Props to Roman for finally having some balls tonight to let it rip and trust his play makers. But bigger props for FINALLY getting VD involved early and often. He designed probably close to a dozen plays for him as the primary target. Of the 8 targets by CK, 6 of those designs got VD in single coverage for big gains and a TD and one was in triple coverage in the EZ on a slight overthrow (he beat that) and the other was a tight window in double coverage. He was only targeted twice in the second half. But of those 8 targets, he caught 7 of them and that ties a high for receptions by any receiver this season!
Trent Dilfer/Steve Young on Roman's play calling/designs as a huge factor in this win:
"A big part of it was play calling and design. I thought it was aggressive play calling that we have not seen...out of conservative sets...they got defined looks in the back end b/c of those personnel groupings."
BTW: I somewhat disagree...we saw similar designs against GB, Detroit and esp. Buffalo.
Steve:
"Colin, early in the game, it looked to me like the play calling was aggressive. Did coach tell you coming into the game, Colin I'm gonna let you let it rip a little bit or did that come out of just the nature of how the game unfolded?"
CK:
"That was part of the game plan. We wanted to block some things up, take some shots, things like that. But at the same time, we had a lot of good runs in there as well so we were just trying to be balanced...everything that they did (Bears defense), we game planned for."
Trent also made a good point about running these 4 WR sets, passing out of jumbo packages (he learned from the Rams game), multiple formations, the coaches probably felt comfortable that if our guys didn't beat the single coverage, CK could at least make things happen with his legs.
But as to game plan (alone), well done Roman, well done!
Charley Casserly:
"I'm gonna go with Alex Smith (to give you the best chance to win), I'm gonna go with the veteran here. CK played well last night but what was interesting to me, he (CK) started off the game 8 for 8. Those are scripted plays...game plan. He started off the second half 2 of 3. That's half time adjustments..." He goes on to talk about how if he faces a more complex scheme, it will be significantly more difficult.
[ Edited by NCommand on Nov 20, 2012 at 5:01 PM ]