To add what Kevin is saying about how the Pistol might frustrate the Packers I saw this article this morning:

By Art Wellersdick
(Featured Columnist) on January 7, 2013

The Pistol Formation and the Read Option

The Packers haven't faced a team that uses the read option all season. When they faced Seattle earlier this year the Seahawks had not made the transition to it yet. It is a tough offense to prepare for and even tougher to play against the first time a team sees it on the field.

The pistol formation, as seen in the accompanying photo, is also a new wrinkle that the Packers haven't seen very much of at all, and no one in the NFL is more familiar with it than Colin Kaepernick.

I've been having trouble finding statistics on how often the 49ers use the read option and the pistol formation, but from my own observations it seems that the 49ers haven't actually used them all that much, certainly not as often as Seattle or the Washington Redskins.

There is a good chance that the 49ers have been holding something back in this department. If so, there is that much less tape for the Packers to study, but it also might be because Frank Gore is not the best back suited for this sort of offense. He struggled at times when the 49ers, under offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye, went to the spread offense a couple years ago and he was forced to run out of the shotgun formation.

However, running back LaMichael James is another player well-versed in this new style of offense and he has looked better and better each of the last three weeks as he's gained more playing time. As Gore seems to be winding down a bit, James is heating up. This new approach on offense is going to be an unfamiliar one for the Packers defense and the 49ers have two of the best players in the league to carry out this approach.

If Jim Harbaugh has been holding back a little bit—both to become more familiar with the approach in non-game situations and to sandbag teams looking to study them on film—and they end up using it much more often than in any previous game, they could very well catch Green Bay completely off-guard.


Let's bloody well hope so.