Coaches Film Analysis: 2019 Season

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:
I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

Harris was a liability in this game. I'd like to see TMoore in there in place of Harris because I think he's more likely to have a future on the team as opposed to Harris.
Yes to the bolded. Kamara was bottled up most of the day in the run game. The one run he had for 17 yards, that was on Harris for trying to do too much.

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:
I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

but what about the linebackers not getting enough depth in their zones? is that a bit of a concern at all? or just a severe product of Brees, and Payton as well?

That was a product of being so hyper focused on Michael Thomas. At halftime they made adjustments there. at 9 minutes left in the game was when the Saints offense started doing some more things. Before then they had a FG off a 3 play drive after the INT, they got a FG after a successful 4th down conversion when Taysom Hill ran over Greenlaw, and then their next TD came after a bogus holding call on Sherm when we sacked Brees. 2 plays later they hit the huge pass to Michael Thomas and Sherm got plowed in the back. One of the worst non-calls I've ever seen. About as bad as the non-call in the NFCCG last year. That play broke their offense open in the 4th quarter. It should've been a 10 yard gain when it was all said and done after the penalty instead of a 49 yard gain.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:
I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

Harris was a liability in this game. I'd like to see TMoore in there in place of Harris because I think he's more likely to have a future on the team as opposed to Harris.
Yes to the bolded. Kamara was bottled up most of the day in the run game. The one run he had for 17 yards, that was on Harris for trying to do too much.

I was a little surprised too that they didn't yank him. Did you see the terrible run fit he had that set up NO's 3rd TD, I think. He had the C gap, Witherspoon has outside contain and the RB cut outside after Harris initially started to fill, Spoon had him all the way, Harris tries to follow outside and gives up the C gap so the RB cuts it up and gains 8 yards to set them up near the goal line. After the play you can see Spoon get up pissed and yelling at Harris that Harris filled his role and let the RB get a lane.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:
I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

Harris was a liability in this game. I'd like to see TMoore in there in place of Harris because I think he's more likely to have a future on the team as opposed to Harris.
Yes to the bolded. Kamara was bottled up most of the day in the run game. The one run he had for 17 yards, that was on Harris for trying to do too much.

I was a little surprised too that they didn't yank him. Did you see the terrible run fit he had that set up NO's 3rd TD, I think. He had the C gap, Witherspoon has outside contain and the RB cut outside after Harris initially started to fill, Spoon had him all the way, Harris tries to follow outside and gives up the C gap so the RB cuts it up and gains 8 yards to set them up near the goal line. After the play you can see Spoon get up pissed and yelling at Harris that Harris filled his role and let the RB get a lane.

What's your reading of Cook's 2nd TD? Was that Ward's mistake or trying to do too much or was it Azeez Al-Shaair not getting enough depth on his drop?

Originally posted by FeelLicks:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:
I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

Harris was a liability in this game. I'd like to see TMoore in there in place of Harris because I think he's more likely to have a future on the team as opposed to Harris.
Yes to the bolded. Kamara was bottled up most of the day in the run game. The one run he had for 17 yards, that was on Harris for trying to do too much.

I was a little surprised too that they didn't yank him. Did you see the terrible run fit he had that set up NO's 3rd TD, I think. He had the C gap, Witherspoon has outside contain and the RB cut outside after Harris initially started to fill, Spoon had him all the way, Harris tries to follow outside and gives up the C gap so the RB cuts it up and gains 8 yards to set them up near the goal line. After the play you can see Spoon get up pissed and yelling at Harris that Harris filled his role and let the RB get a lane.

What's your reading of Cook's 2nd TD? Was that Ward's mistake or trying to do too much or was it Azeez Al-Shaair not getting enough depth on his drop?

I think Ward gets confused or doesn't hear the shift in the call.
The Saints had a late motion and it looks like Harris turns and calls it out because the way it's played, it looks like both Harris and Ward think they're the deep middle safety.
Azeez is guarding the curl/flat there and warner the backside hook/curl and there's no strong side hook/curl - that tells me that we had a buzz call that should've changed with the strength and everyone saw it but Ward, he should've matched Cook's route.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:
I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

Harris was a liability in this game. I'd like to see TMoore in there in place of Harris because I think he's more likely to have a future on the team as opposed to Harris.
Yes to the bolded. Kamara was bottled up most of the day in the run game. The one run he had for 17 yards, that was on Harris for trying to do too much.

