St. Louis Rams week 6 coaches film analysis

Originally posted by crake49:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by thl408:
I just wanted to re-post this gif from the 'Runs from 11' posts. Boldin has done an excellent job at keeping his mouth closed after big catches ever since the personal foul for head butting. If this is how he takes out his aggression on CBs I can dig it. lol at #20 for getting rag dolled by a 34 year old.

LMAO! I absolutely LOVE his fight and attitude. He's a damn WR in TE's body with an OLB's mentality...seek and destroy!

The whining reaction of #20 is priceless - help me out, REF! This older guy just made a fool out of me!

To be fair, he wasn't wrong to ask for a flag.

that said,

Originally posted by Giedi:

Originally posted by Niners816:

A thing of beauty My favorite throw of the night.

That was my 3rd. My first was the anquan td, 2nd was the Lloyd 80 yarder, 3rd was the crabs td. Key of course to all those scoring plays were the pass protection. With von miller and demarcus ware on the other side, I don't know if these kinds of plays will be available if we don't have a good inside run game.

The boldin td was the most spectacular, but the "Dino" route from a base personnel package just warmed my heart. Just seeing crabs spin the corner around had visions of #80 in my mind and that's always a good thing.

Originally posted by Giedi:
The problem with that is that Gore does not really have the speed to bounce it out anymore.

True...but we were running a ton "just off tackle" the previous few weeks with the Staley seal blocks...we should have no problems getting to the edge with Hyde and Ellington now.

Originally posted by WRATHman44:

Originally posted by crake49:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by thl408:
I just wanted to re-post this gif from the 'Runs from 11' posts. Boldin has done an excellent job at keeping his mouth closed after big catches ever since the personal foul for head butting. If this is how he takes out his aggression on CBs I can dig it. lol at #20 for getting rag dolled by a 34 year old.

LMAO! I absolutely LOVE his fight and attitude. He's a damn WR in TE's body with an OLB's mentality...seek and destroy!

The whining reaction of #20 is priceless - help me out, REF! This older guy just made a fool out of me!

To be fair, he wasn't wrong to ask for a flag.

that said,

Totally.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Originally posted by thl408:
Here is the big Kap scramble on the opening drive of the second half (Boldin TD). Going back to the KC game and what jonnydel mentioned in post#10

jonnydel wrote:
"The safety over Miller see's Miller stay in to block so he comes on a blitz - some teams with play it that way. If you're man stays in to block - you blitz. We tend to drop our guys into zone if their man stays in to block."

There are three things a defender could be asked to do when he sees that his man coverage assignment stays in to give additional pass protection. Usually a LB with a man coverage assignment on a RB/TE. This was also touched on in the KC thread with a play example.
1. Blitz
2. Play Zone coverage in the middle of the field - 49er defenders do this a lot.
3. Crowd the line of scrimmage (fake blitz but stay disciplined with man coverage) - this was seen versus KC as KC crowded the line of scrimmage to discourage Kap from scrambling. I think this is what we see in the play below. Or the defender could be blitzing, not sure.

49ers: Drive concept over the middle + (I think) a high-low read to Kap's right, but SJ (orange) will slip and fall down on his route.
STL: Man coverage. When a defense plays man coverage, they have 2 spare defenders to use (assuming 4 man pass rush). The Rams choose to spy Kap with one of the spare defenders, and double team SJ with the other spare defender.


Kap drops back and looks to his right. The blue line indicates that the LB has man coverage on Hyde. He sees that Hyde does not immediately release into a route, so that defender starts creeping up to the line of scrimmage. I think he is executing option #3 from the list above on what a defender can do if his man assignment stays in to pass block. Orange is the spy.


Kap red lights the routes on the right side and looks to the Drive concept (VD's In route + Crab's shallow crosser). Both are covered. Hyde has released into a route and the LB assigned to Hyde must honor his man coverage assignment. He has turned to run with Hyde.


Kap tucks to scramble just as Crab's crosser coincidentally sets a pick on the orange spy.


