KC Chiefs coaches film analysis

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's another example of how the little things matter so much:


here, KC is going to run a swing pass to a WR out of the backfield.

On his dropback, AS keeps his head down the middle of the field, so he doesn't give away the swing pass right away. This allows the receivers to get into good positions to block and holds the LB's.

AS then turns and floats the ball out to his receiver in stride.

Bethea defeats his block, but other offensive players make it downfield to block.

Bethea misses his tackle - tough duty though in open field against a receiver running full speed.

Result of the play is a TD for KC.

We're going to run pretty much the exact same play(earlier in the game though). This is a great example of how two teams can run the same play, but it comes down to the little things in execution.

The moment the ball is snapped CK turns his head to the receiver on the swing pass. You see how the defenders are reacting to CK's eyes. The LB flows that way and the DB's charge the blockers.

KC now has 3 on 2

They do a good job of containing the lanes.

Ellington gets 1 yard....

You see how Smith's head is down the middle of the field(this is actually about a half second later than I'll show CK's shot) how it holds the LB's in the middle of the field.


Ck's head was immediately out to the swing pass and the LB's are flowing towards the play.

It's this little stuff that's the difference between a 1 yard gain and a 17 yard TD.... In the NFL that half second is huge!

Well done (excellent point!) but we're missing two key things that make KC's play design work with personnel and ours, not: 1) They have two backs in the backfield and the underneath RB runs to the strong side WITH Alex at the snap getting the defense flowing that way while the AR runs to the weak side and 2) We use only Ellington here in the backfield which should be an instant key-in for the defense. Charles is also the DECOY in this design and that is who the defense would naturally, key in on while they hit the receiver on the back end.

And like you noted, couple these two things WITH CK basically, moving the entire defense with his head/eyes TO where we are trying to create a mismatch and I'm surprised we even gained a yard! Poorer design, isolated personnel and QB-fail.

Originally posted by NCommand:
Well done (excellent point!) but we're missing two key things that make KC's play design work with personnel and ours, not: 1) They have two backs in the backfield and the underneath RB runs to the strong side WITH Alex at the snap getting the defense flowing that way while the AR runs to the weak side and 2) We use only Ellington here in the backfield which should be an instant key-in for the defense. Charles is also the DECOY in this design and that is who the defense would naturally, key in on while they hit the receiver on the back end.

And like you noted, couple these two things WITH CK basically, moving the entire defense with his head/eyes TO where we are trying to create a mismatch and I'm surprised we even gained a yard! Poorer design, isolated personnel and QB-fail.

I can see where you have a problem with the design, but, I have seen several teams run this play out of the same formation we did and have success. With KC, Charles' movement only affects P Willis, not Wilhoite on the play side. With ours, CK's head movement moves the LB on the play side whereas AS holds the LB on the play side.

To say it's all around bad play design you'd have to call Mike McCarthy and Bevell up in Seattle as well. They both run this play out of the shotgun with the Receiver next to the QB as well. Cobb in GB and Harvin in Seattle. To me, the biggest factor is CK's eyes as you see the LB watching CK more than anything.

Just run the damn ball out of the I formation.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Well done (excellent point!) but we're missing two key things that make KC's play design work with personnel and ours, not: 1) They have two backs in the backfield and the underneath RB runs to the strong side WITH Alex at the snap getting the defense flowing that way while the AR runs to the weak side and 2) We use only Ellington here in the backfield which should be an instant key-in for the defense. Charles is also the DECOY in this design and that is who the defense would naturally, key in on while they hit the receiver on the back end.

And like you noted, couple these two things WITH CK basically, moving the entire defense with his head/eyes TO where we are trying to create a mismatch and I'm surprised we even gained a yard! Poorer design, isolated personnel and QB-fail.

I can see where you have a problem with the design, but, I have seen several teams run this play out of the same formation we did and have success. With KC, Charles' movement only affects P Willis, not Wilhoite on the play side. With ours, CK's head movement moves the LB on the play side whereas AS holds the LB on the play side.

To say it's all around bad play design you'd have to call Mike McCarthy and Bevell up in Seattle as well. They both run this play out of the shotgun with the Receiver next to the QB as well. Cobb in GB and Harvin in Seattle. To me, the biggest factor is CK's eyes as you see the LB watching CK more than anything.

