| Subject: Stuff |
Author:
Win
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Date Posted: 19:43:20 01/08/03 Wed
TANK - My opinion, for what it's worth, is that Garcia wouldn't be nearly the QB he is today without the work that Mariucci and Knapp have put in with him. They ARE the right fit for each other.
Also, on the WCO, it is feet, but it's also brains and vision. Garcia happened to display all three on Sunday. Did you note how many quotes there were about how well Garcia moved around WITHIN the pocket, not just out of it?
Or the quotes about how well he checked through his receivers, especially on the critical fourth-down pass to Streets and then the go-ahead TD? And how, with only one or two exceptions, he made the best decision on every play over the last 20 minutes?
I've seen at least one article elsewhere that mentioned both Pennington and Maddox as prime examples of QBs who are displaying those same qualities this year, even though, as the writer put it, they couldn't throw the ball through a newspaper at forty feet -- same "problem" usually mentioned when people discussing Garcia.
Does Garcia "run the WCO" as smoothly or precisely as Montana at his best? Absolutely not. But he CAN run the WCO. The fact that he can run a no-huddle offense AS WELL, WHEN REQUIRED, should be considered a useful bonus option, NOT a mutually exclusive skill.
In an email to Uncle Kevin a few days ago, I said that there are times when I'm watching Garcia, during one of his more ungainly outings, when I feel like I'm staring at a fly on a pile of cowdung, but because it's a pile of cowdung that was deposited in front of me by my favorite uncle's prize milking cow, I feel obliged to figure out a reason to find it aesthetically pleasing.
Well, I think was Roger Phillips in the Oakland Tribune this week who casually tossed off a better analogy: he said that this 49ers team has "cockroach-like" survival instincts. And it all flows from Garcia. He may not look pretty out there, and some of his characteristics may annoy the hell out of some fans, but damned if he, and perhaps the team around him, don't look also like they could take over the world.
What happened Sunday should not just be looked at as a study in contrast between the apparently calm, efficient execution of the classic WCO and the frenetic success-through-chaos of a no-huddle offense. It should also be looked at as a question of balance: i.e. what happens when a team decides to abandon entirely the notion of handing off to a running back.
To me, the more important question has always been whether the offense is balanced, not whether it's boring or not. All season long, Mariucci has made a point of aiming for balance, because in the long run, it makes for the most versatile, unpredictable and ultimately successful offense.
Cockroach-like emphasis on balance against the Buccaneers is going to be key. One or both of our running backs MUST have a 100-yard day on the ground if we're going to beat them.
One last thing. I love Tony Parrish to bits, I'm thrilled he's on this team. But I couldn't help a smile when I was reading some article online this week where the writer was discussing non-QB, non-RB MVPs and he nominated Lance Schulters as the single most important player to his team, ahead of even Derrick Brooks.
Cockroaches. Schulters. OK, that's the checklist. I'm done.
GO NINERS!
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