St. Louis Rams week 6 coaches film analysis

This was a huge drop by VD. He might score if he catches this ball.


St. Louis is trying to show a cover 1 man

Instead, St. Louis comes with an all out blitz. CK recognizes it right away and knows he'll have VD in the flat as the safety has a long way to go for coverage.

The outside corner is trying to play the slant, so that leaves VD 1-1 in a ton of space against the safety if he catches the ball.

You see the space he had and there was no one else around to make a play - that's a huge drop! This is why Gruden mentioned in the broadcast that Davis probably scores if he catches that. Sucks because we ended up punting on this drive.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

Here's a great play made by CK - he climbs the pocket and finds the receiver.


Here, it's early in the game and St. Louis is showing their "blob" like defense. Because the safety is down over Miller - it reveals a blitz in man-coverage. They also use the MLB, #55, as a "spy".

as best as I can figure, the alignment of Miller as a TE confused the LB over VD and he's not sure which side is the "strong" side. So, they're blitz call gets mixed up and he blitzes. He should be in coverage on VD. This puts the corner in a tough spot. He's now stuck between choosing to cover VD or Boldin on the backend. He tries to pick a middle ground and so it looks like he's in zone coverage - but, based off everything else, I think he's just reacting to the blown assignment in front of him.


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. Because the MLB is "spying" on CK he isn't aware of the two receivers behind him. The corner is stuck between a rock and a hard place.


Miller then releases out of his block so the MLB has to now bail on his "spy" and cover Miller. This opens up the middle for Boldin.

Boldin is wide open and Ck is able to get him the ball.

From here you see the front St. Louis used.


The line does a great job with their 1-1 blocks and Gore saves the day with his blitz pickup. He comes across the formation to pickup the safety.


Here CK had the choice to bail out of the pocket or climb the pocket. He does a good job of climbing the pocket to extend the play.


He climbs the pocket and makes a solid throw to Boldin who picks up 28 on the play. Too bad McDonald fumbled another big pass play on the next play after this.

Good ole flanker drive....amazing how another WR pops open. Flanker drive is probably my favorite WCO concept.

Along with Dino, we were running some of the classics on monday I know we run a fair share of WCO concepts, but drive and Dino are two if my favorite old school WCO concepts/route.

Here's the biggest pass play of the night for STL and it came on the very first 3rd down they were faced with (third play of the game). They saw what KC was able to do over the middle of the field and tried it themselves.

3rd & 5
STL: Follow concept over the middle of the field (refer to KC thread for more info on Follow concept)
SF: cover 1 Robber - man coverage with Reid coming down to zone in the middle of the field (rob the middle). Ward and Cox are shown covering the two WRs in the bunch formation. #89 is the TE JCook.


After the snap, Reid comes down to the middle while Bethea slides to the deep middle.


Davis is in his throwing motion and the clearing route (Follow concept) draws the attention of Reid.


#89 Cook works directly behind the clearing route. #89 Cook just caught the ball and Reid is shown biting on the first crossing route that is acting as a clearing route. The clearing route works to perfection as it draws the attention of the zone defender in the area (Reid).


Lots of RAC. +39 yards.

Originally posted by thl408:
Here's the biggest pass play of the night for STL and it came on the very first 3rd down they were faced with (third play of the game). They saw what KC was able to do over the middle of the field and tried it themselves.

3rd & 5
STL: Follow concept over the middle of the field (refer to KC thread for more info on Follow concept)
SF: cover 1 Robber - man coverage with Reid coming down to zone in the middle of the field (rob the middle). Ward and Cox are shown covering the two WRs in the bunch formation. #89 is the TE JCook.


After the snap, Reid comes down to the middle while Bethea slides to the deep middle.


Davis is in his throwing motion and the clearing route (Follow concept) draws the attention of Reid.


#89 Cook works directly behind the clearing route. #89 Cook just caught the ball and Reid is shown biting on the first crossing route that is acting as a clearing route. The clearing route works to perfection as it draws the attention of the zone defender in the area (Reid).


Lots of RAC. +39 yards.

That's the old Bill Walsh "texas" route. He used to run that with Roger Craig all the time. They just use a TE in that spot. Tough route to defend against in man coverage.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

That's the old Bill Walsh "texas" route. He used to run that with Roger Craig all the time. They just use a TE in that spot. Tough route to defend against in man coverage.

It's funny a Texas behind a crosser is pretty much a trail concept. We use to do it with our hammer plays. This ones out of the 1994 playbook.

Originally posted by Niners816:

EXCELENT!

