Coaches Film Analysis: 2017 Season

Did Solomon Thomas get any snaps as an inside rusher or did he play strictly end?

teams know our DBs are s**t. They'll continue to max protect knowing their WRs can beat double coverage if need be.

Originally posted by Heroism:

Another thing about our lack of pass rush: Carolina used a lot of max protection. It felt like they had an overwhelming numbers advantage on most plays.

That and guys were getting chipped.

Did you see that play where Elvis was fully engaged with a T and the G came over and drilled him in the back bending him in half and basically knocking him to the ground?

Originally posted by Ensatsu:
I'd like to have some analysis on wtf Kyle was thinking on that long developing dive to Juice coming across the formation on 4th and short. Quite possibly one of the worst playcalls I've ever seen.

that play = Fusco fail.....

Originally posted by GORO:
Did Solomon Thomas get any snaps as an inside rusher or did he play strictly end?

He did, not much action to speak of. He needs to understand his lanes better. There was one instance where he was battling with his guy - like he was in a 1v1 drill and we had Reid coming in off a blitz. He's got to remember that and just take a pure bull rush inside on those plays.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by GORO:
Did Solomon Thomas get any snaps as an inside rusher or did he play strictly end?

He did, not much action to speak of. He needs to understand his lanes better. There was one instance where he was battling with his guy - like he was in a 1v1 drill and we had Reid coming in off a blitz. He's got to remember that and just take a pure bull rush inside on those plays.

Solomon will get better. He already has more passrush moves than armstead imo. He just needs to adjust to the NFL.

Beadlejuice, Beadlejuice, Beadlejuice!!!

too many words not enough gifs

Big props to Thl for getting this going. All day yesterday I was driving to the beach with the fam - it's a 5 hour drive for us to the gulf coast of Alabama so I just finished watching the game film sitting here on our balcony overlooking the beautiful gulf o' Mexico with nary a cloud in the sky, 75 degree weather and the sound of waves gently crashing against the canal Jetty while drinking my coffee - not a bad vacay if you ask me :)

I'll speak specifically about a few things I noticed:

Offense: I loved the design on a few plays. There was one play where I have no idea how Shanny knew what he did about the defense - it was uncanny. He had a variation of a 'stick' concept dialed up and the defense was showing cover 3 zone - which the 'stick' beats, but right before the snap they shifted into a cover 2 zone - which beats a 'stick' concept but shanny had a stick'nod called up for the TE. The play would've gone for a good gain had we had better protection - but it was a Keanu matrix, "whoa" moment, lol. Overall, I thought we were better than the score was and more competitive. It felt like watching a real grown up football game, lol. We didn't get yards by trickery or misdirection only, but by good, sound plays and good variation. We used pre-snap movement to reveal coverages and create mismatches, not "the things that make things tough for the defense" i.e. 800 plays a game.

O-line - Losing Garnett really sucks. I don't think he's going to be an all-world player but he'd definitely be better than Beadles. I thought Kilgore and Fusco did better than they're being given credit for - some of the pressure given up the middle was more about miscommunication or wrong protection slides than simply being whooped. I noticed at least 3 plays where we gave up quick pressure up the middle simply because the line slid the wrong way and we were outmatched. Those things are correctable though, which is encouraging. Beadles was the only guy I felt like was just under-talented.

Hyde - "the reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated" I said it a while back that I thought Hyde would be just fine in Shanny's scheme and it worked out on Sunday. If we had converted a few missed opportunities in the game, the run game would've still been a factor later and I think he would have easily had a 100+ yard game. He'll be just fine and given time in this system is gonna be a monster IMO - if he stays healthy.

Kittle - dude is gonna be a stud for a long time. I was really high on this kid coming out of college and he sure looked the part. For being a late round guy, he already looked like an average starter in the league IMO. He held up well in blocking, caught the ball well and broke a few tackles.

Garcon - this dude is worth every penny.

Hoyer - to me, a little better than meh. He didn't make any huge mistakes IMO but also didn't make a couple throws and adjustments you'd like to see. It's his first game with this new team so I'll give him a little time.

Defense: Overall, I thought we played fairly sound. We did get outschemed a few times, but that comes with the territory when you play simple defense. But, in the regard, playing a more simplified defense allowed our players to execute their assignments better, especially along the line.

D-line - The d-line as a group looked really good against the run. It was nice to see us hold up well no matter who was in there. The only player I felt underwhelmed by was Armstead. He didn't have a lot of plays his direction but when he did, he didn't secure the edge real well and got zero pass rush. There were two plays where he got owned by Greg Olsen in the run game - which if you're a 1st round pick in your 3rd year as a D-lineman, that should not be happening. Mitchell had a couple rough plays but made up for it with some others that he stuffed well.

It was obvious to everyone that pass rush is a problem and hopefully we'll be able to address that next year.

LB - Same with Hyde, Bowman looked just fine to me. When he was chasing down plays from the backside with Foster in the game, he was just as fast as Foster closing to the play, Foster just made the play because he was on the front side of play - which, Foster is a stud and needs to stay healthy. There was a big dropoff in production from Foster to Ray Ray. There was one play that reminded me of exactly why Bowman is so great. he drove the O-lineman into a running lane with one arm and then made the tackle on a running back with the other when he tried to cut-back - it was awesome. I'm not sure he looks 100%, which wouldn't be expected for another month or so. But, looked good, to me.

DB - I thought we looked alright, but there were a few busts in coverage that cost us - mainly on the 1st TD which IMO was on Dontae Johnson. The biggest problem was pass rush and a few bad angles on tackles. With a better pass rush I think the coverage would look much better.

I noticed that Garçon was seemed to be isolated on quite a few plays away from the concept side. So they had him playing the X in plays. He had a nice little 20 yard gain as the isolated WR opposite of a sticks variant concept. Kyle likes getting his best WR in these isolated situations.

Originally posted by SoCold:
too many words not enough gifs

LOL, well, on vacay, not sure I'll be able to do those :)

Originally posted by Ensatsu:
I'd like to have some analysis on wtf Kyle was thinking on that long developing dive to Juice coming across the formation on 4th and short. Quite possibly one of the worst playcalls I've ever seen.

That WAS a head-scratcher!

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SoCold:
too many words not enough gifs

LOL, well, on vacay, not sure I'll be able to do those :)

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by Ensatsu:

I'd like to have some analysis on wtf Kyle was thinking on that long developing dive to Juice coming across the formation on 4th and short. Quite possibly one of the worst playcalls I've ever seen.

that play = Fusco fail.....

Had to expect one (if not more) of those guy's were going to get blown up on a slow developing run like that. It's good to have faith, but you gotta know your personnel and who they're up against.