Tried and true method.. Its hard to throw or run while on your ***.

 

Well they better do a better job with gap-integrity, cause in the playoffs they couldnt land a hand of Kaepernick - let along hit em hard and often - he still scores if it was 2 hand touch!

 

Hitting the QB used to be an option before they put tutus as part of the QB uniform.

 

According to the article, once the QB does the read option, he forfeits the "rights" of an NFL QB. Which means, even if he hands it off to the RB, they can absolutely tee off on him. This makes me far more interested in the Packers v. 49ers game than I was before. Going to be interesting to see how they do against a premiere read option QB.

 

They can't hit him if he hands the ball off, unless they hit him as he's handing the ball off.

 

"One of the things that the referees have told us is that when these quarterbacks carry out the fakes, they lose their right as a quarterback, a pocket-passing quarterback, the protection of a quarterback," Matthews said Monday on ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike."

Doesn't sound like Matthews agrees.

 

IMO the "hit the QB" response is the equivalent of saying he has no idea how to stop it. It's also much harder to do then it may sound. The read option is generally run from the pistol formation. this is not your basic option or even the veer which makes the QB pitch right before impact or places him at the line. This pistol has the QB several yards back from the line and makes the defender commit while still at a distance. The QB loses his special protection during the read but the league is still going to call a penalty if the DE is taking several steps out of his way to hit the QB who has already handed off the ball.

Reality is that most DCs who know what they're doing are not going to say to the DE hey take yourself completely out of the play and try to hit the QB on the hope that we can injure him. I expect that what we'll see is lines running more stunts and slants. We'll probably have an extra man in the box trying to anticipate the play. But even that solution is tough to use. Most teams will only use a true read option maybe five times in a game. They may use a pistol formation more often, but they'll just do a standard hand-off or pass out of that formation as easily as they would out of any other formation. You start with an extra defender in the box and you just made it easier to get passed on.

 

"If intimidation is your gameplan, I hope you have a better one"

Colin Kaepernick

 

Didnt seem to work well considering his best hit was when he was out of bounds ~

 

I think the Packers did ok at generally keeping him bottled up, but Kaep showed he can be a good pocket passer as well. He and Boldin were an unstoppable combo today.

 

I only had one eye on the game, but it seemed to me that the Niners didn't use the read option much. So I'm not sure if they stopped the read option as much as the Niners just used other means to beat them. That's one of the benefits of having the read option in your attack. If you focus too much on trying to stop it, you leave yourself vulnerable in other areas.

 

I was a little surprised when Matthews wasn't ejected after throwing punchs at the SF offensive lineman who got in his face after the personal fouls by both teams.