St. Louis Rams week 9 coaches film analysis

Borland #2

STL: Counter FB Lead. The LG will combo block RayMac, then move to the second level to target Borland.


The LG pulls, the FB follows. Borland reads 'run' and takes a step forward. The RG is looking at getting to the second level.


Borland shoots the gap as the RG gets to the next level, but Borland isn't there anymore.




Diagnose the play and be aggressive. Tackle For Loss -2

Borland #3

49er ILBs are asked to be very active in pass coverage, particularly when pattern matching. Communication during the play (post snap) is vital to the success of the coverage. Here, Borland shows quickness to communicate.

The TE will run a drag route.


As soon as the TE crosses Borland's face, he gives the 'Under' call to Wilhoite. You can see Borland pointing with his right arm extended. He's talking to Wilhoite. The 'Under' call means that a WR has crossed in front of Borland and is entering Wilhoite's zone. Wilhoite needs to be on alert.


Same moment as pic above. Wilhoite is riding the TE on his side of the field up the field. Once Wilhoite hears the 'Under' call, he knows to peel off of the TE that is going vertical and look for the route coming into his zone, then match (man cover) that pattern (#88's drag route).


Incomplete pass as Wilhoite smacks the TE just as the ball arrives. Wilhoite gets the pass defensed (I think), but Borland gets the imaginary assist.

Borland #4

Borland shows some nimble feet and slickness in sniffing out and tracking down this WR (Tavon Austin) screen. The Center (orange) and LT will run to the edge to help lead the blocking.


Borland follows the play and cunningly avoids the diving block by the Center.


The Center shoots an airball trying to block Borland. Borland continues on and ends up with the tackle.

Borland #5

STL: Zone Right


The RB sees nothing to the right and tries the cutback.


Because Borland did not overpursue, he is in position to shoot upfield when the RB tries the cutback.


Form tackling.


Check out who is telling who to line up where. Tackle For Loss -1.


Should have been a PF penalty. Oh well.

Well fellas, there's the proof. Kap sucks at his presnap read. Seemed as if every time STL blitzed, Kaps first look was in the wrong direction. We had so many opportunities with jump balls vs man coverage.

Kap is dumb.

Originally posted by Joecool:
Well fellas, there's the proof. Kap sucks at his presnap read. Seemed as if every time STL blitzed, Kaps first look was in the wrong direction. We had so many opportunities with jump balls vs man coverage.

Kap is dumb.

He should join the webzone then. He would blend right in.

Originally posted by thl408:
Kap Sacked #8

Pass pro was poor all game, but this play takes the cake.

49ers: 2 man route combination. Post + In route which is usually used to beat cover2.
STL: cover3


4 man rush versus 8 (EIGHT!) man protection.


Iupati makes sure that Martin has it under control before turning his attention to Staley versus Quinn. ADavis gets beat on a swim move, but understands he has Gore behind him to back him up.


The dam is already breaking.


Gore is about to take on a DL. With a 2 man route versus 7 in coverage, no surprise that no one is open. But that should be okay because a 4 man rush versus 8 man protection allows the QB to stand around a bit and wait for someone to become open. Perhaps once SJ makes his way across the field.


Staley gets beat around the edge. Martin did not have it under control. Boone is holding out again. ADavis chillin cause he knows Gore got his back. Vance is on his back, tripped by the DL that swam by ADavis. VD has no one to block.






Loss of -4 sets up 3rd & 15. Punt is shanked for 23 yards.

I am curious as to why our rookie center has to block a space 4 yards to the left of where he lined up, while Iupati blocks absolutely nobody?

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by NCommand:
^^^ this is my favorite ad lib TD of the year so far!

This is a beautifully designed play. During the game I was thinking it was spider y banana. However, seeng it here there is a lot more going on. You got gore lined up almost as a FB, vd blocking and releasing (and influencing coverage to spring boldin) and just for another added wrinkle you have Ellington lined up deep.

Again, beautifully designed play.

I like it a lot too with several options at several levels and locations. It just becomes an ad lib (which we're great at for TD's @ 8 of our 12 TD's now) once the flow is covered and Boldin jumps back to find a soft hole like a TE and CK absolutely sells it perfectly. He even stops completely, and stands tall and wings it like Panik to Belt at first base for a double play!

My favorite aspect is VDs route. Had the defender stayed with boldin then VD is wide open. This is one of those plays I would love to more than once in a game, because it really looks like a very tough cover.

Another thing I noticed is frank looks like can be that backside WR and float out much like the Philly play, it occupies the backside of the D and keeps them honest.

The more I look at this play the more I absolutely love it. Kaps talents makes plays like this viable, this has to become a staple play.

