Week 7 Seahawks coaches film analysis

I'm not sure where to start with this game. It was frustrating from every aspect, as I'm sure it has been for just about every niners fan. There's opinions everywhere about what's wrong with the niners this season and there's a million different, "chicken and the egg" arguments that can be made for just about every on-field failure. This game, I felt like the defense played well enough; they didn't play great, but I felt they played well enough to win. That doesn't mean they didn't have their own part in the loss, however, I feel the majority of the weight for this loss can be laid at the offense.

I'm not going to work through my normal, "the good and bad" lists as I feel like it was pretty bad all the way through.

I want to be careful about any assertions I make throughout this thread, as I know there's a lot of strong opinions about a number of things.

First off, take this as you will, but one thing I noticed throughout the game: was that Seattle seemed prepared for everything we did on offense. There was little variety in the passing and running offense and, at times, it seemed like Seattle knew what we were going to do before we did. Where the blame lies for that, is open for discussion, but, it was very apparent, on film, that Seattle was well prepared for us. Considering they were coming in with a short week of prep, that's fairly damning.

Our passing offense seemed like, "lather, rinse, repeat". This is what I saw as far as concepts used(I may have missed a couple cause I'm going off memory):

scissors(several times, every time, unsuccessful)
slide
slant/flat
smash
flood
mesh
spot

I don't remember seeing any other concepts used.

The thing about all those concepts is: they are all either pick-a-side reads or half field reads. While I don't have a problem with pick-a-side or half field reads, they have to be incorporated into a passing attack that includes more variety. The flood, slide, smash and spot(to an extent) are from a similar design and mode of attack. They're half field, vertical stretch reads.

Thl408 and I briefly discussed our frustration with how it seemed like we were watching the same passing plays over and over and over again - which isn't always a bad thing, it just puts a much bigger emphasis on the need for precise execution. We also briefly discussed the causation for this and it's hard to pinpoint from our limited perspective. We're not in the meetings with Geep Chryst, so it's hard to know, for certain, why the passing game was structured the was it was. Personally, I have to wonder if this is a result of the "paring down" of the playbook in the off-season that Tomsula talked about with Kaepernick to try and stick to, "the things he does well". It could also be a mistrust of the offensive line to provide time to block. Either way, we're seeing a much less complex offensive attack than we had seen during the Harbaugh/Roman years(I say that with great trepidation as I know where simply saying that can lead and really don't want to de-rail this thread).

The same can be said for the running game. There were times when Seattle was calling a slant right into our running play(quite a few times, actually). So, like I said, it was like they knew where the play was going before we did. Again, i think this comes down to the lack of variety in the gameplans. It wasn't that Chryst wasn't trying to mix some things up though, because our biggest run of the day came off a play where we ran opposite of where Seattle slanted, and it had more to do with Seattle making the incorrect line call, than our blocking. There were 4 players who took themselves out of the play and Hyde gained 13 yards.

There is also the possibility of ineptitude on the part of the coaching staff - any which way, I can't speak to evidence of from film - I have my own opinions, but I think some of those discussion are better served in other threads.

On defense, I saw several blown coverage's. When that happens, sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what went wrong on our defense. There were a couple of those blown coverage's on blitzes when we were trying to play man-coverage behind it.

One thing Arik Armstead must do better is his execution on stunts. So far this season his execution on any stunts has been bad, at best. He looks like he's still trying to win a 1v1 battle while Lynch is trying to stunt around, leaving holes open for QB's to escape the pocket.

I mentioned it last week and I think Seattle saw the same thing on film, that Dial really struggles on stretch plays away from him. Sometimes, I really don't like being right. But, There were at least 6-7 run plays of 7 or more yards that came from a stretch play away from him and then the cutback to his side, right over his area. Every time, he got pushed down into the pile. It looked like a repeat of last week's film cutup of him.

All around - not a lot of positives to take-away from the game other than that our defense got 6 sacks against the worse O-line in football(that's saying a lot considering how bad ours is, LOL). Cheers!

Here's, officially, the 2nd pass play of the game. Seattle was prepared for this all the way.


Here, we're going to run a "mesh" concept. The primary read is VD, but it's supposed to be a "key defender" read. The middle curl route is supposed to clear the underneath defender to open up the shallow cross. They're trying to move #50 vertically and then the outside defender(Chancellor) out with the flat route, to open up VD coming across the field. If #50(can't remember which one that is for Seattle) covers the shallow cross, the middle curl route should be open, as the deep post is supposed to occupy all 3 deep defenders.


At the snap you see #54 check VD on an underneath release and #50 drop with Celek and Chancellor splitting out with Bush.


The LB's pass off Celek very well and #50 is ready for VD coming across the field, same with 54 is ready for Celek's curl. Thomas is reading CK's eyes, so he's looking to jump the post route and #50 has taken a good spot drop in the passing lane.


54 reads CK's eyes and when he checks out to McD, he moves wide, then Cary Williams starts to move up to drive on the potential curl route. 50 also then lets VD run through his zone and moves to cover the curl.


As CK's eyes come back to the middle of the field, you see how all the defenders are in a position to drive on any throw or cover a receiver. Celek looks open, but Williams has already started driving on the route.


