Kyle Shanahan’s Masterclass: Opening Day Triumph Amidst Adversity!

Kyle Shanahan's ground game success all right all right so there's this rumor going around that I may be a little too critical on Kyle Shanahan I don't know where people are getting this from but you know it's in the air so look I felt as though that I need to be more balanced on critiquing Kyle if I am going to critique him right and as a fan not as a professional all right I would he is still a great coach all right but he's not Beyond reproach right so this is what we will do what I'm going to start vowing to do is I feel like because Kyle does so many things well we don't highlight what he does well because all we are doing is fixated on the the tenth of the percent like the small things the things that completely Define him but we don't even realize that the basis on which we can even criticize him is founded upon who he is as a great coach right we don't even have an argument if he's not a great coach and I feel like a lot of people don't say that about Kyle where hey my man the only reason why you can bring these up is because that's all there's left that's it this is the menu all right the rest of the menu is is off the menu come on man stuff that he does exceptionally well be spoke to him right yeah yeah as an offensive coordinator he's one of the top minds of the game there's no question of that as a coach he's one of the best coaches in the league he made mistakes he's done things wrong the overtime call in the Super Bowl not throwing a flag in Philly and the rest of it for me is about Kyle the GM Kyle the coach and ourense a coordinator there's not a lot to criticize and in this game you got to give him a ton of credit you gotta give him credit you had a team that hadn't played on offense since Super Bowl MH and they only have a week to prepare and they have one Series where they go three and out and then they score in the next eight give the man his flowers that's some phenomenal coaching yeah he had to wake up had him ready he had him ready uh coach Sol badly my God you know Robert man he just looks like a broken guy on the sidelines doesn't he just look bewildered like I don't know he just looks like a random guy standing at the DMV he just it's like like and and it's it's so crazy because seeing him purposely try to be stoic after seeing exactly like how exuberant and how ex how much of an extrovert he was it almost looks weird to see him try to be like a coach right like Doc like this is really weird um but getting back to Kyle um let let's let's deal with this comment because I feel like this was the turning point for me I was on my Kyle bag like my my my same old dogging Kyle because he's not doing what he's supposed to do like I was really in my bag the first couple of drives in this game and what what Sent Me to the Moon was that goddamn reverse my Lord like not withstanding the play actions early in the game when we had less than 30 yards running in the game uh we're not going to go there it's just like Kyle just be in there just pressing buttons and pushing levers bro like how are they going to respect play action bro if we haven't ran the ball yet Kyle um and they don't know who Jordan Mason is so they're not gonna respond to play action with anyway because he's not Christian mcaf that's part of it too but give KY credit that after that you yeah they had the turnover and didn't go go far then they kicked the field goal but after that they had seven legitimate drives and that's and that's that's my point my my main point is is that I feel like what we saw be before or during that reverse was more of Kyle leaning into what he had had for Debo versus what he could fashion what Debo could do in the absence of Christian mcaffrey I mean it was the Debo show and really that's how I signify basically the first maybe 25 plays of that game it was the Debo show he got more at one point the ball was only thrown eight times and Debo had four I mean the ball at one point the ball was thrown 12 times and Debo had eight targets I mean he Kyle Force feeds this man the ball at all times and I don't see I do not get it why he tried so hard to highlight Debo Samuel in Slants and comebacks and and screens and now routes and it's like bro like he and then he'll throw in like the Aver like the occasional fade it's and it's just like bro I am so over that when you got an offensive line that you need to get in shape you got a quarterback who needs to process the entire field and get get himself in the Rhythm all right and then you got a defense that is almost sitting back waiting for you to roll out the same carbon copy ethos of what you've been doing and I feel like Jordan Mason kind of settled Kyle down right um You were starting to see less empty you were starting to see more running the running game in the third down uh he got a little cute in the Red Zone but for the most part once Jordan started showing more um confidence in the game Kyle started pressing that button more and then he got creative you know and this is this is why I I really want to give Kyle his flowers and really be fair to him is that it's it's hard to say do something better do something different be be creative when you know your team as well as he does and he's saying to himself all right bro like I get this but I cannot run crack toss to the right side without George I can't we rep this oh you have not seen this 35,000 times the way I've seen it you have not looked at the intricacies of where we run it on the far hash when we run it on the near hash when we run it when we're fresh when we run it when we're tired when we run it on second third and I mean people don't understand just how maniacal people Kyle will get exactly looking at plays understanding the minutia of what they had what they produced during certain parts and situations of the game and being able to give him that type of balance and knowing how W how tightly wound he is with this type of stuff right to kind of see him let the game flow on opening night it was it was a joy to see I I was such a fan of it because he finally let go and he said okay what's working and react to that as opposed to in the game plan what did I think would work yeah and so with Deo I think that this was a special case in that auk didn't play and mcaffrey didn't play in terms of the preseason so he only had debbo and I think that was part of this is that he trusted Debo because Debo was there for all of c and gendo was hurt he wasn't 100% CO's a rookie he didn't play him and so you're kind of forced into a lot of Debo we need to run Debo because we're not going to give the ball to Patrick Taylor are we no so K didn't and and therefore I think there was an overuse of Debo because he was the only guy in the preseason and that's something that Kyle values is who was there working on these plays in and I think that's why he called Debo's num so often because he trusted Debo over the Alternatives he didn't have gendo you gendo came in really late but we knew that he wasn't fully healthy for this game yeah hopefully he will be in Minnesota and I hope that he'll then see more opportunity same thing with Co I think both of those guys need to get more and the offense improved once Kyle started to trust more of what was going on mhm when he spread the ball around when he got the ball to Jennings and got the ball to KD and started to use Mason just in pure Sledgehammer mode the offense was rolling and I think that he can now react to that going forward and saying okay now I know what works with this personnel and now I can add the other guys as spices going forward so I think that part of the overuse of Debo was just in Kyle's mind he didn't have a good alternative and hopefully those Alternatives start showing up in Minnesota and against the Rams in the next yeah and I I I definitely agree um it it was it was good to see Kyle um just you know there's a difference in being scripted and and always uh you know having a plan and you know being wound T being wound tight but there's a there's a quality like a humanistic quality to know that somebody is actually giving it to you in the now right like this guy this is not rehearsed like this guy is like showing us his Raw Talent right like I can tell that this isn't coming from anywhere it felt really good to be able to see him adapt and read the room and understand okay we got the hot hand right now Jordan's moving offensive line is feeling it trit needs to get in shape anyway we'll get Brock in there we'll sandwich Brock in there some uh around around play action but we'll wait for it we'll use it when we need to um it felt really good for him to just be simple it it didn't have to be as complicated as it always looks all the time don't overthink it just go with what works this is how we win tonight play and he did and give KY a lot of credit for that um folks in the chat talking about Patrick Taylor I think that he can play it's just that Kyle is more reticent to play a guy that's late to the game in terms of getting reps and knowing the system Taylor is new and that hopefully over the course of the the next uh week of practice that he'll start to have more faith in him and he'll give him some opportunity I think that they do need to balance it out and we'll see hopefully gindo will be 100% from inota and he'll get some opportunity then but I also think that they should mix in Patrick Taylor and just see what they got and they're going to need to to sprinkle it around and show more balance and giving more carries to everybody just evaluate who you have and then you can get a better idea of how to go forward