week 4 Green Bay Packers, coaching film analysis thread

Finished watching the film - I didn't watch every single defensive snap, but most and watched every offensive snap - some, many times.

I tried to watch the game, trying to pick up on differences in gameplan, looking to see how the chess match unfolded. I probably didn't see everything, but saw some, "low hanging fruit" from it. I'll first talk about the differences in gameplan that I saw.

Defense - we played a lot more man-coverage and were much better in our rushing lanes. The positive thing is, the D-line and OLB's look like they're starting to get in rhythm together on their pass rush. The rushers have to be in sync, just like a secondary, or O-line. They have to make sure their rushing in their lanes and not taking rushes too wide, or too much to one side, so that the QB has a lane to escape. One thing they did well, was collapsing the pocket, but not allowing Rodgers a free run outside - he had to work for it.

Offense - we didn't use as much 2 and 3 TE sets as we did previously - probably had to do with VD not being active.

After the Ari game, Chryst made a concerted effort to be less predictable, by doing many less half field reads. We ran a lot of full field, 2 receiver per side(dependent on protection, sometimes it was 2x3). This makes life a little more difficult for a QB, especially when we're still trying to compress the field - we didn't have a lot of wide split edge men. We often ran 2 concepts. Very rarely did we run mirroring concepts, so it's up to the QB to understand, pre-snap what he's seeing and where to go if the defense rotates into a different defense. I know Trent Dilfer talked about how CK struggles when the defense shows something other than what they're running - but I didn't see a lot of that in this game. I believe he was referring more to the Pitt and Ari games.

One thing that Torrey Smith said, can sound different than it was. He said they basically played without a safety in the middle or deep parts of the field, most of the game. He was right, but at first glance, it makes it sound like they were running cover-o the whole game - which they weren't. In fact, they ran very little of it. What they did do, was give no help outside the numbers and look to either squat on the hook areas and short middle. They provided a lot of "lurk" defenders in either the short middle or just outside the hash marks(taking away seem routes and "snag" routes. This gave them a distinct advantage against the run game. They were, basically, daring us to throw it outside the numbers.

As usual, we'll start with the good and bad for defense and offense and work from there to cut-ups.

Defense:

good - simplified defensive scheme. It seemed like Mangini backed off some of the stuff he was doing. I can only assume(again, I'm not looking at the playbooks) that his scheme was much more complex than it appeared on film, it was more a lack of execution of the scheme on paper. Thus, it appeared that Mangini simplified things, which played well for our guys. They looked like they were playing faster.

They played very well, if we didn't have a stupid penalty on 3rd down, opening drive, we might have held GB to 10 points. Which, for a team that was red-hot coming in, is good and very encouraging going forward.

Aaron Lynch finally showed up again after, what was, a 3 game skid where he was virtually absent.

Bad - would still like to see our DB's show more ball skills. There were still times where they seemed incapable to or unwilling to try and locate the ball.

Offense:
Good - not much.... It was good to see Chryst changing up his offensive attack, instead of sticking with the same thing that didn't work in Ari. But, we still failed to execute it on a consistent basis.

Bad - There was a lot.

McDonald still struggles with his route running. Not terribly precise and has a slow first couple steps in his route. Ellington was still a non-factor.

The O-line wasn't great, but not as bad as it appeared. I thought they actually played one of their, less-terrible games lol. There were a couple of sacks that were just on Kaep, but others that were very much on the line. I thought Devey played better than the past couple weeks but Martin and Pears still struggled. Martin more than any. He continues to be the weak link in the line. He missed some assignments in the passing game and whiffed on several blocks in the run game and got bulldozed on a couple others.

CK - I'm not going to go to far into this and let the film speak for itself.....mainly, I really don't want to de-rail this thread into simply a thread about Kaep. This is a team game, and all the parts have to work to make the thing happen - now, that's not a bypass of the QB. He's apart of the team execution more than anyone, so it includes him when I state that ALL the parts have to execute.

