Why so little running by RW?

I hadn't seen this discussed here but RW didn't look like himself. AZ obviously closed down the read option last week but there were a few times I was shocked that Russell didn't take the ball and it looked like if he did he would have had some good runs. The one run to the right on that goal line series I thought he could have scored. I was thinking perhaps he has a sore hammy or something he didn't look like himself. Anyone else see this?

Looks like he's running fine to me. Did he not nearly house a 50 yard run against the Cardinals about five days ago? Niners have always been good at closing and Russell has rarely rushed all over them. However, in terms of shifting the pocket and taking what was available on scrambles, he looked as mobile as ever.

I should have made it more clear I'm talking about last night against the niners. On the read option he never once took the ball and it almost looked like he absolutely was not going to take it, especially after he seemed to force the ball back to Lynch on that fumble. I was expecting him to take the ball a couple times and he didn't.

He may have been a little extra sore from the Cards game with less time to rest before this game. Since we had the lead and our defense was holding them tight there wasn't much of a need to take extra risk this yesterday. I wouldn't be shocked to see him keep it more against the Eagles, especially since they are weaker vs the run then the 49ers.

Niners play the RO very well, plus Borland was all over him. I thought he was going to score on that goal line run too but it was just a great effort by Brooks. He looked fine running throughout the night tho. But yes after all that running vs AZ and 3 days rest, I'm sure he was a little sore

If you go back and watch the game, the Niners always had someone there to take Russell's running away. There were maybe a few times where he maybe could of taken it, but those were few and far between. The Niners are a very fundamentally sound defense when it comes to defending the read-option.

The Cards play so much man cover in the secondary that if Russ breaks contain he has lots of green. SF plays a ton more zone, so the DBs and LBs have eyes on the QB a lot more.

SF has good speed on their DL and LB. Example; Wilson was brought down from behind, what, three times?

May've just been the right choice.

Besides, he had some awesome scrambles that were demoralizing to the Niners D, he just threw after those scrambles. He doesn't have to run for yards to make a defense cry Uncle.

Seafan":1ve8kikh said:

I should have made it more clear I'm talking about last night against the niners. On the read option he never once took the ball and it almost looked like he absolutely was not going to take it, especially after he seemed to force the ball back to Lynch on that fumble. I was expecting him to take the ball a couple times and he didn't.

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I questioned his hesitancy to take off too, but on watching the game over again, he wasn't as surefire open to just take off, as the 9rs Defense had a couple of guys spying him for just that scenario.
The 49rs didn't send the whole Defense at RW on every snap, because they knew that doing so would be overcommitting.
I think the 9rs Defense played Wilson as well as they could.

As others have mentioned, the 49ers did a good job of containing him on runs but he didn't need to run as much...he was able to make plays against them with his arm.

He's just automatically supposed to tear them apart with his legs even when the niners have the speed, system and discipline to keep him bottled up? I get the same attitude with a guy a work who has Wilson as his fantasy QB. He actually gets upset when he see's Wilson slide, when he could have gotten a few more yards by barreling ahead RGIII style. The score didn't make that a necessity, and I'm sure he considered the speed and skill of the niner players. What looks open to us is something they can close on in a hurry, as they showed repeatedly.

not very hard to understand. SF plays the RO very well.

Aren't they the #2 defense with the #2 rushing QB to practice with?

pehawk":25qhh12l said:

SF has good speed on their DL and LB. Example; Wilson was brought down from behind, what, three times?

May've just been the right choice.

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^^^^ Seriously. The Niners have been the team where Russ running with it has led to him getting creamed. Too disciplined and too fast out there on the edges.

Not to mention that Lynch was very effective. Wilson has said many times that he'd rather pass it than run with it.

If he doesn't need to run with it, he won't.

On one play it looked like he had a wide open field if he'd kept the ball and it looked like he saw that too and tried to keep the ball, but Lynch seemed to already firmly have it, because Wilson reached for the longest time but ultimately didn't get the ball from him.

My concern is if santa clara tries to open up kap to running more in the rematch. In the first half alone that i rewatched, he had a 3 plays which would have been positive gains where anything could have happened if he would break 1 tackle, IF the play call would have been a true read option (i think several of theirs were designed runs from a read option look) or IF it was a bootleg call a la russell wilson so often. One time kam had containment on left side of D, and he sucked down on the RB too much. I know kam is fast, but i think he completely underestimated kaps speed if the ball did not go to hyde, as kam was literally the only guy capable of stopping kap for what could have been 20yd plus...i really hope the team focuses on assignments in the rematch, for example kam had NO responsibility or business sucking down on the play i described.

Why so little running from him? Because he had read on Seahawks.net that some people were upset that he ran too much instead of passing. He just wanted to make them have a happy Thanksgiving also.

I say he should run on every play, head back to the pocket, then throw a 50 plus yard td each and every time.