It's a checkdown to McD for 2 yards. Seattle covered the play perfectly.

Originally posted by jonnydel:






As CK's eyes come back to the middle of the field, you see how all the defenders are in a position to drive on any throw or cover a receiver. Celek looks open, but Williams has already started driving on the route.

Right here, when Kap comes back to Celek, Vernon needs to turn back and go in scramble mode to find the open space that's right behind him. He ends up sitting and allows Kam to cover him and Bush. Coaches need to ingrain this into some of our WR's.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
I'm not sure where to start with this game. It was frustrating from every aspect, as I'm sure it has been for just about every niners fan. There's opinions everywhere about what's wrong with the niners this season and there's a million different, "chicken and the egg" arguments that can be made for just about every on-field failure.

(snipped)

Per our previous convo, I think the pared down offensive playbook has to do with the lack of talent on offense, particularly Kap and the OL. So I am being a bit forgiving of Geep here as I think he called an adequate game. There are only so many things an OC can call when the OL can barely be counted on to protect long enough for a 5 step concept to develop. Against a ferocious pass rush like SEA, this is magnified. To me, this is the OC adjusting to what he has to work with. The downside is it makes the offense easier to defend. This is the catch22.

Dial up complexity and risk getting the QB, who struggles with quick decision making, getting sacked? Or call concepts that get the ball quickly out of his hands and make the offense easier to defend? I would side with keeping it simple, and putting the onus on the QB to get rid of the ball. Kap missed some short throws in this game so even when Geep did what I think was the right thing, the execution was not there.

I agree with what you said about the defense playing good enough to win. After a very shaky first possession, they buckled down in the 2nd half and gave the offense a chance. The only other SEA TD came on a very nice throw to Lockett. Last week, you showed how Dial was misplaying the run as a backside pursuit defender. It indeed showed up again this game on the first SEA drive when Lynch busted a big run. I have to mention Ian Williams as he is the clear run stopping stud on the DL, head and shoulders above Dial/Dorsey imo.

I'll try to show Kap's sacks and the lack of protection by the OL as well as the lack of separation from the WRs. Boldin played gimpy with his hamstring injury, and Sherman shadowed Torrey. When the 49ers called max protect to try for some deep plays, SEA was all over it. The 49ers still have the same problem they had in previous years - there's only 1 speed threat on the field. It was obvious they tried to integrate Bush into the passing game which I think is the right way to attack SEA's cover 3. Much like NE did in the SB. Poor execution on everyone's part killed this gameplan.

I like how 2 of our OL are facing the opposite directions blocking no one
great work guys

Here's the very next play, it's another mesh concept and, to me, was one of the biggest plays in the game. It causes a 3 and out for the offense and Seattle goes on to get a TD and take momentum.


We're going to motion TS inside and then run him on a shallow cross with Bush running a short out. Bush is the primary on this play. The idea is to cause a "rub route" on the MLB covering Bush out of the backfield - we saw NY do this to us several times.


Seattle is in man-coverage, so it's a win for us conceptually.


You see TS's shallow crossing route create traffic for Wagner to fight through.


You see how tough is is going to be to cover Bush out of the backfield.


Bush breaks open and with Williams' back turned, it should be an easy first down.


The throw is off though. Gotta hit that throw.

Have either one of you guys looked at when they have tried to run screen plays? It s it's CK's passes or the o line? But it just seems like they just can't run a screen based on their own lack of talent and discipline. There screens never work. I've never seen a team not be able to complete a screen pass. Does seem like the dumbed down offense is easy to read. And we don't have the talent to just overcome the fact that teams know what plays are coming

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Here's the very next play, it's another mesh concept and, to me, was one of the biggest plays in the game. It causes a 3 and out for the offense and Seattle goes on to get a TD and take momentum.


We're going to motion TS inside and then run him on a shallow cross with Bush running a short out. Bush is the primary on this play. The idea is to cause a "rub route" on the MLB covering Bush out of the backfield - we saw NY do this to us several times.


Seattle is in man-coverage, so it's a win for us conceptually.


You see TS's shallow crossing route create traffic for Wagner to fight through.


You see how tough is is going to be to cover Bush out of the backfield.


Bush breaks open and with Williams' back turned, it should be an easy first down.


The throw is off though. Gotta hit that throw.

This pissed me off as well. It's moves the chains and builds confidence. Any QB, running any offense that is considered a WCO just had to hit this throw. It's throws like this that lets you complete 65+% of your passes.

This is already painful to look at. Ugh.

Was it more of a bad throw or Bush just dropped it. I'm on the fence. It looked like Bush plain dropped it initially...

Originally posted by lamontb:
Have either one of you guys looked at when they have tried to run screen plays? It s it's CK's passes or the o line? But it just seems like they just can't run a screen based on their own lack of talent and discipline. There screens never work. I've never seen a team not be able to complete a screen pass. Does seem like the dumbed down offense is easy to read. And we don't have the talent to just overcome the fact that teams know what plays are coming

I've just seen that they haven't worked hardly at all. Some of it, I think, has to do with O-line execution. It's why I felt we didn't run hardly any screens last year. But, there's gotta be more to it, I just haven't put too much time into looking at it.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's, officially, the 2nd pass play of the game. Seattle was prepared for this all the way.


