Gore Channels his Inner Marshall

Not much going on in Santa Clara Tuesday, just a single special teams practice in the late afternoon. So, with all the negativity surrounding the 49ers' offense and their passing game, we thought we might try to lift some spirits and turn to Frank Gore.

This is the the best shape I've seen him in. He said he dropped 10 pounds and he said he weighs about 214. He's never had the cut physique of a Vernon Davis, but gone is last year's baby fat. I don't blame him for that. Last year was one of the toughest of his life. He lost his mother, Liz, in September and then good friend Sean Taylor later in the season. He wanted to gain over 2,000 yards and he barely made half of that with 1,102 yards. He also saw his yards per carry drop from 5.4 in 2006 to 4.2 last year. He battled through a sprained ankle for most of the season and had to watch opportunities disappear while the offense put together the most three-and-outs of any team in the league.

Gore has the type of personality where he blames much of last year's offensive woes upon himself. So this year he decided to take a different approach. He's doing everything future Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk is telling him to do.

"I talked to him three of four times," Gore said. "Before training camp he told me some things."

The first was to get down to 212 pounds, the same weight Faulk was when he was the centerpiece of the Rams' offense under Mike Martz. He told Gore to run after practice every day. Gore does that. And he said to pepper Martz with questions and Gore is complying there too.

The mimick of Faulk is going well. Gore looks like a more polished receiver and he's darting into holes with razor-like cuts.

Martz is likely to use Gore differently than Faulk - more running and less pass receiving. Martz is also likely to do everything he can to get defenses from loading up against Gore by using three- and four-receiver sets and lots of motion.

Maybe Gore does rush for 2,000 yards, just a year later than he anticipated.

(sfgate.com)