San Francisco 49ers: Failure To Adjust Offensive Game Plan Was Reason for Loss

The San Francisco 49ers lost to the Baltimore Ravens in the much anticipated "Har-Bowl," and the loss should be pinned on the Niners' offensive coaching staff and its failure to adapt to the Ravens' defensive scheme.

In case you haven't heard, the Ray Lewis-less Ravens defense compiled nine quarterback sacks on Alex Smith.

And no, that was not a typo.

You can pin maybe two or three on Alex Smith for holding on to the ball too long, but the offensive line looked as bad as it has since, well, maybe ever.

Towards the beginning of the game, the Ravens' defense was disguising its blitzes to perfection, which confused Smith and the offensive line. They would overload defenders on the left side, then bring the house from the right, or vice versa.

This blitzing scheme left Smith on his back and the offensive line's heads spinning throughout the game.

The Ravens' ability to bring the blitz and force Smith into pressure situations is what single-handedly won the game for the Ravens, and it makes you wonder why the 49ers' coaches, Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman—the 49ers' offensive coordinator—did not try to adjust the offensive game plan.

The running game was not working. The Ravens' front seven did an excellent job in shutting down Gore and impeding him from getting anything going all night.

So the 49ers decided to move to the passing game, and rightly so, but it's how the passing game was executed that eventually prevented the 49ers from scoring a touchdown.

Instead of calling quick passing plays to combat the Ravens' blitzes, the 49ers decided to continually call seven-step drops that played right into the hands of the defense.

Instead of calling running back screens, which is taught in Football 101 to counter the blitz, the 49ers ran passing plays where Smith was practically left as live bait inside the pocket.

Once the 49ers' offensive line was beaten both physically and psychologically, the Ravens were able to supply a heavy amount of pressure with only four-man rushes. Once it came to that, there was no way the 49ers were going to be able to mount a comeback.

The 49ers ran zero running-back screens the entire game. The only two wide-receiver screens that were called resulted in moderate gains, but that's all we saw from that department.

If you think about it, when was the last time you saw the 49ers call a running-back screen all season? The 49ers are obviously not very keen on running-back screens, and it makes you wonder why because they are an intricate part of many successful offenses in the NFL.

However, when all is said and done, the offensive line played terribly; there's just no getting around that.

The Ravens' defense is also arguably the best in the NFL when they are on, and there is no doubt that they were on the top of their game on Thursday night. Additionally, playing on three-days rest while traveling three time zones was certainly a huge obstacle to overcome.

Nonetheless, this was the worst offensive scheme the 49ers have put forth all year, and it certainly raised some cause for concern.

Three weeks from now, the 49ers will be taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers at home. Their defensive blitzing scheme is similar to the Ravens', so it'll be interesting to see if the Niners are able to make adjustments and learn from their prior mistakes.

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