Coaches Film Analysis: 2019 Season

Originally posted by thl408:
2Q 1st & 10
It wasn't all bad as the 49ers did make some adjustments in between all those Drake runs for 8+ yards. Like the Rams game, the 49ers started to slant their DL to disrupt the blocking angles. Zone read, inside zone.
Solly aligned over the weak A gap (yellow), will slant into the strong A gap. Greenlaw (off screen) will blitz off the edge to take over as the force player so Blair can crash down the line.


Solly shown slanting in, Blair lined up at 5t is not a force player so he's allowed to crash down and disrupt.


Solly soutly takes on the double team and holds ground, splits the double, and makes the tackle.


no gain

Need this Solly to show up 100% of the time.

Originally posted by genus49:
Need this Solly to show up 100% of the time.

While Solly is light for a DT, there are plays where I think he holds up better than Buckner as an interior run defender. Buckner's pad level in the run game isn't always good, and since he's so tall it magnifies the issue. Solly shows here he can handle a double team and win. He doesn't always win, but he can despite being on the lightweight side of things for a DT. Perhaps because his snaps are limited so he's fresh when he's in. He dominated the LG on that play.

Should they run more of the 3-4 look (like the game against Washington) to defend this better?

My assumption is they didn't anticipate the Cardinals to run as much as the did given what they have shown so far this year.

Drake made a tremendous impact on their offense that night so adjustments need to be made

I wanted to show a play that illustrates how Dre Greenlaw's coverage responsibility will change now that he's a WILL and no longer a SAM. We've seen this many times in this style of Cover3 - the weakside Hook defender has to keep his head on a swivel and look to defend the deep Over route. On this play Greenlaw is the SAM and his zone assignment is the strongside curl/flat. Kwon is the weakside Hook. The four underneath zone defenders are numbered.


Greenlaw (57) defends inside-out so he drops to curl, then to the flat. As soon as Kwon reads pass, he gets his head on s swivel and looks to the strongside. He sees the #2 release vertical so he has to be wary that if the #2 (slot WR) crosses the field, it's Kwon's responsibility to gain depth and cover it.


Kwon is nearly 20 yards downfield and is a factor on this play as Murray looks to hit the deep Over route.


You see Murray looking in the direction of the Over route, but with Kwon getting good depth on his drop, and Buckner running at Murray, it's time to run for his life.


Bosa forces a holding call on this play, but notice the different type of assignment between being a SAM and a WILL in this particular style of Cover3. The SAM has the sideline for help, the weakside Hook is in lots of space.

Originally posted by SlowDownBoy:
So is it safe to say that they should run more of a 3-4 over or under look against teams that heavily use the read option and RPO as opposed to the general wide 9 look?

Most times a team runs the zone read, the OL is blocking for inside zone. Inside zone works well against wide9 because it looks for holes between the tackles. I don't know if using a 3-4 front is the answer, bu tperhaps moving away from wide 9 can help since wide 9 can be vulnerable to inside zone blocking.

The main thing imo is having a plan when it comes to scrape exchange between the DE and the LB, and/or slow playing the mesh point, then changing it up so the offense can't key in on what the defense will do. I watched some of Jim Schwartz's wide 9 and how he defended Cam Newton zone read and on the plays where Cam kept it and ran for good yardage, the LB was undisciplined in his assignment. I'll try to show this at some point leading up to the Monday night game.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by SlowDownBoy:

So is it safe to say that they should run more of a 3-4 over or under look against teams that heavily use the read option and RPO as opposed to the general wide 9 look?

Most times a team runs the zone read, the OL is blocking for inside zone. Inside zone works well against wide9 because it looks for holes between the tackles. I don't know if using a 3-4 front is the answer, bu tperhaps moving away from wide 9 can help since wide 9 can be vulnerable to inside zone blocking.

The main thing imo is having a plan when it comes to scrape exchange between the DE and the LB, and/or slow playing the mesh point, then changing it up so the offense can't key in on what the defense will do. I watched some of Jim Schwartz's wide 9 and how he defended Cam Newton zone read and on the plays where Cam kept it and ran for good yardage, the LB was undisciplined in his assignment. I'll try to show this at some point leading up to the Monday night game.

I'm wondering if a DLine slant to the RPO side of the play will solve the mesh point fake? Also, maybe an occasional run/pass blitz to the bootleg/QB keeper side of the play - might keep Shottenhiemr from calling too many QB keepr plays to Wilson?

Originally posted by Giedi:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by SlowDownBoy:

So is it safe to say that they should run more of a 3-4 over or under look against teams that heavily use the read option and RPO as opposed to the general wide 9 look?

Most times a team runs the zone read, the OL is blocking for inside zone. Inside zone works well against wide9 because it looks for holes between the tackles. I don't know if using a 3-4 front is the answer, bu tperhaps moving away from wide 9 can help since wide 9 can be vulnerable to inside zone blocking.

The main thing imo is having a plan when it comes to scrape exchange between the DE and the LB, and/or slow playing the mesh point, then changing it up so the offense can't key in on what the defense will do. I watched some of Jim Schwartz's wide 9 and how he defended Cam Newton zone read and on the plays where Cam kept it and ran for good yardage, the LB was undisciplined in his assignment. I'll try to show this at some point leading up to the Monday night game.

