Minnesota Vikings, week 1 coaches film analysis

So, I mentioned it in the OP, but here's an example of how TS was demanding attention from the safeties. This was a run play on our 1st TD drive, Hyde nearly breaks this out for a huge gain.


This is right at the snap of the ball, you see how far wide the safety has shifted. The ball is on the near hash and he's on the far hash, because Torrey Smith is split out wide. This, effectively, pulls that safety out of any chance of impacting this running play. Just a stretch run off tackle. PS, we pretty much run this exact same play for the 2nd TD but with VD and Boldin split out wide.



Here you see how the safety has to respect the possibility of a PA pass to Smith, so, at the handoff, he's no where close to being able to come up and make a play.



Martin does a good job on this play of not releasing to the 2nd level too soon(although that may be more because the DT is grabbing him around the neck lol) Staley really shows his athleticism here as he bursts out to pick off the LB.



Boone has a choice here, either help down on the DT or go try and fill the space on the LB's, he chooses to help on the DT, and it's the right choice. You see how Staley is able to zero in on the LB - that's a very, very athletic play for a 300+ lb guy to make. It's tantamount to making an open field tackle in space, not easy to do.


Staley's cut block, mixed with Boone's push on the DT, helps open up a big cutback lane for Hyde. You see how there's no safety in the area - cause he was split so wide, he couldn't come fill that hole.


Hyde bursts through, if it weren't for a shoestring tackle by #97, I think he takes off for a big gain. The safety would have a nightmare in trying to come down on Hyde in the open field with a poor angle of pursuit to make a tackle.

Just an example of both good O-line play, mixed with the attention TS receives.

Originally posted by 9moon:

forget the RB, the target here after lookin off the FS should be the WR on top of the screen running a 15 yard - IN.. the guy is playing him ONE on ONE!!

You talking about the miss to VD? It was a cover 1, so pretty much everyone had one on one man coverage. The safety who was reacting to the throw was late on the VD corner route.

last post for now: I know it's a 49ers board but when I broke down the 1st quarter yesterday, specifically on defense, while it confirmed that our D was outstanding I also came away feeling like Bridgewater was off on some very key throws and that's before you could even argue our defense got in his head. The play to Wright I mentioned above and a great call on a play-action fake to the right which resulted in a wide open Rudolph on the left that Teddy badly misfired on are two of the plays that made me realize this. Even worse (for Teddy, not for us) was Bridgewater's baffling decision to scramble for 5 yards on the very next pass play after he misfired towards Rudolph



That's a Wright TD if he puts in the EZ. Out of those 3 I feel like a better QB will hit his man on 1 or maybe 2 plays. It's why I believe it'll be important to get off to a good start against Pitt this weekend because even while playing outstanding defense the Vikes definitely left some yards/points out there due to Bridgewater being off and obviously Ben is a much better QB.

Originally posted by jonnydel:

So, I mentioned it in the OP, but here's an example of how TS was demanding attention from the safeties. This was a run play on our 1st TD drive, Hyde nearly breaks this out for a huge gain.


This is right at the snap of the ball, you see how far wide the safety has shifted. The ball is on the near hash and he's on the far hash, because Torrey Smith is split out wide. This, effectively, pulls that safety out of any chance of impacting this running play. Just a stretch run off tackle. PS, we pretty much run this exact same play for the 2nd TD but with VD and Boldin split out wide.



Here you see how the safety has to respect the possibility of a PA pass to Smith, so, at the handoff, he's no where close to being able to come up and make a play.



Martin does a good job on this play of not releasing to the 2nd level too soon(although that may be more because the DT is grabbing him around the neck lol) Staley really shows his athleticism here as he bursts out to pick off the LB.



Boone has a choice here, either help down on the DT or go try and fill the space on the LB's, he chooses to help on the DT, and it's the right choice. You see how Staley is able to zero in on the LB - that's a very, very athletic play for a 300+ lb guy to make. It's tantamount to making an open field tackle in space, not easy to do.


Staley's cut block, mixed with Boone's push on the DT, helps open up a big cutback lane for Hyde. You see how there's no safety in the area - cause he was split so wide, he couldn't come fill that hole.


Hyde bursts through, if it weren't for a shoestring tackle by #97, I think he takes off for a big gain. The safety would have a nightmare in trying to come down on Hyde in the open field with a poor angle of pursuit to make a tackle.

Just an example of both good O-line play, mixed with the attention TS receives.

Good illustration......TS is gonna be huge for this offense regardless of how many catches he has. Pure speed at the X is a god send in football terms.