Crab's "accidental" pick puts the orange spy a few steps behind Kap. The defender assigned to Hyde has yet to turn around to see that Kap is scrambling.


Even when a spy is assigned to Kap, he rips off a chunk gain with his legs. This is why I think teams will need to play more zone in the middle of the field. The coverage here - man coverage all around, with a spy assigned on Kap - is still a mismatch. Gain of +23

I love that you touched on this play. I saw the same thing. When I looked at it I thought, "wow, they even had a "spy" on Kap and he still ripped em for 23 yards lol!" I remember that happening in the Green Bay game where he gashed em for 181 yards. They had a "spy" on him and were trying to play man coverage and he set an nfl record..... That's why we tend to see so much zone.

Yeah, I don't think teams can spy with a LB. It's a mismatch. Defenses are much better off playing zone against Kap. He will occasionally stare down a WR so putting many eyes on him is a good thing. I would force him to throw into seams of zones as opposed to playing man coverage, where his arm strength will allow him to fire passes into the slightest amount of separation. Don't blitz, while occasionally mixing in a 3 man rush (dropping 8 into coverage). Force him to hold the ball and test his pocket awareness. He may hit short curls over the middle, but force him to hit a high number of them to move down the field. Curious how you would gameplan against Kap.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
1,2. If I have time today I'll show the 1st 4th down play that was stuffed - I think it was a "check with me" run play. Where the QB will call the hole the play will go to at the LOS based off alignment.

3. One thing about the WCO is there are no "hot routes" in that the receiver will sight adjust their route to a different route based off a defensive blitz. That's like the Mike Martz "Air Coryell" offense. Where, for example, the "X" Receiver will immediately turn whatever route he's running into a short curl against a corner blitz off his side. What we have are defense adjusted routes - meaning, the route will remain the same, but change it's depth and timing just a bit to what the defense is doing. Here's an example from Bill Walsh:


You see how the route is all a slant patter - but, there's 6 ways to run it based off of coverage.

So, what we'll generally have is, instead of a "hot route" we'll have a "hot receiver". The difference is, instead of the a route changing, there's usually one receiver that's a designated, "hot" receiver on the play. That's the route that the QB has to be alert as the route he's to throw to in case of an unexpected blitz. The receiver himself has to understand that too and turn and look for the ball sooner. Sometimes, when they're all deep routes, it's to go to the outside receiver on a deep ball - like in the S. Johnson play I showed earlier. The play was almost there for a big gain. Sometimes, with mobile QB's, it's the QB's legs that are the hot checkdown. Depends on the particular play and unfortunately, without the playbook or being in the meetings, we can't know for certain on some given plays.

For 1) I am interested in what you think of the strategy side of going for those plays.

I wish I could find that pass play because it really speaks to why we have such a hot and cold offense. Wwithout the drags curls and swings we dont really have the consistency to move the chains and loosen up the box over time which will open up our running. We are an offense of extremes getting either chunk plays or stuffed -- I think buck had a stat which should we are 3 or 4 worst in the league at getting stuffed at the line. Feast or famine. If it's third and 6, Bill walsh would call his most reliable 7 yard play. We don't. That play call really exemplified our chunk mentality.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Yes. This is a play that can get him to then next level if he reads it correctly presnap and on his drop back. By the time he was at the top of his drop, Boldin was already wide open. Kap's first look was to his left which means his presnap read was incorrect and he did not consider the combo route on the right. The combo route should have been his first look.

Can't wait until he "gets this" because everything will come much easier to him once he does.

Also, don't forget about the quick hit he could have thrown to Vernon if he read it correctly.

I disagree. I believe this play is evidence of what Kaep can be at his best. He reads a blitz and respects what the defender can do. He perfectly times his movement so that he can squeeze through the space after the rb comes across his face to pick up the blitz. He than shortens his throwing motion to avoid being stripped and hits Boldin in stride to gain even more yards.

Double post.

