NY Giants coaches film analysis | Page 30

After three consecutive failed attempts at a back shoulder throw, NYG comes with this on a huge 4th down attempt.

49ers: Man coverage all around while double teaming two of the WRs.

49ers dial up a stunt that has Justin looping around the RT. RayMac will attack the inside shoulder of the RG while Lynch attacks the inside shoulder of the RT. This is to cause the pocket to cave inwards and give Justin a better path.

Eli gets the snap and looks to his TE over the middle. Eli is waiting for the pushoff to take place.

The TE is about to push off Bethea. Borland and Reid double cover one of the other WRs.

Even after the pushoff, the TE is not open because he's being double covered with Wilhoite providing help. The WR on DJohnson just pushed off and has a small window of being open. Justin's pressure is felt and Eli has to move.

Eli steps up in the pocket and targets the WR covered by DJohnson. DJohnson has recovered and closes the separation.

Fangio guesses correctly and applies the double team on Eli's first read. The pressure from Justin comes just in time and DJohnson shows good recovery as well as good lengthy arms to bat the pass away. Borland coud have entered spectator mode once Eli throw to his left, but Borland follows the play and it ends up paying off. Then again, the pass would have just fallen incomplete.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Jd925:
You know I'm a fan of George Whitfield, but I'm not sure the niners utilized him enough. He's the guy who uses brooms to train QBs on pocket presence. That's a great approach and the niners should be doing that continually with Kap, but I remember Harbaugh seemed to dismiss Whitfield's presence as nothing special. I'm not sure it's an ego thing or what. I think people have this misconception of Harbaugh as some QB guru in technique and schemes, but I actually don't think he's great in either. Harbaugh is an instinct guy and a good talent evaluator, but beyond that I don't expect him to be a great teacher in mechanics/technique/schemes. Harbaugh may be decent, but Whitfield is probably better at teaching technique & mechanics. I don't expect much from Harbaugh in the pass game. He's a QB with a linebacker's mentality. He is ultra-competitive and wills people to win, and I think people automatically and wrongly associate Harbaugh with the mental aspect of the game because he's a former QB and it's such a mental position. Don't get me wrong I think Harbaugh is a top 5 coach for the many other qualities you need to win.

This is a great article about Harbaugh:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11625088/san-francisco-49ers-head-coach-jim-harbaugh-thrives-chaos-difficulty

I'm also wondering what you guys think of this back in 2011: Quarterbacking Made Simple
http://grantland.com/features/quarterbacking-made-simple/

I like simplicity, but I'm skeptical for the reason why Harbaugh got rid of 'sight adjustments'. Also is HaRoman really putting in good hot routes against blitzes because oftentimes it doesn't seem so. Is Harbaugh really just wanting to run a more basic offense? Remember this article was from year 1 when Alex Smith was still QB.

Another theory I came up with is that Harbaugh's most devastating experience was Ditka chewing him out on for audibling into a pick-6 in a loss in 1992:
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-10-05/sports/sp-431_1_jim-harbaugh
Ditka/Harbaugh interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noF-xIf5QjA
Ditka was fired that year.

I'm not sure if Harbaugh after so many years ever got over that experience. Hence I think he 'simplified' the offense so the QB wouldn't really be in a position to make decisions and has become conservative and somewhat inflexible. Remember again this removal of 'sight adjustments' was when Alex Smith was QB and in his 6th year in the league. It still doesn't answer why it seems there aren't good short hot routes unless HaRoman's only solution to a blitz is to throw it long....lol. Also when the schemes are too simple and inflexible, it also becomes more predictable for defenses. You can read and jump on plays because receivers and QBs predetermine what they are going to do.

Fascinating to think about... can Harbaugh's devastating experience so many years go be so deep that it may be handicapping our QB's ability to grow.. what do you guys think?

Regarding the removal of sight adjustments, I think, and hope, that it may have been more a byproduct of the strike shortended offseason prior to the 2011 season, Jim's first year. Just my hypothesis. I saw a sight adjustment in the NO game when the slot CB on Boldin came on a blitz and Boldin made a sight adjustment to prepare himself for a quick throw. He was not targeted.

I did a quick breakdown that tried to answer the question of whether or not there were hot reads when the 49ers faced 6 man pressure (@NO).
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/180201-new-orleans-saints-coaches-film-analysis/page8/#post114

Just to mention, there is a difference between a hot read and a sight adjustment. Hot reads are built into the play design of a particular play. For example, a backside slant is a hot read. If the defense blitzes, the QB can throw the backside slant. That slant is run regardless of a blitz or not. A sight adjustment is done when there is a blitz, where the WR changes his route like you mentioned.

About Jim getting blasted by Ditka when he called an audible, I think that speaks more to how much freedom he allows Kap at the line of scrimmage to change plays. The logic being that if Jim ever became a head coach, which he is, he would allow his QB to change plays because he wants some flexibility at the line of scrimmage. When Jim called that audible as a CHI QB, he thought he could change a play to make a big play. It didn't work out in that particular instance, but it showed that he understood the importance in allowing a play to be changed at the line of scrimmage. We see Kap having the freedom to change to/select a play he thinks is best suited for the defensive alignment he sees presnap.

I do think that a truly dynamic passing attack has sight adjustments as well as option routes built in. Having the ability to adjust to what the defense does, post snap, is a great way to maximize the potential of an offense, at the risk of QB and WR not being on the same page. It's very hard to determine if option routes are being run unless the QB and WR were obviously not on the same page where we see the WR run one route while the QB throws an entirely different route. There was one instance this season where I saw this happen. There may have been other times that I can't recall, but this is the one of the top of my head because I had cut this play up after the KC game. Lloyd runs a Curl and Kap throws a Go route.

Great post by you both. The topic of hot routes, sight adjustments and how much freedom CK really has at changing plays is a really hot topic as of late for obvious reasons from everything from cadence, how many plays to he comes to the line with, types, what he kills, stays with, whole playbook open for him, etc. I wish we had answers to all of these and I can certainly see both sides. On one hand, you have control freaks like HaRoman and CK is just being the good soldier and doing the best he can with what he's got. On the other hand, now that the entire offense has been installed and steamlined, perhaps HaRoman ARE giving him much more freedom to change plays at the LOS. We had a report late last year where CK and Gore changed a passing play in the RZ to a run and scored a TD and CK hoped that didn't piss the coaches off. If that was the case, that doesn't sound like CK has much control but took initiative that play. But maybe now, there is more "trust" and HaRoman are giving him more freedom? And if so, to what degree?

We need some connections on the inside!

BTW: DeUh may have provided some insight here on this topic:

Alex Smith His last moments in a 49ers uniform were spent standing on the Superdome sideline watching the final futile plays. "I certainly think if we had to do it all over again we'd call some different plays. We were getting pressure the entire time and we didnt call pressure beaters." Smith said the offensive line and running backs are still frustrated they werent given the chance to win the game. And he is still perplexed by the play-calling." On the last play I was on the sideline screaming for a timeout because we had called a play that had no pressure answer. Colin (Kaepernick) did the best he could with the signal and the throw. I'm sure if the coaches had it to do over again they'd call something with a better pressure answer."

http://www.sfgate.com/49ers/article/Kansas-City-puts-smile-on-Alex-Smith-s-face-4891283.php#page-2

I think, this pretty much sums up the source of all of our offensive woes but perhaps it can be spinned in a different manner.

[ Edited by NCommand on Nov 23, 2014 at 7:55 AM ]