Originally posted by SLCNiner:
Originally posted by thl408:
Originally posted by 9ers4eva:
Playaction helps Purdy. Why would they decrease it?
My hypothesis is that it has nothing to do with Purdy, it has to do with how defenses have changed from a league wide perspective. With the way the league has moved to more Quarters, playaction does not help as much with opening up the area behind the LBs. I'm talking specifically about when the 49ers use playaction, then target the intermediate area behind the LBs and in front of the safeties. It has to do with how Quarters safeties line up at shallow depth (compared to Cover2 and Cover3) and also with how in many variations of Quarters, the safeties have a run fit - whereas Cover2 and Cover3 deep safeties do not have a run fit.
Let's use Cover3 as an example of how playaction works very well. The three players in deep zones in a Cover3 do not have a run fit. They will not honor playaction since their goal is to not get beat deep. So playaction, all 8 box defenders (LBs) creep towards the LoS, while the deep zones do not creep towards the LoS. This opens up the area behind the LBs, and in front of the deep zone guys. When the craze was the Seattle Cover3, playaction made sense to screw with the 8 box defenders.
In Quarters, the two deep safeties play shallow - this is a characteristic of Quarters - about 10-12 yards behind the LoS. This is not deep compared to Cover2 safeties, and Cover3 deep middle safety. So playaction, the two Quarters safeties creep from 12 yards back to 10 depth. All playaction did was compress the area behind the LBs and in front of the Quarters safeties. And if that's the area the 49ers want to target intermediate routes, playaction does not help. Where playaction would help versus Quarters safeties is when you want to attack deep. But most of the explosives and mini-explosives for the 49ers are in the intermediate areas.
Fantastic post!
Agree, Thl is in a league by himself!
The only observation I have is that if the 49ers have a strong run game, play action (with quarters coverage) will expose defenses to the deeper bombs and hence more explosive plays.
For example, the 49ers usual play action isn't a straight dropback and handoff, it a zone run which gets the defense moving sideways and forward (toward the runner) in a run fake. So the shallow and/or deep crosses should be reasonably free even if they are running quarters coverage.