Our Defensive Coordinator, Vic Fangio

SNIFF... All Hail...
great coach

I saw an example of a 49er defensive play where the rules of pattern matching are much better explained by this article. The article has already been linked on page 10 of this thread. For this play, the pattern matching rules for the strongside CB and the SS (from the article) are well represented.
In case you don't want to click the article, pattern match is playing man coverage after the WRs have made breaks in their routes. The coverage starts off looking like zone, then morphs into man coverage once the WR routes are distributed.

Week 1:
It's a generic 'pick a side' play as GB will run the smash concept (zone buster) on the side where Nnamdi (#28) is. On the other side, they will get a rub concept (man buster).
49ers will come with cover2 pattern match.

When calling pattern match, the defense will designate numbers for the WRs from the outside to the inside, on each side of the field. These numbers help the defenders apply the rules of pattern matching.


Below:
Rodgers drops back and looks to his right. This shows he thinks it's zone coverage because he looks to the zone buster side. The article has examples of cover1 pattern match. Since the 49ers are in cover2 here, the article isn't going to perfectly describe what the 49ers are doing.

In this play, Nnamdi will adhere to the rules of the strongside CB (from the article). Bow will follow the rules of the SS from the article. It does not look like Willis is a part of the pattern matching, as he seems manned up on the #3.

The play starts:
Nnamdi plays with a cushion so that he can read the route stem of #1 as well as the dropback of the QB. Bow is also reading #1 while failing to re-route #2. When watching the GIF later, you'll see that Willis is the defender that partially re-routes #2 as he crams himself in between #1 and #2. That will suffice. As long as someone attempts to re-route #2, the coverage call will start off well.

This is what Nnamdi (CB) is reading: In the diagram below compared to the play in this example, the WR is #1, the TE is #2.



Below:
#1 has broken on his curl route and is no longer going vertical. This will cause a chain of events to occur.
Bow has now identified his man coverage assignment and will man up on #1.
Nnamdi now must read #2. If #2 does not go vertical, then Nnamdi is free to jump #1's route. If #2 continues vertical, then Nnamdi will man up on #2.
Whitner is reading #2. If #2 breaks inside, Whitner will jump any inside breaking route. I'll get back to Whitner/Reid later in the post.


#2 does go vertical and has his corner route easily defeated by Nnamdi and Whitner. Bow has #1 covered. At this point, Rodgers has found nothing on the Smash concept side, is pressured, and starts to scramble.


The Smash concept is thoroughly defeated.


When the play starts out, you wouldn't think that Nnamdi would end up covering the slot WR, but that's what can happen in pattern matching. The defense doesn't know who they will end up covering, it's up to the offense to determine this.


This is pre-snap of the play. Check out the amount of communication going on between Whitner, Nnamdi, Bow, and Willis. Then when the WR at the bottom of the screen goes in motion, Brown and Rogers sort out who it covering who as they switch off assignments.



Going back to Reid/Brown at the bottom of the screen:
Notice how deep Reid is playing, and he's backpeddling. Compare to Whitner, who is flat footed and waiting for the #2 on his side to get closer. Brown is playing outside leverage, over the top. Brown is depending on Reid to cover any inside breaking route.


When the #2 on Reid's side breaks inwards on his deep in route, Reid is in no position to properly cover the #2. #2 deserves a target from ARodgers, had Rodgers not been pressured.



Fast forward to week 11. This play was broken down in post #258. The two WRs on Reid's side are running very similar routes to the play above. The 49ers are also in cover2 pattern match. Notice the depth at which Reid is playing. Reid is in a good position to jump any inside break from the yellow WR. The CB (TBrown) is playing with outside leverage, over the top - just like the play above.


When the WR breaks inwards on his deep in route. Reid is in a much better position to jump the route, while Brown takes over for Reid's deep zone.


This is player growth from Reid.