I would love to Frankenstein Alex mental side/experience with kaps tools. We've seen that before it's called Steve Young Now I firmly believe kaps gonna get to that level, but we get reminded weekly that it is a learning process. The fact kap is putting up the numbers he does, just has me so excited to see when he gets 5 plus years in.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Well done (excellent point!) but we're missing two key things that make KC's play design work with personnel and ours, not: 1) They have two backs in the backfield and the underneath RB runs to the strong side WITH Alex at the snap getting the defense flowing that way while the AR runs to the weak side and 2) We use only Ellington here in the backfield which should be an instant key-in for the defense. Charles is also the DECOY in this design and that is who the defense would naturally, key in on while they hit the receiver on the back end.

And like you noted, couple these two things WITH CK basically, moving the entire defense with his head/eyes TO where we are trying to create a mismatch and I'm surprised we even gained a yard! Poorer design, isolated personnel and QB-fail.

I can see where you have a problem with the design, but, I have seen several teams run this play out of the same formation we did and have success. With KC, Charles' movement only affects P Willis, not Wilhoite on the play side. With ours, CK's head movement moves the LB on the play side whereas AS holds the LB on the play side.

To say it's all around bad play design you'd have to call Mike McCarthy and Bevell up in Seattle as well. They both run this play out of the shotgun with the Receiver next to the QB as well. Cobb in GB and Harvin in Seattle. To me, the biggest factor is CK's eyes as you see the LB watching CK more than anything.

I think Charles as the decoy, Smith running right with him like an option and Smith's veteran savy to hold the defense is what makes this play. I still think our play can work even as it's designed but like you said, CK needs coaching on these nuances. But let's not dismiss that a better design could help CK and Ellington and whole heck of a lot! Did we ever come back to it or was that our one shot?

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's another example of how the little things matter so much:


here, KC is going to run a swing pass to a WR out of the backfield.

On his dropback, AS keeps his head down the middle of the field, so he doesn't give away the swing pass right away. This allows the receivers to get into good positions to block and holds the LB's.

AS then turns and floats the ball out to his receiver in stride.

Bethea defeats his block, but other offensive players make it downfield to block.

Bethea misses his tackle - tough duty though in open field against a receiver running full speed.

Result of the play is a TD for KC.

We're going to run pretty much the exact same play(earlier in the game though). This is a great example of how two teams can run the same play, but it comes down to the little things in execution.

The moment the ball is snapped CK turns his head to the receiver on the swing pass. You see how the defenders are reacting to CK's eyes. The LB flows that way and the DB's charge the blockers.

KC now has 3 on 2

They do a good job of containing the lanes.

Ellington gets 1 yard....

You see how Smith's head is down the middle of the field(this is actually about a half second later than I'll show CK's shot) how it holds the LB's in the middle of the field.


Ck's head was immediately out to the swing pass and the LB's are flowing towards the play.

It's this little stuff that's the difference between a 1 yard gain and a 17 yard TD.... In the NFL that half second is huge!

I was going to cut this play up too. You pointed out how the QB's look off can earn his WRs space to run, which is the "polish" that is lacking in many young QBs. This screen play fails for what Kap didn't do, as you pointed out, as well as shoddy blocking, which is what dooms most 49er screen plays. I'm also going to piggyback off your excellent point of how Kap doesn't help some plays by looking off defenders, particularly on short passing plays where 1 yard of separation can mean the difference between RAC or no RAC.

I promise to get to good stuff later, since it was a 49er win. Just wanted to go over some bad things first.

This is the same play you illustrated above. Hope you don't mind, but I wanted to focus on the OLine's blocking.

The pre-snap look from the end zone. The blue defender is the one that ends up making the tackle. Notice how Iupati has a DT aligned directly over him.


The ball is snapped and Iupati engages with the DT that was lined up directly across from him. This causes a roadblock for Kilgore, who wants to get to the edge. Staley will cut block his man to provide a throwing lane.


Here's Kilgore bumping into Iupati (orange). Now Staley is on the ground to act as a hurdle.


What a cluster F.