I was a little surprised too that they didn't yank him. Did you see the terrible run fit he had that set up NO's 3rd TD, I think. He had the C gap, Witherspoon has outside contain and the RB cut outside after Harris initially started to fill, Spoon had him all the way, Harris tries to follow outside and gives up the C gap so the RB cuts it up and gains 8 yards to set them up near the goal line. After the play you can see Spoon get up pissed and yelling at Harris that Harris filled his role and let the RB get a lane.

What's your reading of Cook's 2nd TD? Was that Ward's mistake or trying to do too much or was it Azeez Al-Shaair not getting enough depth on his drop?

I think Ward gets confused or doesn't hear the shift in the call.
The Saints had a late motion and it looks like Harris turns and calls it out because the way it's played, it looks like both Harris and Ward think they're the deep middle safety.
Azeez is guarding the curl/flat there and warner the backside hook/curl and there's no strong side hook/curl - that tells me that we had a buzz call that should've changed with the strength and everyone saw it but Ward, he should've matched Cook's route.

Yes I think it was a blown coverage too, because of the missing strong hook/curl. Had Ward rotated down to the strong hook/curl, he sees Cooks' route and easily covers it.

On the first Cooks' TD, was Warner supposed to match it (weakside Hook matches deep Over route)? He looks over to see the route but never reacts to it until the pass is thrown.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:
I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

Harris was a liability in this game. I'd like to see TMoore in there in place of Harris because I think he's more likely to have a future on the team as opposed to Harris.
Yes to the bolded. Kamara was bottled up most of the day in the run game. The one run he had for 17 yards, that was on Harris for trying to do too much.

I was a little surprised too that they didn't yank him. Did you see the terrible run fit he had that set up NO's 3rd TD, I think. He had the C gap, Witherspoon has outside contain and the RB cut outside after Harris initially started to fill, Spoon had him all the way, Harris tries to follow outside and gives up the C gap so the RB cuts it up and gains 8 yards to set them up near the goal line. After the play you can see Spoon get up pissed and yelling at Harris that Harris filled his role and let the RB get a lane.

Oh man that was cringy the way Spoon clapped at him. To be honest Harris deserved it. "Just do your job", don't do someone else's, leave that to them.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by SkyZer0:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by FeelLicks:

I'm actually more interested in how our defense got gashed. Was it our rookie linebackers and backup safety getting exploited?

a few things - I'll make a video on that too. But, Brees was giving a master class on moving zone defenders with his eyes, we gave a ton of respect to Michael Thomas - whis is one reason he went off late in the game after we had stopped NO on like 4 straight drives. poor tackling, and missing basic defensive stuff, and Marcel Harris played really, really poorly.

does that worry you going forward until we get Tartt back?

No, because Payton and Brees are masters at attacking a weakness and Harris was probably a bit amped up being in the dome, on the road for 2 weeks, playoff atmosphere, all that.
I expect the defensive side and the coaches to get him squared away. He just needed to settle down and do his job. He was trying to do other people's job too many times.

Harris was a liability in this game. I'd like to see TMoore in there in place of Harris because I think he's more likely to have a future on the team as opposed to Harris.
Yes to the bolded. Kamara was bottled up most of the day in the run game. The one run he had for 17 yards, that was on Harris for trying to do too much.

I was a little surprised too that they didn't yank him. Did you see the terrible run fit he had that set up NO's 3rd TD, I think. He had the C gap, Witherspoon has outside contain and the RB cut outside after Harris initially started to fill, Spoon had him all the way, Harris tries to follow outside and gives up the C gap so the RB cuts it up and gains 8 yards to set them up near the goal line. After the play you can see Spoon get up pissed and yelling at Harris that Harris filled his role and let the RB get a lane.

What's your reading of Cook's 2nd TD? Was that Ward's mistake or trying to do too much or was it Azeez Al-Shaair not getting enough depth on his drop?

I think Ward gets confused or doesn't hear the shift in the call.
The Saints had a late motion and it looks like Harris turns and calls it out because the way it's played, it looks like both Harris and Ward think they're the deep middle safety.
Azeez is guarding the curl/flat there and warner the backside hook/curl and there's no strong side hook/curl - that tells me that we had a buzz call that should've changed with the strength and everyone saw it but Ward, he should've matched Cook's route.

Yes I think it was a blown coverage too, because of the missing strong hook/curl. Had Ward rotated down to the strong hook/curl, he sees Cooks' route and easily covers it.

On the first Cooks' TD, was Warner supposed to match it (weakside Hook matches deep Over route)? He looks over to see the route but never reacts to it until the pass is thrown.

