Originally posted by jonnydel:
In the "over" alignment you have the "1" technique on the weakside instead of the strong side in the "under" technique. You then have the OLB's shading the gap of the Tackles - that's what makes it an "over" set. By having the "1" on the weakside, any power runs to the weakside will not have the ability for a guard and tackle combo block on the DT. Like the "under" set makes it hard for pulling guard to get around to the strong side without letting the DT slip through, the "over" set provides that for the weakside. This is how the "3" technique is able to slip into the backfield. Ideally, you wouldn't have your Guard pulling towards the play side if he has the "3" on his side, as the "3" is usually taught to attack the guard and go with him if he pulls.
This is part of that chess game in the trenches and using different fronts to combat each other. The first run I showed was in the 1st quarter this was in the 2nd. In the 2nd half, I even saw NO uses some 3-4 balanced and "over" alignments as well. They were very varied in the fronts they showed.
I don't know about anybody else seeing this picture, but that's 8 men in the box. Running on this defensive formation is suicide. Now, having said that, what the new Orleans saints did in the first half was drop out of this formation and go zone. The 49ers should make defenses pay for doing these false looks. Because the alignment is 8 men in a box and they are not in the best alignment for a pass play in this circumstance, even if they do drop into zone.
One of the counters I like against 8 men in the box and then dropping into zone is the TE drag under. The play made famous by Steve Young and brent Jones. Where Brent runs a drag route opposite the play fake and Steve play fakes to the strong side and runs to the weakside and the TE releases and goes to the Weakside. Unfortunately, when they ran this play, VD dropped an easy 3rd down pass. VD is still not 100% in my opinion.
One solution is to get Vance more involved in the passing game, or get Bruce Miller to act as a TE. He seems to have much more reliable hands than VD at this moment with all his assorted aches and pains. We really need a functional and reliable TE that operates in the mid-range passing tree and VD isn't the guy in my opinion. His hands are questionable and a detriment on an offense that is so heavily TE dependent. Vance isn't progressing as fast as I'd like either, and I don't know why. If the 49ers do intend on keeping this vertical offense, they really have to get the TE position productive. It just won't be very consistent otherwise. They really need to draft another TE to shore up this position next year.
I think the playcalling is there, but the execution is not. All this talk about getting rid of G-ro is premature. I think they are developing a very dangerous passing attack, and I like the playcalls, however the execution is still not there. I think the power off tackle is a great bread and butter play and it seems defenses have to go 8 men in a box to counter it and stop it. That's what you want defenses to do, so that now you can get the TE to wrong foot the defense - ie with the fake run and toss to the TE. The problem is that the TE's haven't been very reliable in this offense this season, and to me the problem is execution more than playcalling. That puts pressure on the WR's to be productive, and again the problem is that our WR's have pedestrian speed and defenses get comfortable in closing in on them in the 2nd half, and just shuts down our passing game. G-ro then tries to free up the WR's in the 2nd half with play passes, but that isn't going to work very well if your WR's run 4.7 against CB's that run 4.4 and 4.5, they can recover quickly and still cover the WR in the case of a successful play pass fake (in my opinion).
