San Francisco 49ers: 'Hit Em Up' for the NFC Championship

(Warning: Song contains strong explicit language)

I have had so many thoughts about this game swirling in my head about what will be the keys for the Niners victory, what players need to step up for the Niners, how the Niners can win the coaching battle, and what is best way the team can neutralize the crowd. However, I don’t feel like I can fully flush out all my thoughts into one coherent column because I am not sure that I can think very coherent about this game. I do not like the Seahawks one bit, though none of the reasons include my boy Marshawn or the coach everyone would love to play for, Pete Carroll (the reason are: they are good, very good, Russell Wilson, half of Richard Sherman, and their fans), and nothing is going to make me happier than if the team just physically dominates the Seahawks for four quarters.

For all these reasons, I’ve decided to write this preview on how I would like to see the Niners win this game, by dominating on the line of scrimmage both offensively and defensively. For this reason, I made Tupac’s Hit Em Up the theme of this week because the Niners are going to have to played with the controlled aggression that Tupac lays out in this song. He goes off on Biggie and Junior M.A.F.I.A. with such anger, while simultaneously delivering his lines clearly and with great thought, giving the Niners offensive and defensive lines a blueprint to this game. My favorite part of the Niners renaissance these last three years has been watching the team be a beast along both of the lines, confirming the age old saying “It all starts with the line.” On offense, this will be getting as close to 2012 form as possible, opening up holes, even if they are tiny, to allow the “mystical man” Frank Gore to sneak through for crucial yards. On defense, this will be controlling Seattle’s zone blocking scheme and not allowing the cutback creases that are so crucial to getting chunks in a zone scheme.

If the Niner offensive line (Joe Staley, Mike Iupati, Jonathan Goodwin, Alex Boone, Anthony Davis) takes advantage of the “weakness” in Seattle’s defense, Frank will have a big day. The line has been rounding into form to close the season, Arizona game as the exception, creating lanes against teams that still are selling out to stop the run over the pass. Iupati especially has shown flashes of the great 2012 form that he had, after a rocky start to the season gave way to an injury. I want to see the Niners run power, inside trap, and wham after power, inside trap, and wham all day on Sunday. I want Frank to have his pick of holes to attack the Seahawks smallish front seven. I want down blocks that create walls and pulls that leave defenders looking for ways to get around blocks as oppose to plugging holes. I want to slam it at the Seahawks so much and with such efficiency that the Seahawks scary pass rushers have no energy to attack on play action passes. I want the Niners O-Line to Hit Em Up.

On defense, it all starts with stopping the Seahawks running game. Russell Wilson’s passing struggles have been documented of late (his receivers are pretty weak and that, like Kaep earlier in the year, will greatly affect a young Qbs production), but it hasn’t mattered because Beast Mode still resides in the Seattle backfield. While Russell only had 103 yards passing last week, the Seahawks still dropped 23 points, mostly because Marshawn Lynch ran for 140 and two Tds. The Seahawks offensive line, for its struggles in pass blocking, work well as a group in their zone blocking attack.

It will be imperative that Justin Smith, Glenn Dorsey, Ray McDonald, and their backups to control the line of scrimmage so Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman don’t have to worry about lineman when diagnosing what hole Marshawn will attack on any given play. What makes the Seahawk’s run game so tough to defend, is the zone blocking, theoretically gives Marshawn two or three hole at least on every play with which to run through. This makes it very important that line backers don’t over pursue or get caught up on blocks, in order to have full heads of steam when they are taking on the Beast.

It will also be very important that Ahmad Brooks and Aldon Smith play the backside with exceptional skill, whether it is the zone read or zone from under center, as the threat of Russell running or bootlegging on the backside is great. They will have to play both the cutback by Marshawn and Russell’s run threat in such a way that they minimizes any crippling gains by both. However, if the Niners Hit Em Up along the line, I think the game greatly flips in their favor.

All in all, I am fully believing in this Niner team now. As a full fledged pessimist who always looks for the holes in the Niners, it took me until halfway through the fourth of last weeks game to unequivocally expect to win this game in Seattle, as now I only see home field advantage as the Niners biggest obstacle (Well maybe the pass defense, but roll with me here). Do I think the Niners will run away with this game, hell no, but I do think they are playing the best out of any team left in the tournament, in no small part because everyone is basically healthy and in game shape now (finally, these last couple weeks for Crab and Aldon). And I sure hope they come out with a physicality that hasn’t fully made the trip to Seattle these last two years, because nothing will be better than being the most physically dominant team on the field on Sunday. Hit Em Up!