You can see how Kap doesn't help the play by looking away from where the play will be going here (jonnydel's point), as well as the blocking. Blue LB easily tracks this play down as no 49er puts a hat on him. Should Iupati have tried to release from his block and allow Kilgore to handle it as Iupati tries to get to the edge? Or should Kilgore have angled his first step so that he goes behind Iupati, thus allowing Kilgore to get to the edge? Who knows, but again the Oline/coaching shows it doesn't know how to execute a screen pass to a RB/WR out of the backfield.

Originally posted by 49erLegend:
Just run the damn ball out of the I formation.

My favorite...esp. b/c Miller is the best FB in the game IMHO and Gore runs VERY well off his backside (very patient and this is something Hyde is still learning...when to burst into the hole and when to slow down and let the blocks develop and THEN explode).

Looks to me like the difference between a 9 year veteran who has thrown hundreds of swing passes in games and a 2 year player who has thrown a handful of swing passes in games. Nice analysis - you've got to hope the coaches are also drilling this into Kaepernick's head.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Well done (excellent point!) but we're missing two key things that make KC's play design work with personnel and ours, not: 1) They have two backs in the backfield and the underneath RB runs to the strong side WITH Alex at the snap getting the defense flowing that way while the AR runs to the weak side and 2) We use only Ellington here in the backfield which should be an instant key-in for the defense. Charles is also the DECOY in this design and that is who the defense would naturally, key in on while they hit the receiver on the back end.

And like you noted, couple these two things WITH CK basically, moving the entire defense with his head/eyes TO where we are trying to create a mismatch and I'm surprised we even gained a yard! Poorer design, isolated personnel and QB-fail.

I can see where you have a problem with the design, but, I have seen several teams run this play out of the same formation we did and have success. With KC, Charles' movement only affects P Willis, not Wilhoite on the play side. With ours, CK's head movement moves the LB on the play side whereas AS holds the LB on the play side.

To say it's all around bad play design you'd have to call Mike McCarthy and Bevell up in Seattle as well. They both run this play out of the shotgun with the Receiver next to the QB as well. Cobb in GB and Harvin in Seattle. To me, the biggest factor is CK's eyes as you see the LB watching CK more than anything.

The little things do count but I think in this case it has more to do with predictability.
Every single time ellington is in the game we run the same exact play to the same exact side. they probably knew exactly how the play was going to work out before we even began to run it.

ellington in he's going to the short side of the field and get the ball. that's a true as the jumbo package runs we trot out there. i agree ck has to look people off as well just don't know what it would have done in this case with a team having film on keys on certain players and what we want to do with them

Originally posted by Ninefan56:
JohnnyDel:
Some questions:
1. Do you see Aaron Lynch developing? Do you see progress in his play? Will he replace Skuta this year?
2. Is A. Brooks slacking or is he playing up to his abilities?
3. How is Q. Dial playing? Will he be playing LDE before the season is out?
4. Sounds like you see I. Williams playing well? Is that because he is feeling better on his ankle?
5. How is Kilgore doing? He seemed to play better against Poe than he had done against anyone else?
6. Is Lloyd going to be our "deep threat"?
7. Why is Ellington not more a part of the offense?
8. Is Vance McDonald losing his spot to Carrier?
9. How did SD tighten up its play against KC? Was it scheme, or just better individual play, or more mental toughtness?

Thanks for the information.

I'll try and answer these the best I can:

