Vikings - Titans - Bears - Lioons - Vikings - Giants - Lions - Cards - Jags - Rams - Texans - Colts - Saints - Seahawks - Bears - 9ers.

From their first playoff game, all the way back to the opener when they played us, these are the teams the Packers have faced. And do you know what they all have in common? None of them run the pistol offense, and none of them have a run option in their books. (Seattle runs it now, but they weren't running it in the third week of the season. Carroll didn't become fascinated with it until he saw the success Washington was having with it. And by the way... we weren't running it in the first week.)

Like a lot of other fans, I'm kind of stuck in the Hand it to Frank and let him bash away for a while... mode. But defenses have a hard time preparing for offensive styles they haven't seen before. Haven't played against before.

You have to figure Dom Capers is going to see a first year starting QB on the other side of the LOS, and he's gonna blitz his butt off. The Zone Blitz is his baby in the first place, and seeing Kaepernick on the other side is going to be too tempting.

Rule one in beating the blitz is, "run them out of it". Groovy. But even though Frank is healthier than he's ever been at this point in a season... he's older than he's ever been at this point in a season. And I think it's showing.

Rule two in beating the blitz is, "take advantage of the defense's over-aggressiveness." And that's where I think Kaepernick and LaMichael James in the pistol might come in very handy.

And I don't mean two or three plays during the game. I'm talking about using that offensive style for the bulk of the game. If James rips off a couple of big runs, and Kaepernick accounts for a first down run or two... Mathews and his pals are gonna be real leery of pinning their ears back and just blitzing the QB.

I expect the pistol will frustrate the beejeezus out of the Packers. And a frustrated defense makes stupid mistakes.