Daily Madden: What's Wrong With Kaepernick?
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) - The 1-2 San Francisco 49ers meet the Rams in St. Louis Thursday night as coaches look for ways to breathe life into their low-scoring offense.
"I think you need some speed in receivers," John Madden told the KCBS Radio morning crew. Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick has completed only 38% of passes over 10 yards so far this season, compared to 55% last year.
"They have that term 'take the top off the defense,'" the former coach said. "The 49ers don't have anyone to take the top off the defense. You get one guy, (receiver) Anquan Boldin, in there, and he's a possession type guy, and he's a good player. But there's no one to go with him...The other problem is playing from behind. When you're ahead and things are going well, you can really run anything. You can run option, you can run the ball, you can play action pass it, you can drop back pass it. But when you're behind, and then the score starts getting away from you, then a lot of those things are eliminated."
While noting the 49ers lost to two very good teams in the Seahawks and Colts the last two weeks, Madden said those games exposed another 49er weakness.
"The thing that happened to them in both those games is that they got 'out-physicalled.'" John said he does expect the 49ers to beat the Rams Thursday night, "and get back on track."
Oracle Team USA has won seven straight elimination races and could win the America's Cup with a victory over Emirates Team New Zealand on San Francisco Bay Wednesday.
"We can talk what we think is going to happen all the time," Madden said. "But you have to go out there to do it. And you keep doing it until the final bell rings and it's all over." (6:45)
Daily Madden
Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM. And catch John's extra report at 9:15 am Mondays and Fridays on KCBS during the NFL season.
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