This game is going to hinge on whether or not Shane Waldron can add enough variations. There is a back and forth in another thread about whether DK's lazy route or Geno throwing it to him late were at fault for Ramsey getting his first interception. Personally I blame Waldron. We ran the same play to DK to start the first Rams game. Yes, DK ran a lazy route, but how many times do you want to throw the same route as the opening play against a three time All-Pro? It was a stupid play call. A lot of the balls that Geno have thrown that people are jumping are routes we have been running way too often. The playoffs are all about running variations so the film will tell the opponent one thing while we are doing another. If Waldron does that one thing, I like our chances. The Niners have played us very aggressively this season, but their DBs can be had, because they jump a lot of stuff.
Andy Dickerson is going to have his best game as well. The team needs to disguise when we are pulling the guards or tackles better than we have. While we were on the losing streak, defensive tackles were knifing into the back field to disrupt our pullers. This kept the other defensive linemen clean and our running game was stagnant.
Also, Clint Hurtt needs to come up with the game of his life. I am a hater, but if he comes up with the right defensive calls in this one, I may step off the he needs to be fired ASAP train. Green Bay improved their Fangio tree defense midseason by having their people stop running around ignoring the QB and actually focusing on where he was going and their defense finished much better than it was early in the season. We need to get to that point as well.