NFL.com: Ed Reed: RG3 prepared Ravens for Colin Kaepernick

[Hooper]

KAP is a beast. He's just scratching the surface. Going to be a stud for a very long time.

And this idea that the Ravens stopped the read option is a stretch at best. The 49ers were in and out of it all game -- and there were plenty of times when they were gashing the Ravens because of it.

[Prototype]

Hats of to Kaepernick for a great season, and he played very well for his first postseason.

However, I noticed when they ran the pistol and the read-option, it's NOWHERE close to how well RGIII runs the read-option. Robert sells the fake so well, the camera can't even follow the ball, but Me and the Raven's D had no problem figuring out where Kap was going with the ball. We truly have a once-a-generation type QB, and I'm looking forward to seeing Robert back and better than ever!

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I don't think there is any way in hell that RG3 doesn't score on that last drive. Four downs that close to the end zone? No way. Absolutely terrible play calling there too. Calling was great until then.

What killed the 49ers there was that they had to call TO on the QB draw play that was going to result in the go-ahead TD. I was screaming for them to run the QB draw...then I saw that they were doing it, just not in time!

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

It didn't work.

[bobbi3stix]

KAP is a beast. He's just scratching the surface. Going to be a stud for a very long time.

And this idea that the Ravens stopped the read option is a stretch at best. The 49ers were in and out of it all game -- and there were plenty of times when they were gashing the Ravens because of it.

Kap is nothing but a watered- down RGIII. It's nothing but disrespectful to compare the two like the media had done.

Ravens defense, considering their age... Did what they had to do, and did it when it mattered the most.

RGIII makes and executes so much faster and with better decision making than Kap, and he's (quite often) making several reads at once. Where Kap is merely doing a play-action.

Watching the 49ers offense, made me appreciate ours even more.

[Hitman21ST]

Kap is nothing but a watered- down RGIII. It's nothing but disrespectful to compare the two like the media had done.

Ravens defense, considering their age... Did what they had to do, and did it when it mattered the most.

RGIII makes and executes so much faster and with better decision making than Kap, and he's (quite often) making several reads at once. Where Kap is merely doing a play-action.

Watching the 49ers offense, made me appreciate ours even more.

Agreed. The post was made in the game thread that it looks like Kaep is told beforehand to either hand it to the RB or keep it (on "read option" plays). Griff rides the RB and reads the D. Kaep doesn't look like he does.

[thebluefood]

I don't think there is any way in hell that RG3 doesn't score on that last drive. Four downs that close to the end zone? No way. Absolutely terrible play calling there too. Calling was great until then.

That's what I was thinking. The play calling at the end was horrible. They basically had diagrams of the play on full display for the Ravens to see. Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman should be ashamed of themselves.

[Yeen80]

Harbaugh (Jim) is a douche

[NLC1054]

Some observations over the playoffs with the Niners pistol:

1) Kaep is late with some of the throws into the flat that need to be quicker

2) He really doesn't read the end as well as Griffin does. He had several opportunities to pull the ball back in, but gave it to Gore for 3 yard gains instead. He could have gashed the Ravens on the outside.

3) He changes the play too much, at least he did in this game. Looked like he audibled WAY too much and second guessed himself and the play.

He spent too much trying to be perfect instead of just going out an executing. That's one of the downsides of handing a young quarterback so much control in terms of protections and audibles.


This also goes to prove that if you're going to run the pistol, you need to go all in from the start with it. Everyone wondered why Kyle wouldn't have RGIII execute more from under center in training camp and why the only ever worked Robert out of the pistol, and thought that was going to hurt his development. But no one executed the pistol better than us this season, period, and we did just enough from under center, and out of shotgun, and we diversified our run calls just enough to keep offenses out of wack.

Kaepernick is going to be a really good quarterback in this league, but he showed his inexperience last night. The Niners moved the ball on the Ravens pretty much at will; it wasn't like they just completely stopped it. At times it felt more like the Niners were stopping themselves. Kap flat out missed some open guys. The effort of a guy like Randy Moss was pretty damn pathetic.

You don't score 29 points and make one of the greatest rallies in Super Bowl history if you don't have an offense that works. But Kap---and I really do like Kaepernick---is not RG3. As Phil Simms pointed out, Kap doesn't anticipated his throws; he needs to see a guy open before he throws it. Now, if his guy is open, he'll let it rip; he made some ridiculously pretty throws. But if it looks like his guy isn't open on that first read, he won't throw it until the guy gets enough seperation where he feels comfortable. His play fakes and his ball handling aren't nearly as good as RG3. Frank Gore is on record as not really liking the offense and it showed in this game. One of Gore's best attributes is usually his patience, but it's more so out of a regular offense than out of the pistol; he rushes it in the pistol, and he's not careful handling the ball.

If you're going to utilize the pistol, you have to go all in on it.

