49ers are moved by offense

49ers are moved by offense
Mike Martz's beefed-up playbook inspires optimism as season nears
By Matthew Barrows - mbarrows@sacbee.com

SANTA CLARA – Mike Nolan is loose and glib during news conferences. Frank Gore is all smiles in the locker room. Isaac Bruce insists he's shooting for 56 points a game.

It's as if the 49ers, weighed down by a thick and complex playbook for so many months this offseason, have had a religious awakening in the last 10 days.

Their new doctrine: Martzism.

"There are a lot of plays out there," wide receiver Arnaz Battle said of offensive coordinator Mike Martz's system. "Everyone in the locker room feels that. Even the defensive guys are excited about what we're doing on the offensive side of the ball."

Said Gore, who's been walking around with a buoyancy he hasn't had since the 2006 season: "It makes the game feel like it's easy again."

The ease at which the fast and fluid 49ers have moved the ball this summer, of course, is in sharp contrast to the sluggish, 32nd-ranked offense of 2007. For 49ers players, it's as if they've turned in their dented Volvo station wagon for a Maserati – and they're just now finding out how fast she goes.

By halftime of Thursday's game against Chicago, for example, the 49ers had 248 net yards offense. They went under 248 yards for the entire game nine times last season.

The 49ers scored 37 points against the Bears and 71 points in their last two games combined. They scored 10 points or fewer seven times in 2007.

Every coaching staff urges its receivers to go full-bore every play because the ball might be thrown their way. The difference this year, Battle said, is the players actually believe that. In their last two games, the 49ers have had eight plays of 20 yards or more, which have been made by four different players.

"I think guys are really understanding the opportunity we have this year as far as making big plays," Battle said. "You can't be a guy who thinks that the ball isn't coming to you on this play. You have to finish every route."

And last season?

"We kind of got into some bad habits," he said.

The idea that the ball could go anywhere on any given play promises to benefit the player who will end up with it the most.

Last season, the defensive philosophy when facing the 49ers was easy: Just stop Gore. Opponents stacked eight defenders along the line of scrimmage, and Gore found little room to run. His yards-per-carry average dropped from 5.4 in 2006 to 4.2 in 2007.

"Last year, it would take a whole half just to get past the 50-yard line," Gore said.

Against the Bears, it took two plays and 38 seconds before Gore broke off a 28-yard run.

Nolan, of course, cautions against giddy enthusiasm when the yards and the games don't count. Still, he's been impressed by the numbers the 49ers are putting up.

"It is very early, but when you compare it to where we've been in the past, I like the improvement," he said.

Is it in regular-season mode yet? Not quite, players concede.

But even Bruce, a longtime Ram, says the system compares well to the offenses Martz used to run in St. Louis.

How well? Bruce said he expects the 49ers to score eight touchdowns a game.

Is that realistic?

"Yeah," Bruce said. "Realistic for me."

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