This goes back to the two newest members of the secondary who are being relied upon to take on significant roles, Ward and Bethea. I have no idea whether these two guys are familiar with pattern match coverage. Bethea is a seasoned vet so he may have done it all at this point, though he mainly played straight up cover2 man in IND last season. I have no idea what Ward played in college. Donatell/Fangio have their work cut out for them to get these guys up to speed in order for Fangio to have the entire defensive playbook at his disposal.

Originally posted by thl408:
I saw an example of a 49er defensive play where the rules of pattern matching are much better explained by this article. The article has already been linked on page 10 of this thread. For this play, the pattern matching rules for the strongside CB and the SS (from the article) are well represented.
In case you don't want to click the article, pattern match is playing man coverage after the WRs have made breaks in their routes. The coverage starts off looking like zone, then morphs into man coverage once the WR routes are distributed.

Week 1:
It's a generic 'pick a side' play as GB will run the smash concept (zone buster) on the side where Nnamdi (#28) is. On the other side, they will get a rub concept (man buster).
49ers will come with cover2 pattern match.

When calling pattern match, the defense will designate numbers for the WRs from the outside to the inside, on each side of the field. These numbers help the defenders apply the rules of pattern matching.


Below:
Rodgers drops back and looks to his right. This shows he thinks it's zone coverage because he looks to the zone buster side. The article has examples of cover1 pattern match. Since the 49ers are in cover2 here, the article isn't going to perfectly describe what the 49ers are doing.

In this play, Nnamdi will adhere to the rules of the strongside CB (from the article). Bow will follow the rules of the SS from the article. It does not look like Willis is a part of the pattern matching, as he seems manned up on the #3.

The play starts:
Nnamdi plays with a cushion so that he can read the route stem of #1 as well as the dropback of the QB. Bow is also reading #1 while failing to re-route #2. When watching the GIF later, you'll see that Willis is the defender that partially re-routes #2 as he crams himself in between #1 and #2. That will suffice. As long as someone attempts to re-route #2, the coverage call will start off well.

This is what Nnamdi (CB) is reading: In the diagram below compared to the play in this example, the WR is #1, the TE is #2.



Below:
#1 has broken on his curl route and is no longer going vertical. This will cause a chain of events to occur.
Bow has now identified his man coverage assignment and will man up on #1.
Nnamdi now must read #2. If #2 does not go vertical, then Nnamdi is free to jump #1's route. If #2 continues vertical, then Nnamdi will man up on #2.
Whitner is reading #2. If #2 breaks inside, Whitner will jump any inside breaking route. I'll get back to Whitner/Reid later in the post.


#2 does go vertical and has his corner route easily defeated by Nnamdi and Whitner. Bow has #1 covered. At this point, Rodgers has found nothing on the Smash concept side, is pressured, and starts to scramble.


The Smash concept is thoroughly defeated.


When the play starts out, you wouldn't think that Nnamdi would end up covering the slot WR, but that's what can happen in pattern matching. The defense doesn't know who they will end up covering, it's up to the offense to determine this.


This is pre-snap of the play. Check out the amount of communication going on between Whitner, Nnamdi, Bow, and Willis. Then when the WR at the bottom of the screen goes in motion, Brown and Rogers sort out who it covering who as they switch off assignments.



Going back to Reid/Brown at the bottom of the screen:
Notice how deep Reid is playing, and he's backpeddling. Compare to Whitner, who is flat footed and waiting for the #2 on his side to get closer. Brown is playing outside leverage, over the top. Brown is depending on Reid to cover any inside breaking route.


When the #2 on Reid's side breaks inwards on his deep in route, Reid is in no position to properly cover the #2. #2 deserves a target from ARodgers, had Rodgers not been pressured.



Fast forward to week 11. This play was broken down in post #258. The two WRs on Reid's side are running very similar routes to the play above. The 49ers are also in cover2 pattern match. Notice the depth at which Reid is playing. Reid is in a good position to jump any inside break from the yellow WR. The CB (TBrown) is playing with outside leverage, over the top - just like the play above.


