St.Louis Rams week 17 coaches film analysis

Might as well end the season with a film thread just to kind of see it through. Consider it a semi-tribute to the Tomsula era. I haven't watched this game in its entirety so I don't have a game summary to write.

For a season summary on scheme, I was disappointed in how the defense has turned out regarding the complete overhaul of what they had in place. About the only thing that stayed the same was the base personnel, it was still 3-4. But the 49ers defense went from primarily Quarters/pattern match man coverage with Fangio, to spot dropping zone. Without a good pass rush, these zones were sliced up by any QB worth a darn. Mangini did well to take advantage of the ability for the 3-4 to disguise its pass rush, something Fangio did not do, but with poor pass rushing DEs, the front line players couldn't execute the scheme. The secondary was doing things it rarely did, so the learning curve with that group is real. From playing primarily man, to primarily zone. One of the benefits of zone is being able to watch the ball and gang tackle, which didn't help as poor tackling plagued the team. As the season progressed Mangini did play some more man coverage, but there was still more zone than at anytime under Fangio.

Offensively, Geep had a playbook that must have fit on a napkin. I saw the same concepts being run over and over as if Kap and Gabbert were too stupid to do anything else. If you thought HaRo had a high school offense, which I don't believe is true, then GeepLo's offense is for elementary school. Very limited in concepts. In their defense, they were working with very bad OLine play which limits what coaches can call, and what players can do. They were also working with inconsistent QB play. Still, there could have been more ways to draw up more designed throws to get some positive plays. This points to a lack of creativity to help the players. Give them credit for one thing on the season, they were able to execute a RB screen pass that went for over 10 yards.

Just going through the STL game now, and will cut up plays here and there.

One thing that makes this game interesting to me is how Ward played as safety. With him being a player chosen for Fangio/Donatell's scheme, it's interesting to see if he fits into what Mangini asks of his safeties. This is Ward's first action as a safety in the regular season. He got preseason snaps at safety, butwe can't watch him because there's no all22.

Pin (Post + deep IN) concept vs Cover3
Blue are deep zones, orange is underneath zones.
Purple will run a fake end around, playaction.


Playaction sucks in the LBs. Reid rotates down to the curl/flat. Ward takes middle deep 1/3.


The Deep In (red) draws the attention of Ward. With Brock having outside leverage, there is plenty of room for the Post (yellow) to work.


+54 yards. I doubt Mangini asks Ward to pattern match a crossing route and leave his CB out to dryt. This is poor discipline on Ward. Ward left his zone to cover a WR that was open across the middle, but play the assignment that is given, deep 1/3.

Here's the Boldin touchdown.

Trail concept versus Cover0
Progression is right to left.


Gabbert completes his dropback and the first read is open with the DB playing soft on McDonald. I think Gabbert didn't pull the trigger because of the blue LB, but if Gabbert puts some touch on the pass, it's over the reach of blue. Hard to tell from this angle.


Second read is covered, with the defender close and able to attack downhill on Torrey. Boldin's defender has inside leverage and has perfect positioning to defend Boldin's In route. Gabbert will target Boldin anyways.


The CB is looking at Boldin and doesn't see the pass coming. Boldin uses his strength to shrug off the defender.


The goodness of this play is by the blitz pickup. Defenders colored marked as STL rushes 7.


Tiller and Kilgore block the 1tech.


Purple loops around and Kilgore is able to come off his block of red to pickup purple. Yellow comes on a delayed rush.


Davis sees yellow and is able to slide over to the B gap to get a piece.




Last touchdown for Boldin in a 49er uniform? If so, this was a fitting touchdown showing off his strength.

^^^^i hope that's not Boldin's last niner TD. He's been the best thing about the team since the s**t show that has followed SB47.

Originally posted by Niners816:
^^^^i hope that's not Boldin's last niner TD. He's been the best thing about the team since the s**t show that has followed SB47.

Not sure how the offseason will treat him, never know if a 35 year old guy loses one step or four, but if his athletic decline is very minimal, I think he can still be a slot WR with limited snaps. His mere presence on the team is needed for his experience and fire. Heart and soul player, and the 49ers have recently lost three big ones (Gore, Willis, Justin).

The big Harris run

Inside zone
STL crowds the LoS and will blitz off the edge.


Orange is unblocked, but what Harris does will render orange useless.


As Harris recieves the handoff, he presses the weakside of the line. This causes orange to stay put because orange thinks Harris is coming his way.


When Harris cuts upfield, there is too much traffic for orange to fight through. With a blitzer coming from the wide edge, there is a gap unaccounted for. Staley has no one to block.


+47 yards. Good playcall versus the presnap alignment of the defense and the blitz off the edge.

Just want to give a huge thank you out to thl and jd for these threads each week. These, along with the stickied All22 thread, have immeasurably helped those of us new to the sport gain a better understanding of what we're watching each week. Your time and efforts have been greatly appreciated!