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by 9moon:
forget the RB, the target here after lookin off the FS should be the WR on top of the screen running a 15 yard - IN.. the guy is playing him ONE on ONE!!

You talking about the miss to VD? It was a cover 1, so pretty much everyone had one on one man coverage. The safety who was reacting to the throw was late on the VD corner route.

not sure if that was VD, but the black n white video... had Kaep dropped back a little deeper, look the FS OFF, he had the WR on top of the screen running a simle MICHAEL IRVIN "cross-in" pattern and the ball should been delivered there over the middle of the field..

Originally posted by JDMathews49ers:

Originally posted by Antix:

Originally posted by thl408:
Remember the deep throw to Crabs in the @NO game? Kap rolled one direction and threw across the field. This is not a throw many QBs can make. Normally, when a QB rolls out in one direction, the field is cut in half and any backside routes are no longer target-able due to lack of arm strength.

Here is a play that results in a large gain where Kap showed off his arm strength to target a route on the other side of the field (vs ARI). The Crabs catch in NO was a broken play, this play (link) vs ARI is designed.
http://www.49erswebzone.com/forum/niners/180857-arizona-cardinals-coaches-film-analysis-week/#post10

With the 49ers running a couple flood concepts by first faking the stretch left run on their first drive, the 49ers come back on the second drive and try to catch MIN napping.

Dont wanna quote all the gifs and pics, but wanted to say that even though this play didnt work i love what it shows out of the OC. Having a counter to an already successful play shows a playcalling acumen that was just comoletely lacking here last year. Thats good stuff and makes me feel good about the playcalling moving forward.

THL, that play reminds me of something from a Broncos Super Bowl win in the 90s and I've always wanted to see Kap pull off. May have to YouTube the play, but that stretch fake one way and throw back the other is a play that Elway completed to a WR for a long TD in the Super Bowl against the Falcons. The WR name escapes me. With the new zone stretches and Torrey, I'm hoping we can see them hit a few of those.

Thanks, Antix for not quoting the animated GIFs. Your fellow posters thank you too. I think leaving the pics in there is okay, just so we know which play we are referring to.

The staff is really taking advantage of Kap's arm with plays like this, where he rolls to one side and throws across the field. Defenses can't sleep when Kap rolls in a certain direction. The safety on this play was alert to see VD flash across his face. With the 49ers successfully executing a few rollout rights on the first drive, the 49ers thought they could sneak in a big play.

I don't know the play you are referring to with Elway in the SB, but not surprised that Elway's staff looked to take advantage of that cannon arm.

Originally posted by 9moon:

Originally posted by Niners816:

Originally posted by 9moon:
forget the RB, the target here after lookin off the FS should be the WR on top of the screen running a 15 yard - IN.. the guy is playing him ONE on ONE!!

You talking about the miss to VD? It was a cover 1, so pretty much everyone had one on one man coverage. The safety who was reacting to the throw was late on the VD corner route.

not sure if that was VD, but the black n white video... had Kaep dropped back a little deeper, look the FS OFF, he had the WR on top of the screen running a simle MICHAEL IRVIN "cross-in" pattern and the ball should been delivered there over the middle of the field..

surely you're not talking about this play

Originally posted by thl408:

Thanks, Antix for not quoting the animated GIFs. Your fellow posters thank you too. I think leaving the pics in there is okay, just so we know which play we are referring to.

The staff is really taking advantage of Kap's arm with plays like this, where he rolls to one side and throws across the field. Defenses can't sleep when Kap rolls in a certain direction. The safety on this play was alert to see VD flash across his face. With the 49ers successfully executing a few rollout rights on the first drive, the 49ers thought they could sneak in a big play.

I don't know the play you are referring to with Elway in the SB, but not surprised that Elway's staff looked to take advantage of that cannon arm.

It was Rod smith in SB33. It was your patented Shanny deep cross off of a stretch fake. Very, very pretty.

Originally posted by jonnydel:
There definitely is a change in the "strategy" involved. In that, we're definitely more "horizontally" moving and less vertically moving. We had a lot of throws that were both horizontal and vertical(our flood concepts off PA), and a lot of horizontal stretch drop back throws.

One thing I noticed though - not to seem contrary, is that we didn't use pattern matching like we did under Fangio - I'll highlight it on one or Tramaine Brock's greatest plays of the game, it was so impressive because we weren't pattern matching in man-coverage.

I have not looked at the defensive snaps, but am a bit disappointed to hear this. Very surprised.

