Kyle Shanahan didn't have some elaborate explanation for the San Francisco 49ers' hook-and-lateral in the first quarter of last Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals. In fact, even though the play turned into a long Deebo Samuel touchdown, the reason Shanahan called the play might be better than the result. The reason? He was frustrated.
The 49ers opened the game with a false start, followed it with two unsuccessful plays, and suddenly faced third-and-13 on their opening possession. Rather than settle for a conservative call and potentially go three-and-out, Shanahan decided to take a shot.
"I was pissed that we had a false start on the first play, I was pissed the next two plays didn't work, I was pissed it was third and 13, and I didn't want to go three-and-out," Shanahan told Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. "So I just said screw it, let's run that right now."
The result was one of the more memorable plays of the 49ers' young season. Mike Evans caught the pass and lateraled the ball to Samuel, who turned upfield and scored an 80-yard touchdown. Samuel's speed helped make the play work, but Shanahan admitted the play itself isn't something the 49ers spend much time practicing. That's because the hook-and-lateral isn't necessarily tied to a particular defensive tendency.
"There's not much of a rhyme or reason when it comes to hook and lateral," Shanahan said. "You just hope everyone pays attention to one guy and see if you can sneak him around."
The 49ers actually keep the play available throughout the season. They don't typically run it at full speed during practice, but Shanahan said they go over it during Saturday's walkthrough so the players involved remember how it is supposed to work. That was enough preparation for Evans and Samuel.
"It's just a little toss we always work on on a Saturday just in case we need it, and that's usually enough if you got the right guys," Shanahan added. "If you don't have the right guys, you better work on that a lot and then usually you'll probably scare me out of calling it."
The 49ers have used the play before with a different combination of players. Shanahan said they ran it twice last season with Ricky Pearsall catching the ball and lateraling it to Christian McCaffrey. One of those attempts produced a 23-yard gain on second-and-16. The other, against Cleveland, was blown up before the pitch could happen.
The bigger picture is that Shanahan doesn't view trick plays as something to call simply for the sake of being creative. Most of the "specials" on his call sheet are designed because the coaching staff sees something in an opponent's defense that it believes can be exploited.
The hook-and-lateral is different. "It's more just like a screw-it play," Shanahan said. "Let's just see what happens because we're in a bad situation. Let's just see if we can get a cheap one on them."
That's what happened against Arizona. The 49ers needed 13 yards. Shanahan didn't want to give up on the drive with a conservative call. So he reached into the toolbox and called a play that had barely been practiced. It worked. And now we know the reason behind the call had less to do with some brilliant schematic discovery and more to do with Shanahan being fed up with how the opening possession had gone.
Sometimes "screw it" works.
Watch Maiocco's full interview with Shanahan below:
More info on: Mike Evans, Christian McCaffrey, Ricky Pearsall, Deebo Samuel
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