NY Giants coaches film analysis

Originally posted by zugschef:

Originally posted by BrianGO:
Of course it doesn't hold up. Kap is saving the team on third down. There was one pass to Boldin early in the game that was a rifle bullet, if the ball was thrown any slower, the defenders would have knocked it away. Kap has converted a ton of first downs for us this year, despite the fact that our first down production is setting up our team in long yardage situations.

Well that's equal to an anecdote, but not a quantifiable fact. The point is really how the Niners produce on 2nd down.

Look at the bottom of page 23. The answer to that question is, "not good."

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by zugschef:

Originally posted by BrianGO:
Of course it doesn't hold up. Kap is saving the team on third down. There was one pass to Boldin early in the game that was a rifle bullet, if the ball was thrown any slower, the defenders would have knocked it away. Kap has converted a ton of first downs for us this year, despite the fact that our first down production is setting up our team in long yardage situations.

Well that's equal to an anecdote, but not a quantifiable fact. The point is really how the Niners produce on 2nd down.

Look at the bottom of page 23. The answer to that question is, "not good."

Even worse. So we suck on 2nd downs, go backwards on first downs 67% of the time for the year, RZ is horrendous and we haven't scored a TD in the 2nd half all year. WZ translation - we good.

how did quinton dial fare?

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by zugschef:

Originally posted by BrianGO:
Of course it doesn't hold up. Kap is saving the team on third down. There was one pass to Boldin early in the game that was a rifle bullet, if the ball was thrown any slower, the defenders would have knocked it away. Kap has converted a ton of first downs for us this year, despite the fact that our first down production is setting up our team in long yardage situations.

Well that's equal to an anecdote, but not a quantifiable fact. The point is really how the Niners produce on 2nd down.

Look at the bottom of page 23. The answer to that question is, "not good."

Even worse. So we suck on 2nd downs, go backwards on first downs 67% of the time for the year, RZ is horrendous and we haven't scored a TD in the 2nd half all year. WZ translation - we good.

I don't think anyone is happy with our offense. The problem is, the word "offense," seems to be a synonym for "Kaepernick." Which isn't exactly fair, when you look at how good we have been on third down this year. Kap has bailed us out a lot.

Originally posted by BenQ:
how did quinton dial fare?

Surprisingly well.

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by zugschef:

Originally posted by BrianGO:
Of course it doesn't hold up. Kap is saving the team on third down. There was one pass to Boldin early in the game that was a rifle bullet, if the ball was thrown any slower, the defenders would have knocked it away. Kap has converted a ton of first downs for us this year, despite the fact that our first down production is setting up our team in long yardage situations.

Well that's equal to an anecdote, but not a quantifiable fact. The point is really how the Niners produce on 2nd down.

Look at the bottom of page 23. The answer to that question is, "not good."

Even worse. So we suck on 2nd downs, go backwards on first downs 67% of the time for the year, RZ is horrendous and we haven't scored a TD in the 2nd half all year. WZ translation - we good.

I don't think anyone is happy with our offense. The problem is, the word "offense," seems to be a synonym for "Kaepernick." Which isn't exactly fair, when you look at how good we have been on third down this year. Kap has bailed us out a lot.

8 of 12 ad lib TD's would agree with you!

Originally posted by NCommand:
Even worse. So we suck on 2nd downs, go backwards on first downs 67% of the time for the year, RZ is horrendous and we haven't scored a TD in the 2nd half all year. WZ translation - we good.

Crabtree just scored a TD against the Giants in the 2nd half...

Originally posted by Aacadena:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Even worse. So we suck on 2nd downs, go backwards on first downs 67% of the time for the year, RZ is horrendous and we haven't scored a TD in the 2nd half all year. WZ translation - we good.

Crabtree just scored a TD against the Giants in the 2nd half...

My bad. It's the 4th quarter then huh?

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by NCommand:


Well done thl408!

Here is the latest Roman comment...he says "nobody knows?" We beg to differ! Ha. Do you agree...

"...The Giants took a pretty extreme approach to stopping the run against some of our personnel groups, and he (CK) was masterful in recognizing what they were doing (and) getting us into the appropriate play. But nobody knows about that stuff. It had a big impact on the game."

