Offseason All22 Film Study

Originally posted by cortana49:

Notice how the purple defender is influenced by the crossing route. 4 routes flooding one side of the field with each route designed to occupy a defender. Wide open in the red zone against a SEA defense doing what it does best (cover3)? That's great play design.

That. Was. Sweet.

That's what you call gameplaning. Something this team has been missing.

good stuff, thank . really looking forward to Shanahan's offense here

Originally posted by Niners816:


I love the HB corner route on this play. It reminds me so much of how Walsh used to use the HB as the corner route. For example in this smash type play:


The particular Atlanta play reminds me of this play (doesn't have the drag though, but the scissor-flat combo is there)

I was reading a SmartFootball article about how NFL playbooks are all the same and it really was eye opening. It's just the frequency of how often certain plays are called, and use of personnel/formation that differentiates one offense from another. Seeing you post all these plays from old playbooks shows that a lot of NFL playbooks are indeed similar to one another. We've all heard, "It's a copycat league". It's the same concepts just different terminology and wrinkles. The vast majority of NFL coaches just tinker with old concepts and are not true innovators. It seems as though the main difference between a good playcaller and a bad one is how well they scout the opposing defense so that they know when to call what play.
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I forgot to mention another thing about this play and how it ties to WCO - the triangle stretch. Bill Walsh was all about triangles.
Red defender is horizontally stretched. If he goes to his right (towards the sideline) then there's a window to throw the Post route (red route). If he goes to his left, which he does, it opens a window to the Corner route.
Orange defender is vertically stretched. If he gains depth he can cover the Corner route. If he comes forward to cover the flat route, which he does, it opens up the Corner.

Originally posted by thl408:

I was reading a SmartFootball article about how NFL playbooks are all the same and it really was eye opening. It's just the frequency of how often certain plays are called, and use of personnel/formation that differentiates one offense from another. Seeing you post all these plays from old playbooks shows that a lot of NFL playbooks are indeed similar to one another. We've all heard, "It's a copycat league". It's the same concepts just different terminology and wrinkles. The vast majority of NFL coaches just tinker with old concepts and are not true innovators. It seems as though the main difference between a good playcaller and a bad one is how well they scout the opposing defense so that they know when to call what play.
..
I forgot to mention another thing about this play and how it ties to WCO - the triangle stretch. Bill Walsh was all about triangles.
Red defender is horizontally stretched. If he goes to his right (towards the sideline) then there's a window to throw the Post route (red route). If he goes to his left, which he does, it opens a window to the Corner route.
Orange defender is vertically stretched. If he gains depth he can cover the Corner route. If he comes forward to cover the flat route, which he does, it opens up the Corner.

The triangle really is the thing that makes it all work. Well, with 3 route combos. Just look at the first play you posted ,the slant-flat. When you add in the snag, you now have a triangle on either side. Its even more apparent when you look at the base personnel split back version. which ever side is picked there's a triangle formed.

Originally posted by thl408:

It seems as though the main difference between a good playcaller and a bad one is how well they scout the opposing defense so that they know when to call what play.

Sooooo this!

Originally posted by HERN:

Originally posted by cortana49:

Notice how the purple defender is influenced by the crossing route. 4 routes flooding one side of the field with each route designed to occupy a defender. Wide open in the red zone against a SEA defense doing what it does best (cover3)? That's great play design.

That. Was. Sweet.

That's what you call gameplaning. Something this team has been missing.

got to have that QB who will hang in there.

Beating man coverage can be as simple as running a pick play. The creativity comes in how to create the pick. This is from week 6.

Red WR motions across the formation and the CB follows. This confirms man coverage.
vs Cover 1 blitz


Red WR stems to the outside and doesn't even appear to be running a route. His only intent to create a pick for the slant to come underneath.


Orange seems to be clearing the middle of the field because there's no reason for two route runners to be this close to one another, coming to a stop.

Oh no is that an AR play .....I kid of course.

I'd guess this was a Seattle specific play.

