Originally posted by Luckycharms:
JD or THL question for you guys. I was listening to a 49ers podcast, not sure which one but I think it was Niners Nation, and they said Jimmy has been his best against single high defenses. From what you have seen does this seem to be true? I know he loves to work the middle of the field. What seems to be his weakness when it comes to defenses? Thanks
Well, that's kind of like saying that when teams have fewer guys to stop the run, it's easier to run.
Not meaning that to sound obtuse but most quarterbacks do better against single high in terms of conpletion%.
It's a simple numbers game at that point. In single high zone(cover 3 or zone blitz 3) you're going to have 4, defenders covering 40 feet wide areas in 7 man-coverage or 3 guys covering 53.33 ft in zone blitz. That's also on shorter throws. That leaves easier completions underneath but makes it harder to complete longer passes.
Vs a cover-2 defenders only cover about 33.3 ft on short stuff but deep guys will cover 80 ft wide areas.
Cover 2 is much more effective vs short throws but weak against deep stuff. However, if they play a soft cover 2 it comes down to time to throw. It simply takes guys linger to run a 20 yard route, after cutting and getting to their spot, than it would a 10 yard route(I know this sounds silly) but to beat cover 2, you have to have more time in the pocket, if not, a QB is going to struggle, most of the time.
That's why running the ball becomes so necessary to opening up the pass. If you cant run the ball and keep the defense out of a 2 safety look, options become limited and chances of success go down.
That's why it's been hard to beat these escape artist QB's consistently and why they'll put up video game numbers vs lesser talented teams. They can buy enough time to beat any coverage.
But, the pass vs run thing can go both ways.
When a team can beat C3 consistently, that forces a defense to run more 2 safety stuff which opens up the run game.
Jimmy doing better vs C3 is no surprise.
That's what we need and want from him and how our offense is designed.
We look to beat C3 with our pass and then run the ball in any other look. Makes life really hard on defenses.
