This is going to be another bench mark game for the 49ers this week as they host the hot Jacksonville Jaguars who have won their last three games in a row to put them at 6-4 and in the playoff hunt. The Niners are the reverse of the Jags having lost three of their last four and working their way out of the playoff picture since a 3-1 start. The rest of the intrigue for this game comes from the fact that both of these teams offenses are based on establishing the run and both defenses are structured around stopping the run.

The first thing the Jaguars are going to try to do to the Niners is stop their run game and force Alex Smith to beat them with his arm. Considering outside of Rasheed Mathis the Jaguars’ secondary has not been playing great this season I don’t see using the pass to set up the run as a problem for the offense. The only problem would come with the play calling and the Niners resolve to stay in the shotgun formation. It is almost a give that the Jaguars are going to stack the box and if they do the Niners should come out in the shotgun spread and work the entire width of the field forcing all of the Jaguars’ bigger defensemen to work their way to the corners from the center of the field.

On top of working away form the strength of the Jaguars defense coming out passing from a spread, and not a two back, set could help Alex Smith build his confidence and rhythm early opposed to the slow starts that he has had to work himself out of these past few games. For example just imagine if the Niners had played their spread offense for the entirety of the Texans and Packers games. There is a good chance they could be 6-4 and working for a playoff spot opposed to playing spoiler.

On defense the Niners need to not have a repeat of what happened against the Packers, namely letting Ryan Grant rush for almost 130 yards. The Niners are currently 6^th in the league in rush defense allowing less than 100 yards a game but the Jaguars’ are 7^th in rushing and the key to this match up is going to be decided by who can get a push in the trenches. This is an area the Niners got beat in the Packers game and that is the reason Ryan Grant was able to have such a big day. The problem for the Niners is that they are playing a better offensive line than they did in Green Bay and are playing a better running back in Maurice Jones-Drew. Jones-Drew already has over 1,150 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns and is on pace for almost 1,900 yards offence and over 20 touchdowns. So more or less he is one of the most dangerous players this Niners defense has had to contain all season.

The Niners have done a good job containing great runners this year such as Adrian Peterson who they kept to 85 rushing yards, but the aspect of Jones-Drew’s game that makes him so dangerous is how good he is at catching the ball out of the backfield and few people in the NFL are as dangerous in the open field as MJD. But even with how good MJD is and how much damage he can do there are other good players on this offense and the Niners defense can’t fall asleep on, namely Tory Holt and Mercedes Lewis and if you give David Gerard time he can hit his receivers. To win the battle against this Jags’ offense they would do well to take a page out of the New York Giants’ playbook. Using as little of their front seven as possible to push back the other team’s offensive line and keep the pressure coming from as many different angles as possible.

A win this week against the Jaguars would far from turn the Niners season around, they will need a serious winning streak to do that, but a win here could be the start of a winning streak and that is the message that Mike Singletary needs to drive home. This is also the time of the season that we are going to see if Singletary has helped build up the character of these young players and if it translates to the football field. Teams with high character don’t give up in the middle of the season and hopefully this one wont either.