49ers film room: 49ers offense generates multiple explosive plays in week 14 win over Chicago
Kyle Shananan, Brock Purdy, and the rest of the 49ers grab the proverbial first playoff win…in week 14. But is it too late?
For the first time all season, or at least maybe since week four, the 49ers put together a total complete game and grabbed their sixth win of the season over the Chicago Bears 38-13 in front of the home crowd in Santa Clara. And it was a win where they could sit back comfortably on a lead and not worry about the game getting close.
And for the first time in a long time, it felt like the old 49ers. But was it too late? At best they can go 10-7 and sneak into the playoffs. I doubt 9-8 gets done. And they face the Rams this week on a short week and still have a date with the league’s best team, the Detroit Lions. It’s safe to say the 49ers are on THEIR playoff run fighting for their lives. And they got a win to kick it off.
The biggest offensive adjustment in week 14 for the 49ers that Kyle Shanahan made? Play action. Brock Purdy averaged just 7.1 play action drop backs per game prior to week 14 and 5.5 attempts per game in that same span. In week 14, Purdy had 12 play action drop backs and 11 play action passing attempts, nearly doubling their rate. And it paid off.
As a result, the offense generated eight explosive pass plays and one explosive run play. An explosive pass play is any pass play that gains at least 20 yards and an explosive run play is any play that gains at least 10 yards. For context, through 12 games, the 49ers averaged only 3.5 passes per game that gained 20+ yards.
And the offense came out firing in all phases right away when Purdy hit a check down to Isaac Guerendo who took it up field for 23 yards.
Purdy dropped back looking for George Kittle on the crossing route but there’s no throwing window there. Pressure forced him to step up and reset in the pocket and by that time, no one else is open. Guerendo broke through as the checkdown and Purdy hit him over the middle where Guerendo gained 23 yards.
They probably could have gained more yards on a pass to Kittle but it appears, based on how that concept has been run in the past, that Kittle might have cut across too shallow and allowed himself to be covered in the throwing window. That “thru” route needs to be about six yards deeper over the middle and he’d have nothing but grass. No big deal, Purdy wisely went to his checkdown for a big gain.
On the next play, the first of many play action passes, Shanahan called a play action screen to Kittle off of a high cross concept. The deep routes clear out the middle of the field and all that’s left are three defenders in the immediate vicinity to take on the blockers as they release downfield for Kittle. Kittle raced down the sideline for 32 yards to set up the offense in the low red zone.
One of the more frustrating aspects of the offense this season is the predictability of play selection on first down in the red zone. On 62 first down plays, Kyle Shanahan has called 40 true rushing plays (scrambles and sneaks removed), a rate of 64.5% rushing plays on first down. Now, in this game, in seven first down plays, Shanahan called six rushes. The difference was that the offense executed, scoring three touchdowns in the red zone.
However, on the first red zone play of the game, Shanahan broke this run-first tendency in favor of a play action pass leading to the game’s first touchdown.
The Bears predictably go with a stacked 8-men in the box front, six across the defensive line and perimeter. The play call has Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings running a mini dagger concept from left to right across the formation.
The linebackers bit on the run action hard up front, allowing Jennings to race through the second level. Brock backs up and lets the pass fly to a spot in the Bears red zone cover-2 zone where Jennings catches it on the NFL logo for the touchdown.
Later in the first quarter, Brock hit two more explosive pass plays on play action. One to Deebo for 20 yards and another to Kittle for another 32-yard gain.
On first down here, the 49ers use motion to create a 3x1 formation with Kittle as the #3 receiver on the trips side. The play call is a sail concept with Kittle running the sail route and Pearsall running a skinny post to clear out the deep middle of the field.
The Bears rotate their coverage to Tampa-2 and the middle zone linebacker turns to run with Kittle but loses him as Kittle runs the deep out. Brock sensed the defender might try to tip the ball at the line of scrimmage so he pulled it down before throwing the pass downfield to Kittle layered over the reach of the defender in the throwing window. Some nice accuracy on display.
To start the second quarter, Shanahan dialed up another screen to Kittle for a 23-yard gain.
This time the offense was in an empty 3x2 formation and Purdy dropped back like he was going to throw deep. The defenders at the second and third levels bailed deep downfield. As the linemen released downfield, Purdy dumped it off to Kittle on the screen where he rumbled ahead following his blockers for a huge gain.
On the same drive, Purdy used some good eye manipulation to move the middle zone linebacker and create space for Jennings on his second touchdown of the game.
Jennings is running a choice concept over the middle where he has a two-way go depending on the leverage of the defender over him post-snap. The coaching point for Jennings here is to try to cross the face as much as he can until he can’t. The defender jumped outside so Jennings cut inside quickly as Purdy got the linebacker underneath to move out of the window.
As soon as he moved, Purdy set his feet and snapped his eyes back to the middle to Jennings and fired a pass into his chest. Purdy’s subtle eye movements here bought him time and opened a window for Jennings.
Purdy also saw they were in quarters coverage in the red zone so there would be no chance a safety could nail down on Jennings route in the middle of the field. To process all of that in two seconds is elite.
In addition to gaining yards through the air, Guerendo also gained yards on the ground and on one run, gained 30 yards on a play that killed the 49ers in Green Bay a few weeks ago.
The offense is in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) on the field in a shotgun split-gun formation. Purdy has Deebo on the right and Guerendo to his left. Kittle is originally aligned as a wing on the left, but motions to the right in the pre-snap.
When the ball is snapped, Kittle reverses course and comes back to the left to work as the sift blocker on split zone. Deebo releases behind Purdy and runs to the left flat while Guerendo crosses Purdy’s face at the mesh point before getting the ball.
Purdy faked the handoff to Deebo, then spun back around to give the ball to Guerendo. Guerendo hit the line and bounced outside before erasing the safety’s angle with his speed.
This is just a good example of the kind of space Shanahan is capable of creating and what play action does for this offense that’s been missing all season. The run action to the by Patrick Taylor and the action of the pulling guard Spencer Burford draw in the linebackers from the second level.
As this happens, Kittle is running an intermediate crosser in the vacated space where Purdy finds him for another 32-yard gain.
The 49ers offense's longest play of the game came when Purdy connected with Jennings for a 39-yard gain on a staple Shanahan concept, “Z Leak.” Leak is usually run with the tight end but Shanahan has called leak to a receiver a handful of times and the last two times now have been with Jennings running the leak route.
Jennings leaked back across the formation as the linebackers all chased the run action in the opposite direction. Jennings started on a shallow crossing route and then turned up field between the opposite hash and numbers.
Purdy heaved the pass out to him but Jennings had to wait on it. He tracked it and caught it as the linebacker chasing him arrived for the hit. Jennings held on and the 49ers gained 39 on another explosive play.
Outlook
Shanahan wasn’t even in his bag in this one. This was just a shift to his more traditional play action based offense, which is what this offense was lacking. Since 2022, their play action numbers have been down in large part due to acquiring Christian McCaffrey.
The shift away from play action was because they didn’t need all the movement to sell the run or move defenders out of position. With McCaffrey, they got the same intended effect on spacing with the added ability to get more players into the pattern quickly and efficiently. No Aiyuk, no McCaffrey, no Trent Williams, and missing Kittle and Deebo randomly have all taken a toll on the offense with Shanahan adjusting to it by week 14.
Was it too late though? We’ll see in the coming weeks as it is basically win or go home from now until week 18.