It was amazing that we got two of them in a game but the fact they were amazing doesn't discount them. If we are going to start nitpicking TD's and Not truly "Counting" them for reasons then fine here I go.

Arizona, Well Gores pass TD was because the defense messed up coverage leaving him wide open so that one doesnt count. The pass 50 yd pass to issac bruce was a fluke with a QB like shaun hill so the fact that we scored on the next run when we hiked the ball before the defense was ready should not count. So we got zero TD's against Arizona.

We scored no td's against SEA offensively because of gores runs.

In Min the first TD was a fluke because of a roughing the passer put us close enough to get a TD. The Second TD was earned though. So 1 TD offensively in MIN

We scored 2 TD's offensively against the rams but they suck so those dont count.

I see only 1 TD in 4 games we legitimately scored. We will be lucky to win another game.....

Seriously though Defenses make mistakes sometimes that allow a team to score a TD or make a big play. That does not make a team bad because they got a lot of mistake TD's. This game is all about NOT making mistakes that cost you the game. The 49ers are the BEST TEAM in the NFL at taking advantage of the mistakes other teams make. Whether its missed coverage, mismatches, over commitment by the Def, defensive penalties or something else.

Give the team credit for doing such a good job at that.

If we can take advantage of other teams slip ups.
That is a sign of a great team. Because every game every team makes a mistake. No one plays perfect.

Oh and as for those runs Gore made. They were a thing of beauty. The line blocked perfect gore cut perfectly away from the safeties so they couldn't make a play, he used the ref on one to get by a safety. Saying they shouldn't count because they are a "fluke" is a discredit to all the 49ers involved on those 2 plays.

Comment: I get sick of people saying we shouldn't count the two big runs by Gore.

My response: I never wrote those runs should not be counted. But two good runs in four games is not good. By doctoring the numbers, I wanted to look at the consistency of the run game. By all means, Brekkon, stick to your guns. Count them, and don't let anybody influence how you feel. --Matt M.

Bottom line is the O-line needs to play a hell of alot better than what they've shown so far. They need to open some holes for Coffee & get the running game going. It would also be nice for Hill to finally be introduced to his WR's today.

Matt I agree! you shld get more value out of your returns unless you have a guy who is a pro bowler. so doesnt that beg the question why not try to use sheets? he can be vaulable on offense. 4-5 carries or a screen. but point is he brings SOME vaule and cld be a good return man.

i think offically off the Rossom bandwagon