Offseason All22 Film Study

I was checking out some old CLE footage to see how Hoyer and Shanahan worked together. One of the better ways to see how an OC draws up pass plays is deep in the red zone when space is tight, time is short, and throwing windows are small.

Bill Walsh had this to say about red zone offense. It's obviously old, but his words are timeless: http://www.westcoastoffense.com/bill%20walsh%20article%201.htm
"I have seen many teams march the ball beautifully, but right around the 15-yard line, they are already warming up their placekicker, because right at that point defenses change, the field they can operate in changes, and suddenly their basic offense goes all to pieces. In an evenly matched game, I don't want to try to take the ball from their 25 to the goal line by trying to smash it through people, because three out of four times, you won't make it.
Too often people try to go in there and butt heads with good linebackers on the goal line. Too often they don't make it. If we get inside that 5-yard line, half the time we are going to throw the ball."

So here are a few cutups of Kyle Shanahan's 2014 red zone touchdowns with Brian Hoyer at the helm.
It's not a secret that a lot of Kyle's playaction comes off outside zone action. 12 personnel with WRs aligned with reduced splits. Flood left with bootleg playaction.
vs Cover3 ?


After the fake Hoyer has plenty of space and time, although with a naked boot, the time is limited. Still, that's a lot of space that a conventional pocket would not earn. Notice the weakside WR (#11 yellow) and how he stems to the inside of the CB. That gets the CB to face square to the WR (hips facing towards middle of field).


When yellow breaks outside, he has a lot of room to work the back of the end zone as the CB has to do a 180 degree turn and run.. Still plenty of room for Hoyer.


Set and throw. The window isn't huge, but it's a clear window with no other defenders to contest/INT the throw, and no hands to bat down the pass. Touchdown (Hawkins).

Disguising pick plays is an art where the offense has to hide it from the defense and the officials (avoid offensive PI).
vs some sort of man coverage; Cover1?
Orange takes an outside release to force the CB to turn his back to the play. Red will run a pick. Yellow attacks the flat.


Red WR slows down in his "route" to make sure the pick is executed.


Because defenders aren't afraid of being beat deep, they are able to play tight versus routes in the flat, which makes throws to the flat this deep in the red zone dangerous. Kyle uses a rollout to give the QB a better angle, on top of the pick action. Simple throw made possible with good scheming.

So it's put on film that Kyle likes to align tight then attack the edges of the defense. This doesn't just apply to red zone, but all over the field - him and his tight splits, attacking towards the sideline. Here they are aligned tight again.
vs man coverage; Cover2 Man?


Yellow WR starts his route stemming outside. This gets the yellow CB, playing with outside leverage, back on his heels to set up what will be an in breaking route. The red route is designed to run directly at the red defender to vertically stretch him.


Red defender comes up to defend the drag, which opens up the area behind him for yellow to work.


Big window over the middle of the field. Put the pass high and let the WR go get it.

This is probably my favorite play out of the 2014 red zone TD passes from Hoyer. The FB lines up in the backfield to the QB's right. There is a CB lined up over Travis Benjamin. The #1 WR on the weakside.


The FB motions out wide. When the CB widens to line up across from the FB, that signals zone coverage. What this also does is put the SS, BPollard (220 pounds), over TBenjamin (180lb speedster). We will most likely see this a lot - Juszczyk motioning and shifting around to help the QB get a presnap read.
TEN will rush 3 and drop 8 into zone coverage


Hoyer first looks to his right towards Levels, which could work with red clearing out an area for yellow, but the blue LB takes away this throw. On the weakside, the FB runs a quick slant and draws the attention of the purple CB, who is afraid of giving up the easy slant walk in TD. TBenjamin is seen breaking inside.


When TBenjamin breaks his route back outside, he has plenty of space to work the back of the endzone against a slowfoot SS. TEN had dropped 8 into zone, yet somehow Kyle is able to isolate a speedy WR against a SS with nearly half of the endzone to work the route.


Isolating matchups and givng the QB clear windows to throw into, signs of good play design.

Thank you so much for these!

No prob. It's been fun being able to look forward to new offenses and defensive schemes the past few seasons with new HCs coming in each offseason. Hopefully that stops.
.......

If there are terms that aren't familiar in this thread, refer to the Coverages and Concepts thread where most of the terminology used here and the film threads are explained.
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/182144-all22-analysis-coverages-amp-concepts/

I'll be updating this thread with 49er examples since 2016 saw many instances of inside zone, packaged plays, and Quarters on both sides of the field. Fangio rarely, if ever, called Quarters on both sides. It was always Cover6.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by 49erphan:
One of the positive things from last year was Buckner's play, but when I watched the games last year I didn't focus on him so I only noticed him when he did a flash-bang thing like a sack. It seemed like he had at least his fair share of tackles but I can only recall seeing a big pile of bodies when he was making a lot of his tackles. Since we are kind of in a quiet time now, I wonder if any of you video analysis aces would be willing to put something together to show why Buckner might have the makings of an exceptional player - and areas he probably needs to improve in. Focusing on the trenches of d-line play isn't exactly an "all-22" type of film study, so I totally understand if that doesn't strike anyone's fancy; I appreciate that it takes a lot of work to do what you guys do.

