Analysis from the Carolina Panthers coaches film

Originally posted by ace52:
I'm watching the replay of the Week 2 game in Seattle, and it is so frustrating to see how poorly our O played. Jonnydel/thl408, when you guys do your breakdown of the Seahawks later, could you go into what their D was able to do in that game to throttle our offense? Thanks.

I've been watching that game in spurts, mostly what I've seen isn't as much what they did that was so overpowering or different, I think a lot of it was execution on our end.

Originally posted by theninermaniac:
The Saints had success against Seattle when they used bunch formations. The Legion of PEDs aren't able to grab and hold the first 7 yards off the LOS. Does anyone anticipate the Niners rolling with more bunch, 3-wide sets, and running from them quite a bit? Especially now that Tukafu is injured?

What I actually saw more of when I watched the game against the saints last week was how the Saints used a "jumbo" formation a lot with 22 personnel to run the ball. There were a lot of plays where the Saints only had 1 wide receiver on the field and they were pretty effective running the ball.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:

Originally posted by ace52:
I'm watching the replay of the Week 2 game in Seattle, and it is so frustrating to see how poorly our O played. Jonnydel/thl408, when you guys do your breakdown of the Seahawks later, could you go into what their D was able to do in that game to throttle our offense? Thanks.

Yeah, I have to agree with this...except for the Carolina game. The first 26 minutes were very difficult to watch. I was surprised because I didn't see the game originally. I was hoping to see more consistent play. But really there was a lot of poor throws by Kap -- he looked out of rhythm. I liked that we tried to call a screen, a few short passes, a swing pass to Frank. But Kap simply could not connect.

3rd and 4, and we throw a 40 yarder in the air? Does that strike anyone else as reckless? I'm glad we made it. But I wish we had more reliable plays to call in that situation. Maybe I just don't get the chunk mentality. I grew up on the Linus security blanket of the WCO.

I don't know. I don't want to be a stink pot. Frank played well actually. I think the line did okay keeping the pressures down. And Carolina is very good.

We seem allergic to running curls and slants in the middle. Why jd? Maybe it's just an effort to keep the turnovers down. It's working.

Thank g*d for Phil Dawson. That's what I have to say.

There were a couple slants versus CAR. The slant is available if two things happen. The CB plays with outside leverage and allows an inside break for the slant route, and no LB can be in the passing lane. Both these plays came on the TD drive to close the 1st half.

Below:
2Q 2:29 2nd & 10
49ers: mesh on each side
CAR: blitz 5, cover1 man



Below: Kap is in his wind up even though there is no passing lane since the LB is coming out to cover VD's shallow out. Anticipating Boldin being open. Not sure what the CB on Boldin is doing as he actually takes a bad step and back peddles. The CB at the bottom of the screen is pressing tight on Crabs.


Below: One misstep on the CB playing over the top. VD clears the passing lane for Boldin by taking his LB out of the lane. 14 yard gain.



Below: Same drive. This empty backfield 5-wide formation looks familiar to CAR because GB got burned with it for a VD touchdown. GB was in tampa2 (cover3). CAR will come with cover4 to prevent from getting outnumbered on vertical routes.


Below: Three defenders give their attention to VD running the go route. Vance, at the top of the screen, get no love.


The play: 15 yard gain.

On the first play I remember looking at that play as well. I think Carolina was in a cover 3 zone, that's they the CB doesn't initially follow Boldin. Slants are great against a team that's playing a lot of cover 3 in that the LB's are usually in the flat or hook/curl responsibility in a 4-3 scheme. This usually only leaves 1 LB in the middle of the field with the next guy the deep safety. But, a lot of teams we've played this year aren't 4-3 teams. The 3-4 or various versions of it, will often allow for 2 LB's in the middle of the field as an OLB will have flat/contain.

The 2nd play is also another great example of how much attention VD was drawing. You see the safety, LB and Corner all watching him and looking to jump a throw to him.

Boldin also did a nice job of using the ref as a screener on that play too.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

On the first play I remember looking at that play as well. I think Carolina was in a cover 3 zone, that's they the CB doesn't initially follow Boldin. Slants are great against a team that's playing a lot of cover 3 in that the LB's are usually in the flat or hook/curl responsibility in a 4-3 scheme. This usually only leaves 1 LB in the middle of the field with the next guy the deep safety. But, a lot of teams we've played this year aren't 4-3 teams. The 3-4 or various versions of it, will often allow for 2 LB's in the middle of the field as an OLB will have flat/contain.

The 2nd play is also another great example of how much attention VD was drawing. You see the safety, LB and Corner all watching him and looking to jump a throw to him.

The reasons I think the first play is cover1 man is because the CB at the bottom gets into a trail position. The LBs also follow their man to the flat at the snap of the ball. Assigning the LBs to the flats with just 1 middle LB to defend two hook/curl zones is a hell of a tough assignment.

It's another play where it looks like some sort of hybrid man and zone coverage.

Jonnydel. Check out the play in post #99. It's like some sort of hybrid coverage. CAR mans up on Crabs (top of screen), but at the bottom of the screen it's zone. I open this question for all of us. I'm open to interpretation.

Originally posted by thl408:
Jonnydel. Check out the play in post #99. It's like some sort of hybrid coverage. CAR mans up on Crabs (top of screen), but at the bottom of the screen it's zone. I open this question for all of us. I'm open to interpretation.

