49ers' offense may be too complex for own good

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Since Jim Harbaugh arrived in 2011, the 49ers have ranked among the NFL leaders in one unofficial category: offensive creativity.

They have completed passes to their left tackle and to a 330-pound nose guard who, at the time, was moonlighting at fullback. They've run old-school plays - most notably, the fly sweep - and have also been on the cutting edge: They were out in front of the read-option craze that swept the NFL last year.

Their myriad personnel packages have included super-jumbo formations with seven offensive linemen, and their diverse running game has included double sweeps and two-back traps.

Last year, St. Louis' Jeff Fisher, then in his 18th year as an NFL head coach, tipped his cap to the 49ers and their staff: "I can't remember having to prepare for an offense that was so well-coached and so diversified in the run game and so talented," Fisher said.

A year later, however, the conversation has changed. In back-to-back losses to the Panthers (10-9) and Saints (23-20), that creative offense has created next to nothing: no completions longer than 17 yards, no touchdown drives longer than 22 yards and no 200-yard performances.

Instead of bamboozling defenses, it appears the past two opponents have given the 49ers a taste of life on the other side. Queried about the recent offensive malaise, Jim Harbaugh noted that Carolina and New Orleans attacked his offense with diverse schemes.

"Two defenses that have played us very different styles two weeks in a row," Harbaugh said.

When Jim Harbaugh says it's his fault the 49ers' offense has bogged down, he may not be just deflecting blame. When Jim Harbaugh says it's his fault the 49ers' offense has bogged down, he may not be just deflecting blame. Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Photo: Carlos Avila Gonzalez, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close 49ers' offense may be too complex for own good 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Running back Frank Gore also hinted that opponents have been a step ahead: "Defenses are doing a great job on us, game-planning for us," he said.

This week, Harbaugh said it was his responsibility to coach better. It's easy to view that as a predictable line from a player-friendly coach eager to the keep the heat off his locker room. However, for the first time in Harbaugh's wildly successful 30-11-1 tenure, there might be something to the self-criticism from the NFL's 2011 Coach of the Year.

In Sunday's loss to the Saints, the 49ers' already problematic clock-management issues became worse.

Quarterback Colin Kaepernick burned a timeout after the game's second play, Harbaugh squandered the final two timeouts of the first half on ill-advised challenges and, with no timeouts remaining, the 49ers took a delay-of-game penalty midway through the second quarter. San Francisco is tied for third in the NFL in accepted delay-of-game penalties, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

The 49ers' voluminous and complex offensive playbook has been viewed as a strength, but Kaepernick sounded like a young quarterback who was overloaded after his 17th career regular-season start Sunday.

"There's a lot on our plate," he said when asked about the 49ers' habit of continually flirting with an expiring play clock.

Asked to clarify Thursday, Kaepernick said: "There's a lot of things this offense has to do, and it's expected of us."

Kaepernick, who ranks 22nd in passer rating (81.8) and 31st in completion percentage (56.2), has fallen well short of meeting sky-high preseason expectations. And his struggles help explain why the 49ers' offense has occasionally looked incompetent instead of cutting-edge.

Gore suggested the recent blueprint for stopping the 49ers' offense is one that dates to the pre-Harbaugh days, when he was the lone offensive weapon.

"We've been doing great on the running game, so everybody's going to try to stop the run," Gore said. "That's what's been happening."

Kaepernick's inability to make single-minded defenses pay has produced numbers not seen since the pre-Harbaugh days, when the 49ers had eight straight non-playoff seasons from 2003 to 2010.

Against the Panthers, they didn't have a completion longer than 14 yards for the first time since Oct. 30, 2005, when Ken Dorsey was the starting quarterback. Their 347 combined yards the past two weeks are their fewest in back-to-back games since 2007, when 35-year-old Trent Dilfer was subbing for an injured Alex Smith.

On Monday night, the 49ers have a prime opportunity to allay growing fears when they visit Washington (3-7), which ranks 26th in the NFL in passing defense (274.9 yards per game) and 30th in points allowed (31.1).

For his part, Hall of Fame 49ers quarterback Steve Young, an ESPN analyst who commonly refers to his old team as "we," hopes the recent issues have more to do with coaching than with Kaepernick.

"In Washington, we better start seeing it or the alarm bells will go ring even louder," Young said on KNBR. "If it is fundamental to the quarterback spot? My gosh. Now, that's a whole other can of worms that I don't want to think about."