Originally posted by Niners816:
Originally posted by NCommand:
Thanks for clarifying the aspect of the WCO I didn't specify...horizontal attack!
The pattern-match is a staple of Mangini's background in NE and here under Fangio. It's an assumption on my part that we will see that in the future (although, like you noted, not this game...or exactly like how Fangio used it).
Man, this is so fun to not only break down but watch evolve. Thank you for your major contributions here...and to the others who add in a lot of time to this thread to help make us all better fans.
WCO has both horizontal and vertical elements. The triangle stretch plays (spot for example) attacks both, that's how you get the zone busting triangle. However, most WCO are perfectly happy attack horizontal of your gonna let them. It's when the defense makes an adjustment to take away the horizontal that the more explosive vertical game becomes more in the forefront. It's a great system and that's why it's going on its 4th decade exploiting coverages.
Yeah, I think we're all saying the same thing, just only partially saying everything - maybe just to give a juxtaposition of the different ways in which we've employed the WCO from last year to this year, I'll provide this short write-up:
Last year, because, for so long and with great success, we were mainly a power blocking team. Bill Walsh, ran both ZBS and power-man and therefore his "triangle" stretches worked to great effect. Gruden tended to more of the power-man when he coached because he had a big bruiser like Alstott. Shanahan always looked for ZBS backs and ran that to great effectiveness. Frank Gore and our O-lineman were much more suited for the power man, slashing type of plays.
Frank Gore wasn't your typical ZBS runner, he could do it ok, but it wasn't his strong suite. He was best suited to a slashing, hide behind pulling lineman, type of runner. That's what put him on the map when Norv Turner was here.
With a power-man, because of the cross blocking and pulling lineman, your LB's and Safeties have to play much more "filling" responsibility to take on those pulling and down blocking lineman. Vertical penetration is your best weapon against a power-blocking scheme. So, your PA tends to create more "vertical" movement from the defense, therefore, your best passing concepts off those are vertical(i.e. your drive, levels, sail, smash, etc). This is where CK seemed to be a great fit for, his big arm allowed even more vertical stretching abilities. So, I can see why Harbaugh became enamored with the possibility of CK being an even better fit that AS. You're a vertical stretching team, that can go even more vertical - heck yes. We saw that in 2012.
by 2014, we were seeing so much cover 3 zone, that your vertical stretches don't work as well against. Plus, we didn't have a true "x" receiver. So, we started seeing a lot more horizontal stretching concepts of multiple WR's, but not the bread and butter. The problem was, our horizontal stretches weren't so effective off of a vertical stressing run game.
This year, with a more ZBS, our passing concepts were more horizontal in a straight drop back, and horizontally movement based, with a vertical stretching element. Meaning, we stretched out the zones vertically and then played off the horizontal movement by bringing receivers on the move horizontally through zones.
We're still "philosophically" the same - establish a strong running game, setup your PA passes off that and control the ball. But, strategically, we're different. focusing much more on horizontal movement concepts(slide, waggle, floods formed with a backside crosser - similar to a speedo,) that still create vertical stretches.
) would be the first read. The DB on TS is five yards farther back than the one on Hayne. If you are going to run curl routes TS would seem to be a better 1st read than Hayne. Given the lack of any real showcasing or strategy to get TS involved, I'm assuming they are saving that for future games.
