Week 2 Pittsburg Steelers coaches film analysis

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Brock tries to give bump coverage on Heyward-Bey, but doesn't hardly slow him down. You absolutely have to knock the receiver off his vertical route if you're in cover 2 zone. You have to help your safety out, you can't let that receiver get a full blown running go at your safety, it's too hard on them.

Again, 4 man rush, no blitzers. So, 4 big, chunk plays in the first half, no blitzing on any of them.

Just to quell the narrative that it was Mangini's blitz heavy scheme that led to the chunk plays. It was our inability to get to the QB with 4.... It's why it's rather disheartening....

The good news is that the first bold, is technique. That can be worked on and corrected. The second, the schemes were right on all 4 as well with 7 in coverage and with no blitzing. And finally, we get to see a similar offense this week to see if we've improved upon these errors (players AND coaching).

My 'hope' is this serves as a nice "game of weaknesses" for opportunities for improvement.

If we're going to play lightning fast WR's (not many teams have this personnel), we'll have a better gauge for how to defend next time. Against the rest of the NFL, our defense should be a better match-up (again, hoping this is the case).

Originally posted by awp8912:

Originally posted by thl408:
It's been awhile since the 49ers have completed a pass on a Deep Curl route. Only a WR with speed is going to get this done and this is the first completed pass to Torrey, as a 49er, that puts his deep speed threat on display.

The colors mean nothing. Just to differentiate between the routes.
Torrey running a Deep curl (yellow) versus a CB giving him cushion. Torrey needs to quickly eat up that cushion, and as soon as the CB flips his hips to turn upfield, curl the route.
Hyde with a nice blitz pickup (black)
versus Cover1 blitz


CB turns to run upfield, Torrey starts his curl, Kap already mid windup.


+14 yards.

This is that same play that Flacco and TSmith made a killing on right? You mentioned last weeks game that Kap hesitated to make this throw to TSmith and that they needed to make this a gimmie in the future.

No it's not. This is a deep curl with the CB giving cushion.
The play we are referring to versus MIN was where the CB is in press, there is no separation, and Kap needs to throw with trust that there will be separation. It's almost like a back shoulder throw.
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/183197-minnesota-vikings-week-coaches-film-analysis/page3/#post34

Here's a nice little play that incorporates a few coverage beaters into one.
- To Kap's right is Levels concept, good versus Cover 1, Cover2 Zone.
- To Kap's left is a good combination versus Cover3. Hyde's route is designed to sit in between the Curl/Flat defender and the Hook defender.
Versus Cover 3


Kap recognizes the coverage and immediately looks to his left. Hyde sits down in a quiet area. Kap "settles" for the short route, Hyde breaks a tackle to move the chains.


+11 yards

So we lack the overall speed and physical ability to press and run? How did Mangini not know this and expect it to work against Pitt?

Originally posted by jreff22:
So we lack the overall speed and physical ability to press and run? How did Mangini not know this and expect it to work against Pitt?

Pretty sure Mangini has a good grasp on what the secondary can and can't do, guys just got caught out of position or were simply outplayed.

Originally posted by thl408:

Here's a nice little play that incorporates a few coverage beaters into one.

I'm not sure if this is accurate or not but it appears CK throw it a bit inside as well to Hyde leading him to max YAC. And with his quick release, two defenders within a yard or two still aren't even quick enough to defend this. This is why these little options to RB's and TE's could be so effective for us.

Well my fello fans, I'm off to football practice, I have the first big chunk play of the 2nd half, will post it when I get back, about 6:30 PST. Don't have too much fun without me! :)

Originally posted by jonnydel:

here's another big chunk play in the game - it's going to look really, really familiar.


Before we jump all over Reid's nuts for this play, remember this, he got burned by taking a bad angle to the play before, so, keep that in mind.


here, we're going to run a cover 2-man. What had to be so frustrating for Mangini on these plays is that, the cover 2-man, in theory, should never, ever get beat like this. This and cover 4 are you 2 coverages that should never get beat deep. Notice how Acker is in press coverage again.


Our safeties bail out into a cover 2 help with everyone else playing man - 4 man rush.
Also, note how Acker tries to press and Brown, once again, easily defeats his press coverage with a shoulder dip.


You see Acker is still trying to slow him down, but, to no avail.


Look familiar? Notice how Reid is taking a much straighter line this time, he's trying to not repeat the same mistake.


Ben really puts the ball out there and this is where Brown's speed really shows up, he hits a 2nd gear and starts to separate from Acker - this is what concerned me a little bit more and what I was talking about when saying that our guys got ran by. We saw Johnson get run by, Acker's getting run by, and Brock gets run by later.


If the ball had been thrown like it had the first time, Reid's in great position for coverage, but, this time, Ben put the ball out farther.


Because the ball was out further, Brown gets behind all of em'. One of the biggest drawbacks of having your safeties disguise like we did, it's really, really tough for them to locate the ball.

Again though, 4 man rush. So far, I've shown 3 big passing chunk plays, with no blitzers.

At this point, after three big chunk plays, you would think the coaches would adjust. Did you see any adjustments made? If they didn't... Well, this is where I get concerned about our coaching.

Originally posted by Phoenix49ers:

Originally posted by jreff22:

So we lack the overall speed and physical ability to press and run? How did Mangini not know this and expect it to work against Pitt?

