Analysis from Seahawks Game coaches film

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's a great play, both in play calling from Roman and great anticipation by Kaep.



Here, we're going Play action with Frank out of a 22 personnel look(2 backs 2 TE's) Davis is flexed out to the slot. Boldin runs a DIG(deep in) and Vernon Runs a streak/fade route with McDonald running a crossing route and Frank heading out to the flat. Since Seattle plays the cover 3 so often they use Davis from the slot to run off both Thomas the FS and Maxwell the corner deep, Frank going to the flat pulls the LB as well as McDonald vacating the deep curl area just past the 50 yard line wide open.



Here you see the development of the play a little bit



This is a really impressive play from Colin and the type of plays that are very encouraging. As you see from him highlighted, he is throwing the ball before Boldin is coming out of his break. This means he's anticipating the coverage and play. He makes his read quickly and hits his back foot coming out of play action and drives the ball.



As you see it's a 20 yard gain on a great play call and great execution. This is how the run game sets it all up because the linebackers over the middle hesitate, drop down and then get pulled off by McDonald and Gore. Great play Kaep!

Yay GIFs! Here's this play.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's a great play, both in play calling from Roman and great anticipation by Kaep.



Here, we're going Play action with Frank out of a 22 personnel look(2 backs 2 TE's) Davis is flexed out to the slot. Boldin runs a DIG(deep in) and Vernon Runs a streak/fade route with McDonald running a crossing route and Frank heading out to the flat. Since Seattle plays the cover 3 so often they use Davis from the slot to run off both Thomas the FS and Maxwell the corner deep, Frank going to the flat pulls the LB as well as McDonald vacating the deep curl area just past the 50 yard line wide open.



Here you see the development of the play a little bit



This is a really impressive play from Colin and the type of plays that are very encouraging. As you see from him highlighted, he is throwing the ball before Boldin is coming out of his break. This means he's anticipating the coverage and play. He makes his read quickly and hits his back foot coming out of play action and drives the ball.



As you see it's a 20 yard gain on a great play call and great execution. This is how the run game sets it all up because the linebackers over the middle hesitate, drop down and then get pulled off by McDonald and Gore. Great play Kaep!

Yay GIFs! Here's this play.

Wow, Bruce Miller was also wide open in the middle of the field

Originally posted by Furlow:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by Furlow:
Re-watching the play, and the gif, it seems like the design of the defense was for Reid and Rogers to swap responsibilities. Rogers bails immediately to a Cover 2 position, and Reid jumps the flat. If the RB our TE had run to the flat, Reid would have an INT opportunity. It seems like the Seapigeons just got lucky and called the perfect route for that gamble.

I could be wrong, and Reid could have jumped the play action. But if he's jumping play action AT ALL while having deep Cover 2 responsibility, then he needs to be benched. Even kids on my pop warner team don't make that mistake...

Love the analysis though, this is fun. Would be great to sit in on a film session after a game with the coaches and players to really know how much the game is a chess match.

How I knew it was soft cover 2 was because Brock drops into a soft curl zone on the other side and Rogers starts to do the same. Reid starts flying down when Wilson turns to fake the handoff, he doesn't head anywhere close to a soft zone area, where he ends up when he realized he just got tricked is where Bowman ends up for his drop into zone.

There isn't a WR in the flat or going towards the flat, so no need for Reid to jump all the way to the soft zone. I like to call that "covering grass" which is a definite no-no in zone coverage. It just seems unbelievable that an NFL safety (and one who is playing very well) could make THAT bad of a mistake. Again, biting on play action when you have deep Cover 2 responsibility is so blatantly bad that it's inexcusable, even for a rookie.

Plus Rogers completely bails to a deep 2 responsibility, he doesn't settle in a soft zone like Brock does. Of course, he may have just seen Reid completely leave him hanging, so maybe he just kept his depth.

Either way it was a bad play, but I'm hoping that Reid isn't that much of an idiot. I agree with you that we need to be able to play zone coverage in order to effectively stop good running teams, and that means all of the DB's have to stay disciplined and stay in their zone until the ball is thrown or the RB has the ball.

on the gif it looks like Rogers bails into 2 deep responsibility but on the coaches film you can see he hesitates very briefly while turning his hips in showing he's sitting down into his zone and about to look for a receiver since he was on the single receiver side. when he turns his hips he sees that Reid has shot down.

Reid is an aggressive safety and seattle hadn't taken a shot like that yet in the game. With aggressive, young safeties, they will have lapses like this every once in a while. Shoot, Polamalu still does some things like this every once in a while.

This is great content. Thank you very much for your time and effort.

Bravo OP... Bravo.

This is the TD pass to Vernon, again, this is fantastic "A++" performance by Kaep, to quote Jim Harbaugh.



Here, again, the seahawks show single high safety. They end up going to a cover 3, however Kaep does a great job of recognition to read zone and not man.
You see him look at his first read to Boldin against man and then move to Davis for the zone



Kaep looks left to Boldin who initialy gets bracketed. The linebacker, as the play develops, drops down onto Frank. He keeps his head over to hold the LB and Vernon does a great job of crossing the face of the LB on his crossing route.



Here you see how Kaep keeps his head over holding the LB and Safety from jumping the route



Kaep gets the ball to VD in a small window(you can see the shadow of the corner on the left of the screen) just before the D-lineman gets to him. This was great timing and poise by Kaep because the DT was coming right at him and he got it to the only guy he could in a small window. Great job Kaep! He moved through his progression and delivered a great pass. These are the plays that give me a lot of positivity towards the guy.

This is a one last request post for any more plays that you can think of from the seahawks game that you want me to take a look at. I'm moving on to a few other games to take a look at and will come back to this one to highlight some defensive stuff.