I'll try to check Buckner out at some point this offseason, although trench play from an individual isn't near the top of my list of film to watch. I'll probably focus on weeks 7-10 when he has gotten his feet wet, and fatigue from playing so many snaps hasn't set in.

It's a low priority, but if you have a chance that would be great. These last couple of postings you had about how Shanahan adapts his offense to get receivers open were excellent and a much more worthwhile use of your time.

Originally posted by thl408:
Disguising pick plays is an art where the offense has to hide it from the defense and the officials (avoid offensive PI).
vs some sort of man coverage; Cover1?
Orange takes an outside release to force the CB to turn his back to the play. Red will run a pick. Yellow attacks the flat.


Red WR slows down in his "route" to make sure the pick is executed.


Because defenders aren't afraid of being beat deep, they are able to play tight versus routes in the flat, which makes throws to the flat this deep in the red zone dangerous. Kyle uses a rollout to give the QB a better angle, on top of the pick action. Simple throw made possible with good scheming.

It's an all out-blitz - almost identitcal to the one BALT ran against us on the last play of the SB(ohhhh if we'd have had Shanny then....*weeps gently*) #24 is in man-coverage on the RB#44. You see him sprint after him. What I like in this play is how the whole line shifts to move the launching point of the throw - it gives the QB a better chance against an all-out blitz because half your rushers are taking angles and lanes where the QB won't be. You also see they motion the RB across to help in pass pro - he never looks to go out on a route.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Disguising pick plays is an art where the offense has to hide it from the defense and the officials (avoid offensive PI).
vs some sort of man coverage; Cover1?
Orange takes an outside release to force the CB to turn his back to the play. Red will run a pick. Yellow attacks the flat.


Red WR slows down in his "route" to make sure the pick is executed.


Because defenders aren't afraid of being beat deep, they are able to play tight versus routes in the flat, which makes throws to the flat this deep in the red zone dangerous. Kyle uses a rollout to give the QB a better angle, on top of the pick action. Simple throw made possible with good scheming.

It's an all out-blitz - almost identitcal to the one BALT ran against us on the last play of the SB(ohhhh if we'd have had Shanny then....*weeps gently*) #24 is in man-coverage on the RB#44. You see him sprint after him. What I like in this play is how the whole line shifts to move the launching point of the throw - it gives the QB a better chance against an all-out blitz because half your rushers are taking angles and lanes where the QB won't be. You also see they motion the RB across to help in pass pro - he never looks to go out on a route.

This whole concept is essentially sprint option. In this case it's sprint left option. It's just ran with a different formation. You have the 45 degree sprint by the QB and the OL shifting their protection. It's a great play. If I had to guess progression I'd guess flat to the inner most WR, then the middle Slot WR and then QB run.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
It's an all out-blitz - almost identitcal to the one BALT ran against us on the last play of the SB(ohhhh if we'd have had Shanny then....*weeps gently*) #24 is in man-coverage on the RB#44. You see him sprint after him. What I like in this play is how the whole line shifts to move the launching point of the throw - it gives the QB a better chance against an all-out blitz because half your rushers are taking angles and lanes where the QB won't be. You also see they motion the RB across to help in pass pro - he never looks to go out on a route.

Yeah you're right, this was Cover0. BAL was coming hard up the middle as they were dead set on not letting the 49ers run the ball in. Damn, the 49ers should have called a rollout left.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

It's an all out-blitz - almost identitcal to the one BALT ran against us on the last play of the SB(ohhhh if we'd have had Shanny then....*weeps gently*) #24 is in man-coverage on the RB#44. You see him sprint after him. What I like in this play is how the whole line shifts to move the launching point of the throw - it gives the QB a better chance against an all-out blitz because half your rushers are taking angles and lanes where the QB won't be. You also see they motion the RB across to help in pass pro - he never looks to go out on a route.

Yeah you're right, this was Cover0. BAL was coming hard up the middle as they were dead set on not letting the 49ers run the ball in. Damn, the 49ers should have called a rollout left.

HaRoman, says, "What?"

Originally posted by NCommand:

HaRoman, says, "What?"

Man, that red zone quote by Walsh is practically a textbook ctiticism of the 49ers since the Erickson days. Even in better times in 2011-13 the offense left far too many TDs on the field and got FGs instead.

Originally posted by thl408:

No prob. It's been fun being able to look forward to new offenses and defensive schemes the past few seasons with new HCs coming in each offseason. Hopefully that stops.
.......

If there are terms that aren't familiar in this thread, refer to the Coverages and Concepts thread where most of the terminology used here and the film threads are explained.
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/182144-all22-analysis-coverages-amp-concepts/

I'll be updating this thread with 49er examples since 2016 saw many instances of inside zone, packaged plays, and Quarters on both sides of the field. Fangio rarely, if ever, called Quarters on both sides. It was always Cover6.

Unbelievable breakdowns thl408! So excited for this up & coming season! Let's roll 49ers

I don't know if you speak Spanish but this is a pretty good video of our new system in action. Maybe you can do something with it.