Coaches Film Analysis: 2017 Season

This gets a sad face.....

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Another missed opportunity, this is almost as criminal as the screen pass where 5 of our linemen let B. Wagner tackle the RB....(does it not bother anyone else that Wagner than postures and celebrates as if his hot s--- after this play? I mean, you made an easy play because 5 other guys messed up....)



As soon as the defenders realize it's not a run they all turn because they know Shanny loves to run crossers behind a run fake. You see how all three guys turn their backs and full speed run to defend Goodwin. You can't tell me other teams aren't paying attention to Goodwin.

Goodwin has put it on tape multiple times this season that he is a homerun hitter. He currently has a 21 yards per catch average on 27 catches. That's a funny pic and leads to a play I wanted to show (not related to Goodwin).

Originally posted by Furlow:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here was a big missed opportunity in the 1st quarter and one where CJ's rookieness got the better of him.

6:47 1st QTR


We got a lot going on in this play. We're trying to get the ball to Hyde, it's an old WCO staple - the "texas" concept. We're going to jazz it up a bit and throw in some motion from the Flanker to help reveal coverage. By lining T. Taylor up outside the TE in the flanker and then motioning him across it will reveal whether or not this single safety look is cover 1 man or cover 3 zone. With Maxwell traveling with Taylor it reveals cover 1 man and they'll have a "lurk" or hole defender on this one. I like the addition of the shallow crosser here from the slot as it adds 2 dimensions. You get a "trail" concept that mixes with the TE's in route to create a "mesh" concept. We run a short out from Taylor with the texas or circle or angle route(whatever verbiage you use) which is the texas concept. The idea is to isolate a RB on a LB. The drag and quick outs both stretch the defense away from the angle or texas route giving your RB a lot of room to maneuver 1v1.



The key when playing against man-coverage is for your receivers to win leverage to the correct sides. Here, Bourne does a good job of avoiding the jam and winning inside leverage.



This is one play where our offensive line does a really good job. Both our Tackles drive their men upfield - which is exactly what they're taught and the interior holds up perfectly. Wagner jumps on and mauls Goodwin on his drag and K.J. Wright hammers Hyde coming out of the backfield before he can make his break.



CJ wants to get Hyde the ball and actually pulls down his throw when he see's how much his route has been disrupted. Kittle is getting held - but who calls that on Seattle? The key here is that the pump to Hyde draws the full attention of Earl Thomas who drives on the texas route. BTW, bourne has won and is heading for the middle of the field that Thomas is vacating.



CJ has a perfect pocket and a WR breaking wide open down the middle of the field with the safety running down on the RB - throw the ball man!!! Instead he starts to roll out right.



He runs himself into pressure and then tries to throw it to Hyde who's now double covered. He misses the wide open Bourne and gets himself clobbered on the play..... Sometimes rookies gon rook...

Great analysis. This is frustrating to watch.

My only note would be the progression for this shallow HB Texas (verbiage). Typically you would teach the QB to essentially Hi-Lo the LBs and the Texas route is 3rd the progression. I have seen coaches teach the Texas as the primary but that's beyond the point. As many have mentioned CJ has struggled with any drive/shallow concept for the last couple weeks, usually his biggest fault not pulling the trigger on the hunt route instead settling for the HB in whatever route variation he is running.

Now the post/wheel concept is usually and always in Walsh's system a 1a read. Meaning based on the presnap look the QB can take a peak and if he has it rip it. I have seen that coached different ways, some coaches want to peak vs press man looks (this example) others vs a cov 3 look. If the QB doesn't like the look he goes back through his shallow progression.

So depending on what is being taught to CJ it's either a bad miss or a product of what CJ is being taught. From what I've seen this season Kyle has been somewhat elementary in how he has brought CJ along and I don't blame him.

Already shared my thoughts on Bourne from this play, but that drives me nuts.

