I was pretty upset at the end of the game against the 49ers.So upset that I did not watch the last few plays including the touchdown. Forty-eight hours later I decided to find out what happened and tried to answer the following three questions:

1.       Is there hope for this offense?

2.       Which party is most responsible for this poor offensive performance?

3.       Do we need a new OC, a new QB or both?

  The answers that I came up with were:  1. Yes 2. Malik Willis for the first half and Austin Jackson for the second half 3. Neither. The offense can be fixed.

I looked at every offensive play several times in super slow motion. However, rather than doing a detailed blow by blow I will concentrate on the central themes.

Setting the Stage.

Unlike the Raiders, the 49ers are a really good team, which belong in the Super Bowl conversation. No one – including writers in this site- gave Miami any chance. The score reflected the expectations that the Dolphins were grossly overmatched.

There had been justified criticisms of Slowik’s offensive play calling after the first game. Those criticisms were centered around Slowik’s reliance on the deep ball and Malik’s ability to create as well as Achane’s lack of usage. Slowik amply addressed those criticisms this week. Miami ran the ball 23 times in the first half and ended up with 29 rushing attempts. PFF only recorded two deep attempts for Willis. Both were graded as Big Time Throws.

What I saw in the three series on the first half.

1.       Play calling was masterful. Miami ran the ball successfully using motion. Through the use of formations Slowik had the 49ers confused as to whether to expect run or pass. The play calling was imaginative as shown by the second play of the first series which was a pass to the fullback which no one expected. When Herman caught the ball there was not a defender within 15 yards. Unfortunately, Miami was not able to take advantage of the opportunity.

2.       Player’s mistakes and not coaching errors caused the failures. The second play was a good example. Many fullbacks would have tacked a hefty run after catch. Some would have scored. Herman struggled and fumbled the ball which luckily went out of bounds. There were other errors, most notably three offensive line penalties by the OL in critical situations. There were also two drops.

3.       However, the most conspicuous failures in the first half were on Willis. He has a great arm; he is accurate and he tries hard. But he simply takes too long in locating secondary receivers. Those failures occurred at least three times in the first half. In the first play, the primary was Douglas on the left and the only other receiver was Washington on the right. Due to the formation, the 49ers were expecting a run and had eight people at the line. The two receivers faced three defenders on what appeared to be man-off with a single safety. The safety helped the corner who was covering Douglas who ran a really deep route. The other corner stayed deep and that allowed Washington to cut through the field wide open in front of Willis. Willis never saw Washington and ended throwing the ball away to avoid a sack.

This happened once more with Washington on the second series and also on the third possession with 3rd and goal at the two-yard line. In that play, Dulcich got open after blocking. He was in front of Willis running towards the goal line.  However, he was was not the main receiver and Willis did not see him.

That was the story of the first half, a half where Miami should have scored at least 14 points against a Super Bowl contender but settled for two field goals.

 

What I saw on the second half.

Completely different story. Miami was three scores down when they got the ball. The first pass was a short completion to Dulcich for a first down and the second a run by Achane negated by a Jackson penalty. Then Austin Jackson’s rapid and systematic failures in pass protection wrecked the game plan. I do not believe any QB could have done a lot better with the pressure that Willis was seeing. The 49ers blitzes made the matter worse again victimizing Jackson.

General Observations.

I focused on offense but watched also defensive plays at regular speed. At this point in time the defense is a story of missed assignments resulting in wide-open receivers. Slowik is the one getting the criticism but Hafley should pay serious consideration to simplifying the defense. Johnson would benefit from playing man as would do most of the team at this point.

While I thought Slowik came up with a very good game plan, it is apparent that Willis at this time does not have the skills to carry it out since Willis’ main weakness is his inability to locate secondary receivers, specially under pressure.

The minor criticism I had of Slowik’s game plan was that he did not utilize Willis’ ability to run for first rounds and for touchdowns. Willis is being forced to scramble, something he can do really well, but is doing it at half speed to locate receivers on the run which is not his strength. Slowik would do better by telling Willis to turn on the jets when he is scrambling and forget about passing on the run. I believe that this would slow down the pass rush and that is a must until the OL situation is addressed,

Summary. I believe this team will become a lot better than it looked the last two weeks. When Slowik simplifies the passing game and tells Malik to run for first downs (or the goal posts) things will get better on offense. At this time, I believe the offense is better poised for a quick turnaround, but I also believe that Hafley will communicate better with his players and the defense will improve over the next few weeks. There has been excellent effort and I expect better results this Sunday against the Chiefs.

If you have a question about a particular play or series please ask. I did not include a lot of detail but I have it if you are interested.

Regards.

Gines Lleonart.