When the WR breaks inwards on his deep in route. Reid is in a much better position to jump the route, while Brown takes over for Reid's deep zone.


This is player growth from Reid.


This goes back to the two newest members of the secondary who are being relied upon to take on significant roles, Ward and Bethea. I have no idea whether these two guys are familiar with pattern match coverage. Bethea is a seasoned vet so he may have done it all at this point, though he mainly played straight up cover2 man in IND last season. I have no idea what Ward played in college. Donatell/Fangio have their work cut out for them to get these guys up to speed in order for Fangio to have the entire defensive playbook at his disposal.

Outstanding work and a very nice job of demonstarting growth on Reid's part.

With the "somewhat" new personnel in the secondary, do you have any theories on how Fangio may scheme starting the season vs. how he might end the year? Also, I wonder if it will also have an effect on personnel usage/scheme on the front 7:

RCB: Tramaine Brock; Dontae Johnson & (Keith Reaser)
LCB: Chris Culliver; Eric Wright; Chris Cook & Kenneth Acker
SLOT/NICKLE: Jimmie Ward; Perrish Cox & Darryl Morris
FS: Eric Reid; C.J. Spillman; L.J. McCray & D.J. Campbell
SS: Antoine Bethea; Craig Dahl & Raymond Ventrone

Originally posted by thl408:

I saw an example of a 49er defensive play where the rules of pattern matching are much better explained by this article. The article has already been linked on page 10 of this thread. For this play, the pattern matching rules for the strongside CB and the SS (from the article) are well represented.
In case you don't want to click the article, pattern match is playing man coverage after the WRs have made breaks in their routes. The coverage starts off looking like zone, then morphs into man coverage once the WR routes are distributed.

Week 1:
It's a generic 'pick a side' play as GB will run the smash concept (zone buster) on the side where Nnamdi (#28) is. On the other side, they will get a rub concept (man buster).
49ers will come with cover2 pattern match.

When calling pattern match, the defense will designate numbers for the WRs from the outside to the inside, on each side of the field. These numbers help the defenders apply the rules of pattern matching.


Below:
Rodgers drops back and looks to his right. This shows he thinks it's zone coverage because he looks to the zone buster side. The article has examples of cover1 pattern match. Since the 49ers are in cover2 here, the article isn't going to perfectly describe what the 49ers are doing.

In this play, Nnamdi will adhere to the rules of the strongside CB (from the article). Bow will follow the rules of the SS from the article. It does not look like Willis is a part of the pattern matching, as he seems manned up on the #3.

The play starts:
Nnamdi plays with a cushion so that he can read the route stem of #1 as well as the dropback of the QB. Bow is also reading #1 while failing to re-route #2. When watching the GIF later, you'll see that Willis is the defender that partially re-routes #2 as he crams himself in between #1 and #2. That will suffice. As long as someone attempts to re-route #2, the coverage call will start off well.

This is what Nnamdi (CB) is reading: In the diagram below compared to the play in this example, the WR is #1, the TE is #2.



Below:
#1 has broken on his curl route and is no longer going vertical. This will cause a chain of events to occur.
Bow has now identified his man coverage assignment and will man up on #1.
Nnamdi now must read #2. If #2 does not go vertical, then Nnamdi is free to jump #1's route. If #2 continues vertical, then Nnamdi will man up on #2.
Whitner is reading #2. If #2 breaks inside, Whitner will jump any inside breaking route. I'll get back to Whitner/Reid later in the post.


#2 does go vertical and has his corner route easily defeated by Nnamdi and Whitner. Bow has #1 covered. At this point, Rodgers has found nothing on the Smash concept side, is pressured, and starts to scramble.


The Smash concept is thoroughly defeated.


When the play starts out, you wouldn't think that Nnamdi would end up covering the slot WR, but that's what can happen in pattern matching. The defense doesn't know who they will end up covering, it's up to the offense to determine this.


