Seattle Seahawks week 11 coaches film analysis

Well, that was an interesting game to watch. There were some very disappointing things to see, but there were also some very encouraging things - which isn't usually the case when we lose to Seattle.

This was, by far, the worst defensive performance I have ever seen our team put out against Seattle. The point totals don't really tell the whole story. Their offense dictated the game and held the ball for long drives. We got straight bullied. They came out, pushed us down, made fun of our shoes, took our lunch money and gave us a swirly....it was that bad.

There were players at fault all over the field. You can't just point to one player here, or there. Everyone on defense had a hand in this, at some point. We only caused one 3 and out in the game. Now, the offensive play calling in the first 3 drives didn't help things much either. I don't know why we tried to take as many shots as we did. More so, when we took the shots we did. I don't think 3rd and 3, when your defense badly needs a rest, is the time to take a shot.

Something I want to address concerning the performance of Gabbert and some things that have been talked about in the forums since the game:

"Seattle was in a shell defense, it's why Gabbert threw for a bunch of yards" - False. Seattle loves to blow people out, think of the SB, think of the last 6 or 7 times we've played them, they don't let up, they want to embarrass anyone. Seattle never went into a shell defense. The only times I saw cover 4, was when it was 3rd and long. They continued to blitz and mix up their coverages more than I'd seen them do in the past couple years.

What I saw from Gabbert was better than the Atlanta game. I saw some really, really gutsy throws, decisive action, good pocket awareness and a very high rate of correct reads. I was really impressed. I don't want to sound like I'm becoming a Gabbert homer, but, when you watch the film of him, there's a lot to like right now. Remember, this isn't the Giants last ranked passing defense, this was the #2 defense in the league.

The one knock, were the lack of TD's in the redzone - there were a few reasons for those, one, Seattle is really tough in the redzone. Two, we couldn't run the ball in the redzone. 3, there were a few plays where Gabbert and his receivers were not on the same page - that was actually the case on a number of throws. There were also a couple curious playcalls - where we tried to take shots instead of progression throws.

The thing that was most impressive, were the cause of his incompletions, actually. Overall, I really only saw maybe 2 or 3 throws that were incomplete because of Gabbert. There were quite a few throws where he and the receiver weren't quite on the same page and on those, Gabbert made the right throw, the receivers didn't make the right adjustments.

Overall, the O-line played ok in pass-pro, terrible in the run game. Tiller did ok, not great. Had some miscues with he and Martin.

On defense - as I said before, it was turrible. It might be a game we just scratch off for the defense - considering it was the worst run defense we'd had since 1978.... So, I'd say it was definitely an anomaly.

I'll try to get to as many breakdowns as I can today, we'll see, got kind of a busy day. Might have more tomorrow - not sure how the day will go. Anyhoo.

Happy Turkey day y'all!(no, I don't have a southern accent even though I live in Alabama. But, I do say, "y'all" now.)

Great to get confirmation from a film reviewer on gabberts good effort on the #2 ranked defense who werent playing soft.

Great read by the way

Yess been waiting for this

Gabble gabble. He had a good game. Good decisions. Not a lot of mistakes. Non glaring. I thought he forced the throw to Boldin that was almost INT in the last drive of the game, instead of going to Draughn on dump off to the right, that could've gotten a 1st down, but it was already 29-13. Other than that, he had a nice game. I think he's capable of a much better game though.

Best part of Gabbert against Seattle, we know he can function very well with good decisions against a top defense.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Well, that was an interesting game to watch. There were some very disappointing things to see, but there were also some very encouraging things - which isn't usually the case when we lose to Seattle.
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Happy Turkey day y'all!(no, I don't have a southern accent even though I live in Alabama. But, I do say, "y'all" now.)

Nice breakdown. Agree with a lot. Especially what you mentioned about the defensive gaffs being shared by all players. I'll rip off a few names that had missed tackles or missed assignemnts: Tartt, Bow, AA, Ward, Brock, Acker, Wilhoite. Just about the only player I'll excuse is Ian Williams and it might be because I didn't notice his mistakes.