I'm wondering if a DLine slant to the RPO side of the play will solve the mesh point fake? Also, maybe an occasional run/pass blitz to the bootleg/QB keeper side of the play - might keep Shottenhiemr from calling too many QB keepr plays to Wilson?

Good point

Originally posted by thl408:

Solly soutly takes on the double team and holds ground, splits the double, and makes the tackle.


no gain

That is a phenomenal individual play right there.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by genus49:

Need this Solly to show up 100% of the time.

While Solly is light for a DT, there are plays where I think he holds up better than Buckner as an interior run defender. Buckner's pad level in the run game isn't always good, and since he's so tall it magnifies the issue. Solly shows here he can handle a double team and win. He doesn't always win, but he can despite being on the lightweight side of things for a DT. Perhaps because his snaps are limited so he's fresh when he's in. He dominated the LG on that play.

That and I'm sure he's used to it playing in a 3-4 in college.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by thl408:

Solly soutly takes on the double team and holds ground, splits the double, and makes the tackle.


no gain

That is a phenomenal individual play right there.

So basically play a bit tighter on the defensive line (maybe 4 and 0 techniques) can prevent this going forward?

Originally posted by SlowDownBoy:

So basically play a bit tighter on the defensive line (maybe 4 and 0 techniques) can prevent this going forward?

Yes. It's not like the 49ers are selling out to stop the run and still can't. There are purposely sacrificing run defense for pass rush. There are things they can do scheme wise to shore up the run defense, like what you stated.




The first pic is on the first play of the game with the two TEs to one side of the formation (30+ yard run). Notice the strongside DE is aligned outside shade of the TE. The nose tackle is playing 2i. These are traits of a wide9 front.

The second pic is on the Solly stuff (2Q after the 49ers made adjustments). The nose tackle is now playing at 1tech. The strongside DE is now head up on the TE. The weak side DE is more of a 5t instead of 9t. Everything is tighter, more equipped to defend inside runs.

My thought is to run more 5-man lines such as a 5-2-4 these next two weeks. Add Solomon to shoot gaps. This would take an LB off the field but Greenlaw could use the time to better understand his new position in replacing Kwon. The other LBs will be making adjustments also. The five-man front will at least surprise Seattle, not having seen the Niners use it much. It would allow the Niners to maintain the wide-9 while helping to fill in between the ends and allow the ERs to take a deeper angle to hem in the quarterback and better react to the option.

Originally posted by Paul_Hofer:

My thought is to run more 5-man lines such as a 5-2-4 these next two weeks. Add Solomon to shoot gaps. This would take an LB off the field but Greenlaw could use the time to better understand his new position in replacing Kwon. The other LBs will be making adjustments also. The five-man front will at least surprise Seattle, not having seen the Niners use it much. It would allow the Niners to maintain the wide-9 while helping to fill in between the ends and allow the ERs to take a deeper angle to hem in the quarterback and better react to the option.

You mean 5-2-4 with five DLmen? That seems kind of drastic and you'll lose coverage ability of the TE/RBs but sure it's possible. I think the easiest, least intrusive thing to do is move to an Over front on run/pass neutral downs. It brings the DLmen closer together while keeping a four man front, all LBs are still off the ball, and it doesn't lose coverage ability since there isn't an extra DLman on the field. We'll see these next few weeks how Saleh plays it as the run defense will get tested big time.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by SlowDownBoy:

So basically play a bit tighter on the defensive line (maybe 4 and 0 techniques) can prevent this going forward?

Yes. It's not like the 49ers are selling out to stop the run and still can't. There are purposely sacrificing run defense for pass rush. There are things they can do scheme wise to shore up the run defense, like what you stated.




The first pic is on the first play of the game with the two TEs to one side of the formation (30+ yard run). Notice the strongside DE is aligned outside shade of the TE. The nose tackle is playing 2i. These are traits of a wide9 front.

The second pic is on the Solly stuff (2Q after the 49ers made adjustments). The nose tackle is now playing at 1tech. The strongside DE is now head up on the TE. The weak side DE is more of a 5t instead of 9t. Everything is tighter, more equipped to defend inside runs.

Very nice illustration. Subtle but effective.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by SlowDownBoy:

So basically play a bit tighter on the defensive line (maybe 4 and 0 techniques) can prevent this going forward?

Yes. It's not like the 49ers are selling out to stop the run and still can't. There are purposely sacrificing run defense for pass rush. There are things they can do scheme wise to shore up the run defense, like what you stated.




The first pic is on the first play of the game with the two TEs to one side of the formation (30+ yard run). Notice the strongside DE is aligned outside shade of the TE. The nose tackle is playing 2i. These are traits of a wide9 front.

The second pic is on the Solly stuff (2Q after the 49ers made adjustments). The nose tackle is now playing at 1tech. The strongside DE is now head up on the TE. The weak side DE is more of a 5t instead of 9t. Everything is tighter, more equipped to defend inside runs.

Very nice illustration. Subtle but effective.

Cosign

Beautifully done!