This is pre-snap of the play. Check out the amount of communication going on between Whitner, Nnamdi, Bow, and Willis. Then when the WR at the bottom of the screen goes in motion, Brown and Rogers sort out who it covering who as they switch off assignments.



Going back to Reid/Brown at the bottom of the screen:
Notice how deep Reid is playing, and he's backpeddling. Compare to Whitner, who is flat footed and waiting for the #2 on his side to get closer. Brown is playing outside leverage, over the top. Brown is depending on Reid to cover any inside breaking route.


When the #2 on Reid's side breaks inwards on his deep in route, Reid is in no position to properly cover the #2. #2 deserves a target from ARodgers, had Rodgers not been pressured.



Fast forward to week 11. This play was broken down in post #258. The two WRs on Reid's side are running very similar routes to the play above. The 49ers are also in cover2 pattern match. Notice the depth at which Reid is playing. Reid is in a good position to jump any inside break from the yellow WR. The CB (TBrown) is playing with outside leverage, over the top - just like the play above.


When the WR breaks inwards on his deep in route. Reid is in a much better position to jump the route, while Brown takes over for Reid's deep zone.


This is player growth from Reid.


This goes back to the two newest members of the secondary who are being relied upon to take on significant roles, Ward and Bethea. I have no idea whether these two guys are familiar with pattern match coverage. Bethea is a seasoned vet so he may have done it all at this point, though he mainly played straight up cover2 man in IND last season. I have no idea what Ward played in college. Donatell/Fangio have their work cut out for them to get these guys up to speed in order for Fangio to have the entire defensive playbook at his disposal.

^^^^ very high quality breakdown and explanation.
Can't wait to see what fangio has in store with his new toys.

Originally posted by NCommand:
Outstanding work and a very nice job of demonstarting growth on Reid's part.

With the "somewhat" new personnel in the secondary, do you have any theories on how Fangio may scheme starting the season vs. how he might end the year? Also, I wonder if it will also have an effect on personnel usage/scheme on the front 7:

RCB: Tramaine Brock; Dontae Johnson & (Keith Reaser)
LCB: Chris Culliver; Eric Wright; Chris Cook & Kenneth Acker
SLOT/NICKLE: Jimmie Ward; Perrish Cox & Darryl Morris
FS: Eric Reid; C.J. Spillman; L.J. McCray & D.J. Campbell
SS: Antoine Bethea; Craig Dahl & Raymond Ventrone

It's an unknown how Fangio will start off the year. My guess is he will aim high and try to get Ward/Bethea up to speed as quickly as possible. Once a couple games are played, we should be able to determine how comfortable Fangio is with the new guys. If Fangio is just playing straight up man or straight up zone, then we can deduce that he is not very confident in the new guy(s).

If we see the usual myriad of coverage calls to start the season, then it will speak to the high level of confidence he has in the newcomers. If Ward does not win the nickel CB job to start the season, I will assume that it's because he hasn't fully grasped the various concepts that the 49ers like to use in coverage. Either way, I think Reid has big shoes to fill (Whitner's) when it comes to being the 'QB of the secondary', unless Bethea assumes that role.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Outstanding work and a very nice job of demonstarting growth on Reid's part.

With the "somewhat" new personnel in the secondary, do you have any theories on how Fangio may scheme starting the season vs. how he might end the year? Also, I wonder if it will also have an effect on personnel usage/scheme on the front 7:

RCB: Tramaine Brock; Dontae Johnson & (Keith Reaser)
LCB: Chris Culliver; Eric Wright; Chris Cook & Kenneth Acker
SLOT/NICKLE: Jimmie Ward; Perrish Cox & Darryl Morris
FS: Eric Reid; C.J. Spillman; L.J. McCray & D.J. Campbell
SS: Antoine Bethea; Craig Dahl & Raymond Ventrone

It's an unknown how Fangio will start off the year. My guess is he will aim high and try to get Ward/Bethea up to speed as quickly as possible. Once a couple games are played, we should be able to determine how comfortable Fangio is with the new guys. If Fangio is just playing straight up man or straight up zone, then we can deduce that he is not very confident in the new guy(s).

