week 12 Arizona Cardinals coaches film analysis

Originally posted by bzborow1:
Watching this one at full speed really shows what Gabbert is bringing to the offense that Kaepernick wasn't. With Colin, you'd almost always see two hops between reads before he gets the ball out. Here, Gabbert is making the reads with each hop. The difference is slight but the impact is huge. The scoreboard hasn't really changed much but the offense looks like its finally getting into a rhythmn with Blaine under center. Isn't it interesting that all of a sudden other players on the offense are starting to look decent?

What are your thoughts on Draughn? Personally I'm not convinced he's a feature back, and a lot of the room he's getting out there is because of the fact Blaine has opened up the pass game, but man is he useful out there.

Kap has a problem of being indecisive and holds on to the ball way too long. Part of this was him staring a read down too long. Gabbert red-lights his reads much quicker. Why? Gabbert is more comfortable reading the defense, that's why.

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by sacniner:

Is that a WR screen basically?

Pretty much....you have that jet sweep action and the QB just pops it to the WR. It's more like a WR reverse that gets credited as a pass. I'm sure QBs love it because it helps completion % Personally, I'd love to see a fake off of it with a little slide action coming against the motion.

For some reason though, I don't think it was credited as a pass this game. On the coaches film it just says, "Patton left end" indicating a run play. When CK did it it said, "colin kaepernick to Patton for 48 yards"

Originally posted by jonnydel:

For some reason though, I don't think it was credited as a pass this game. On the coaches film it just says, "Patton left end" indicating a run play. When CK did it it said, "colin kaepernick to Patton for 48 yards"

That's weird...I wonder if its a judgement call in the NFL as far as scoring. I just assumed it was a pass because of that one with Kap and Patton. I know it's a pass in college.

Originally posted by bzborow1:

Originally posted by thl408:
On the next 49er drive (ends with FG). This is the play before the deep bomb to Torrey.

3Q 2nd & 10
Trail concept vs Cover 1 blitz
The progression on this play is right to left (orange-red-yellow).


Gabbert completes his drop, and in this picture, has already moved to his second read, Torrey. This pulls the deep safety away from the middle of the field.


Gabbert going through progressions.


By hitting all three progressions - from right to left - it naturally moves the deep safety who is reading Gabbert's eyes. This opens up the middle of the field for Boldin.


The playaction stalls the pass rush. Good pocket.


+17 yards.

Watching this one at full speed really shows what Gabbert is bringing to the offense that Kaepernick wasn't. With Colin, you'd almost always see two hops between reads before he gets the ball out. Here, Gabbert is making the reads with each hop. The difference is slight but the impact is huge. The scoreboard hasn't really changed much but the offense looks like its finally getting into a rhythmn with Blaine under center. Isn't it interesting that all of a sudden other players on the offense are starting to look decent?

What are your thoughts on Draughn? Personally I'm not convinced he's a feature back, and a lot of the room he's getting out there is because of the fact Blaine has opened up the pass game, but man is he useful out there.

Yeah, I don't think Hyde is any danger of loosing his spot as feature back to Draughn, but the kid has played himself into getting a deal for the next couple years in my mind. He will make a great change of pace, pass catching, third down type guy when Hyde is back to healthy and all the better that he can hold down the big job at least somewhat while our big dog is out.

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
For some reason though, I don't think it was credited as a pass this game. On the coaches film it just says, "Patton left end" indicating a run play. When CK did it it said, "colin kaepernick to Patton for 48 yards"

That's weird...I wonder if its a judgement call in the NFL as far as scoring. I just assumed it was a pass because of that one with Kap and Patton. I know it's a pass in college.

reasonably sure it depends completely on where the receiver is when he gets the ball. If he is even with or behind the QB then it is a run no matter how far the ball travels...ball has to be thrown forward from the QB to get it called a pass. So depending on timing of the release and position of WR the stat sheet will call it different week to week. Since Gab has a quicker release maybe the WR wasn't up field enough call it a pass....

Originally posted by PhillyNiner:

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

For some reason though, I don't think it was credited as a pass this game. On the coaches film it just says, "Patton left end" indicating a run play. When CK did it it said, "colin kaepernick to Patton for 48 yards"

That's weird...I wonder if its a judgement call in the NFL as far as scoring. I just assumed it was a pass because of that one with Kap and Patton. I know it's a pass in college.

reasonably sure it depends completely on where the receiver is when he gets the ball. If he is even with or behind the QB then it is a run no matter how far the ball travels...ball has to be thrown forward from the QB to get it called a pass. So depending on timing of the release and position of WR the stat sheet will call it different week to week. Since Gab has a quicker release maybe the WR wasn't up field enough call it a pass....

I just always figured if the the WR was in front of the QB it was a forward lateral behind the LOS. Now, if that ball hits the ground it's not a fumble is it? I always figured it was treated like a shovel pass.

I get what you're saying though and that makes sense.

Originally posted by thl408:


Not sure if the safeties are supposed to do this or if one, or both of them eff'ed up. The pass floated a bit and Brock might have been able to play this better. +48 yards.