This is the DJohnson pick 6. I am certain the 49ers are pattern matching to the Quarters side of the field and that they are playing a split coverage. The rules listed below are real rules in pattern matching. It's my best guess whether the pattern matching rules listed below are actually the ones being used on this particular play. All teams will have their own different rules for a certain coverage call (pre-snap audible). What happens on this play fits the description of the rules listed.

49ers: cover 6 - Half the field playing Quarters (cover4), half the field playing cover2.
STL: To the cover 2 side (Reid), STL runs two verticals to attack the cover2 safety (Reid). To the Quarters side, they run what seems like a variation of Smash concept with an Out route instead of a Corner.

These rules are similar to those shown in the Film Analysis thread.


DJohnson re-routes #2 to prevent #2 from coming full speed at Bethea. Bethea is not back peddling fast. Reid back peddles fast to play his deep 1/2 zone.


#1 not vertical. This causes Cook and DJohnson to react accordingly. Cox and Wilhoite playing man coverage.


DJohnson matches #1. Bethea will make a flat foot read of #2. He is flat footed because if #2 goes inside (crossing route) Bethea needs to match #2.


ADavis in throwing motion. DJohnson sees the release of the ball. Had ADavis held on to the ball, Cook matches #2 because #2 went Out. Bethea takes deep zone.






The actions of the safeties and how they act differently show that it is a split coverage. Cox and Wilhoite are in man coverage from the start of the play. DJohnson ends up covering #1 even though he lined up across from #2. DJohnson follows #2 up the seam until he sees #1 come inside. At that point, he broke off of #2 to jump #1. Earns himself a pick 6. This rookie gets what Fangio/Donatell is teaching.

Ok, I actually made it through a good portion of this thread. Interesting perspective on the game.

And, I wish Rams had fans who did this.

Originally posted by RedAlice:
Ok, I actually made it through a good portion of this thread. Interesting perspective on the game.

And, I wish Rams had fans who did this.

For sure...we're blessed to have some great "analysts" here on the WZ.

Originally posted by thl408:

Gotta give a little love to TJE for really finishing this play. Not that I think ADavis could have stopped Johnson from scoring, but it's nice to see that TJE's motor was still going strong this late in the game.

Originally posted by kap2crab:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
Another fun film to watch - as we won

Several things stood out to me - CK played one of the best - if not the best game I've seen him play, as far as throw with anticipation, read of the defense, climb the pocket, and feeling the pressure.

His only terrible decision ended up not costing us at all because of a horse-collar penalty. Greg Williams and the Rams blitz more than any team in the league and we were able to identify the blitz, block well and gain over 340 yards through the air.

Part of that was -what I call, the Frank Gore affect. The Rams were run blitzing most of the time - so it was more about filling gaps than it was about trying to generate pressure - so their lanes weren't spread out like they would be in a pass blitz. However, there were several obvious passing situations where they blitzed and we still did a great job of pickup and execution. However - St. Louis is a historically bad pass rushing team right now - I think the worst in 40 years or something. 1 Sack through 6 weeks.

I have started to notice something else though - which came to mind after A.J. McCarron's recent comments regarding Alabama's recent offensive struggles.
It does seem that we have a lack of leadership on the offensive side of the ball - from the players.

It isn't any more evident than when you look at the defensive side of the ball. We've had injuries galore, a huge suspension, and a lot of turnover in the secondary. However, the defense has still maintained an elite level of play. When the defense plays poorly - it's always for a very short stretch. Then, they'll get things straightened out. What you see from film is - it's not so much about changing any calls or making a lot of adjustments from a coaching standpoint - it's like a switch flips and the players buckle down and execute their assignments better. I think leadership among the players has a lot to do with that. We have Patrick Willis on that side of the ball who has emerged as a leader the last 4-5 years. I don't think we have that on offense. When we have a negative play of any kind - it's almost a certainty that the drive will stall.

It reminds me a lot of the 94 niners. If you watch the "America's game" on that year, Steve Young talked a lot about how the players really didn't accept him as a leader until that year. It didn't matter how many things he could do and achieve on the field - they weren't fully bought into him as a leader until the Eagles game where he went off on George Seiffert.