Run defense was poor due to the crap tackling, but also poor edge contain, most notably by Brooks who kept trying to sidestep around his block instead taking it head on and trying to controlling his gap, and Brock. 49ers came with pretty soft coverage trying to keep things in front of them.

The offensive playcalling to open the game was very suspect. Like you mentioned, they dialed up a vertical concept on the opening 3rd down (3rd & 3, sack). Then the next drive they faced 3rd & 6, went to Torrey. That's two '3 and outs'. Next 3rd down they failed on was 3rd & 10. Then the next 3rd & 3 they tried a bomb to Ellington - fail. At that point it was 20-0. No idea why they were looking for the big play when they just needed minimal yardage. They work hard for manageable 3rd down distances, then blow it trying to hit the chunk play.

Gabbert took some hits to make a play. Props to him for standing tall in the pocket to deliver. Once the 49ers started to use more ball control passing, the offense looked better. SEA came with their standard cover3, mixing in some cover 1 blitzes.

This game was lost in the 1st quarter with the questionable offensive playcalling, bad passing attack, and the crap defense (first 3 SEA drives = 3 TDs). The 49ers made it close once the offense started rolling, but the defense was not able to come through by continuing the bad tackling, even after talking about it during the half.

Here's one of the moments where Gabbert and his receiver weren't on the same page. It's the 2nd drive of the game - 3rd and 6, 8:41 1st QTR. I'm not in love with this playcall given the situation in the game. It's going to be a 3 receiver route with max protection.


Seattle shows a cover 2 man look at before the snap. It could be a press 4, but the LB's show a man-alignemnt. The miscue here is that TS - because he's engaged with Sherman, never see's the post-snap change. If Seattle were in a man-2, he's going to run this streak more up the numbers to draw the attention of the safety to open up the middle for Boldin.



At the snap, the safeties split - Seattle is running a cover-1 "robber". It's a trap defense, you show the cover 2 man - inviting the post route(which is what Boldin is running). I remember Rod Woodson getting a pick six on MNF, years ago, running cover 1 "robber" against a nearly identical offensive play.


You see how the safeties are in more of a stacked defense to protect the middle of the field. Gabbert reads Thomas and the change in the safeties and is going to look to the only other real option on the play. The streak/fade to TS on the wide side of the field. TS gets an outside release but continues to run his route more up the numbers, not realizing the safety has rotated down.


The red is how Gabbert throws the pass, the yellow is how TS runs his route. Gabbert is trying to throw the pass to the sideline, leading TS away from Sherman and work all the space they have. TS doesn't react the same way though.


You see how much room TS had to work with Sherman to the boundry, but, probably because they haven't played a whole lot together, TS doesn't realize the throw is coming outside til it's too late to adjust.


Gabbert put the ball on the money on the sideline, it landed just out of bounds, meaning, the receiver would be catching it a yard or so in bounds. They just weren't on the same page.

jonny feel free to add, but I'll cut up the first SEA TD where Ward got roasted - poor press technique. And some of the key throws on the 49ers first TD drive. I'll mix in the bad 49er defensive plays here and there because there were so many.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Gabble gabble. He had a good game. Good decisions. Not a lot of mistakes. Non glaring. I thought he forced the throw to Boldin that was almost INT in the last drive of the game, instead of going to Draughn on dump off to the right, that could've gotten a 1st down, but it was already 29-13. Other than that, he had a nice game. I think he's capable of a much better game though.

Best part of Gabbert against Seattle, we know he can function very well with good decisions against a top defense.

I thought the same thing before watching the film - he made the right read, the underneath defender made a good adjustment. Seattle was in a cover 4 and we ran a streak on the outside with an inside curl to Boldin, the udnerneath defender initially dropped down to Draughn but then backed out to Boldin. From the all-22 Boldin looks open, but the defender jumped into the passing lane late.