Here, we're going to run a "mesh" concept. The primary read is VD, but it's supposed to be a "key defender" read. The middle curl route is supposed to clear the underneath defender to open up the shallow cross. They're trying to move #50 vertically and then the outside defender(Chancellor) out with the flat route, to open up VD coming across the field. If #50(can't remember which one that is for Seattle) covers the shallow cross, the middle curl route should be open, as the deep post is supposed to occupy all 3 deep defenders.


At the snap you see #54 check VD on an underneath release and #50 drop with Celek and Chancellor splitting out with Bush.


The LB's pass off Celek very well and #50 is ready for VD coming across the field, same with 54 is ready for Celek's curl. Thomas is reading CK's eyes, so he's looking to jump the post route and #50 has taken a good spot drop in the passing lane.


54 reads CK's eyes and when he checks out to McD, he moves wide, then Cary Williams starts to move up to drive on the potential curl route. 50 also then lets VD run through his zone and moves to cover the curl.


As CK's eyes come back to the middle of the field, you see how all the defenders are in a position to drive on any throw or cover a receiver. Celek looks open, but Williams has already started driving on the route.


It's a checkdown to McD for 2 yards. Seattle covered the play perfectly.

I thought this was a good playcall to get the passing game going. Short range, attack the LBs over the middle. I feel as though the primary read here, versus Cover3, is Celek. VD running the drag is the target versus man coverage. The playcall worked, but I think Kap's line of sight was blocked when he wanted to target Celek over the middle. Then when Kap side steps to his left, he went away from Celek when he should have showed a little more patience with Celek.

VD's drag route influences orange, which buys space for Celek. In the pic below, Kap has move off of Celek and is looking to Vance and that' why Celek has a bit more room.


Same moment in time as above.


Kap looked to Vance, and because Vance wasn't looking back at Kap, Kap looks back to Celek. But by then VD is no longer influencing orange (not shown because he's off the screen). So orange starts to creep back to Celek - closing that window.


Orange is #50. It appears like Kap wants to target Celek, but there was no line of sight with all the OL/DL bunched up in the middle. Versus good defenses, windows are tight and as soon as it's open, it's closed.


(thanks, qnnhan)

Originally posted by jonnydel:
On defense, I saw several blown coverage's. When that happens, sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly what went wrong on our defense. There were a couple of those blown coverage's on blitzes when we were trying to play man-coverage behind it.

One thing Arik Armstead must do better is his execution on stunts. So far this season his execution on any stunts has been bad, at best. He looks like he's still trying to win a 1v1 battle while Lynch is trying to stunt around, leaving holes open for QB's to escape the pocket.

I mentioned it last week and I think Seattle saw the same thing on film, that Dial really struggles on stretch plays away from him. Sometimes, I really don't like being right. But, There were at least 6-7 run plays of 7 or more yards that came from a stretch play away from him and then the cutback to his side, right over his area. Every time, he got pushed down into the pile. It looked like a repeat of last week's film cutup of him.

Blown coverages are a theme in this defense although are you seeing a decrease over the weeks as they become more familiar?

Agreed, Seattle came out running the ball with authority for a quick TD and then the DL settled down. Lesson learned, I hope.

Please cover the Brock TD to Lockett. It seemed like he had to cover him about 60 total yards from right to left all the way across the field and had no S help.

These are two great points about Dial and AA and ones we need to watch closely in their development over the next 9 games.

Agree with thl too...just too darn hard to evaluate Geep right now in this catch-22 offense. Brutal position to be in between CK's psyche and this OL.

Any theories on why we didn't stay with under-C snaps and swap out Tiller (the better pass protector) for Devey against a well known pass rush?

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Was it more of a bad throw or Bush just dropped it. I'm on the fence. It looked like Bush plain dropped it initially...

From the original broadcast view, it looked like Bush dropped it, but, when they showed the replay in slow mo on that side, you could clearly see that it was too far out in front and Bush could only get his fingertips on the ball.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's the very next play, it's another mesh concept and, to me, was one of the biggest plays in the game. It causes a 3 and out for the offense and Seattle goes on to get a TD and take momentum.


We're going to motion TS inside and then run him on a shallow cross with Bush running a short out. Bush is the primary on this play. The idea is to cause a "rub route" on the MLB covering Bush out of the backfield - we saw NY do this to us several times.


Seattle is in man-coverage, so it's a win for us conceptually.


You see TS's shallow crossing route create traffic for Wagner to fight through.


You see how tough is is going to be to cover Bush out of the backfield.


Bush breaks open and with Williams' back turned, it should be an easy first down.


The throw is off though. Gotta hit that throw.

Another solid playcall and it worked to get the ball out of Kap's hands. Like you said, conceptually, it worked. Good recognition to locate the mismatch - Bush versus LB. When watching it live, it looked like Bush had a drop. Bush is not a 6'3 WR. Kap needs to make that throw.