I couldn't agree more. Like you said, it plays to CK's strengths and worse case scenario, he's away from the rush out on the edge and he can either throw, run or throw it away. There are quite a few designs I like a lot and this is certainly one of them esp. when you factor in how successful the Rams were at applying pressure.

Originally posted by thl408:
Borland #3

49er ILBs are asked to be very active in pass coverage, particularly when pattern matching. Communication during the play (post snap) is vital to the success of the coverage. Here, Borland shows quickness to communicate.

The TE will run a drag route.


As soon as the TE crosses Borland's face, he gives the 'Under' call to Wilhoite. You can see Borland pointing with his right arm extended. He's talking to Wilhoite. The 'Under' call means that a WR has crossed in front of Borland and is entering Wilhoite's zone. Wilhoite needs to be on alert.


Same moment as pic above. Wilhoite is riding the TE on his side of the field up the field. Once Wilhoite hears the 'Under' call, he knows to peel off of the TE that is going vertical and look for the route coming into his zone, then match (man cover) that pattern (#88's drag route).


Incomplete pass as Wilhoite smacks the TE just as the ball arrives. Wilhoite gets the pass defensed (I think), but Borland gets the imaginary assist.

This is just a beautiful thing to see...esp. between a two-game starter and Wilhoite. Beautiful!

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Well fellas, there's the proof. Kap sucks at his presnap read. Seemed as if every time STL blitzed, Kaps first look was in the wrong direction. We had so many opportunities with jump balls vs man coverage.

Kap is dumb.

He should join the webzone then. He would blend right in.

The guy is missing blatantly obvious reads. This is not good if he is missing cover 1 and cover 0 reads this bad.

Originally posted by Joecool:

Originally posted by BrianGO:

Originally posted by Joecool:
Well fellas, there's the proof. Kap sucks at his presnap read. Seemed as if every time STL blitzed, Kaps first look was in the wrong direction. We had so many opportunities with jump balls vs man coverage.

Kap is dumb.

He should join the webzone then. He would blend right in.

The guy is missing blatantly obvious reads. This is not good if he is missing cover 1 and cover 0 reads this bad.

Can you mention the specific plays you are referring to? I assume it is about (one of, or more) the 8 plays where he got sacked and/or the play where Crabs drew the pass interference penalty on the final drive of the game. This one:

This play for example. Rams bring 5 guys, 2 LB's from the right side of their defense and his read is to look to the left of their defense on combo routes that take time. All this while Stevie Johnson was wide open as a hot read with a DT trying to cover that space. There are more than this where his reads are having him look at the complete opposite side of the field of where he should be looking.

Look at this play. Another blitz and he completely overlooks that Vernon's defender is playing 10 yards off over Vernon along with the fact that Vernon has the shortest route. Kap could have hit Vernon just as he was making his break. If Vernon doesn't look in time, then he can throw a strategic incompletion rather than taking a sack.

Originally posted by thl408:
Kap Sacked #2

Boldin's route is designed to take the curl/flat defender to the flats. Crabs will work the area vacated.


STL comes with a fire zone blitz (rush 5, 3 underneath zone defenders, 3 deep zone defenders) and overload the left side of the Oline.


Kap takes the snap and looks to his right. Since it's 3rd and 10, I think he's looking to Crabs' In route. 5 man rush versus 6 man protection. #55 will blitz the C gap between Staley and Gore and come unblocked. MMartin on a knee (not sure if he tripped on Iupati).


Same moment in time as pic above. Crabs is about to break in as Boldin draws the attention of the curl/flat defender (blue).


This is the moment Kap just took his eyes away from looking downfield to look at the oncoming rush. Is there an anticipation throw to be made here to Crabs?




Notice how STL shows cover2 but rotates to a cover3 shell.


To be hypercritical, I think Crabs can be targeted using anticipation, but Kap is going to get smacked if he throws it. Punt.

JoeCool, ^^ this is the entire post of that play. I think that looking to his right was the correct place to look. It was not a long developing route combination imo. It doesn't get much faster than a flat/In combo. Check out how far back the CB lined up over Crabs bails - someone was open. Kap just didn't pull the trigger since he doesn't have to actually wait until Crabs actually cuts towards the inside on his route (anticipate). If he throws it to SJ on the drag route, SJ gets his clock cleaned by the DT that dropped into the middle of the field. Still better than a sack though, I suppose.

He was correct in looking where he looked, but he was hesitant and indecisive. This (below) is the key frame to me. Kap had hit the top of his dropback and was already looking towards this route combination. It was an extremely tight window between getting off a good throw and preparing to take a huge lick.

Cover 0 and Kap thinks he is going to have enough time to throw a deep out to Lloyd? Really? All this when it was obvious the edge defenders from coming unblocked.

Kap should look at the shortest route and get ready to get out of there!