1. I do see Lynch developing. He's getting better at knowing when to use his speed rush and shows a little more nastiness to his rush than Lemonier did. If you notice, you're seeing less Lemonier and more Lynch on the field. I think that's because Lynch is showing an ability to use more than one trick. I don't see him supplanting Skuta because Skuta is so sound against the run. If anything, I see Brooks being gone and a SkutaLynch replacement of Brooks.
2. A. Brooks continues to play well against the run, continues to not be a huge factor in the pass rush. He's doing better, but, still, not up to the kind of cap figure he's going to be - which is a huge factor. He's going to be a 9 mil cap figure for the next several years - which is up there with Ryan Kerrigan of the Redskins, who leads the league in sacks, and almost as much as Brian Arakpo at 10 mil. Aldon Smith will be a 9 mil figure next year. So, to me, he's not meeting his pay grade.
3. Dial is playing well, he's continuing to get better and play good assignment football. I don't see him replacing anyone on our D-line as a starter anytime soon though. Not because he's not a good player, but, because our D-line(Smith, Williams, McDonald) are all playing at a very, very high level. So, it'd really surprise me if he's supplanting any of those guys for any reason football related. That being said, I think we'll continue to see him involved in the rotation to keep guys fresh.
4. Not sure why Williams is playing better, he just is.
5. Kilgore has gotten better with more time and experience in the season atmosphere. He started out fairly shaky the first couple games. I think he's settling in. Dontarie Poe - who he was lined up against, is one of the better NT's in the league, and he handled his assignments against him pretty well.
6. I think Lloyd might be our best shot at a deep threat this year, simply because he does a lot of things well in his route running and his ability to go get the ball. He's a very savvy route runner to help get himself behind coverage - a lot like Isaac Bruce when Bruce was with us. Not the blazing speed, but craftiness to get open downfield. Plus, he's a guy you can trust to go get the ball. A lot of people want Ellington as our deep threat, but remember, Ellington is a rookie and he wasn't polished at all coming out of College. In the pre-season, his route running didn't look that sharp or developed. So, for me, for Ellington to be our "deep threat' he's got to develop more as a receiver in the entire route tree.
7. See part of the answer to #6. Also, You have 3 1000 yard receivers who also should be on the field and a guy in Lloyd who can make the catches he did. How are you gonna get all those guys involved and still maintain a power run game?? You can't..... More Ellington means less Gore/Hyde/Boldin/Crabs - plain and simple.
8. I think Carrier is showing that he is a quality player and has a better knack for blocking assignments and route running. I'll be surprised if McDonald stays infront of Carrier on the depth chart for long.
9. not sure what you mean by SD?? Are you talking about San Diego??

any validity in replacing Brooks for Lynch on 3rd down passing situations once Aldon returns? On our opening drive, 3rd and goal, I thought Vance snuck open late but Kap wasn't quite patient enough, any recollection ?

Originally posted by crake49:
Looks to me like the difference between a 9 year veteran who has thrown hundreds of swing passes in games and a 2 year player who has thrown a handful of swing passes in games. Nice analysis - you've got to hope the coaches are also drilling this into Kaepernick's head.

True, but, CK isn't a 2 year guy, he's in his 4th year in the league. Russel Wilson's in his 3rd and he holds the LB's with his eyes on that play.....Also, my point was also that you can have 2 coaches call the same thing and it comes down to execution. I'm sure we were also clueing to the swing pass when KC motioned their WR into the backfield - every team will. It's how the QB acts after the snap that makes the play work or not.

Originally posted by thl408:

What a cluster F.

It was like Keystone Cops out there! Or in this case, the 3 Stooges!

Very fine post!

Good call on Kilgore - I also thought it was his best game. He handled Poe w/ excellent technique. I see this guy improving every game.

Bruce Miller was a force. He made key blocks all game.

Lloyd's contributions are making a difference. Do you see him as our deep threat person or someone else filling that?

Question - Our Red Zone performance still sucks. Where do you see JH/Roman addressing that - or not?

Thanks again for your work!

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by crake49:
Looks to me like the difference between a 9 year veteran who has thrown hundreds of swing passes in games and a 2 year player who has thrown a handful of swing passes in games. Nice analysis - you've got to hope the coaches are also drilling this into Kaepernick's head.

True, but, CK isn't a 2 year guy, he's in his 4th year in the league. Russel Wilson's in his 3rd and he holds the LB's with his eyes on that play.....Also, my point was also that you can have 2 coaches call the same thing and it comes down to execution. I'm sure we were also clueing to the swing pass when KC motioned their WR into the backfield - every team will. It's how the QB acts after the snap that makes the play work or not.

I just don't agree with that. This is Wilson's 7th year playing from the pocket. It's Kaepernick's second full year playing from the pocket. Nobody really counts sitting time when it comes to comparing it to actually being out there in a real game. I agree that Kaepernick's pocket instincts are not where they need to be yet, but I just don't buy this "4th year in the league" thing and I think that playing the pro set for four straight years in college prepared Wilson a lot more than running a gimmicky college offense did for Kaepernick or for that matter, Alex Smith.