Yeah, I think they had Thomas on the other side and it looks like Warner is expecting Thomas to come through on an underneath route

The 49er defense had their worst game of the season in terms of yards and points. What they really missed in this game was an edge rusher opposite Bosa. NO almost always gave help to Bosa's side. Sometimes a RB/TE would chip, other times a RB would release into his route, but in doing so would run passive interference by getting close enough to Bosa that the OT was getting help against any outside move by Bosa. Brees threw on rhythm the majority of the dropbacks and that's how he was able to move the ball so well. The 49ers mixed up their coverages but Brees has seen it all and threw with confidence all game long.

Kamara was kept to year low 1.9 yards per carry (13carries, 25yds) with some help with a couple runs for loss of yardage. Latavius Murray was doing so much better on the day but NO opted to give Kamara more touches in the run game, and keep him on the field for his receiving abilities. I'll show some of the big plays NO had on the day.

This is the first Saints TD. Warner shows presnap pressure but will drop into coverage as the 49ers play Cover3.


Warner drops into the weakside Hook. The 49ers often ask their weakside Hook to match any deep Over routes from the strongside (yellow). Warner is seen peeking over, but will not react.


Warner still has his head looking over, but by now he's too flat footed to be able to cover this route. Brees mid motion.


It's impossible to know if Warner is supposed to actually cover the deep Over route since it's possible this is a traditional spot drop zone coverage call. Last game, a Raven TE scored on a similar route and Warner pointed to himself.

You're the man jonnydel!!

I used to enjoy watching interviews most after the game.. now, my next fav thing is watching your analysis!!!

Keep it up bro!

Going to jump a bit forward to show a play where Warner matches the crossing route. This is 3Q 2nd & 4, the play that preceded the play where Spoon felt he was a victim of offensive PI while defending a MThomas fade up the sideline.
49ers in Cover 3


Warner playing weak Hook sees the route from the strongside. Saints have made a nice adjustment here where if they see this route being matched, the WR will shorten the depth of the route to get underneath the coverage.


Very athletic play from Warner to adjust to the route. It's supposed to be a deep Over route, but when the WR sees that Warner is about to defeat it, the WR turns it into a drag route. Warner still gets the pass break up. This looks like how the 49ers usually defend a crosser when playing Cover 3. Which makes me think Warner was supposed to do this on the first Saints TD.

This is the second Saints TD and again there's a possible blown coverage. Saints align two inline TEs to one side, but will motion one across the formation. When the TE starts to motion, you'll see Harris look over to Ward to signal something. Perhaps to make a rotate strongside, where Ward comes down to play Hook and Harris plays deep middle safety.



Lots of lines here. TE motions across and the ball was just snapped.
This is how Harris is playing this: Oranges are the underneath zones, Harris rotates to deep middle safety.


Harris goes to deep middle, but Ward does not come down to an underneath zone.


There are two deep middle safeties and no strongside Hook defender. If Ward rotates down, he sees the yellow route coming right at him and would be in good position to cover it.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
I think Ward gets confused or doesn't hear the shift in the call.
The Saints had a late motion and it looks like Harris turns and calls it out because the way it's played, it looks like both Harris and Ward think they're the deep middle safety.
Azeez is guarding the curl/flat there and warner the backside hook/curl and there's no strong side hook/curl - that tells me that we had a buzz call that should've changed with the strength and everyone saw it but Ward, he should've matched Cook's route.

This was an interesting play where I wondered what the Saints had dialed up. They put Taysom Hill at QB and use him as a traditional QB. Up to this point in the season, Hill had attempted 3 passes. One was on an end around pass, similar to the ESanders long touchdown, the two others were on normal dropbacks.
Red is clearing route with yellow on a deep crosser.
49ers are in Quarters coverage.


When purple stays in to block, that frees up Ward to bracket the #1 on his side (red). When orange stays in to block, that shifts Harris' eyes to the #1 on his side (yellow).


Harris matches yellow. With red bracketed (Ward and Spoon), THill has no one to throw to.


Scramble for +6. When I saw Hill execute playaction and drop back to look downfield, I was wondering why he didn't pull the trigger. Good coverage.

Marcel Harris had a rough game starting with the missed tackled on the Saints first TD. He also had some other plays where he wasn't executing his assignment. It's understandable being his first live action versus a good offense, but some things are not excusable, like this play.
This view to show the box defenders. In a wide9 alignment, the in the box safety is often a C gap player.


Possible run fits shown. Harris has the strongside C gap. Saints running outside zone left.


Harris has a jump on the play and is aggressive flowing to his right, but in doing so vacates his gap.


+17. Kamara with good vision sees the lane and exploits it for the 'real' longest Saints run of the day. (The actual longest, +18, was on the final play of the first half where the 49ers were in prevent defense).