49ers film room: Kyle Shanahan puts on offensive play calling clinic in week 10 versus Jacksonville

Just another day at the office for Kyle Shanahan and his offense in week 10.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan put on an offensive play calling masterclass versus Jacksonville in week 10. He usually always does but this one was exceptional. The 49ers took care of Jacksonville 34-3 on the road and snapped a 3-game losing streak with a much needed win against a very good 6-3 Jacksonville team very much in the thick of the playoff race in the AFC.

Yes, the 49ers were coming off of a bye week and had extra time to prepare. But so were the Jags, who are led by a Super Bowl winning head coach, a generational talent at quarterback, and a top 3 defense. The 49ers boat raced them out of their own stadium and it never felt close with the game winning score coming on the first offensive possession of the game.

Brock Purdy finished 19-26, 296 yards, and three touchdown passes. The running game added 144 yards and one touchdown with Christian McCaffrey rushing for 95 yards while Deebo added a rushing touchdown. In the pass game, George Kittle finished with 3-116-1 while Brandon Aiyuk finished 3-55-1. Even Kyle Juszczyk found the end zone for a 22-yard touchdown catch.

It was a solid team performance on offense and it started with the head play caller moving his chess pieces around the board to find the best match-ups. Deebo Samuel returned to the starting lineup after missing the time over the three game losing streak. Trent Williams also returned after missing the last two games as well.

With everyone back, the 49ers found a way to score 30+ points again. Here’s how Shanahan did it.

Deebo’s impact felt immediately

The 49ers scored in just four plays on their opening drive in week 10. In three of those plays, Deebo was a prominent feature and never once touched the ball. The first two plays gained 6 and 9 yards respectively with a 29 yard explosive pass on the third play to set up Brock Purdy’s first touchdown throw of the game.

On the first play, the Jaguars line up in man coverage cover-1 as indicated by the alignment of the two corners to the two receiver side of the formation. The strong safety is aligned to the closed nub side of the formation.

The 49ers are running “36-37 counter sift”, a shotgun counter GF (guard-fullback) run play designed to create extra gaps by pulling two blockers to the opposite of the formation.

The play call has Deebo on a ghost motion that reveals man coverage and removes a defender out of the run fit, making the blocking 3-on-3 to that side instead of the 49ers being a man down in blocking, 3-on-4. The play was a nice six yard gain on first down to open the script but could’ve possibly gone for more yards if McKivitz hadn’t been late getting up to linebacker Foyesade Oluokun (No. 23), who ends up making the tackle.

On the very next play, the 49ers caught the Jaguars in man coverage again and Purdy found McCaffrey 1-on-1 with a safety.

The 49ers lined up in an empty formation to run a play action shallow cross to McCaffrey. The Jaguars are in man coverage cover-1 again.

Deebo is sent on a fast motion that turns into an orbit return motion behind Purdy so Purdy could fake the wide zone run hand off. The defense chases the run aggressively as McCaffrey leaks out across the opposite way on a shallow crossing route. The safety is chasing him and Purdy finds him with space to run so he dumps it off to him in stride.

On the third play, Purdy found Kittle wide open down the right side numbers after a Jaguars coverage bust. The play went for 29 yards and set up the 49ers in the red zone where they capped off the drive with a touchdown.

The 49ers are running their staple 4-strong snag concept after another ghost motion from Deebo with Kittle alone on the single receiver side post snap.

The Jaguars are playing a disguised cover-2 zone but have their corner traveling with Deebo.

Everyone in the second level defense bumps a gap over with Deebo’s motion, leaving no one to guard Kittle. Post snap, Purdy sees this bust and Kittle calling for the ball. The ball was likely going to Kyle Juszczyk on the over the ball/snag route but on his drop back he noticed that no one bumped out to cover Kittle.

This is a nice wrinkle and way to hide one of their favorite concepts as I do not believe I have ever seen Kittle as the single receiver on this specific concept. The Jaguars likely didn’t expect him to run out on a route, especially with how they reacted to Deebo’s motion.

Aiyuk route adjustments on core concepts

The 49ers have a variety of ways they can get to their core concepts and ways to make adjustments off those concepts. Two plays from week 10 with Brandon Aiyuk illustrate how this happens off their dagger concept.

Here the 49ers lined up in 22 personnel (two running backs and two tight ends) with Juszczyk in a wing to the right and Aiyuk on the opposite side of the formation.

They’re running play action dagger from a shotgun formation. Aiyuk is the motion man from left to right and motions to the right to run the dagger route. Kittle is running the deep “thru” route.

The Jaguars are in zone cover-3 but have a third safety in the game.

Kittle is first in the progression as Purdy drops back to throw. The middle hook defender drops deep and sinks under Kittle’s route so Purdy moves to the dagger behind him to Aiyuk. Aiyuk gives a nice move with a 1-step stem outside to the defender to get him to turn his hips, and continues up vertically until he cuts off the outside leverage inside across the field.

Later in the third quarter, the 49ers came right back to the dagger concept to Aiyuk but out of a slightly different formation. A route adjustment versus the disguised coverage got him open for a nice gain.

The adjustment Aiyuk makes here is to cut his route back outside to the sideline. Deebo is running the through route. The offense is in shotgun again, running dagger again.

The Jaguars rotate to Tampa-2 after disguising it as single high coverage. This puts their third safety into the middle of the field as the middle hole runner.

Aiyuk sees the middle of the field closed off so he breaks the route off back outside to the sideline. Purdy and Aiyuk were on the same page here and Purdy waits for Aiyuk to get out of his break and layers the pass over the coverage for an explosive play.

Deebo signature reverse concept

Shanahan’s counter reverse took the league by storm in 2019 and became an almost weekly thing in the NFL in 2020 with a half dozen teams running the play for explosive plays. It was made famous last season by the 49ers in 2019 when Deebo ran the play three times for 93 yards and one touchdown. The 49ers have used it very sparingly since then but used it twice in week 10 versus Jacksonville.

The play starts out looking like “36-37 Stutter,” a gap scheme counter GF or GY (guard/fullerback or guard/tight end) running play in Shanahan’s offense. They actually call the play “Fake 36-37 Stutter Z Dope.”

Deebo, as the single receiver to the left, is the ball carrier after Purdy faked the counter run hand off from the shotgun to Mostert. On “counter GF”, the guard and fullback pull around to the play side to lead block for the running back.

Juszczyk and Burford move in the direction of the counter to sell the motion to the left side of the formation as the defense crashes toward what appears to them to be the point of attack. The play only goes for four yards but they would come back to it later with a different wrinkle.

Later in the 3rd quarter, Deebo got the call again on the same play and took it 23 yards for a touchdown.

This time the wrinkle is simulating a fast motion with a tight end to sell the run and get the defense to crash the line of scrimmage.

The right of the defense caves in the left side of the offensive line when they see the counter run action and the fast motion from the tight end. Deebo wraps around and takes the ball to the opposite side where Trent Williams and Charlie Woerner are lead blocking around the perimeter for Deebo. Deebo also gets a nice crack block from Jennings on defensive end Josh Allen to seal him inside. Deebo does the rest and sprints to a touchdown.

The only question now is are the 49ers going to go on another run and solidify their position in the NFC as the top team or one of the top teams. They certainly have the ability to do it and don’t even have to play flawless to win and score 30 points per game as long as their core players can stay healthy. The fascinating thing is what else does Kyle Shanahan have up sleeve as the season grinds on.