Frank Gore Update: 49ers Running Back 'Not 100%'

49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh chatted with the media on Monday and the most intriguing bit of news to come out was that Frank Gore is not 100%. That isn't exactly shocking, but it was still interesting to hear Coach Harbaugh say something.

In a brief stretch he was asked about Gore only getting two carries after his third quarter touchdown. He said he did not have an answer. That was followed up with a question as to whether Gore was healthy. In response, Harbaugh said "He's got some things. He's not 100%. We have other backs that got carries in the second half."

Given the relatively tight-lipped nature of Coach Harbaugh, this is about as expansive an answer as you are going to get. Of course, it still leaves plenty of room for speculation. People have suggested several possibilities:

1) Gore was legitimately banged up and just couldn't be given a ton of carries; and/or 2) He could have played the whole game but the team wanted to rest him more with playoffs in mind; and/or 3) The team wanted to try and give Alex Smith more throws to see if he could handle an increased workload.

We're never going to know the truth because Coach Harbaugh will not come right out and say it. Let me correct that. He might say it, but given the way his press conferences go, we might not actually know if he's said it. That's fine and just gives us more to chatter about.

Frank Gore scored the touchdown early in the third quarter and had two carries after that. Why so few throughout the game and especially after? It seemed like you were getting something going with the run game.
"Why so few carries for Frank after..."

Why so few carries for Frank in general? There weren't a lot of carries in the second half.
"I don't have an answer for you."

Is he healthy?
"He's got some things. He's not 100%. We have other backs that got carries in the second half."

Have you guys thought about using RB Anthony Dixon in those short yardage situations?
"Yes."

Why hasn't that materialized yet?
"It hasn't. We know there's going to be criticisms. We know that there's going to be ‘Why's? What happened? What took place? Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? Why didn't you throw the ball here? Who's your go-to guy?' and we're not going to talk about it. We're going to talk about it to our players, to our team. Make a real effort as we always do, every single day this is what we do, try to address problems and get them fixed. Smart guys. We've got those as coaches, we've got those as players and we'll work together to get them fixed, to improve."



(ninersnation.com)