Film analysis

Originally posted by lamontb:
Good s**t jonny. Seemed like last year Miller started out really slow in teh fisrt few games. Just missing blocks like his head wasn't in the game. One question. Hoiw many times did they run towards the right side of the line? Seems like with Boone and Davis that was the better side to run behind. I don't recall seeing too many runs behind Looney and Martin.

It's was actually probably about 60/40 right to left

I won't break down Davis early TD cause Mayock did a great job of doing that already here: http://www.nfl.com/videos/san-francisco-49ers#

Here's an example of Willis being awesome in coverage:



This is the 2nd play after Wilhoite gave up the pass to the goal line - Smith got a sack right before this(which I'll break down next). But this is great defense by Willis on this play.
We're going to run a cover 2 -man out of a quarters look(standard look for us). You can see Culliver and Ward talking to identify who they're going to take in coverage as we run a "pattern-match" man coverage. Meaning, the inside defender will take the inside route - not necessarily the inside receiver. Also, we're only going to send a 3 man rush and keep Brooks in a "spy" coverage. Willis see's Romo see our defense before the snap and tells Brooks something(probably to jam the TE on the LOS)



Brooks jams the receiver at the line and we get into our coverage. Culliver takes the inside receiver on his vertical and Ward takes Bryan on his "in" route. Normally the middle of the field will be open against a cover 2, but Willis understands this and gets great coverage on Witten


We get into our coverage and Willis maintains great inside leverage on Whitten as he knows he has safety help to the deep outside.



He does a great job of sqeezing the route and taking the middle away. Because of this Romo has nowhere to put the ball.



The yellow is where Romo had to throw the ball because of the coverage and the black is where he would have liked to throw the ball but couldn't because of the great coverage of Willis.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
I won't break down Davis early TD cause Mayock did a great job of doing that already here: http://www.nfl.com/videos/san-francisco-49ers#

that's a classical vertical stretch, isn't it?

The first sack that Smith got on Romo was actually pretty funny, because it wasn't supposed to be a pass play.



Here Dallas is at the 2 yard line. They've called a run, but like our first play from scrimmage, Romo has the option of the pass - which he takes.



You see the lineman fire out in run blocking and they actually have a little bit of a lane, but Romo pulls the ball up and tries to look for the fade. Smith though, absolutely dominates his guy and is in the backfield right away.


Smith then makes Romo pay for trying to be cute on the play.

Originally posted by communist:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
I won't break down Davis early TD cause Mayock did a great job of doing that already here: http://www.nfl.com/videos/san-francisco-49ers#

that's a classical vertical stretch, isn't it?

Yes, it's the basic wheel route - designed to be a cover 3 zone just like it did. Davis has had so many TD's off that route it's not even funny.....

Originally posted by jonnydel:
The first sack that Smith got on Romo was actually pretty funny, because it wasn't supposed to be a pass play.



Here Dallas is at the 2 yard line. They've called a run, but like our first play from scrimmage, Romo has the option of the pass - which he takes.



You see the lineman fire out in run blocking and they actually have a little bit of a lane, but Romo pulls the ball up and tries to look for the fade. Smith though, absolutely dominates his guy and is in the backfield right away.


Smith then makes Romo pay for trying to be cute on the play.

perfect example of how trying to do too much hurts
coach calls a good run play that prob scores a TD but Romo gonna Romo

Here's Eric Reid's INT, which was really impressive - even more so when you watch the film.



Here we show our quarters coverage look but are going to rotate into a cover 3 zone.


Dallas is going to run play action to pull the LB's and safety up and look for the crossing route.


You see the defenders start to recover from the play fake - Culliver is gesturing out that the receiver is coming across to alert the safety for crosser out of his zone.



What's great about what Reid does here is that after the play fake he immediately turns to find a receiver. This way he see's exactly where the receiver is headed and moves to intercept. This is a tough concept to grasp in the middle of the play, most guys will just try and drop while keeping their eyes on the QB. But Reid identifies where the nearest threat is.


Then, after identifying the threat and closing the distance, he turns back to the QB to find the ball. This is why Romo never saw him, from what Romo saw, this was the right throw against the right coverage. We just made a great play.

He then makes the well documented pick.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Yes, it's the basic wheel route - designed to be a cover 3 zone just like it did. Davis has had so many TD's off that route it's not even funny.....

I'm too stupid The cowboys ran a cover 3 zone?

Jonny, your breakdowns are awesome! Thanks!!

Originally posted by communist:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Yes, it's the basic wheel route - designed to be a cover 3 zone just like it did. Davis has had so many TD's off that route it's not even funny.....

I'm too stupid The cowboys ran a cover 3 zone?

Yeah, they ran a cover 3 zone, which is how the vertical stretch works - it streches the zones out - Here's a wonderful reference guide THl put together, http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/179447-all22-coverages-and-concepts/

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's another example from Wilhoite:








Ward squeezes his receiver towards the safety and Willis, this is where Wilhoite has to recognize the play and get on his horse to his flat responsibility, but he continues to drop. The inside post wouldn't be open if Wilhoite heads to the flat because of the shallow safety and Willis's position. This is what is great about this coverage. Because Wilhoite doesn't get on his horse right away, it leaves a huge zone open on the field.



You see Romo flare it out to the RB and how much space the RB has to work with. Here's another difference between Wilhoite and Willis or Bow, those guys have the speed to make up for any mistakes like this - he doesn't.



The RB is able take the ball to the 2 yard line.

It looks to me (from my very uneducated eyes) that because this is a complex coverage scheme, he is trusting his ability to watch the QB's eyes more than his communication with the rest of the defense around him. In the first picture above, Romo is still looking toward the middle of the field with his back toward the flat where he is eventually going to throw. In the 2nd picture, where Romo has turned to throw to the RB in the flat, Wilholte is getting on his high horse to try to get where he should be.

Perhaps this could be the same problem with the first play you marked up on Wilholte. Cause my initial thought is that when Willis starts to back off the play action, Wilholte should have followed suit but he seems to not be communicating well with his teammates around him.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Yeah, they ran a cover 3 zone, which is how the vertical stretch works - it streches the zones out - Here's a wonderful reference guide THl put together, http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/179447-all22-coverages-and-concepts/

I'm confused You are talking like as if the vertical stretch is something what a DEFENSE is using...But then again, I think I'm stupid

summary: Boys ran a zone coverage and we stretched it vertically, right?

Originally posted by communist:
I'm confused You are talking like as if the vertical stretch is something what a DEFENSE is using...But then again, I think I'm stupid

summary: Boys ran a zone coverage and we stretched it vertically, right?

You got it right. They are in cover 3, but a vertical stretch gives one zone defender two threats in his zone. He's wrong no matter what, unless he gets help.

Originally posted by communist:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Yeah, they ran a cover 3 zone, which is how the vertical stretch works - it streches the zones out - Here's a wonderful reference guide THl put together, http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/179447-all22-coverages-and-concepts/

I'm confused You are talking like as if the vertical stretch is something what a DEFENSE is using...But then again, I think I'm stupid

summary: Boys ran a zone coverage and we stretched it vertically, right?

Yes sir, the stretch concept is used by the offense to stretch out the defense.



They're in cover 3 zone - 3 deep, 4 underneath



The entire route combo stretches the defense. The post route pulls the middle and deep 3rd zones up, the RB in the flat holds the underneath defender. This causes a huge area to be opened up because the zones are "stretched" out.