The San Francisco 49ers on Sunday offered up a heavy dose of read-option runs out of the pistol, paving the way for Colin Kaepernick's 68 yards on the ground in an easy win over the Tennessee Titans.
Inventive offensive coordinator Greg Roman has de-emphasized the zone read this season, but receiver Anquan Boldin credited the uptick of those play calls Sunday for his five catch, 74-yard outing.
"It makes defenses declare," Boldin said, per the 49ers' official website. "Are you going to be bring an eighth guy down in the box to stop the run or are you going to stay with seven guys? It definitely clears things up for us. It allows us to throw the ball outside as well."
We tend to believe the 49ers have avoided running Kaepernick because the team is completely unsold on backup Colt McCoy. Unlike last season, with Alex Smith in the shadows, there's no evidence McCoy or anyone else on the roster could engineer the offense if Kap were hurt. Still, you have to balance that risk with the dynamic fire Kaepernick brings to the ground game.
"He brings a different skill set as a quarterback," Boldin said. "He does a lot of different things quarterbacks can't do. I don't think he gets a lot of credit for how good of a quarterback he is. He can throw it with the best of them. He can make any throw on the field. And when things break down, that's when you can really see how special he is."
San Francisco has its groove back on offense, but the base formula hasn't changed. The 49ers click when the ground game channels through Frank Gore. Adding Kaepernick to the mix flips the switch because he forces defenses to burn that extra split-second accounting for the possibility of the quarterback taking off. It certainly was a factor against the Titans.
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