I love this 9er idea [ducks thrown projectiles]

[SuperSpck]

Found it by reading the ever-awesome Sando NFC West blog on ESPN.
http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7218353/quarterbacking-made-simple

Here's a couple pull outs:

A key reason for this is that Harbaugh has made the passing game easier for Smith, particularly when it comes to beating the blitz. Of course, coaches often say they are "simplifying the playbook," but Harbaugh has been able to do it coherently and in a way that actually aids his quarterback's ability to succeed rather than simply removes options.

. That's because Harbaugh eliminated "sight adjustments" from the 49ers playbook... A "sight adjustment" by a receiver refers to the concept that, if a defense blitzes, the quarterback and receiver must both — on the fly and after the snap — recognize it and adjust routes accordingly..

With the rise of the zone blitz, the fact that three defenders might rush from one side tells the offense almost nothing about where the coverage will be. This is why, when zone blitzes first became prominent, you saw quarterbacks throwing awful passes directly to defenders who weren't even close to receivers. This is not to say that sight adjustments are impossible in today's environment, but they require an almost telepathic relationship between quarterback, receiver, and even the offensive line.

So the 49ers ditched sight adjustments. But they still need an answer for the blitz, right? Harbaugh has one. If you want your team to throw the ball downfield, you must keep extra players (two running backs, a running back and a tight end, etc.) in pass protection to buy time for your receivers to get open. Coaches resist this because defenses can force unfavorable situations, like when your running back must block a blitzing defender while three linemen block no one on the other side of the field. But these are necessary trade-offs; the advantage to the offense should be that the three or so receivers who do release in the route should have time to beat the coverage.

But what if you aren't going to block with seven or eight people? The quarterback still needs an anti-blitz option or two, and these are known as "hot" routes. The difference between Harbaugh's "hot routes" and the sight adjustment is that he builds them into the receivers' regular routes. In short, every play has at least one hot route — a quick out, shallow cross, or slant — so if Alex Smith sees a blitz, no complex ballet of synchronized adjustments is necessary; he just looks for a different receiver. Instead of reading deep to medium to short on a passing play that was not blitzed, he might look deep to hot, or even hot to hot (as shown in the video above), when facing a blitz.

As defenses get more complex, the answer isn't always to get more complex on offense; sometimes, it's the opposite. By making the game easier, Harbaugh has turned Smith into one of the league leaders in interceptions per pass attempt. Football is a game of intelligent compromises under constraints such as time, ability, and the raw physics of the game.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Excellent. And all of that begs the "why can't Whiz do this for Kolb or even Skelton" question. In fact, I wonder if Harbaugh could have made something of Captain Checkdown if he'd tailored an offense to Matt's strengths (few as they were).

Steve

 

[Cheesebeef]

I wonder if playing QB (and sometimes playing QB at a high level) isn't a HUGE boon for Harbaugh in dealing with limited QBs. It would make sense that he could simplify things since he played the position and knows how to speak QB so to speak...

 

[Catfish]

THIS-----is the very reason that Harbaugh finds success where Whizenhunt fails. Given lemons, Harbaugh makes lemonade. He finds a simple way to change his system that puts his players into a position to make plays.

Whizenhunt, on the other hand, given the same problems, tries to form his players into a shape that makes them fit his system. He tries to pound square pegs into round holes. This generally results in the players becoming slightly deformed, and unable to adapt to the complicated system, resulting in failure.

 

[LoyaltyisaCurse]

THIS-----is the very reason that Harbaugh finds success where Whizenhunt fails. Given lemons, Harbaugh makes lemonade. He finds a simple way to change his system that puts his players into a position to make plays.

Whizenhunt, on the other hand, given the same problems, tries to form his players into a shape that makes them fit his system. He tries to pound square pegs into round holes. This generally results in the players becoming slightly deformed, and unable to adapt to the complicated system, resulting in failure.

Yep and reason #1 why Whis ian awful coach..