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/49ers/2014/11/20/49ers-greg-roman-theres-a-lot-of-things-beyond-the-point-total-that-were-very-very-positive/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+49ersHotRead+%2849ers+Hot+Read%29

I think based on some of the runs against 8 man boxes, which were nearly all of them, if it went for a good gain (4 or more) I would think that's what Roman is alluding to by saying the quote above.

Other than that, I thought the 49ers could have went about the passing game differently by being deliberate about attacking the LBs. Too many deep shots with no deep threat. I know the 49ers thought they had the ground game going so it was natural to take the deep shots, but you still need deep threats (or a deep threat) to do it and they don't have any. VD is still hurt and the most glaring sign was that it was Vance going deep not VD. That is usually VD's territory.

I agree with the lack of a deep threat. Colin is forced to play a game he's not comfortable with, and that's the horizontal game, which means making quick reads and throwing on time and in rhythm. I like the concepts that you suggested, which is instead of throwing deep, Colin throws intermediate to short on timing throws on routes that rely more on quickness of the WR's than speed. Which means more posts, more hitches, curls, square out's/in's. If they overload the power run game, G-ro counters with crossing routes and drag routes, or fake toss boots, and the spider y 2 banana TE/RB plays. I think it's useless to utilize the play-pass if none of the WR's can keep separation after a successful play fake. Until VD comes back healthy and gets his confidence back, you can't be throwing to VD on 3rd downs. You have to get him in the game on first or second downs, to give Colin a chance to convert 3rd downs with other more reliable receivers like Anquan or Crabs.

As for the Red Zone, I think G-ro said it today in an article, that they needed to run better in the red zone. This is key because if they do, then can free up VD on a fake play-pass. It's unfortunate that we have to start a rookie midseason that plays the all important center position on the O-line. The Gore fumble was Gore not being patient enough running the ball, and moved too quick and got tangled with Colin's feet. If I would put a percentage on it, I think 80% of the miscues in the redzone is failure in execution, and the rest of the 20% is a combination of a bad play call, or bad play design.

This is the touchdown given up by the defense on NYG's opening drive.

49ers: cover 2 zone (Middle Of the Field Open)

Presnap motion has the TE motioning from an inline position to the backfield as a FB.


NYG: 4 Verticals. Notice how wide the two wideouts are aligned. This is to put a horizontal stretch on the safeties through formation.


Playaction to suck up the LBs.


Notice the WR covered by DJohnson and how he takes an outside release. This is to keep Bethea near the numbers, away from the middle of the field. The TE runs right by Wilhoite. Wilhoite isn't really asked to cover that TE, but he does have to give him a good shove as he runs by.


Both safeties, just playing their assignments, leave the middle of the field wide open.


Nice variation of a common concept with the TE lined up as a FB and the middle vertical coming from the FB position on the field.

Here's a play where Borland gets nothing on the stat sheet, but shows good screen recognition and pursuit.



Pump fake to the WR screen to draw attention to that side of the field. Borland doesn't flinch.


Borland recognizes the screen and starts to try and beat the left guard to the spot.


The LG can only lunge at Borland. Eli is only mid windup.


As soon as the RB catches the ball and turns around, Borland is there to turn the play back towards the inside of the field, where Borland knows he has pursuit from his team mates. In this case, Justin.


Gain of +2.

Yeah that was pretty good play design and TE was wide open. Wilhoite seemed a bit lost, but not sure it mattered.

Other teams have a lot more effective designs that work. I scanned the KC thread where Reid spread the routes on both sides of the field and got a TE wide open in the middle and there were other designs that got people wide open. We see a lot less designs that get people wide open and a lot more jump balls to Crabs on key situations or broken plays that Kap bails us out on.

johnnydel - on that KC thread, one play where you compared Alex Smith to Kap on broken plays rolling to the right. You credit Smith for starting to run forward to draw Brooks, but Brooks made a bad play. He was supposed to stay on his guy on a 3rd and long and really cover until Smith passed the LOS because he wouldn't have been able to run for a first down. Instead Brooks really just let his man get wide open. As for Kap he was going a good job buying as much time as possible and was focusing on throwing. He wouldn't have gotten a first down and all the linebackers were staying back to cover as they should have. I wouldn't say doing one thing was better than the other.