Pretty sure Mangini has a good grasp on what the secondary can and can't do, guys just got caught out of position or were simply outplayed.

Then why keep doing it? Throwing a 6th round rookie against a pro bowler...you should figure out the outcome by the end of the first quarter.

All of these coverage breakdowns a result of our Raider friend who had to screw up with the law again.

With 99 problems rushing the passer, you don't need to go all exotic.

Granted, we shouldn't go exotic until these guys can get it together, but still.........a result of 99.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
here's another big chunk play in the game - it's going to look really, really familiar.


Before we jump all over Reid's nuts for this play, remember this, he got burned by taking a bad angle to the play before, so, keep that in mind.


here, we're going to run a cover 2-man. What had to be so frustrating for Mangini on these plays is that, the cover 2-man, in theory, should never, ever get beat like this. This and cover 4 are you 2 coverages that should never get beat deep. Notice how Acker is in press coverage again.


Our safeties bail out into a cover 2 help with everyone else playing man - 4 man rush.
Also, note how Acker tries to press and Brown, once again, easily defeats his press coverage with a shoulder dip.


You see Acker is still trying to slow him down, but, to no avail.


Look familiar? Notice how Reid is taking a much straighter line this time, he's trying to not repeat the same mistake.


Ben really puts the ball out there and this is where Brown's speed really shows up, he hits a 2nd gear and starts to separate from Acker - this is what concerned me a little bit more and what I was talking about when saying that our guys got ran by. We saw Johnson get run by, Acker's getting run by, and Brock gets run by later.


If the ball had been thrown like it had the first time, Reid's in great position for coverage, but, this time, Ben put the ball out farther.
(snip)

Because the ball was out further, Brown gets behind all of em'. One of the biggest drawbacks of having your safeties disguise like we did, it's really, really tough for them to locate the ball.

Again though, 4 man rush. So far, I've shown 3 big passing chunk plays, with no blitzers.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here's the last big chunk play of the 1st half. We had just fumbled the ball and lost it to Pitt.


Pitt comes out with trip receivers to the short side of the field. Bethea comes down, we're going to play a cover 6 zone on this(4+2) It's cover 4 on the wide side of the field and cover 2 zone on the short side. It's a good call, poorly executed by us and perfectly executed by Pitt. Big Ben audibles to this play, btw.


They first run PA, which holds up Bethea for just a sec. Brock tries to give bump coverage on Heyward-Bey, but doesn't hardly slow him down. You absolutely have to knock the receiver off his vertical route if you're in cover 2 zone. You have to help your safety out, you can't let that receiver get a full blown running go at your safety, it's too hard on them.


Bethea turns to run just a little too late, he's not in a dead sprint by now, with a guy that has speed like Heyward-Bey does, you better be on your horse, right now. Meanwhile, the backside guys are doing what they're supposed to, Reid is playing his quarter and so is Acker. They have to respect Brown's ability to attack either area of the field deep.


here, Big Ben makes the right read. He see's the quarter safety playing Brown, with Bey having inside leverage on the 2 side safety. What's really good here, he doesn't try and put this ball on a rope - that's what CK often does, he knows it's a quarters coverage on the other side, so, he puts the ball with some air under it and leads Bey away from the safety. Note where Bey is on the field. He's at the 17 yard line, well outside the hash mark.


By the time Reid realizes that the ball is being thrown deep to the other receiver, it's too late to turn and run. You also see how far out there Ben puts this ball and how much air he put under it. The ball is already in the air and you see how far Bey will travel before he catches it.




So, go back to where I showed earlier. Big Ben put that ball around 24 yards out in front, and about 12 yards to the inside of where Bey was when he threw the ball. That's a QB leading his receiver into open space and throwing it over potential defenders. That's a top qb type throw there. I would really like to see CK develop that kind of throw.


You see how clean of a pocket Ben had to throw from - that's turrible.....

Again, 4 man rush, no blitzers. So, 4 big, chunk plays in the first half, no blitzing on any of them.

Just to quell the narrative that it was Mangini's blitz heavy scheme that led to the chunk plays. It was our inability to get to the QB with 4.... It's why it's rather disheartening....

Originally posted by cortana49:
At this point, after three big chunk plays, you would think the coaches would adjust. Did you see any adjustments made? If they didn't... Well, this is where I get concerned about our coaching.

They kind of made an adjustment in the 1st half. In the GIF of post #87, notice Acker bailing at the snap with Reid over the top. They are covering Brown. Of course, Ben then goes to the other side of the field to DHB for the TD.

Awesome breakdowns. Relieved to know the team didn't blitz nearly as much as one would think when watching live. Just bad technique and the safeties were unable to recover when trying to disguise coverage.

Corners were burnt toast in this game, but I think they're better than that. This game they may have looked slow on a short week, but maybe they were taking trail technique expecting help over the top that wasn't there. After all, we were playing Cover 2 most of the game.

Originally posted by jreff22:
Then why keep doing it? Throwing a 6th round rookie against a pro bowler...you should figure out the outcome by the end of the first quarter.

Brown has gone for 150+ yards against some of the best CB's in football. I don't think it matters much who they put on him when they had no pass rush to speak of. When you have an elite QB like Big Ben and an elite WR like Brown, it doesn't matter much who you have in your secondary if you can't force the QB off his spot and make him less comfortable.