Originally posted by jgarf08:

Originally posted by Furlow:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Here was a big missed opportunity in the 1st quarter and one where CJ's rookieness got the better of him.
6:47 1st QTR

We got a lot going on in this play. We're trying to get the ball to Hyde, it's an old WCO staple - the "texas" concept. We're going to jazz it up a bit and throw in some motion from the Flanker to help reveal coverage. By lining T. Taylor up outside the TE in the flanker and then motioning him across it will reveal whether or not this single safety look is cover 1 man or cover 3 zone. With Maxwell traveling with Taylor it reveals cover 1 man and they'll have a "lurk" or hole defender on this one. I like the addition of the shallow crosser here from the slot as it adds 2 dimensions. You get a "trail" concept that mixes with the TE's in route to create a "mesh" concept. We run a short out from Taylor with the texas or circle or angle route(whatever verbiage you use) which is the texas concept. The idea is to isolate a RB on a LB. The drag and quick outs both stretch the defense away from the angle or texas route giving your RB a lot of room to maneuver 1v1.

The key when playing against man-coverage is for your receivers to win leverage to the correct sides. Here, Bourne does a good job of avoiding the jam and winning inside leverage.

This is one play where our offensive line does a really good job. Both our Tackles drive their men upfield - which is exactly what they're taught and the interior holds up perfectly. Wagner jumps on and mauls Goodwin on his drag and K.J. Wright hammers Hyde coming out of the backfield before he can make his break.



CJ wants to get Hyde the ball and actually pulls down his throw when he see's how much his route has been disrupted. Kittle is getting held - but who calls that on Seattle? The key here is that the pump to Hyde draws the full attention of Earl Thomas who drives on the texas route. BTW, bourne has won and is heading for the middle of the field that Thomas is vacating.

CJ has a perfect pocket and a WR breaking wide open down the middle of the field with the safety running down on the RB - throw the ball man!!! Instead he starts to roll out right.

He runs himself into pressure and then tries to throw it to Hyde who's now double covered. He misses the wide open Bourne and gets himself clobbered on the play..... Sometimes rookies gon rook...

Great analysis. This is frustrating to watch.

My only note would be the progression for this shallow HB Texas (verbiage). Typically you would teach the QB to essentially Hi-Lo the LBs and the Texas route is 3rd the progression. I have seen coaches teach the Texas as the primary but that's beyond the point. As many have mentioned CJ has struggled with any drive/shallow concept for the last couple weeks, usually his biggest fault not pulling the trigger on the hunt route instead settling for the HB in whatever route variation he is running.

Now the post/wheel concept is usually and always in Walsh's system a 1a read. Meaning based on the presnap look the QB can take a peak and if he has it rip it. I have seen that coached different ways, some coaches want to peak vs press man looks (this example) others vs a cov 3 look. If the QB doesn't like the look he goes back through his shallow progression.

So depending on what is being taught to CJ it's either a bad miss or a product of what CJ is being taught. From what I've seen this season Kyle has been somewhat elementary in how he has brought CJ along and I don't blame him.

Already shared my thoughts on Bourne from this play, but that drives me nuts.

Speaking of not staying with the hunt route on a Drive concept. This play was brought up by jonny as a play where CJ did not allow the Drive to develop before moving on.

Posted by jonnydel in 2017 Film thread:
For example, there was a play we had a drive concept going and he moved off the drive to his 3rd progression after the LB took 2 dropback steps. The in route on the drive concept was open, but he had already moved off the concept and then hung on to the ball too long.

Here is that play. 3rd & 5.
To CJ's right, purple + green is a rub concept where purple will create a pick on a man coverage defender on Juice. Green + yellow is the Drive concept.
To CJ's left is what I refer to as Inverted Smash, a high-low read.
Using 20 personnel and lining up Brieda and Juice wide, he sees CBs aligned over the two RBs. This signals zone coverage.
vs Cover3
Notice the leverage that is played on Breida, Maxwell is playing with outside leverage and Breida is running a Corner route. This is a win for Maxwell and CJ needs to recognize that.


Goodwin (11) will remove the strongside curl/flat defender. CJ is dropping back and is looking to his right.