But, back to the film. As usual - I'll start with the Positives and work to the negatives starting with Offense to defense.

Offense:

Positives: O-line protection was good for the most part - there were some pressures they gave up which led to incompletions, but, no sacks. Which is the first time that's happened in over 16 games with CK. Brandon Lloyd has been a huge boost for the offense. He's not a burner by any means, but, his ability to make the spectacular catch and his savvy as a route runner make up for a lot of that. It just goes to show, that speed isn't the most important part of being a deep threat. It's the ability to attack the defender in a way to open up your deep threat.

I mentioned it earlier, but, saw some great anticipation throws from CK that are real exciting to see. Also saw much better pocket awareness than before - which led to a couple really good conversions. It was great to see him climb the pocket and make some tough throws.

VD is gonna get an honorable mention in the positives but will also be covered in the negatives - his presence alone does make a big impact on the offense. There were several plays where the attention he gets opened other guys up.

I liked some of the creative things Roman did in the passing game to get favorable matchups and force the Ram's hand. It was more in how he used personnel in different formations. He'd come out in a 12 personnel sometimes and spread it all out, or in a 21 personnel and spread it out so that we'd get WR's matched up on LB's in zone coverage or LB's against RB's in pass coverage. He really went after the LB's a lot in this game.

Negatives:
It was a struggle to get the running game going after Iupati left. Looney got pushed around for a bit. He started to settle in a little better near the end - but, I didn't like his leverage for a while

Vance McDonald not only had the big fumble but, blew several key blocks in the run game. I haven't been all that impressed with him this year. I'm not sure what's keeping him ahead of Carrier in the depth chart - maybe it's the playbook as I know he tends to play a different position than TE - usually a "U" back position. Which has a lot more assignments that go along with it.

VD had a terrible game. Dropped several passes and also missed some key blocking assignments in the run game.

Defense:
Positives:
Even with all the injuries, the defense is playing well. They only gave up 3 points in the final 3 quarters. That's a win for any defense against any team. We were able to generate more pressure on the QB than we had all year. We didn't necessarily blitz more than normal - we put a lot of pressure on the RB's to stand up against LB's(inside and outside) often. Austin Davis did a good job against us early in the game - he stood tall against pressure and made some great throws, but, the pressure seemed to be cumulative. The later in the game it got, the worst he got as the pressure affected him more and more.

Vic Fangio continues to blow me away as a D-coordinator. I really do think he's the best D-coord in the league. We finished that game with only 3 starters from last years defense playing and we still did an outstanding job. He did a lot of things to create pressure. Sometimes it was with stunts, sometimes with blitzes and sometimes it was by a mixture of where the stunts were coming from and alignments. One way play in particular, he lined up 3 guys to the right side of the center and had Justin Smith alone on the left side. Because of the stunts - the LT didn't get any help from the LG. This put Justin Smith 1-1 with the LT who couldn't hold his ground against Smith's bullrush.

Our D-line continues to impress. They have an ability to stay engaged with the O-lineman through to the point where they should disengage and then are able to schuck these guys off and either make a play or turn the play back towards a LB.

Our coverage units also did a good job throughout the majority of the game - especially Perrish Cox. He had two bad plays from what I saw, but, one - he was in a really tough position, the other was negated because of offensive PI.

Negatives:
Not too many here - the injury to Willis will hurt though. Borland did an ok job, but he's not the physical presence Willis is at all. But, we can't expect him to be. Unfortunate that it comes the week we're going to play Peyton.

Chris Culliver was the biggest disappointment on defense. He played with poor technique a couple times and completely blew his assignment on a TD.

Other than that, not much else to say. As usual, breakdowns to follow.

I agree that Fangio's been insanely good, but the matter of how many starters are remaining from the end of last year can be a bit misleading (and it's actually 4. not 3: Smith, McDonald, Brooks, Reid - though maybe that was just a typo) because Bethea is just as good if not better than Whitner, Cully and Cox are just as good if not better than Rogers and Brown, and Williams is arguably playing as well as Dorsey.

