GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Without starting tight end Vernon Davis, out nursing his injured left ankle and knee, and sans backup Vance McDonald, recovering from a right knee injury, the San Francisco 49ers decided to mix things up Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals.
No, not by going back to their roots under Jim Harbaugh as a power-running team and feeding the ball to 10,000-yard career rusher Frank Gore. But by running a no-huddle offense that relied on four- and sometimes five-receiver sets.
Crazy, right? Yet, it worked early as the Niners had a pair of 80-yard drives in 12 and 14 plays, respectively, to jump out to a 14-6 lead.
Surely, then, the Niners would go to their ground-and-pound attack to hold off the upstart Cardinals, right? Well …
No wonder an emotional Gore had nothing to say in the locker room after the 49ers’ 23-14 loss, being lobbed questions about his team’s lack of a running attack before finally saying, “I can’t talk right now. Sorry.”
Per ESPN Stats & Info, the 49ers only ran the ball by design 18 times, and just five times in 27 plays after halftime. Gore’s last touch came at 14:23 of the third quarter.
It was the third-lowest designed-rush percentage (28.6 percent) by the Niners with Colin Kaepernick at quarterback. The others -- 25 percent against the New York Giants and 25 percent against the Seattle Seahawks -- came in 2012.
The 49ers lost all three of those games by a combined 91-30.
"I was a little surprised they didn't use the running game more when the game was close," Cardinals linebacker Larry Foote said.
On Sunday, the 49ers threw the ball 37 times, the second most of Kaepernick’s career, behind the 39 passes he attempted in the 2013 season opener against the Green Bay Packers.
“I thought it worked very well,” Harbaugh said of the Niners’ passing attack against the Cardinals. “We did some good things in the personnel group. Overall, though, not enough.”