Very briefly though. Tony-Jerrod Eddie, really showed up on the tape though. When he was in, he played very soundly and well.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
This is a one last request post for any more plays that you can think of from the seahawks game that you want me to take a look at. I'm moving on to a few other games to take a look at and will come back to this one to highlight some defensive stuff.

Very briefly though. Tony-Jerrod Eddie, really showed up on the tape though. When he was in, he played very soundly and well.

Look at about 5:06 of the 3rd quarter, I thought that was one of Kaepernick's best plays of the game. He snapped the ball, scanned the field, look all the way across, looked at VD who I thought was the intended receiver, he was covered, looked back to the left, came back to center and used his feet to buy time while looking down field and delivered a very nice pass to Boldin.




Around 14:10 of the 3rd, there was a very good passing play called for Crabtree, Seattle was having their defensive backs play back, Crabtree motioned as he was going to run ahead, made a cut, went right, caught the pass and was wide open due to Boldin pulling the defensive back to the outside, freeing up space for Crabtree inside, just a well-designed play, one of the better passing plays I saw. Kaepernick to his credit simply gunned the ball in there with no hesitation.

thanks, this thread proves what i have been saying in the kap thread for a while.. a long while now.

it's not ability it's consistently.

there's a difference between cannot do which is the narrative..and not consistently doing.

he's getting more consistent.. and the 3 or 4 plays will turn into 6 or 7 plays... and turn into complete games from him and i think that starts this upcoming week.

he will not be perfect, nobody will. he will have bad games.. there isn't a qb who doesn't have them.

but i'd rather have him back there than anyone else.

we're going to see him be even better going forward from here on out.

not perfect, but just as good as any other qb's in the league.. especially if we ever develop rhythmic play calling and efficient red zone play calling

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
This post will show how Kaep threw the interception



On the broadcast you may remember Kaep audible at the line to this play.

On this play, he saw the defense in a similar alignment to the Vernon play above, thinking it was man coverage he audibled. However, Seattle went into a cover 3.
The corner Maxwell takes an over the top coverage, while Chancellor the safety, takes underneath coverage as there is no route to hold him in the flat. The safety Thomas is moving over towards Crabs for help and Maxwell, knowing he has help underneath, stays on top of Crabs and Kaep throws the pick to Maxwell. Granted the throw Kaep was trying to make is a VERY difficult throw, he shouldn't have thrown it in the first place. The moment he saw Chancellor drop out in coverage he should recognized the cover 3, known the play was dead and scrambled out right where there was NOBODY.

if Kaep puts a little bit more air under that ball thats a TD, it was just a bad throw

On this play they have 7 guys covering our 3..7 guys!!!! everyone is double teamed....and then some. Why wouldn't kaep scramble to the right where no one is there is beyond me. This sh!t worries me more than playing up in Seattle. If we make these BASIC plays, we not only win but we dominate.

Originally posted by jonesadrian:
thanks, this thread proves what i have been saying in the kap thread for a while.. a long while now.

it's not ability it's consistently.

there's a difference between cannot do which is the narrative..and not consistently doing.

he's getting more consistent.. and the 3 or 4 plays will turn into 6 or 7 plays... and turn into complete games from him and i think that starts this upcoming week.

he will not be perfect, nobody will. he will have bad games.. there isn't a qb who doesn't have them.

but i'd rather have him back there than anyone else.

we're going to see him be even better going forward from here on out.

not perfect, but just as good as any other qb's in the league.. especially if we ever develop rhythmic play calling and efficient red zone play calling

It's frustrating because if you look through that game, there were some pretty good calls and there were some questionable ones, it comes down to consistency and being able to utilize all the weapons that are available.


Crabtree, Boldin and VD, there is no defense in the NFL that can shut down all of 3 of those guys. You can shutdown one, you can shutdown two maybe, but not all 3. Seattle is supposedly the best defense in the NFL, the best secondary with the bonus ability of being allowed to hold illegally without consequence and Boldin still had a very good game against them. I think with Miller coming out of the backfield, what they truly need is one more guy to step up as a dependable receiving threat, whether that be Manningham, McDonald or Patton, they need one guy who can make some big receptions and further stretch defense's out. If they can do that, have more consistently in the playcalling, attack a defense's weaknesses, they'll be looking very good heading into the playoffs.

Originally posted by tondiman:
On this play they have 7 guys covering our 3..7 guys!!!! everyone is double teamed....and then some. Why wouldn't kaep scramble to the right where no one is there is beyond me. This sh!t worries me more than playing up in Seattle. If we make these BASIC plays, we not only win but we dominate.

Another issue...why there are there only 3 receiving targets in that situation? Because of that, Seattle is allowed to cheat and basically have 3 guys closing in on Crabtree, cheating like crazy on coverage.

Originally posted by tondiman:
On this play they have 7 guys covering our 3..7 guys!!!! everyone is double teamed....and then some. Why wouldn't kaep scramble to the right where no one is there is beyond me. This sh!t worries me more than playing up in Seattle. If we make these BASIC plays, we not only win but we dominate.

but if he makes the right throw there which is leading crab, that's a td.
i know earl thomas is fast but he ain't that fast. there would be no way he could have gotten over and made a play on the ball. the only option would be to hold crab if he lays it out there

Originally posted by jonesadrian:
but if he makes the right throw there which is leading crab, that's a td.
i know earl thomas is fast but he ain't that fast. there would be no way he could have gotten over and made a play on the ball. the only option would be to hold crab if he lays it out there

The throw needed to have been to the outside, it was too underthrown, it was just an errant pass where I think he was worried about reigning his throwing power in and not overthrowing Crabtree and the ball ending up out of bounds. Could also be that Crabtree didn't run the route he was necessarily supposed to run.

Wow. The best thread ever. I still love you Marvin, but this was absolutely awesome! Thanks!