I'm still a bit nooby even after reading how many of these topics weekly, but I'd presume Tartt was the one that blew an assignment and was supposed to rotate to deep middle (if Brock didn't blow it, presuming he was supposed to keep outside leverage) since it appears to me right off the snap that Reid's movement shaded towards his sideline was supposed to handle any crossers that came from the opposite side while Tartt started with a backpedal.

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by sacniner:
Possibly... it looked like a crossing or drag route underneath though. Maybe I'm mistaken and QP dropped it. Looked like the play Thl posted kind of.

Ok..,my biggest WTF moment was that pop pass to patton. If I'm remembering it right, it was 3rd and long and we called it. We've actually called it s couple times this year and ran it pretty much as is. I think the book is out on it because zona defended it well.

His only catch of the day was this. He had two drops, and a +5 rush on an end around.

Originally posted by thl408:

His only catch of the day was this. He had two drops, and a +5 rush on an end around.

Well, I totally whiffed on remembering the down and distance. I guess I'm still just looking for us to fake off of this play.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by sacniner:
Possibly... it looked like a crossing or drag route underneath though. Maybe I'm mistaken and QP dropped it. Looked like the play Thl posted kind of.

Ok..,my biggest WTF moment was that pop pass to patton. If I'm remembering it right, it was 3rd and long and we called it. We've actually called it s couple times this year and ran it pretty much as is. I think the book is out on it because zona defended it well.

His only catch of the day was this. He had two drops, and a +5 rush on an end around.

Asking Boldin with a bum hammy to block a running start CB to the play. And then Draughn just getting in the way at that point. It might've look good on the board or practice.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Also, Gabbet's YPA so far is 8.07 - which, among qualifying QB's, would place him as 5th in the league - just ahead of Tom Brady and behind:
1. Carson Palmer
2.Ben Roethlesberger
3. Russel Wilson
4. Andy Dalton

In contrast, CK was ranked 29th out of 32 qualifying QB's in YPA at 6.62

Do you think that has anything to do with Gabbert consistently hitting the small plays (RB out the backfield) for 3 and 4 yards and then an occational bomb? Guys like CK seem to be very much into the boom or bust plays. CK had very few short yardage passes, but was mostly looking to drive the ball 10 plus yards (at least it seems). Is that how the calculation works? I'd imagine getting zero yards in any pass play would really hurt your average. Not to say Kap didn't look horrible this year.

We know about the penalties, some deserved, some soft, but this was the most b******ttiest of the b******t calls.

Score is 13-10 49ers trailing and they are driving down the field. This drive had the bomb to Torrey.
Double slants vs Cover 1 blitz
Where Vance lines up does have to do with running a rub (interference). A rub on the defender covering Boldin.


Gabbert looks strongside.


Mid windup. The defender on Vance has his hands all over Vance.


Offensive pass interference. dafuq?


Instead of 3rd & 4 (+6 to Bell), it's 3rd & 14. Maybe it doesn't matter on a day the 49ers were 0 for 9 on 3rd downs, but the call itself was so weak. Even the color commentator had to say it was a bad call. 49ers end up kicking a FG to tie.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
Asking Boldin with a bum hammy to block a running start CB to the play. And then Draughn just getting in the way at that point. It might've look good on the board or practice.

ARI defense read this play like a book. Notice the defender that was in the middle of the LoS backoff to replace the blitzing CB. That blitzing CB (Mattheu) blew this play up.

Originally posted by thl408:
We know about the penalties, some deserved, some soft, but this was the most b******ttiest of the b******t calls.

Score is 13-10 49ers trailing and they are driving down the field. This drive had the bomb to Torrey.
Double slants vs Cover 1 blitz
Where Vance lines up does have to do with running a rub (interference). A rub on the defender covering Boldin.


Gabbert looks strongside.


Mid windup. The defender on Vance has his hands all over Vance.


Offensive pass interference. dafuq?


Instead of 3rd & 4 (+6 to Bell), it's 3rd & 14. Maybe it doesn't matter on a day the 49ers were 0 for 9 on 3rd downs, but the call itself was so weak. Even the color commentator had to say it was a bad call. 49ers end up kicking a FG to tie.

That looks pretty close to within the 5 yard rule. The ball was on the 23? The defender held until the 15-16 yd line. I know it's BS, but I don't think they are going to call that unless there's a jersey pull.

Nice decisive decision by Gabbert. He could've easily waited too long for McD to break thru.

Score tied, ARI gets the ball back. This play gets the ribbon for funkiest coverage of the day.

My guess is it's some sort of inverted Cover2, but it's really strange in how the safeties react at the snap. The CBs are manned up against the wideouts. Slot CB is in man coverage as well. It's a 5 man rush.


At the snap, the two safeties (blue) fly up to rob the middle of the field.


It actually works and Palmer has nowhere to go with the ball.


Palmer runs around and throws it into the grass incomplete. My guess is there was some sort of bait there. By aligning the two safeties so close together, in the middle of the field, ARI thought they had Go routes up the sidelines available. But the CBs play with a cushion to help defeat any vertical routes, which is exactly what ARI does here with their wideouts. Mangini gon Mangini.