Thanks man.

It was rough how VD blew the TD to Vance - but things like that happen.

I thought Ian played super. He's not great at pressuring the QB but he can stuff the run and occupy blockers w/the best.

I's really like to see a 4 man front of Tank, Dorsey, Ian and Justin.

Isn't Bethea too deep in this play?

yay more porn for me!

Originally posted by thl408:
Here's the biggest pass play of the night for STL and it came on the very first 3rd down they were faced with (third play of the game). They saw what KC was able to do over the middle of the field and tried it themselves.

3rd & 5
STL: Follow concept over the middle of the field (refer to KC thread for more info on Follow concept)
SF: cover 1 Robber - man coverage with Reid coming down to zone in the middle of the field (rob the middle). Ward and Cox are shown covering the two WRs in the bunch formation. #89 is the TE JCook.


After the snap, Reid comes down to the middle while Bethea slides to the deep middle.


Davis is in his throwing motion and the clearing route (Follow concept) draws the attention of Reid.


#89 Cook works directly behind the clearing route. #89 Cook just caught the ball and Reid is shown biting on the first crossing route that is acting as a clearing route. The clearing route works to perfection as it draws the attention of the zone defender in the area (Reid).


Lots of RAC. +39 yards.

That was one of my beefs with Bethea early on. The play started at the Rams own 25 yard line. Bethea is on the 50...let me say that again...the 50 yard line (barely in the gif) and STILL comes up and takes a poor angle giving up another 25 yards of YAC.

Originally posted by asvidzinski:
Isn't Bethea too deep in this play?

A cover 1 safety has to play as deep as he thinks is necessary for him to cover both sidelines in case the outside WRs run Go routes. The more athletic the safety is, the more shallow he can play. Bethea is a lot of things, but he isn't known for his athleticism and he knows that. Is he too deep? We wouldn't know unless the QB tests Bethea's range by throwing a Go route up the sideline.

jonnydel
thl408

Here's a great example of team defense:


the Rams are gonna try a little hitch/in combo here. The key is Brooks - he's line up over the TE so Davis thinks he has a good matchup in man-coverage.


Brooks did a great job of not showing his blitz until the snap. This causes the RT to take on the DE and so it leaves Brooks 1-1 with a TE at FB.


Davis pump fakes to the right - not sure if it was a pump fake or, he pulled it down because he saw Brooks about to jump up and bat the ball down. I think it was a pump fake. He then looks back over the middle to find the TE. But, there's great coverage on the TE.

Davis still looks for the TE but he's covered. Meanwhile, Brooks easily discards his blocker.

Brooks steps up and gets the sack.

Great team defense. The rush affects the pass and the coverage aids the rush.

Originally posted by thl408:

Originally posted by asvidzinski:
Isn't Bethea too deep in this play?

A cover 1 safety has to play as deep as he thinks is necessary for him to cover both sidelines in case the outside WRs run Go routes. The more athletic the safety is, the more shallow he can play. Bethea is a lot of things, but he isn't known for his athleticism and he knows that. Is he too deep? We wouldn't know unless the QB tests Bethea's range by throwing a Go route up the sideline.

Great point - also comes back to the difference between the single safety and single high safety in man coverage. The single high safety is to allow a trail technique from your man defenders. That way, the only things they'll give up are the deep vertical routes. So, the safety has to take a "high" set so that he can help on any vertical route.

Originally posted by Giedi:

jonnydel
thl408

This. Awesome thread.

Originally posted by thl408:

Good description in that the deepest help is a MLB. That is just bad considering the game situation. Jenkins can be blamed for biting on the head fake by Lloyd, but the coveage call itself is an aggressive one. When a defender hears an aggressive coverage call, they will naturally think aggressively, because they understand what the DC is trying to accomplish. That a big reason why I think Jenkins bites on the head fake, he's thinking aggressively on this play, just like his DC is.

One other aspect to consider is that the 49ers lulled the Rams to sleep on this drive. Here are the list of plays leading up to this Lloyd TD. It shows no urgency to strike downfield, no urgency to get into FG range before the half ends:

1st Down: Hyde run for -1
2nd Down: Short pass to Boldin for +12
1st Down: Short pass to Boldin for +8
Timeout SF
False Start for -5
2nd Down: Short pass to Hyde for +1
Bomb to Lloyd...Touchdown

I think the Rams were thinking the 49ers were going to throw a meaningless dinky passes to run off the clock so they came with an aggressive call to rob the middle of the field. Suckers.

Greg freaking Roman. Gotta love him.