Originally posted by vrabbit:

surely you're not talking about this play

I think he is. The single high safety had the niners liking the concept side and running through its progressions.

Originally posted by Niners816:
Good illustration......TS is gonna be huge for this offense regardless of how many catches he has. Pure speed at the X is a god send in football terms.

Agree with both! As the year progresses I expect their chemistry to develop and it will come as defenses begin to treat T Smith with disrespect. Same could be true of VD's deep ability. I'm kind of confused by Kaepernick regarding his deep accuracy. Is it completely related to the OL not providing time? Or is he erratic? Seems like he had much better accuracy in 2012 but teams may have adjusted and tightened up their coverage, making these throws more difficult. So excited by his overall game that year...can't recall some of the context.

First play of the 2nd Quarter.
3rd & 14
Boldin and Patton are running the Follow concept. This is similar to Drive except the in the Follow concept, the outer WR runs an In route and the inner WR runs the drag route. For Drive, the outer WR runs the Drag route.
The drag is supposed to flash across the faces of the LBs so that a passing lane can be found by the In route.
Versus Cover 4


Boldin will flash across Orange LB's face and move orange.


Patton finds the passing lane. Kap targeting Patton.


The throw is too high and Patton can't reach it. Not sure why Kap air mails the throw.

Here is an absolutely big boy play for Kap. This happened 8:05 in the 3rd QTR - Thl, if you might grab a GIF of the broadcast view showing CK's eyes, might be very helpful :).



Here, we're going to run this flood concept we ran a lot during the game. The pre-snap read shows a cover3 zone, but they're going to come out of it into a cover 2 "sink" or "soft" whichever way you put it.


WE try a little PA, but Hayne moves up to the wrong side :( You see the defenders -especially 22, shifting into their zones.


Boldin's DIG route has the win against the corner playing zone, he defeats it easily. CK's eyes move from (I think McDonald - so hard with these black jerseys...) to VD on the deep crosser.


With the defense reacting to CK's eyes working the concept, they slide over, opening up a hole on the backside.


CK moves the defense with his eyes and identifies the backside open route and fires the ball to Boldin, after climbing the pocket.


Boldin catches it for a nice 15 yard gain.


The coverage took away the deep and intermediate routes of the concept and the slant by the D-line took away the underneath, as CK was forced to his left. This is really good for him to "feel" this slant and know where to maneuver in the pocket.


here, he's looking to the mid level defender(McD or Celek).


Now to VD(deep crosser).


Still on VD for a split second to move the defense, but he's moving into a throwing platform for Boldin(that's huge).

Then moves to Boldin - not how he's in a perfect throwing position. His front shoulder is pointed forward towards his target, knees are bent, back is straight, ball is high and tight.


Greath throwing motion - hips are cleared open, shoulders are square through to the throw, nice, high arm slot - that's pretty darn good stuff right there - enough to get me excited!

Originally posted by jonnydel:
So, I mentioned it in the OP, but here's an example of how TS was demanding attention from the safeties. This was a run play on our 1st TD drive, Hyde nearly breaks this out for a huge gain.


This is right at the snap of the ball, you see how far wide the safety has shifted. The ball is on the near hash and he's on the far hash, because Torrey Smith is split out wide. This, effectively, pulls that safety out of any chance of impacting this running play. Just a stretch run off tackle. PS, we pretty much run this exact same play for the 2nd TD but with VD and Boldin split out wide.

Sorry but I don't agree with your assessment that the Safety's position is due to Torrey Smith (as opposed to another WR).

The safety is lined up more to the right because of the 49ers alignment stacking 2 WRs on that side.

Having that safety move over more to the mid doesn't make that since with 8 already in the box. To put him more in the middle, the Vikings would be gambling big time that its a run and Kap won't change the play since that would leave the 2 CBs on an island against the 2 WRs

The play is made because of Staley's block and Hyde's cut back

Good write up and good post by all of you. It's a pleasure reading all this and seeing the great info, knowledge, criticism and breakdowns.I think this is going to be a good year for us, ALOT of positives ..from the corners looking good to our future star running looking great. That weight he lost in the off season looks like it did wonders for his speed and quickness.Kap looks so much better than last season as his work in off season is showing as well. Room for improvement for the whole team but I must say that game has taken away some worries and concern going into the season with all the losses we had and turmoil surrounding the team, it was great for me as a fan to see them go out and just ball and kuddos to the coaches for the game planning....something else that is welcomed along with halftime adjustments that seemed to plaque the team in the Harbaugh era..