If we see the usual myriad of coverage calls to start the season, then it will speak to the high level of confidence he has in the newcomers. If Ward does not win the nickel CB job to start the season, I will assume that it's because he hasn't fully grasped the various concepts that the 49ers like to use in coverage. Either way, I think Reid has big shoes to fill (Whitner's) when it comes to being the 'QB of the secondary', unless Bethea assumes that role.

I can't wait to watch the film. Most likely, 3 of the "5" are not new to the defense or the schemes so I agree, they'll probably force-feed both Ward and Bethea and get them up to speed.

BTW: Wasn't Reid the one signaling playcalls late last season? I actually am not sure who does that...Bowman signals in audibles and Reid/Whitner adjust the secondary pre-snap?

Also, we talked about pre-draft that WHO we picked in the draft would help determine potentailly, what kind of scheme we'd run. So along with Cook, we have another press CB (with S experience) in Johnson. Ward was an obvious pick to me and basically killed 3 birds with 1 stone. Then you add in Acker and Reaser and McCray. Do you guys see a shift in schemes or a varierty of personnel used now? What do these picks signal to you?

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by NCommand:
Outstanding work and a very nice job of demonstarting growth on Reid's part.

With the "somewhat" new personnel in the secondary, do you have any theories on how Fangio may scheme starting the season vs. how he might end the year? Also, I wonder if it will also have an effect on personnel usage/scheme on the front 7:

RCB: Tramaine Brock; Dontae Johnson & (Keith Reaser)
LCB: Chris Culliver; Eric Wright; Chris Cook & Kenneth Acker
SLOT/NICKLE: Jimmie Ward; Perrish Cox & Darryl Morris
FS: Eric Reid; C.J. Spillman; L.J. McCray & D.J. Campbell
SS: Antoine Bethea; Craig Dahl & Raymond Ventrone

It's an unknown how Fangio will start off the year. My guess is he will aim high and try to get Ward/Bethea up to speed as quickly as possible. Once a couple games are played, we should be able to determine how comfortable Fangio is with the new guys. If Fangio is just playing straight up man or straight up zone, then we can deduce that he is not very confident in the new guy(s).

If we see the usual myriad of coverage calls to start the season, then it will speak to the high level of confidence he has in the newcomers. If Ward does not win the nickel CB job to start the season, I will assume that it's because he hasn't fully grasped the various concepts that the 49ers like to use in coverage. Either way, I think Reid has big shoes to fill (Whitner's) when it comes to being the 'QB of the secondary', unless Bethea assumes that role.

I can't wait to watch the film. Most likely, 3 of the "5" are not new to the defense or the schemes so I agree, they'll probably force-feed both Ward and Bethea and get them up to speed.

BTW: Wasn't Reid the one signaling playcalls late last season? I actually am not sure who does that...Bowman signals in audibles and Reid/Whitner adjust the secondary pre-snap?

Hmm I'm not positive either. I just assumed it was Whitner based on his familiarity with the defense and his familiarity of the opponents. Whereas Reid was facing many offenses for the first time. It's possible that as the season progressed, Reid was given more and more responsibility.

I'll be sure to re-visit this once the season starts. I'm eager to see just how well Bethea, Ward, and even Cully, integrate themselves into their roles.

i cant wait to see what lord fangio does with all the new toys he got this year and the red shirt guys coming back.

thl408, who do you think will replace Bow's role as quasi-SS in formations like the two above? Will Willis replace him and have someone else covering the RB?

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Outstanding work and a very nice job of demonstarting growth on Reid's part.

