Why do teams always know what play the 49ers are going to run?

To the point about 49ers play calling and tells, there might be some small things that a player does that telegraphs his assignment, and therefore the general play.

The most commonly referenced "tells" are offensive linemen telegraphing run or pass by their stances and sets. A lineman might lean more forward, set a fraction lower, and weight his down hand on runs -- often very observable to defensive linemen by the amount of strain in the o-linemens fingers. A well coached defense can telegraph what the D-linemen are seeing to the linebackers just by slight movements -- shifting their own sets, etc. And the linebackers telegraph that back to DBs with subtle signals too.

Get it - a well coached defense makes sure it covers its own tells that it is reading the play!!! Well coached beats poor coaching -- even mediocre coaching -- every time. This holds true in reverse too -- a well coached offense knows the defenses tendencies and "tells", but covers it own adjustments to keep the defense from knowing its reading their tells.

The MOST common reads are at the snap of the ball, a pulling lineman, etc, gives away the flow of the play ("follow Iupati to the ball"); the QB drop gives away depth of routes; formations give away route combinations, etc.

But what it sounds like to me from the quotes is that the play calling and formations are so predictable, that if the linemen or Frank are set one way or another, the play coming is a very small set of possibilities.

I doubt they are referring directly to Frank telegraphing plays, that would be a very "rookie" move. So maybe the rookie linemen are doing something. But then again, when experienced players lose hope and get lazy, then they get sloppy with the small details and may be unconsciously telegraphing plays.

THAT GOES BACK TO COACHING!! With the amount of experience on the coaching staffs, how can they not know exactly how to make this work?? And if the staff knows the problem, but realizes Singletary is not allowing a quality correction to be implemented, HOW IS THIS STAFF NOT IN REVOLT??

There seemed to be a revolt brewing when Raye was OC. Now, either:

1. The staff realizes the coaching system as it is currently working is so unrepairable that it doesn't do any good to revolt now and they have gone passive until the season is over; OR

2. The staff knows something we don't about the talent constraints -- the QB play can't be fixed, the o-line play can't be fixed, the receivers can't get open, etc. -- so mid-season change is very limited, and hence they are passive; OR

3. The majority of the staff is so bad, the whole staff needs to be replaced.

I have a terrible feeling its ALL THREE!

By the way, this also goes for the Defense - they aren't exactly stopping people. They are getting picked apart too -- particularly in 2 minute drives, the defense if very predictable.

we have one very thin playbook

most coaches have 3

Belicheat the evil genius has 16 playbooks

Singletary is probably yelling the plays out from the sideline.

I vividly remember a poster here saying, in 2007 or 08 that Gore was tipping our hand.

Can't remember who that was, though.

I recall an interview during the offseason when Alex complained that last year the opponent could tell what they were going to run based on the down and distance and the personnel packages sent in. He said this was something that had to change. For his own benefit, he was going to insert himself into the game planning to make sure that they got away from this.

It appears, however, that the problem has not gone away. I would love to know if earlier in the season Alex was screaming during pre-game planning, demanding that Raye/Singletary join the 21st century. I thought Johnson was breaking free. But this last game seemed a total regression, and I wonder who or what was behind it.

Cause Mike Singletarys our head coach

Originally posted by Dominate:

Originally posted by NinerGM:

Originally posted by Blitz:

Originally posted by Bluefalcon61:
film

This. They obviously know how to look at the film.

Yep. Something Singletary does but doesn't understand.

Whats sad is that he has to watch the tape to see what happened. Thats why we cant adjust in games. Cause Sing has to watch the tape first.

Sing doesn't manage adjustments in games. he calls time outs, gives pep talks during time outs and motivational speeches during half times, and he makes decisions to go for it on fourth down. That is all he does. That's all he knows how to do, and he's not even doing that well!

Originally posted by excelsior:
I recall an interview during the offseason when Alex complained that last year the opponent could tell what they were going to run based on the down and distance and the personnel packages sent in. He said this was something that had to change. For his own benefit, he was going to insert himself into the game planning to make sure that they got away from this.

It appears, however, that the problem has not gone away. I would love to know if earlier in the season Alex was screaming during pre-game planning, demanding that Raye/Singletary join the 21st century. I thought Johnson was breaking free. But this last game seemed a total regression, and I wonder who or what was behind it.

haha, I have a hard time imagining Alex Smith demanding anything from anybody. He is getting paid, and playing whatever role they ask of him without trying to make any waves.

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:
Singletary is probably yelling the plays out from the sideline.

I dont think he even knows the plays himself...

Originally posted by fly15:

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:
Singletary is probably yelling the plays out from the sideline.

I dont think he even knows the plays himself...

I don't think he does either. Notice how on the sideline, he has his headset on, but the mic is always lifted up over his head. He's not staring at a card, calling plays, talking to anyone....or doing much of anything really. Just standing there with his arms folded, occasionally clapping.

Originally posted by SFVNiner:

Originally posted by 94Niners:
Because telling everyone for three years we are going to run the football, kind of gives it away, and also because the game plan has looked like this since Martz left:

Inside run, Inside Run, Inside run (but with 3 WR), punt

Inside run, Inside run, Penalty, 3rd and 27, pass... interception.
FFS I've seen clones with more variation than Singletary's offensive vision

Either that or "DRAW" ...it's the element of surprise!

lol wait we have a game plan i thought we played not to throw int's on offense.

Originally posted by kray28:

Originally posted by fly15:

Originally posted by Kilgore_Trout:
Singletary is probably yelling the plays out from the sideline.

I dont think he even knows the plays himself...

I don't think he does either. Notice how on the sideline, he has his headset on, but the mic is always lifted up over his head. He's not staring at a card, calling plays, talking to anyone....or doing much of anything really. Just standing there with his arms folded, occasionally clapping.

It's hard not to clap when the other team makes great adjustments.

Originally posted by amir_tn80:

Originally posted by Blitz:

Originally posted by Bluefalcon61:
film

This. They obviously know how to look at the film.

When Singletary says he'll look at the film, he doesn't specify what film he'll be looking at. It could be an episode of Scooby-Doo for all we know.

He's watching the superbowl shuffle

Originally posted by valrod33:

Originally posted by susweel:
Frank Gore is a snitch.

I think this has less to do with "tells" and more to do with tendencies. All football coaches chart plays for their opposition and calculate which plays are run from each formation (and at what percentage for each formation). Each position coach then goes through the possible responsibilities for his players on a given formation.

Example - I played cornerback in college and I would get a report on Monday of every formation the opposing offense had, and what plays they ran out of each. So I would know when I saw a particular formation, there were only 2-3 routes that my WR would run out of that formation. It was pretty easy to get good at, and for a team that studies well it pays huge dividends. Now, this was at UC Davis, imagine this times 1000 in the NFL. Coaches are smarter, players put in more hours, etc.

Bottom line is our tendencies are stronger than any football team I've ever seen. Even as casual fans we can "call" the play given the down and distance and formation. Give even an average defensive coordinator a year's worth of game film and they're able to pick us apart.

Against teams that we are more physical than (Broncos, Rams, etc), we are able to compete. Even if a team knows we are running, they have to have the personnel to stop us. That's why we're able to compete with teams like the Saints, Colts, Texans, etc - we are more physical than them. But this is 2010, the rules have changed, other teams have adjusted, we have not. Even worse, we are regressing because we simply reinforce our tendencies and every week it gets easier for the opposing coaches to game plan us.