"Let the games begin!"
-Bane, TDKR

Here's the first play from scrimmage for our O.


We come out in "21" personnel and we're going to run a "spot" concept to the concept side. This threatens the defense both vertically and horizontally. Looking to put 3 receivers in zone "soft" spots. It's a progression read, but, the progression has to be moved through very quickly. It's usually, corner, snag, flat in the progression. the pre-snap read shows 2 deep safeties, but the corner is playing with a cushion and has his hips opened. This is showing that he's in zone on that side of the field. That means either, cover 3, 4 or 6.(4 and 6 would be essentially the same on this side of the field. What GB is going to do here, is play a defense very similar to Seattle's. They're going to play cover 3 with the single receiver side in man-coverage.

What CK needs to see here is, it doesn't matter that the defense is showing the 2 shell safety look, the outside corner is lined up in either a 1/3 or 1/4 zone look. That defeats the corner route. This should move his read to a key read on the hook/curl defender. However he plays will determine whether to go to the "snag" or "spot" route and the flat or take-off.


At the snap, GB's safeties move forward - similar to how LB's play. They're looking to aggressively play the run. They're giving zero help over-the-top to TS. This is some of what he was talking about.


This is at the start of his drop-back. You see the defense revealing itself. He should be keying in on #54, but doesn't.

#54 attacks the flat route and 33 attacks the curl zone, to give underneath help to the corner playing over-the-top. They're, essentially, doubling AB, which, after the last time AB tore em up, can't blame them. This frees up McDonald. You see Kaep has hit his plant foot and the ball should be coming out right here. He's got as nice a pocket as you could hope for as a QB.


You see how open McD is, but Kaep takes off - not sure why. This is what Steve Young talked about last year in "exhausting" a play before taking off. Yeah, he gains some yards, but, I think it causes more frustration and causes the defense to adjust how they play more if he hits this throw.


He takes off and gains 12 yards. You can call it, "6 one way, half a dozen the other" because the pass probably would've netted 12 yards or so. But, IMO, the throw is more important because you're trying to establish a rhythm as an offense early in the game.

Tough looking at this because if we established some completion early on, Hyde would have more room to run. You know the Packers coming in trying to stop the running game. Keep us 1 dimensional. Daring Kaep to beat them.

Don't know how he's not even seeing McDonald getting open.... Now I know why McDonald dropped the pass later on. He was surprised Kaep saw him and threw the pass

Here's another pass on the same drive. 8:52 1st QTR


Here, we're going to run 2 different concepts on the play. We're running a "stick" concept at the top and a curl/flat concept to the bottom. The curl/flat works well against a cover 2 zone, and the stick works well against a cover 3 zone or cover 4 zone. These are not "progression" reads, these are "key" reads. The QB reads a "key" defender whom the concept is isolating. It creates a 2v1 stretch of the zone. The "stick" is a horizontal stretch, whereas, the "curl/flat" is a vertical stretch.

GB runs cover 4 zone on this play.


The key defender on the "stick" side covers out on the flat, this creates a hole for AB's "stick" route.


You see how AB is open - I also pointed out how it's a key defender stretch, you see how the curl/flat works against Clay Matthews as well. The "stick" route is the right throw on the play.


The problem though, Kaep never resets his feet(he stopped flat-footed, so he couldn't reset quickly[poor footwork fundamentals]), so the pass skips up to AB.


You see his front foot is too wide, this opens his shoulders at the start of the throw. He has no throwing platform to throw from, this is an all arm throw, basically. It also causes his front shoulder to dip as his throws, driving the ball downwards.

You see how his weight can't properly transfer to his front leg and how his shoulder dips. He's got a nice, clean pocket, but can't complete the pass.