Well, what I see from these 1st downs is that most drives stall when 1st down was a negative or incomplete play. This just might be the reason why Roman called that many 1st down runs. With Gore in the backfield the Niners almost always get at least 1 yard and statistically that puts them in the position to get a new set of downs whereas an incompletion does the opposite.

Recap...

Overall:
So overall, we had 29 1st down opportunities + 2 kneel-downs. 6 went for 1st downs (3 runs and 3 passes). 17 were runs and 12 were passes. The first half we clearly tried to establish the run only passing three times IIRC. Running production overall = 17 runs for 58 yards for 3.4 YPC with four plays of 0 or negative yards. Passing production overall = 12 for 108 yards for 9 YPC with four plays of 0 or negative yards. Overall, that's a 5.7 yard average which would put us around 23rd in the NFL on first down production. Currently, overall, we're 31st: http://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-yards-per-first-down-attempt/2014/

Giant's Game:
2nd and 10
2nd and 8
2nd and 7
2nd and 18
2nd and 7
2nd and 17
2nd and 9
2nd and 10
2nd and 8
2nd and 11
2nd and 7
2nd and 8
2nd and 11
2nd and 10
2nd and 9

Of the 22 2nd downs we had this game, here is the breakdown:
15 of the 22 times we had >7 yards to go averaging 10 yards to go

For the year...

Overall:
On 2nd downs, 64% of the time (127 of 199) we had >7 yards to go averaging 10.3 yards to go. In short, 2/3rds of the time we're going BACKWARDS on 1st downs and putting ourselves in 2nd and longs, which as you know, often times snowballs from there.

To quote SofaKing from the bottom of page 23:
Another interesting stat I found was that the 49ers' average down and distance on 3rd down is actually GREATER than 2nd down.

Average yards to go on 2nd down -- 7.59
Average yards to go on 3rd down -- 7.61

Basically, this means this team sucks royally on 2nd down.

Overview:
Given that we're 31st on 1st down production for the year, that we're just as bad on 2nd downs, it's quite remarkable how effective we are on 3rd downs (20th in total 1st downs) given this alarming trend of constantly playing behind the 8-ball on 1st and 2nd downs. Obviously, there are a number of reasons for digging our own grave offensively but like everything, it starts and ends with coaching.

What "solutions" do fans have after reviewing this information?

Originally posted by Jd925:
Yeah that was pretty good play design and TE was wide open. Wilhoite seemed a bit lost, but not sure it mattered.

Other teams have a lot more effective designs that work. I scanned the KC thread where Reid spread the routes on both sides of the field and got a TE wide open in the middle and there were other designs that got people wide open. We see a lot less designs that get people wide open and a lot more jump balls to Crabs on key situations or broken plays that Kap bails us out on.

johnnydel - on that KC thread, one play where you compared Alex Smith to Kap on broken plays rolling to the right. You credit Smith for starting to run forward to draw Brooks, but Brooks made a bad play. He was supposed to stay on his guy on a 3rd and long and really cover until Smith passed the LOS because he wouldn't have been able to run for a first down. Instead Brooks really just let his man get wide open. As for Kap he was going a good job buying as much time as possible and was focusing on throwing. He wouldn't have gotten a first down and all the linebackers were staying back to cover as they should have. I wouldn't say doing one thing was better than the other.

What I was trying to say is that when the QB moves forward - presenting the threat of the run, the LB is put into a tough place because, if he stays in coverage, the QB will have an open running lane, if he attacks the QB, the receiver is open. Brooks didn't do anything wrong on that play, he was on an island and Smith forced him into a no-win situation. That's my issue. CK tends to roll out so flat that there's no threat of the run. The "sprint right option" was deadly because the "option" was the QB's option to run on the play - otherwise it would've been called, "sprint right". With no threat of a qb run, the defenders only worry about pass coverage.

How many times do we see Kap roll right and find that no one's open and just continue to roll right until he throws it away. My thing is, the guy needs to attack the defense and force them to choose the lesser of two evils.