One thing to keep an eye on when watching Kyle's offense is how he aligns his WRs. Chip loved to give them 'plus' splits so that the field was horizontally stretched via alignment. Kyle will often give reduced splits for several reasons. Donte Stallworth played WR for Kyle in 2011 (WAS) and was on local radio to share some thoughts about Kyle.
He specifically speaks to WR splits at the 3:06 mark: http://podbay.fm/show/967090792/e/1485273298?autostart=1

This is Chip with two WRs having plus splits (WRs aligned outside the numbers). Chip did this a lot.


Reduced splits (bunched formation) is a natural man coverage buster, and also prevents CBs from pressing the WRs, but it also keeps the WRs away from the sideline so that defenders can't use it as help. Also, it allows the WR to run more variety of routes. If a WR is near the sideline, it eliminates the ability to run quick outs, Corners, and on comeback routes there's more area to work with. The downside is it also bunches the defenders together and that allows the defense to disguise blitzers easier. CB blitzes are in play because they are so close to the QB. Notice most of the plays above have WRs in reduced splits, even against SEA which is a predominantly zone coverage team.

Ryan did a good job delivering the ball. He was about to be late with the timing because he had to side step the rush. Just calmly took a couple of steps to his left and threw the ball accurately. So underrated part of quarterbacking.

I don't see that from our qb

So I was watching Kyle's ATL offense then realized that the 49ers don't have the talent ATL has. I should be watching Kyle's CLE offense. This is Kyle's CLE offense against Mike Nolan's ATL defense (2014). Just showing random plays where I see something clever.
Smash vs Cover 1 blitz
The yellow WR motions into the slot and that buys them a cushion from the red/blue defenders. ATL will pattern match the two bunched WRs.


At the snap, red WR doesn't move. He allows yellow to go first and that causes both defenders to backpeddle. After a half second post snap, red gets into his route.


Yellow runs off both defenders allowing for red to run a simple short Curl. A lot of separation for red.


The intentional delay by red at the line of scrimmage was all it took to get separation. Clever, simple conversion on 3rd & 3.

Lack of talent means more trickery

Playaction from shotgun has pros and cons when compared to playaction from being under center. Here's what Kyle has to say about that:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/af674018db6841e797be22120f0ad6f9/shotgun-offense-went-sparse-every-down-staple-nfl
Under offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, Atlanta accumulated 415.8 yards per game, No. 2 in the NFL, while being in shotgun a league-low 37.5 percent of plays.
"Every time you're under center, you've got a lot more run options and a lot more play-action options and a lot more movement options off of your runs," Shanahan said. "Your play choices are endless. You can do everything. Once you get into the 'gun, certain things are like cut in half. Play-action is not as good because it happens quicker. You can't hold the ball out there for as long and stuff. It just eliminates being as balanced."
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One con to using playaction under center is that the QB has to turn his back to the field. Once he completes the playaction and turns to face the defense, he has to quickly get his bearings and make his reads, not knowing what has happened in the time he had his back turned. The big pro is what Kyle mentioned: the QB can hold the ball out longer and that causes longer hesitation from the LBs as they make their run/pass read - they take longer to get into their zone coverage drops.

Pin concept (Post + In) vs Cover3


QB (Hoyer) turns his back and holds the ball out for the RB. Both Hook defenders (orange) honor the playaction.


Once the LBs realize it's a pass, they are in no position to play the intermediate passing lanes. Lots of room for the Dig to work, and a wide open passing window for the QB.


This isn't some innovative play design, just very different than the 49ers in 2016 when they were almost always in shotgun.

Originally posted by Niners816:
Oh no is that an AR play .....I kid of course.

I'd guess this was a Seattle specific play.

Oh no you didn't! LOL

Presume everyone's seen this already but this was a really nice article.

http://www.espn.com.au/nfl/story/_/id/18585391/illustrating-atlanta-falcons-go-plays-kyle-shanahan-super-bowl-li-2016-nfl-playoffs