Carolina runs an unusual cover 2 look. It's a cover 2 zone with a strongside rotation, they're trying to run a cover 2 zone while still bring a safety down into the box.



You see how the SS is down in the box. However, when the ball is snapped the strong side corner doesn't drop straight back in a true 1/3 coverage, he heads more to a half field type of zone. The underneath defenders are clearly in zone coverage and the weakside corner drops in "cloud" coverage, "Cloud" being a flat/curl zone.


Note the underneath defenders in zone and the weakside corner clearly not in a deep 1/3 zone.



When you look at it just before Boldin gets thrown the ball you can see how it looks just like a cover 2 zone, it's just the strong side corner becomes the safety.

This is a really unusual type of defense, that's great recognition by Kap to read this defense and make the right throw.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:
Jonnydel. Check out the play in post #99. It's like some sort of hybrid coverage. CAR mans up on Crabs (top of screen), but at the bottom of the screen it's zone. I open this question for all of us. I'm open to interpretation.

Carolina runs an unusual cover 2 look. It's a cover 2 zone with a strongside rotation, they're trying to run a cover 2 zone while still bring a safety down into the box.



You see how the SS is down in the box. However, when the ball is snapped the strong side corner doesn't drop straight back in a true 1/3 coverage, he heads more to a half field type of zone. The underneath defenders are clearly in zone coverage and the weakside corner drops in "cloud" coverage, "Cloud" being a flat/curl zone.


Note the underneath defenders in zone and the weakside corner clearly not in a deep 1/3 zone.



When you look at it just before Boldin gets thrown the ball you can see how it looks just like a cover 2 zone, it's just the strong side corner becomes the safety.

This is a really unusual type of defense, that's great recognition by Kap to read this defense and make the right throw.

This is without a doubt an unusual cover 2 look. Looking at the your pics and the play again, I wanted to take some different snapshots of the coverage.

I generically labeled the players to better monitor them as the play develops. The very interesting players to watch are CB1 and LB2. I think those two guys are trying to really disguise and set a bait.


Below: LB2 (Keuchly) has taken a very odd route to what will be his curl zone. He goes behind (from Kap's point of view) LB1. CB1 is playing outside leverage on Crabs.


Below: Suppose Crabs is running a quick inward breaking route (slant). Kap will key off of CB1, read man coverage with outside leverage (this is a win for a slant route provided there is no LB in the curl zone). That's when LB2 would be in position to pick off the pass. I see a bait here being placed by CAR and the 49ers did not fall for it. Luckily Crabs is not running a short route that breaks in. I think every defender has hit their landmark here and the zones are established with CB1 playing an odd assignment.


CB1 appears to want to follow Crabs, from a trail position, as Crabs breaks on his post route.

Kap's throws look more impressive when you break the film down!

Originally posted by socalniner:
Kap's throws look more impressive when you break the film down!

Kap is getting there. He did this against a fantastic defense. He knew coming in that his decisions would have to be quick and had to expect getting hit as he throws. That's just what a QB needs to expect going against a top notch pass rush. He wasn't perfect, but could he have done this in week 3 or 4? The present Kap has evolved a lot from the Kap in week 3.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:
Jonnydel. Check out the play in post #99. It's like some sort of hybrid coverage. CAR mans up on Crabs (top of screen), but at the bottom of the screen it's zone. I open this question for all of us. I'm open to interpretation.

CB1 appears to want to follow Crabs, from a trail position, as Crabs breaks on his post route.

Wow!!! Those last two images!! Kap literally threw Boldin open. Take a look at where the underneath coverage is in the first image and where Boldin is. Boldin is on the numbers as Kap winds up. The underneath coverage already has that direct lane to Boldin covered. Kap threw it to the only open space/lane and it was a very tight throw. From the time Kap winded up, Boldin was 5-7 yards from where the ball ended up.

Good stuff.

Originally posted by Joecool:
Wow!!! Those last two images!! Kap literally threw Boldin open. Take a look at where the underneath coverage is in the first image and where Boldin is. Boldin is on the numbers as Kap winds up. The underneath coverage already has that direct lane to Boldin covered. Kap threw it to the only open space/lane and it was a very tight throw. From the time Kap winded up, Boldin was 5-7 yards from where the ball ended up.

Good stuff.

Agreed. It was a fantastic throw. Like you said, to anticipate Boldin being open, but he also threw it low so that Boldin wasn't smashed by any defenders closing in. WRs love that. Sometimes you want RAC, so the QB hits them in stride. Over the middle, a QB has to protect his WRs.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Wow!!! Those last two images!! Kap literally threw Boldin open. Take a look at where the underneath coverage is in the first image and where Boldin is. Boldin is on the numbers as Kap winds up. The underneath coverage already has that direct lane to Boldin covered. Kap threw it to the only open space/lane and it was a very tight throw. From the time Kap winded up, Boldin was 5-7 yards from where the ball ended up.

Good stuff.

Agreed. It was a fantastic throw. Like you said, to anticipate Boldin being open, but he also threw it low so that Boldin wasn't smashed by any defenders closing in. WRs love that. Sometimes you want RAC, so the QB hits them in stride. Over the middle, a QB has to protect his WRs.

Very good coverage and discipline by CAR. Just a great throw and anticipation.

I've been enjoying watching aldon smith just rag doll people, especially in the run defense. Show's that he's improved his game in that regard as well as recovering his physical conditioning post-arrest.

I f**king love our Quarterback