[SAli457180]

I don't think there is any way in hell that RG3 doesn't score on that last drive. Four downs that close to the end zone? No way. Absolutely terrible play calling there too. Calling was great until then.

I don't think it's that easy to score from the 5-yard line especially against a defense like the Ravens. The playcalling was bad but punching it in is no easy task. In addition, the Skins couldn't get it in from the one against the Panthers this year so even RG3 would've had a hard time too in a similar scenario.

[justice98]

Kap is nothing but a watered- down RGIII. It's nothing but disrespectful to compare the two like the media had done.

Ravens defense, considering their age... Did what they had to do, and did it when it mattered the most.

RGIII makes and executes so much faster and with better decision making than Kap, and he's (quite often) making several reads at once. Where Kap is merely doing a play-action.

Watching the 49ers offense, made me appreciate ours even more.

He gets the same results tho, that's all that matters.

---------- Post added February-5th-2013 at 09:09 AM ----------

I don't think there is any way in hell that RG3 doesn't score on that last drive. Four downs that close to the end zone? No way. Absolutely terrible play calling there too. Calling was great until then.

That's two different things. No way RG3 doesn't score, or no way RG3 doesn't score even with those play calls. Even RG3 can't always overcome questionable play calling, so if he'd got saddled with those plays, who knows what would've happened.

[cphil006]

I don't think it's that easy to score from the 5-yard line especially against a defense like the Ravens. The playcalling was bad but punching it in is no easy task. In addition, the Skins couldn't get it in from the one against the Panthers this year so even RG3 would've had a hard time too in a similar scenario.

That;s true. Although, I'd like to think that if RG3 (healthy) had to do it over again now, he'd be able to get it in there... that 7 game win streak spoke volumes... heck we schooled the Seahawks and went up 14-0 before he re-tweaked his knee.

[bobbi3stix]

He gets the same results tho, that's all that matters.

No, he doesn't and it isn't really a debate IMO. He had a great game against a Green Bay defense that was HORRIBLE. His performance against the Saints, was a joke.

SanFrans "version" of the read-option IS what the defenses will stop/figure out. What teams cannot stop, is RGIII's decision making (quickness, accuracy, speed).

RGIII is beyond underrated in the area of comparing what Kap does and what he does. RGIII is making MANY reads at a split-second timeframe. There are plays where he's reading the defensive end/OLB as well as looking downfield at the LB/Safety for their coverage.

If SanFran had RGIII/Morris, they win.

---------- Post added February-5th-2013 at 09:13 AM ----------

I don't think it's that easy to score from the 5-yard line especially against a defense like the Ravens. The playcalling was bad but punching it in is no easy task. In addition, the Skins couldn't get it in from the one against the Panthers this year so even RG3 would've had a hard time too in a similar scenario.

Our backup QB could, and did. Twice.

[TD_washingtonredskins]

One thing about those last couple plays is that I think Kaepernick threw the ball too quickly on third and fourth down. With his speed, he needs to move around and give guys a shot to shake free. On third down, even if he completes that pass, they've gained 2 yards. On fourth down, if he breaks the pocket instead of just throwing the ball up, he either scores or has an easy TD pass to someone.

[justice98]

No, he doesn't and it isn't really a debate IMO. He had a great game against a Green Bay defense that was HORRIBLE. His performance against the Saints, was a joke.

SanFrans "version" of the read-option IS what the defenses will stop/figure out. What teams cannot stop, is RGIII's decision making (quickness, accuracy, speed).

RGIII is beyond underrated in the area of comparing what Kap does and what he does. RGIII is making MANY reads at a split-second timeframe. There are plays where he's reading the defensive end/OLB as well as looking downfield at the LB/Safety for their coverage.

If SanFran had RGIII/Morris, they win.[COLOR="Gold"]

How does he NOT get the same results? His stats are strikingly similar to RG3s. Roughly the same avg per carry, same avg per pass, QB rating, TD/INT ratio, Kap has a better QBR, and he won 7 out of 11, including the playoffs. So what if he makes more reads, he's not doing anything that Kap didn't do in terms of actual results on the field. He almost threw for 10 yards per pass in the postseason. That's insane.

This nitpicking is the same kind of silly stuff that was used to try and separate Luck and RG3. So RG3 makes more reads than Kap, he doesn't get a cookie for that. Just the same as Luck didn't get one for what he did that RG3 didn't do, and vice versa.

---------- Post added February-5th-2013 at 09:35 AM ----------

One thing about those last couple plays is that I think Kaepernick threw the ball too quickly on third and fourth down. With his speed, he needs to move around and give guys a shot to shake free. On third down, even if he completes that pass, they've gained 2 yards. On fourth down, if he breaks the pocket instead of just throwing the ball up, he either scores or has an easy TD pass to someone.

I thought that too, especially on the last 3rd down. I thought he had a lot more time than he made it seem to maybe scramble around like you say. He decided he was gonna throw to Crabtree pretty early and basically took everyone else out of the play.