Originally posted by Niners816:
^^^^i hope that's not Boldin's last niner TD. He's been the best thing about the team since the s**t show that has followed SB47.

He's easily our best WR since T.O. Broke that 81 curse.

I somewhat disagree with the 'good' blitz protection. They have 5 olinemen and 2 RB in to block. Gabbert should have 'all day' on that. But you can see Davis failed badly. He was helped by Gabbert making a quick read, getting rid of the ball.

I think Gabbert could very well thrown the ball to McD. He was getting open. But the kicker is-- McD ran the route about 2 yards short of the stick. How many times have we complained about that, whether he ran it as designed or not, that's 2 yards he has to blast through to convert. Personally, I think Gabbert just got tired of that s**t too, and looked else where to 'make a play'.

Looks like Gabbert and Boldin got 'on the same page', threw a back shoulder -- throwing the receiver open.

Is it me or does Tramaine Brock always turn around and blame someone when he gives up a touchdown. That crap is annoying when he does that, 49ers seriously need to replace him.

Originally posted by Kolohe:

Is it me or does Tramaine Brock always turn around and blame someone when he gives up a touchdown. That crap is annoying when he does that, 49ers seriously need to replace him.

never understood this line of thinking.. "I don't like what someone is doing, replace him!"

Brock usually does it when it is someone's else's fault... I have no issue with it. He comes from when our defense used to have high expectations.

Goldson used to do it to him as well.

just the Vets getting on the youngsters.

s**t we had Bowman slap Lemonaye hella hard in front of everyone.

Originally posted by qnnhan7:

[

I somewhat disagree with the 'good' blitz protection. They have 5 olinemen and 2 RB in to block. Gabbert should have 'all day' on that. But you can see Davis failed badly. He was helped by Gabbert making a quick read, getting rid of the ball.

I think Gabbert could very well thrown the ball to McD. He was getting open. But the kicker is-- McD ran the route about 2 yards short of the stick. How many times have we complained about that, whether he ran it as designed or not, that's 2 yards he has to blast through to convert. Personally, I think Gabbert just got tired of that s**t too, and looked else where to 'make a play'.

Looks like Gabbert and Boldin got 'on the same page', threw a back shoulder -- throwing the receiver open.

7 rushers on 7 blockers. One coming on a loop, one on a delayed blitz. All were accounted for allowing Gabbert to complete his drop, hitch, step into his throw, not get smacked afterwards. I thought it was good blitz pickup even with Davis a little late spotting the delayed blitzer.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by qnnhan7:
[

I somewhat disagree with the 'good' blitz protection. They have 5 olinemen and 2 RB in to block. Gabbert should have 'all day' on that. But you can see Davis failed badly. He was helped by Gabbert making a quick read, getting rid of the ball.

I think Gabbert could very well thrown the ball to McD. He was getting open. But the kicker is-- McD ran the route about 2 yards short of the stick. How many times have we complained about that, whether he ran it as designed or not, that's 2 yards he has to blast through to convert. Personally, I think Gabbert just got tired of that s**t too, and looked else where to 'make a play'.

Looks like Gabbert and Boldin got 'on the same page', threw a back shoulder -- throwing the receiver open.

7 rushers on 7 blockers. One coming on a loop, one on a delayed blitz. All were accounted for allowing Gabbert to complete his drop, hitch, step into his throw, not get smacked afterwards. I thought it was good blitz pickup even with Davis a little late spotting the delayed blitzer.

Can't really complained with the end result. But I guess, I'm doing the complaining I can see it as they could have done a better job. And it could have been worse had Gabbert not got rid of the ball timely.

To thl and jd, thanks folks for work breaking down the plays and explanations of the concepts over the season and the couple of times you braved the haynezone. Most of what I've learned of this game this 1st year has come from these threads and all 22 along with G-B-U and thoughts after 2nd view . Looking forwards to your wisdom next season. I'd definitely vote you both for HOF.
Probably a stupid newbie question but will you guys do any posting on the big moves in the play off games/ SB or only the SF season games? I'd love to see the mechanics involved in something like GB O/L holding a pocket(?) without a step back for about 15s in wk17 against Min.

Originally posted by Afrikan:

Originally posted by Kolohe:
Is it me or does Tramaine Brock always turn around and blame someone when he gives up a touchdown. That crap is annoying when he does that, 49ers seriously need to replace him.

never understood this line of thinking.. "I don't like what someone is doing, replace him!"

Brock usually does it when it is someone's else's fault... I have no issue with it. He comes from when our defense used to have high expectations.

Goldson used to do it to him as well.

just the Vets getting on the youngsters.

s**t we had Bowman slap Lemonaye hella hard in front of everyone.

Brock has been beat constantly this year, it's not just this game. But it seems like dude is always blaming someone else when he gives up a catch or score.