Yeah, it was a typo of sorts, I was thinking about how we were down 8 starters from last year - which, we really have 12 "starters" in that, our NT and Nickel backs play so much.... embarrassing....

My point though, was; it wasn't like we were losing scrubs who weren't quality players. Whitner was a pro-bowl player, Rogers made the pro-bowl his first year with us, Brown was solid, Dorsey played at a very high level, we were down 3 all-pro LB's at the end of that game..... So, it's no easy task to replace quality, solid starters. Especially hard to replace guys you can't replace. What you also lose are guys in Whitner, Brown and Rogers who have been in the system for 3 years, have chemistry together and know how each other plays. That's something that you can't replace, yet, there hasn't been dropoff. Most secondaries don't completely retool in one year and stay the same or better. If a secondary tries to improve, they usually look to add only 1 or 2 pieces at most, not 4 new pieces.

Plus, we do have a rookie playing the slot corner position - which is tough duty for anyone - usually why teams put their most savvy veteran in at slot.

Anyway you slice it, it's a challenge to overcome when you have so many new faces on defense. So, all that to say, I'm not sure it is "misleading" to say that we're down 8 starters from last year and it's something to overcome. Think about Tampa Bay last year - on paper, they should've been one of the most dominant secondaries in the league, but, when I watched a few of their games on film, they didn't play together well. They had all the talent in the world, but weren't well coached.

Originally posted by Giedi:
The problem with that is that Gore does not really have the speed to bounce it out anymore.

He is a step slower on his top speed, but, his acceleration is still there. He bounced several runs outside for big gains against KC.

Originally posted by brodiebluebanaszak:

Originally posted by jonnydel:
1,2. If I have time today I'll show the 1st 4th down play that was stuffed - I think it was a "check with me" run play. Where the QB will call the hole the play will go to at the LOS based off alignment.

3. One thing about the WCO is there are no "hot routes" in that the receiver will sight adjust their route to a different route based off a defensive blitz. That's like the Mike Martz "Air Coryell" offense. Where, for example, the "X" Receiver will immediately turn whatever route he's running into a short curl against a corner blitz off his side. What we have are defense adjusted routes - meaning, the route will remain the same, but change it's depth and timing just a bit to what the defense is doing. Here's an example from Bill Walsh:


You see how the route is all a slant patter - but, there's 6 ways to run it based off of coverage.

So, what we'll generally have is, instead of a "hot route" we'll have a "hot receiver". The difference is, instead of the a route changing, there's usually one receiver that's a designated, "hot" receiver on the play. That's the route that the QB has to be alert as the route he's to throw to in case of an unexpected blitz. The receiver himself has to understand that too and turn and look for the ball sooner. Sometimes, when they're all deep routes, it's to go to the outside receiver on a deep ball - like in the S. Johnson play I showed earlier. The play was almost there for a big gain. Sometimes, with mobile QB's, it's the QB's legs that are the hot checkdown. Depends on the particular play and unfortunately, without the playbook or being in the meetings, we can't know for certain on some given plays.

For 1) I am interested in what you think of the strategy side of going for those plays.

I wish I could find that pass play because it really speaks to why we have such a hot and cold offense. Wwithout the drags curls and swings we dont really have the consistency to move the chains and loosen up the box over time which will open up our running. We are an offense of extremes getting either chunk plays or stuffed -- I think buck had a stat which should we are 3 or 4 worst in the league at getting stuffed at the line. Feast or famine. If it's third and 6, Bill walsh would call his most reliable 7 yard play. We don't. That play call really exemplified our chunk mentality.

I guess what I was trying to say is, sometimes, you come to the line thinking you're gonna see one defense, you see another and the QB knows he has a chance for a big play, so he doesn't change the play, he takes his shot. I think that's what happened on the S. Johnson incompletion - I'm not sure about the play you're referring to specifically. But, that, sometimes, the defense wins, from a schematic standpoint, and it's up to the QB at that point to either get you into the right play, or make a tight throw, or just throw it away; or in CK's case, make an outstanding play rolling to your left and throwing back across your body to the back of the endzone lol...