Originally posted by All22:
Originally posted by Giedi:
Originally posted by NCommand:
Originally posted by a49erfan77:
Excellent work as always, Jonny. I think my favorite play from the game was that back shoulder to Jennings. Reminded me of what we see Rodgers and Adams do about 8 times a game.
As you said, pass protection is a huge concern. It's going to take a hell of a lot of great scheming to overcome the constant failures of Compton and Brunskill. If there is one thing that causes me to doubt our chances of winning in the playoffs, it's that. Dallas, Arizona, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, and LA all have pretty strong pass rushes.
Agreed. The good news is that once Kyle emphasized the check downs last week, we saw more of that this week so between his reads and quick release, that helps out the pass protection a ton.
That said, when they collapse, as you saw, it's usually all of them failing at once and under 2 seconds. Or worse, Jimmy ends up taking a kill shot from an unlocked defender. And we forget, Jimmy was gimpy after that big hit JD highlighted.
If I'm a defense that's going to be blitz happy, I'd obviously want to double Kittle and Deebo. Just by doing the math, I'd have to leave 3rd and 4th pass receiver single covered or choose to double either the 3rd or 4th and leave one uncovered. Jauan's development is going to be key in breaking these types of blitz happy playoff defenses that have a good DLine to back them up. Really am happy Jauan's becoming a receiving threat like the other three.
That might work on 3rd and long but doubling Kittle and Deebo makes them much more effective as blockers and decoys. Next thing you know Juice and the running game is eating them alive because they're taking so many guys out of the play.
Not many defensive coordinators get away with not playing Kyle straight up on first and second down.
Zimmer is probably the closest because he crowds the middle of the field and dares us to run and pass into his elite safeties (and MLB).
I remember back in the Steve Young days, folks would play Mike Shanahan's offense straight up on first and second downs and still couldn't stop Watters, Rice, Taylor and Jones. With Steve, on 3rd and longs, converting 3rd downs was no problem. They ate up chunks of yardage on first downs and pretty much scored on their opening drives.
Kyle's offense isn't there yet, but I can see signs of it going in that direction. Trey for Steve. Deebo/Aiyuk - Rice/Taylor. Kittle-Brent. Michell for Watters? That 3rd receiver that made the offense so hard to stop was Ed McCaffrey. The guy could catch anything - but he wasn't very fast - sort of like Jauan. Everybody else was covered, and McCaffrey would come down with first down catches - he didn't play a lot, but he played on the 3 wide and 4 wide sets and would blow up blitzes or beat teams dropping 8 men in coverage.
