Very nice breakdown of the offense jd. Jimmy really does show those little nuances that help earn the WRs just enough room, and himself just enough of a passing lane, to make it a throw he's comfortable with. His maturity when it comes to the little things seem to exceed his actual experience.
I thought this game was interesting from the 49er offense point of view. Playing a divisional opponent this late in the season, there are so many tendencies and film for opponents to evaluate and it's important to add wrinkles to make the go-to plays work. You covered most of the offense but I wanted to highlight one play that showed this aspect of Kyle and the adjustments he makes to keep the offense acting the same while looking just a bit different.
This is from the NO game and it's the Z cross flood concept with Sanders running the intermediate crosser. We've seen this play many times.
vs Cover 3
Playaction to draw up the four underneath defenders. Many teams run this type of Cover 3 where the weakside Hook defender (yellow) is responsible for any deep crossing routes.
The playaction works well to vertically stretch yellow. He's unable to turn around in time to cover Sanders' route.
Sanders runs across the field to go to open space. +15
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Against a defense that has studied and adapted to the 49ers' offense, Kyle gives this concept a wrinkle to counter SEA's ability to recognize the common plays that the 49ers like to call.
Juice lined up as an inline TE with Sanders tight to the formation - very similar to the play from NO.
vs Cover 3
After playaction, the weakside Hook (yellow, KJ Wright) has identified the crosser he's responsible for - Sanders. To account for the boundary deep 1/3 defender, the 49ers line up Kittle tight and keep him in to block - this occupies the sideline deep 1/3.
If Sanders continues on his crossing route, yellow Hook has it covered as he is quick to gain depth to head off the crossing route. Instead, Sanders cuts off his route, stops, and finds a passing lane between the two Hook defenders.
+12. It's little things like this that can make the same play a little different to get a similar result.