Geep Chryst didn't take any of the credit for his offense's recent success.
Against the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens the last two weeks, the San Francisco 49ers have posted their two highest point totals of the season at 27 and 25 points, respectively. The increase in offensive production coincided with the offensive coordinator's decision to put Colin Kaepernick under center more often.
Until Week 5, the 49ers quarterback had been primarily operating the offense out of the pistol formation. Per Pro Football Focus, Kaepernick played just 12.1 percent of snaps under center in Weeks 1-4. That number jumped to 69.5 percent in Weeks 5 and 6.
"He's such a good athlete with his feet and he's improved so much," Chryst said. "When we came here in 2011, he'd done nothing but be in the pistol."
Of Kaepernick's 10 longest passes against the Ravens, six of them came when snapping the ball under center.
That includes the 76-yard touchdown to Torrey Smith that stemmed from an exceptional play-action fake.
"It puts any quarterback in a rhythm and gives them a chance to look at the defense the entire time," Chryst said. "It gets everyone in sync."
In the last two games, Kaepernick has a combined 602 passing yards, four touchdown passes and zero interceptions.
Conversely, the quarterback is 2-5 in his career against the Seattle Seahawks with three touchdowns and nine interceptions. Chryst said that the 49ers next opponent has thrived with a core cast of players and a successful defensive scheme.
"They don't have a lot of variation in their scheme," Chryst said. "They can get pressure without bringing a fifth or sixth or seventh rusher. When they do bring that extra rusher, the element of surprise is there. They're a well-coached team with a lot of confidence."
Despite the numbers, Chryst wouldn't give credence to the notion that the Seahawks have Kaepernick's number.
"The NFL is all about execution," Chryst said. "It should be exciting. I didn't think that either team would be where they are record wise. That puts more chips on the table because a win will be awful hard to come by and really important to the team that does win."
San Francisco's familiarity with their division rival is to the team's benefit given the limitation of a short week. The NFL designs Thursday night contests to be predominantly divisional matchups to balance out the inability to fully gameplan in three days.
Chryst said the 49ers designed their offensive scheme during the offseason for moments like this. The offensive coordinator is confident that his unit will be as prepared as they need to be come gametime.
"Your base offense should be set up to defeat your three division opponents and at least attack their schemes," Chryst said. "We felt like it's a chance to get back to the basic things we did. We want to build on what's been working, but there's not a whole lot of new stuff."