In this case, the Drive concept will vertically stretch the strongside Hook defender (blue). But before the Drive concept can develop, CJ has moved over to his left, looking at Brieda vs Maxwell. Brieda is not going to win. In the pic below, the Hunt route (#18) looks open (it's called Hunt because versus zone the WR will hunt for a passing lane) but it's hard to know how the zone defenders will react had CJ been looking towards his right the entire time. Still, not giving the Drive concept a chance and looking towards Brieda vs Maxwell is rushing progressions.


Sacked.

I feel even from the limited snaps on tape that Jimmy G makes these types of plays all day.

Just because I really like the idea behind this concept. 12:22 left in the 2nd qtr and it's 3rd and 3. Picture is post Y motion.


To the bottom of the screen running what I call "fill" harbaugh used to call knife, but you see it all over the field on Saturday and Sunday. Taylor running a pick for Robinson who is running a slow slant. Obvious man beater teams have been using a ton.

Here the idea is to take advantage of an uber aggressive safety in Earl Thomas. CJ is going to pump the slant to move the FS and Goodwin is going to run a Bruin route to the near hash replacing where the single high safety should be protecting in man free or cover 3


Good thing this was the play call because Seattle does a good job of zoning off the pick. The pump pushes Earl Thomas as it was intended to, leaving the seam for Goodwin. CJ throws accurately from a poor base and puts the ball in a decent landmark. Earl Thomas being the freak that he is actually recovers really well, but still open.

Problem is Goodwin ends up dropping out the route on essentially a deep curl. I assume this was an option route to protect the play in case the FS doesn't bite on the fake. QB/WR not on the same page and results in a punt on 3rd down. Earl Thomas played it really well, hard to place blame but I would lean towards saying Goodwin should have kept his head down and stayed on the seam. He does drop the CB with a decent top of the route however (starting to like the kid as I mentioned earlier)

Originally posted by thl408:
Speaking of not staying with the hunt route on a Drive concept. This play was brought up by jonny as a play where CJ did not allow the Drive to develop before moving on.

Posted by jonnydel in 2017 Film thread:
For example, there was a play we had a drive concept going and he moved off the drive to his 3rd progression after the LB took 2 dropback steps. The in route on the drive concept was open, but he had already moved off the concept and then hung on to the ball too long.

Here is that play. 3rd & 5.
To CJ's right, purple + green is a rub concept where purple will create a pick on a man coverage defender on Juice. Green + yellow is the Drive concept.
To CJ's left is what I refer to as Inverted Smash, a high-low read.
Using 20 personnel and lining up Brieda and Juice wide, he sees CBs aligned over the two RBs. This signals zone coverage.
vs Cover3
Notice the leverage that is played on Breida, Maxwell is playing with outside leverage and Breida is running a Corner route. This is a win for Maxwell and CJ needs to recognize that.


Goodwin (11) will remove the strongside curl/flat defender. CJ is dropping back and is looking to his right.


In this case, the Drive concept will vertically stretch the strongside Hook defender (blue). But before the Drive concept can develop, CJ has moved over to his left, looking at Brieda vs Maxwell. Brieda is not going to win. In the pic below, the Hunt route (#18) looks open (it's called Hunt because versus zone the WR will hunt for a passing lane) but it's hard to know how the zone defenders will react had CJ been looking towards his right the entire time. Still, not giving the Drive concept a chance and looking towards Brieda vs Maxwell is rushing progressions.


Sacked.

That would be the one! This is what is concerning about CJ moving forward at least in my eyes. Given he's a rookie but that is frantic eye movement and indicated his insecurity in his progression and again you can see him redirecting to his safety blanket in the RB which in this case happens to be Trent Taylor.

As a side note you can see Tomlinsen being aggressive off the snap to get into the shade, but instead of keeping his base, resetting and moving his feet he goes to another weak punch which the nose easily sheds. It's poor fundamentals that continue to plague him but that was the book with him coming out of college.

This was a failed 3rd down conversion where the 49ers dialed up a play that they've found lots of success with this season. But by week 12, lots of film is out and defenses know what you like to call in key situations.
Playaction to suck up LBs, then quickly fire a pass over the middle to a deep slant or Dig route.


Playaction but the weakside Hook (blue) is already backpeddling.