Originally posted by thl408:
jonny feel free to add, but I'll cut up the first SEA TD where Ward got roasted - poor press technique. And some of the key throws on the 49ers first TD drive. I'll mix in the bad 49er defensive plays here and there because there were so many.

agree completely, he totally whiffed on his press

Didn't they tried this again later in the game... Torrey made a good catch on it. I think they also did the same against Atlanta and got a completion.

Originally posted by thl408:
Nice breakdown. Agree with a lot. Especially what you mentioned about the defensive gaffs being shared by all players. I'll rip off a few names that had missed tackles or missed assignemnts: Tartt, Bow, AA, Ward, Brock, Acker, Wilhoite. Just about the only player I'll excuse is Ian Williams and it might be because I didn't notice his mistakes.

Run defense was poor due to the crap tackling, but also poor edge contain, most notably by Brooks who kept trying to sidestep around his block instead taking it head on and trying to controlling his gap, and Brock. 49ers came with pretty soft coverage trying to keep things in front of them.

The offensive playcalling to open the game was very suspect. Like you mentioned, they dialed up a vertical concept on the opening 3rd down (3rd & 3, sack). Then the next drive they faced 3rd & 6, went to Torrey. That's two '3 and outs'. Next 3rd down they failed on was 3rd & 10. Then the next 3rd & 3 they tried a bomb to Ellington - fail. At that point it was 20-0. No idea why they were looking for the big play when they just needed minimal yardage. They work hard for manageable 3rd down distances, then blow it trying to hit the chunk play.

Gabbert took some hits to make a play. Props to him for standing tall in the pocket to deliver. Once the 49ers started to use more ball control passing, the offense looked better. SEA came with their standard cover3, mixing in some cover 1 blitzes.

This game was lost in the 1st quarter with the questionable offensive playcalling, bad passing attack, and the crap defense (first 3 SEA drives = 3 TDs). The 49ers made it close once the offense started rolling, but the defense was not able to come through by continuing the bad tackling, even after talking about it during the half.

Yep, yep and yep, lol.

Brooks bolded - Yes!! There was one run Seattle had for chunk yards where Brooks put an inside swim move on not one, but 2 blockers!!! you don't do that as the outside contain man!! Not only that, but he did it twice on the same F'n play!!!!

Gabbert made some real tough throws staying in the pocket and taking a hit. One thing that's really impressed me is that he has a really good knack for knowing when to stay in and make the throw and take a hit and knowing when to escape.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Didn't they tried this again later in the game... Torrey made a good catch on it. I think they also did the same against Atlanta and got a completion.

It was a little different of a play - but one we had already run the game.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Gabble gabble. He had a good game. Good decisions. Not a lot of mistakes. Non glaring. I thought he forced the throw to Boldin that was almost INT in the last drive of the game, instead of going to Draughn on dump off to the right, that could've gotten a 1st down, but it was already 29-13. Other than that, he had a nice game. I think he's capable of a much better game though.

Best part of Gabbert against Seattle, we know he can function very well with good decisions against a top defense.

I thought the same thing before watching the film - he made the right read, the underneath defender made a good adjustment. Seattle was in a cover 4 and we ran a streak on the outside with an inside curl to Boldin, the udnerneath defender initially dropped down to Draughn but then backed out to Boldin. From the all-22 Boldin looks open, but the defender jumped into the passing lane late.

They went to the well too often. Defender smelled it out

Originally posted by thl408:
jonny feel free to add, but I'll cut up the first SEA TD where Ward got roasted - poor press technique. And some of the key throws on the 49ers first TD drive. I'll mix in the bad 49er defensive plays here and there because there were so many.

I'm gonna look at the 2nd scoring drive and I'm gonna look at one of Gabbert's big passing plays to Boldin in the 3rd qtr - the throw was pretty stinkin awesome.

I think a breakdown of the early pass to Ellington would be a good play to cover. People were upset that Gabbert overthrew it pretty badly but to me it looked like Ellington cut the route short and that Gabbert expected him to keep going.