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It was a thing of beauty to watch . . .
Talking about the San Francisco 49ers’ running game last week in their win over the Green Bay Packers, which was unreal. It was amazing to watch.
The 49ers threw just eight passes in the game. They rushed 42 times for 285 yards and four touchdowns. Running back Raheem Mostert, who had cup of coffee with the Jets, rushed 29 yards for 229 yards and had all four of the team’s touchdown runs.
While the Green Bay Packers defense didn’t do a very good job, the 49ers’ blocking schemes were flat-out brilliant. If you’re an offensive line coach, on any level of football, you need to use this game tape as a tutorial for your players. It should be like a college textbook on offensive line blocking. It was special.
You talk about being on the same page. The blockers, and not just talking about the offensive linemen, but the tight end blocking, the fullback blocking and wide receiver blocking. Wow.
The Harvard fullback, played like you would expect a Harvard fullback to play. Kyle Juszczyk had one of the best games you could possible have as a lead-blocking fullback, making all the right decisions on who to pick up.
Where am I am going with the related to the Jets?
Simple.
If you are going to run the ball like this in an NFL game, it’s not just about the talent of the offensive line, running backs and so forth, but the work in the off-season program.
And this is illustrative of why it’s a big problem that Le’Veon Bell didn’t attend the Jets off-season program last year, aside from the three days of the mandatory minicamp.
It’s still somewhat mindboggling that a player, who just signed a monster contract with a new team, would blow off his first off-season program with that new team. That is pretty rare.
It’s really bad for a program and probably a big part of why Adam Gase isn’t totally enamored of the player.
If you don’t think Bell missing most of the off-season installation last year, in his first year with a new team, hurt the Jets’ running game, especially early in the year, you’re kidding yourself. It did.
And if he blows off most of the off-season program again this year, it will likely impact the Jets’ running game again in 2020. But you know what, if he blows it off again, there is a good chance the team trades him. Now they can’t admit that publicly, since off-season workouts are voluntary, aside from the three-day mandatory camp. But they can trade him, without telling the public and media that blowing off workouts is the reason. If they did say it was the reason, the NFLPA would come after them.
But watching that 49ers’ running game brilliance, keep in mind that doesn’t happen by flicking a switch. That happens thanks to talent, coaching and hard work in the off-season and summer.
January 24, 2020
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