Its not like Mcdonald would've caught it anyways

he doesn't see McD open because the guy can't read..

right now, Kaep is mentally F-UP that he doesn't trust anything he sees anymore..

he's afraid to turn the ball over that he would just run.. and he's afraid of losing his job that he would slide even if there are room for another yard of so that he would usually take back in his early days..

what we're witnessing here is a QB folding with our own very eyes...

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:
Its not like Mcdonald would've caught it anyways

I'd rather worry about a guy not catching a well thrown pass then a QB simply not seeing wide open receivers 15 yards away.

Kaep has plenty arm strength to make that a good throw to Boldin, flat footed and all. I just think, he sees the closing defender and had bad flash back to the Zona game. Best throw it low to the ground so it won't get INT. Thus a skip pass There's no good reason to skip a 10yd pass unless you are afraid it would get INT.

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:
Its not like Mcdonald would've caught it anyways

Then why is our coaching staff putting him out there at all?....

Not blasting what you're saying, I'm saying, if we have players that are that bad, that's an indictment on a few people....

I've only watched the first half and I agree with your assessment of the defense. Thay played more man coverage than any other previous week. I think I saw some pattern matching as well from the slot CB (Ward). It was very obvious that Geep wanted to establish a rhythm for Kap early in the game. You broke down the first play, but the next 4(?) dropbacks were all horizontal stretches at short range, then a couple quick WR screens. I questioned whether Hyde should have gotten more touches early, but like you said, GB squatted on the 49er run game.

I saw the full field reads dialed up. There was one play where it was very well designed with multiple concepts melded together. Unfortunately, Devey got held and was unable to pick up a blitzing CMatthews. A shame because a couple WRs became open had Kap been able to scan the field instead of running for his life. Kap needs to have more faith in Torrey to beat his man. Whenever Torrey is split wide on the backside with 1v1 coverage, Kap needs to seriously consider looking backside. Whether Torrey is running a Go route or a Stop9, Torrey more often than not, gets separation. Kap loved going backside to in the past when it wasn't warranted because the 49ers didn't have a legit X WR. Now that they do, he isn't looking backside as much - go figure.

Rodgers missed some passes in the first half. Whether it was inaccurate or the WR couldn't corral the pass, GB left some chunk plays on the field. Still, the defensive coverage tightened up and it was like night and day comparing this game to ARI as far as the defensive backfield. Saw some stunts, saw some good 1v1 battles won by Lynch. Maybe he's finally in midseason form after being injured much of the offseason. 49ers need him badly.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Kaep has plenty arm strength to make that a good throw to Boldin, flat footed and all. I just think, he sees the closing defender and had bad flash back to the Zona game. Best throw it low to the ground so it won't get INT. Thus a skip pass

could be, either way, he was late in getting to AB. Whether the poor throw was erring on the side of caution, or because he didn't get his feet set, it's a result of a late movement to the proper receiver. That's what can be frustrating with him, at times. He makes the right throw, it's just late.

Thl noted it, and I fully agree, Kaep isn't a 1 read qb, he's a slow read qb. The problem I'm seeing, is that it's not like he's speeding up in those reads. I'm sure he can do it in practice, but, at the speed of a live game, it seems like he's just not quite there.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:
Its not like Mcdonald would've caught it anyways

I'd rather worry about a guy not catching a well thrown pass then a QB simply not seeing wide open receivers 15 yards away.

I just don't think Kap has that key talent that great Qb's have, that is, seeing the field and reacting quickly to what he's seeing. He's just a tick off and that's where the INT's come.

I just sucks missing easy suppose to be gimmie type s**t likes sticks. I fully agree on spot as well, the throw is more important because as you said you are establishing a rhythm. You have to hit these concepts if you're ever gonna be a 65+% passer.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by sincalfaithful:

Its not like Mcdonald would've caught it anyways

I'd rather worry about a guy not catching a well thrown pass then a QB simply not seeing wide open receivers 15 yards away.

Exactly. Id rather McD drop it. Kap doesnt even see him and Im pretty sure theres plenty more plays like that.