Instead of backpeddling to get into his zone drop, blue completely turns around to locate any threat behind him, and he finds it. CJ red lights the deep slant and with nothing open on the other side of the field, scrambles.


+1. Field goal.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Don't we want the LB's to come up and make contact with our RB's? I mean, that is the ideal reason for running a play action is to get the LBs to pull forward. If they are pulling all the way forward to the LOS to bump out backs, then we should have slants and 0-14 yard routes open all day in the middle.

SEA did a good job gameplanning vs the 49ers. You know that play where CJ/Hoyer use playaction to suck up the LBs then immediately throw a pass over the middle? We've seen it numerous times this season. There was a play where the 49ers tried this and the SEA LB (playing zone) completely turned his head around to identify the WR coming across the middle, and took that pass away.

What I think jonnyd is referring to, and one play stands out to me, is Hyde running an angle route out of the backfield. I don't think there was playaction. But the LB was very physical and jammed Hyde hard. So hard it killed Hyde's momentum and threw the timing of the play off. I can show both these plays if jd doesn't.

The one I showed is one of em, right?

lol yup. Instead of waiting to see if Hyde breaks inside (angle) or outside (flat), just jam the crap out of him before the break.

What I meant was that on play action, the goal is to suck the LB up right? On these passing designs where the RB is coming out for a route, he still sucks the LB up onto him as if it were a play action which is the entire goal of a play action. So, then why didn't we take advantage of the open space the LB vacated in order to disrupt our "desired" passes the backs like ATL crushed SEA on last year? We should have been targeting WR slants if SEA is committing hard to come up and chuck our RB's.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Don't we want the LB's to come up and make contact with our RB's? I mean, that is the ideal reason for running a play action is to get the LBs to pull forward. If they are pulling all the way forward to the LOS to bump out backs, then we should have slants and 0-14 yard routes open all day in the middle.

SEA did a good job gameplanning vs the 49ers. You know that play where CJ/Hoyer use playaction to suck up the LBs then immediately throw a pass over the middle? We've seen it numerous times this season. There was a play where the 49ers tried this and the SEA LB (playing zone) completely turned his head around to identify the WR coming across the middle, and took that pass away.

What I think jonnyd is referring to, and one play stands out to me, is Hyde running an angle route out of the backfield. I don't think there was playaction. But the LB was very physical and jammed Hyde hard. So hard it killed Hyde's momentum and threw the timing of the play off. I can show both these plays if jd doesn't.

The one I showed is one of em, right?

lol yup. Instead of waiting to see if Hyde breaks inside (angle) or outside (flat), just jam the crap out of him before the break.

What I meant was that on play action, the goal is to suck the LB up right? On these passing designs where the RB is coming out for a route, he still sucks the LB up onto him as if it were a play action which is the entire goal of a play action. So, then why didn't we take advantage of the open space the LB vacated in order to disrupt our "desired" passes the backs like ATL crushed SEA on last year? We should have been targeting WR slants if SEA is committing hard to come up and chuck our RB's.

I understand what you mean. I don't know just how often the SEA LBs were up on the RBs on routes out of the backfield. jonny showed one play, but I can't recall how often it really happened. I'd say this physicality with the RB took place moreso on man coverage, which SEA played less of in this game. They played more Cover3 than Cover1 (I think, I stopped watching after the start of 3rd quarter when I found out Jimmy was going to start vs CHI).

Since you brought up slant routes, here's one by Taylor, the king of slant routes (per PFF). Although it is not an example of what you are specifically referring to in the bolded. 49ers stack 2 WRs to help bust man coverage.


+29 and a new career long for TT.

CJ leaving plays on the field. Hopefully jg can get those.

Originally posted by jgarf08:

Just because I really like the idea behind this concept. 12:22 left in the 2nd qtr and it's 3rd and 3. Picture is post Y motion.


To the bottom of the screen running what I call "fill" harbaugh used to call knife, but you see it all over the field on Saturday and Sunday. Taylor running a pick for Robinson who is running a slow slant. Obvious man beater teams have been using a ton.

