Raye wants to run 60 percent of time

SANTA CLARA — Sure, it sounded a bit preposterous, but 49ers offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye said it with a straight face.

Raye said he wants the 49ers to run the ball 60 percent of the time this season.

Yes, it’s official. The team that brought you Bill Walsh’s innovative ball-control passing game would rather pass a kidney stone than pass the football this season under Raye and coach Mike Singletary.

“The ultimate goal in this deal is to try to get the balance,” Raye said. “(But) balance for us will be closer to 60-40 run-pass.”

It’s a goal with the most noble of intentions. While establishing the run in the NFL is generally believed to be a nice cliché with little intrinsic value, it is true that the team that records more running plays during the course of a game is generally the team that won.

After all, teams with the lead are more apt to keep the ball on the ground in an attempt to control the clock.

There were only five teams in the NFL last season that ran the ball more than 50 percent of the time. Not surprisingly, those teams — Baltimore, Atlanta, Carolina, Tennessee and Minnesota — combined for a .713 winning percentage during the regular season.

But even when 49ers running back Frank Gore was rushing for a club-record 1,695 yards in 2006, then-coordinator Norv Turner called run plays 47.8 percent of the time. That is the kind of offense Singletary envisioned when he hired Raye after several other candidates pulled themselves out of the running for the job.

The 49ers believe their strength along the offensive line is in the run game. After all, they have surrendered back-to-back franchise-worst totals of 55 sacks the past two seasons. The team has put in place a big offensive line that thrives in the run game.

The 49ers added another piece to that puzzle Monday with the signing of veteran tackle Tony Pashos to a one-year contract. Pashos has experience in run-oriented offenses, breaking into the league with the Baltimore Ravens before spending the past two years with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Jaguars released Pashos on Saturday rather than pay his $4.3 million salary. Pashos is expected to serve as a backup to Adam Snyder at right tackle.

The offensive line and running backs — Gore and Glen Coffee, and fullback Moran Norris, in particular — are thrilled with the emphasis on the run game. And quarterback Shaun Hill did not seem the least bit offended when told his coordinator wants him to hand it off three of every five offensive plays.

“Every game comes up totally different, too,” Hill said. “Sometime you have to scratch that. Sometimes you’ll have more run; sometimes it going to be more pass. It just kind of depends on how the game plays out.

“Obviously, we have a good run game that definitely helps to open things up for us passing. I know that we hang our hat on being a good running team.”

The onus rests on Hill to be able to capitalize against defenses that push more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage to slow down the 49ers’ rushing game. Hill will have to provide a threat of the deep pass to keep defenses honest.

It is unclear how much of the 49ers’ four-game exhibition season will carry over to the games that matter — beginning Sunday at the Arizona Cardinals. The 49ers ran the ball 49.3 percent of the time while compiling a 3-1 record in the exhibition games.

The 49ers’ emphasis on their ground game appeared to be paying off. The team averaged 5.0 yards per rushing attempt in the exhibition season.

If the 49ers come anywhere near the stated goal of 60-percent run plays, the team’s defense figures to be the most-rested unit in the league.

“It would be unbelievable,” 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis said.

The 49ers ranked last in the league in 2007 in time of possession. Last year, they moved up to the middle of the pack under coordinator Mike Martz, whom Singletary fired after his only season.

“If they take all the time off the clock, and we keep a team from scoring, that means we win,” Willis said. “Whether it’s fatigue, or whatever it may be, it just lessens the other team and the other offense’s chances of plays they can run. Anytime you can go out there with full energy and play, that’s always good.”

For more on the 49ers, go to Instant 49ers at http://blog.pressdemocrat.com/49ers. You can reach Staff Writer Matt Maiocco at matt.maiocco@pressdemocrat.com