Coaches Film Analysis: 2018 Season

First offensive play of the game and Kyle wants Mullens to quickly get into the groove of the game. With Breida out wide and a CB aligned over him, Mullens knows it's zone coverage.
Fade-Out vs Cover6. curl/flat (yellow) is the weakness to attack on the Quarters side.


Goodwin has to stem inside to get the curl/flat defender on his heels, then break outward.


Easy +11 to Goodwin

Mullens was able to either find the hot (RJames catch and run), or quickly get through his progressions to beat the blitz. OAK didn't blitz a lot iirc, but when they did, Mullens got the ball out quickly. This is from the first drive.
The progression is inside out (yellow-red-orange) vs Cover 1 blitz (blue are rushers)


Because the ILB is asked to pick up Juice in coverage, that ILB how has to work through Kittle, as Kittle's route creates a natural pick.


Kittle is covered on his Dig. Orange LB, that was picked by Kittle, now blocks the passing lane to Garcon. But that means Juice is open.


+6. Not much of a gain, but shows Mullens properly going through his reads and throwing a pass timely enough that Juice can run a little.

good stuff, but what does it all mean?

Look how quickly he dropped from center. Good foot work by Mullens. Second year guy from the spread in college.

Great stuff

Originally posted by DRCHOWDER:

good stuff, but what does it all mean?

It means the best thread on the net is back, and that Mullens is better at running our offense than CJ

Originally posted by thl408:

I'll show some of the bigger plays. Finally a win.

Outstanding. I heard a podcast saying Kyle switched from 21 to 11 personnel this whole game (McVay-style). Lots of 3 step drops vs. the usual 5-7 step game plans leading up to this game.

Did you notice any philosophical or game plan changes for young Mullens?

Originally posted by DRCHOWDER:

good stuff, but what does it all mean?

It means we have enough cap space to pay TWO Franchise QB's

The majority of Mullens' throws were inside the numbers. He did target Garcon on a deep Out route from the far hash and it got batted down by the CB. Can't tell if it's an arm strength issue or timing on that play. Here's a play where he was able to get a completion outside of the numbers.
Yellow + red looks sort of like a 'Pole' concept, although Garcon's route doesn't have much depth like in Pole. It's a Cover3 buster that pushes the sideline 1/3 defender back by threatening with what looks like two verticals, but then the #1 will Curl his route and use the defender's assignment of not getting beat deep against him.
Pole + Mesh (orange + green) vs pattern match Cover3. This is on the second 49er drive. RJames motions across and Mullens gets a zone presnap read.


Mesh is to bust man coverage so Mullens looks to the Pole concept. The strongside curl/flat defender (red) matches Goodwin's vertical so that essentially removes the curl/flat defender from playing the passing lane to Garcon's Curl. Garcon needs to sell the Go route, then curl it. Mullens throwing with some anticipation, winding up as Garcon's enters the break in his route.
T

+7. First down.

Originally posted by NCommand:
Outstanding. I heard a podcast saying Kyle switched from 21 to 11 personnel this whole game (McVay-style). Lots of 3 step drops vs. the usual 5-7 step game plans leading up to this game.

Did you notice any philosophical or game plan changes for young Mullens?

It seemed like there were more spread formations than usual but I can't quantify it. Juice was in on over 60% of the snaps so unless he was the lone RB on some of those plays, I think the 49ers still had their 21 out there a lot. I do think there were less 7 step drops than usual. Those are the plays when Kyle is dialing up a shot play (hard playaction). Maybe Mullens doesn't have the arm strength to hit a Goodwin Post? But the 49ers basically played 3 quarters of offensive football. It was clear they ran clock during the 4Q. They worked the middle of the field a lot, which isn't really different than what Kyle usually likes to do.

This was Mullen's deepest pass play of the day in terms of air yards (no RAC) and it also looks to work the middle of the field. Against a Cover2 look, this route combo looks to vertically stretch the Hook/Curl defender (red).
Dagger vs Cover 2 zone
Dagger is a three route combo (seam + Dig + Drag), but there is no drag route here. Instead of using a drag route to bait the hook/curl (red) defender forward, the 49ers use hard playaction instead.


Playaction gets red creeping towards the line of scrimmage.


RJames (13) threatens the field side safety to occupy him. Red is unable to recover and gain enough depth to block the passing lane to Garcon's Dig.


+25

A couple big plays from the offense came on play designs that wanted to horizontally stretch the OAK middle underneath defenders.
It's no secret that Kyle likes to work the middle of the field so defenses like to put a robber in the middle to discourage all the slants and Digs over the middle.
Bourne motions across the formation confirming man coverage.
vs Cover 1 Robber. It's a 3v2 situation on the weakside of the offensive formation (Bourne + Goodwin vs the two CBs aligned over them + the orange robber). If Mullens can move freeze that robber, then it's 1v1 for Bourne's slant.


Mullens drops back and looks at the robber, freezing him. Bourne stutter steps to the outside to get that CB on his heels. That CB on Bourne is playing with outside leverage because he knows he has help to the inside (the robber).


Mullens is able to get the orange robber to step towards to the inside (middle of field).


And that frees up the passing lane to Bourne.


TD

@post 518: I keep thinking he should've gone to #13 early, the more I watched that

There wasn't anyone within 10yards of #13 when Mullens looked down between the seems

Originally posted by HERN:
It means we have enough cap space to pay TWO Franchise QB's

Two franchise QB's? You're kidding right. I still haven't seen enough of Jimmy G to say we absolutely have even one. I hope we do but i want to see a full season since he didn't start off this year as well as he finished last year. As for Mullens one game doesn't make a franchise QB.

Here's the big Kittle catch and run.
The 49er run a compliment to the Stick concept with Kittle running a Stick-Nod route. Also worth mentioning is Garcon's pivot route. The telecast said that it was a bad route combo because it put two WRs in the same area, but I've seen Kyle do this before and I don't think it's a mistake (putting two routes near each other). It's done to horizontally stretch a middle defender - in this case, the weaskside hook defender.
vs Cover3


Notice Kittle and Garcon looking like they are breaking outwards, like a Stick concept. The strongside Hook jumps Kittle's break to the outside, probably thinking it's a Stick concept. Orange is the weakside Hook defender.


Mullens looks to his right and freezes the orange weakside Hook.


That, in combination with Kittle's double move, frees up the middle of the field. When Mullens looks to his left for Kittle the passing lane is there because Goodwin + Mullens held orange in place.




+71