With the "somewhat" new personnel in the secondary, do you have any theories on how Fangio may scheme starting the season vs. how he might end the year? Also, I wonder if it will also have an effect on personnel usage/scheme on the front 7:

RCB: Tramaine Brock; Dontae Johnson & (Keith Reaser)
LCB: Chris Culliver; Eric Wright; Chris Cook & Kenneth Acker
SLOT/NICKLE: Jimmie Ward; Perrish Cox & Darryl Morris
FS: Eric Reid; C.J. Spillman; L.J. McCray & D.J. Campbell
SS: Antoine Bethea; Craig Dahl & Raymond Ventrone

It's an unknown how Fangio will start off the year. My guess is he will aim high and try to get Ward/Bethea up to speed as quickly as possible. Once a couple games are played, we should be able to determine how comfortable Fangio is with the new guys. If Fangio is just playing straight up man or straight up zone, then we can deduce that he is not very confident in the new guy(s).

If we see the usual myriad of coverage calls to start the season, then it will speak to the high level of confidence he has in the newcomers. If Ward does not win the nickel CB job to start the season, I will assume that it's because he hasn't fully grasped the various concepts that the 49ers like to use in coverage. Either way, I think Reid has big shoes to fill (Whitner's) when it comes to being the 'QB of the secondary', unless Bethea assumes that role.

I can't wait to watch the film. Most likely, 3 of the "5" are not new to the defense or the schemes so I agree, they'll probably force-feed both Ward and Bethea and get them up to speed.

BTW: Wasn't Reid the one signaling playcalls late last season? I actually am not sure who does that...Bowman signals in audibles and Reid/Whitner adjust the secondary pre-snap?

Hmm I'm not positive either. I just assumed it was Whitner based on his familiarity with the defense and his familiarity of the opponents. Whereas Reid was facing many offenses for the first time. It's possible that as the season progressed, Reid was given more and more responsibility.

I'll be sure to re-visit this once the season starts. I'm eager to see just how well Bethea, Ward, and even Cully, integrate themselves into their roles.

OK no worries!

Originally posted by OregonNiner87:
thl408, who do you think will replace Bow's role as quasi-SS in formations like the two above? Will Willis replace him and have someone else covering the RB?

The 49ers were in nickel so I'm thinking whichever LB is the best at pass coverage. Willis and Bow seem to have interchanging roles as neither do anything that the other doesn't. At least from what I can tell. Moody played some safety in college so he might be the quickest, for what that's worth. I never closely watched Wilhoite play nickel to know how well he handled it. I don't know what to expect from Borland.

Thinking outside the box, maybe Lemon takes over as the pass rusher in nickel, then have Brooks slide next to Willis. Brooks is solid in pass coverage and excellent with play recognition. Play and route recognition is extremely important to getting the most out of pattern matching.

Originally posted by thl408:
The 49ers were in nickel so I'm thinking whichever LB is the best at pass coverage. Willis and Bow seem to have interchanging roles as neither do anything that the other doesn't. At least from what I can tell. Moody played some safety in college so he might be the quickest, for what that's worth. I never closely watched Wilhoite play nickel to know how well he handled it. I don't know what to expect from Borland.

Thinking outside the box, maybe Lemon takes over as the pass rusher in nickel, then have Brooks slide next to Willis. Brooks is solid in pass coverage and excellent with play recognition. Play and route recognition is extremely important to getting the most out of pattern matching.

I agree. brooks slides and lemon gets to pass rush. considering how much of the league runs the sets that we have to play nickel i hope lemon's ability to set the edge is much improved because we'll need it.

im excited about this defense. so many versatile interchangeable parts it's going to be hard to pinpoint what a particular player is going to do or where they are going to be lined up. so many db and dl combinations it's scary.

imagine a stack line with aldon/tank/justin all in the same area..

that other side of the line is going to be bbq chicken for corey or brooks or whoever gets to go in a 1 on 1 drill basically.

Originally posted by thl408:

There is a player open in the middle. Obviously, Rodgers is a one-read quarterback.

Originally posted by hondakillerzx:

i cant wait to see what lord fangio does with all the new toys he got this year and the red shirt guys coming back.

Yes, me too. This is going to be a big deal for me, because if these guys are busts, we're going down very fast this year, and we may not recover for a very long time.