Here the idea is to take advantage of an uber aggressive safety in Earl Thomas. CJ is going to pump the slant to move the FS and Goodwin is going to run a Bruin route to the near hash replacing where the single high safety should be protecting in man free or cover 3


Good thing this was the play call because Seattle does a good job of zoning off the pick. The pump pushes Earl Thomas as it was intended to, leaving the seam for Goodwin. CJ throws accurately from a poor base and puts the ball in a decent landmark. Earl Thomas being the freak that he is actually recovers really well, but still open.

Problem is Goodwin ends up dropping out the route on essentially a deep curl. I assume this was an option route to protect the play in case the FS doesn't bite on the fake. QB/WR not on the same page and results in a punt on 3rd down. Earl Thomas played it really well, hard to place blame but I would lean towards saying Goodwin should have kept his head down and stayed on the seam. He does drop the CB with a decent top of the route however (starting to like the kid as I mentioned earlier)

Looks like a MOFO/MOFOC read to me. Middle of field open or middle of field closed. Goodwin is reading the safety and he sees it's closed so breaks it off

Originally posted by jgarf08:

My only note would be the progression for this shallow HB Texas (verbiage). Typically you would teach the QB to essentially Hi-Lo the LBs and the Texas route is 3rd the progression. I have seen coaches teach the Texas as the primary but that's beyond the point. As many have mentioned CJ has struggled with any drive/shallow concept for the last couple weeks, usually his biggest fault not pulling the trigger on the hunt route instead settling for the HB in whatever route variation he is running.

Now the post/wheel concept is usually and always in Walsh's system a 1a read. Meaning based on the presnap look the QB can take a peak and if he has it rip it. I have seen that coached different ways, some coaches want to peak vs press man looks (this example) others vs a cov 3 look. If the QB doesn't like the look he goes back through his shallow progression.

So depending on what is being taught to CJ it's either a bad miss or a product of what CJ is being taught. From what I've seen this season Kyle has been somewhat elementary in how he has brought CJ along and I don't blame him.

Already shared my thoughts on Bourne from this play, but that drives me nuts.

That's what's been hard for me to tell. From some of Shanny's press conferences it sounds like he isn't being elementary. But like you said, on film how he(CJ) goes about it seems like it could be. Though, I do tend to think since CJ came from am offense that wasn't near what Shanny's and CJ just isn't there yet. He's a rook though.

This is off topic but how did you like Harbaughs offense?

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Looks like a MOFO/MOFOC read to me. Middle of field open or middle of field closed. Goodwin is reading the safety and he sees it's closed so breaks it off

Absolutely right. Knowing that Seattle is predominantly a single high safety (MOFOC) defense they were betting on being able to move Earl Thomas with the pump fake. The option route would come in if the F/S doesn't bite, but that is where the gray area comes into play for the route.

If this read was just simply a pre-snap MOFO/MOFOC read then CJ shouldn't be allowed to play Quarterback at any level.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
That's what's been hard for me to tell. From some of Shanny's press conferences it sounds like he isn't being elementary. But like you said, on film how he(CJ) goes about it seems like it could be. Though, I do tend to think since CJ came from am offense that wasn't near what Shanny's and CJ just isn't there yet. He's a rook though.

This is off topic but how did you like Harbaughs offense?

Good question. There were elements I absolutely loved. Some of wrinkles they had from time to time was absolutely genius both in the run and pass game. The run game was consistent and the QB run game they eventually installed was a good change up, although done incorrectly at times and I am still under the belief they never actually "read" any thing, I think they were called not a true zone-read for the QB.

I think ultimately where Roman and company struggled was relying too much on horizontal stretches in the pass game, which is not an uncommon fault in all west coast offenses. But towards the end of their tenure, even before the wheels fell off teams sat tight with their underneath coverage, blanketing concepts.

I would also say they became very predictable, certain pers and sets were auto run/pass formations the defense keyed on. It got to a point where I could call out the play just from seeing the alignment. And a sense of stubborness in the play calling with a lack of adjustment.

I know better to get into the QB play debate, but I think the coaching staff has a fair amount of blame in that. Long story short I wasn't devastated when Harbaugh left. I have some good insider stories about Harbaugh but I'll save those for another time.