49ers film room: How and why the 49ers run game struggled in week 11 versus the Seahawks
The running game has not seen struggles like this since probably 2020. It was ugly.
The 49ers have built a juggernaut in the running game under Kyle Shanahan for quite a few years now. The wide zone style running scheme rivaled the Jim Harbaugh-era heavy personnel gap/man blocking running game of the early 2010s. So much so that about a dozen or more teams are running a variation of it with coaches off of the various offshoots of the Mike Shanahan coaching tree.
But a 20-17 loss to Seattle in week 11 provided a glimpse into the season-long running game issues that culminated in the outcome. If we remove 40 yards worth of quarterback scrambles, the 49ers running game generated just one explosive running play of 10 yards or more, an 11-yard run by Christian McCaffrey. Outside of that, the 49ers averaged a paltry 3.8 yards per carry, 80 yards on 21 attempts.
What contributed to this? The offensive line mainly. Then there’s McCaffrey, who’s about 60% of what he was last season. And Deebo? Those running plays, the ones the league has been copying since 2020, those don’t work anymore either. The one receiver end around this season that has generated any kind of net positive was an explosive 39-yard run by Pearsall in week 8 against Dallas.
The 30,000-ft view in all of this, the 49ers are 14th in rushing success rate this season. 14th before McCaffrey came back, 15th if we sort for just weeks 10 and 11. However, this season they are 24th in EPA/play and were 21st in EPA/play the last two weeks. His return has neither boosted nor hindered the running game.
If anything is clear in all of this, it’s that we do not yet know if his return will meaningfully change anything considering the bulk of the issues were driven by the rest of the offensive line and skill position blockers. And from the very first play of the game, the issues were apparent.
There’s no doubt that Kittle boosts the ability of the 49ers to run the ball but this season that hasn’t really been the case. Still there are blocks that Kittle can routinely make that his backups can’t.
On the first play of the game, tight end Eric Saubert over ran his block on the edge against Derick Hall (No. 58) after Jauan Jennings pushed him inside. Center Jake Brendel was also prevented from reaching the second level and getting to the linebacker flowing over the top to make the tackle with Hall. Four offensive linemen to the right were bottled up by three Seattle defenders and limiting the run.
Seattle was very effective at resetting the line of scrimmage throughout this game too. By resetting the line of scrimmage, they were able to force McCaffrey to bounce to their support players who also won their blocks against 49ers starters and backups.
Throughout the game, Shanahan used Jaylon Moore as a 6th offensive line blocker at the second tight end spot and it did not go well. First, Banks was unable to get any kind of push on his defender and ends up two yards into the backfield and impeding McCaffrey’s path.
Next, on the edge, Saubert and Moore have a double team block to seal the edge but the defensive end splits the block and tosses Moore aside. Saubert is unable to compensate and McCaffrey is bottled up.
Here, Banks tried to “scoop block,” step and block half man before moving to the next level, with Brendel but the defensive end to the play side slanted inside and blew up the block and reset the line of scrimmage. McCaffrey tried to bounce and had nowhere to go.
And then Jauan Jennings took a bad path to Devon Witherspoon on the edge. Witherspoon shot inside the C-gap and made the tackle.
A big reason for the lack of success was the interior line play from Jake Brendel and Aaron Banks. Their inability to stick on blocks and drive defenders out of the play and generate space for the running back was all over the game tape.
Mainly due to poor angles and staying engaged a fraction of a second too long, Brendel was unable to get to the second level or stick on his blocks long enough with losing inside.
Normally this season, Brendel has been one of their better linemen in the run game but lately has shown that he has not really up for the task of being the primary signal caller of pass protections or winning in the first level in the run.
Also in that first clip above, Banks again could not adequately scoop his man and nearly had Williams bounce off him when Banks should have aimed for the inside half of the defender.
As I mentioned earlier, it wasn’t all on the offensive line. Some of it was on the skill position blockers as well.
Here, the offense is running a strong side wide zone concept called “Zorro” where Kyle Juszczyk will block any defender on the inside hip of the tight end and work to kick him out. But here too, Jusczcyk overran his assignment and the defender squeezed down inside to blow up the play. Also, Saubert did not do a very good job of delaying that defender, which helped him to get free access untouched into the C-gap.
It’s safe to say the Moore/Saubert experience is over as well. With Kittle slated to return and provide some much needed relief to the running game, and they’re going to need it in Green Bay, we hopefully will never see this experiment again.
Maybe they’ll utilize Moore a bit with Kittle because Saubert completely whiffed on any chance of this running play at a critical moment in the game with three minutes left.
Moore helped Saubert kick out the edge defender here but Saubert ended up losing his leverage, got turned parallel to the line of scrimmage, and lost his leverage when the defender shed him to the inside.
Outlook
The offensive players in the run game cannot keep making these mistakes and a change the offensive line position may be needed with some like Jon Feliciano replacing Banks or Brendel. But at this point the season is all but sunk with Purdy out at least for Green Bay this weekend and maybe more though that is less certain.
If the 49ers do have to hand the keys over to a backup again for what seems like the 15th time in 8 seasons, then the run game is going to be vitally important to whoever takes over for the remainder of the year or if Purdy does come back.