49ers film room: Diving into the recent 49ers defensive coverage busts

The 49ers have some coverage issues to clean up before their first playoff game against Seattle on Saturday.

This article arose out of a question I received in a recent mailbag article that I wanted to expound on. Last week, I published a mailbag article where a reader asked essentially, are there any instances where Hufanga makes the right check and the defense makes a good play. 

My answer, briefly, was that yes, I’m sure there are but I have not observed it visually because I haven’t really looked for it until seeing it the last few games, but also that even the late coverage checks that led to busts in the recent games weren’t totally his fault.

In my opinion, Hufanga is not 100% responsible for the total breakdown and even on two of them, made the right call but either he failed to execute or someone else did. Regardless of who precisely is at fault, these are the kinds of coverage busts that cannot occur. And they are a regular occurrence on the 49ers defense. I wrote about the two they had that led directly to scoring plays in week one versus Chicago.

They have had one in every game since week 13 versus Miami that has led to the opposing team scoring a touchdown. In one game, the touchdown was overturned due to an offensive penalty, but these kinds of mistakes are alarming for a team that is going to need to be nearly perfect in every phase of the game come wild card weekend.

Week 17, 1st quarter, 3rd and 2 at SF 24, 11:45 remaining

“Yeah, it’s the same. He has to clean up his eyes. It’s too many big plays we’re giving up and Huf knows that. You have to clean up your eyes, especially when you’re protecting us in the back end. You’re the eraser for us. Your eyes can’t be dirty, you can’t be in the back field and he knows that and he has to get better at it.”

That was DeMeco Ryan in week 18 before the season finale.

The first coverage bust in the Raiders game on the touchdown to Darren Waller was the exact thing DeMeco Ryans was talking about with Hufanga’s eye discipline. It came on a similar play that the 49ers had already hurt the Seahawks on by putting the Seahawks corner in conflict on his coverage versus run fit responsibility.

Whereas the 49ers caught the Seahawks in bad run fit to coverage responsibility, a weakness in the Seattle cover-3 scheme the Raiders caught the 49ers in bad run fits to coverage responsibility in the 49ers two-deep safety coverage on this play.

Ultimately, Hufanga was responsible for the coverage bust. The indicators? The backside coverage is in cover-2/cloud over Adams. This puts the corner low and outside hip on him with safety help over the top. This tells us at a minimum, they’re in some form of two deep safety coverage even though Hufanga is aligned as a box safety due to YY formation and potential for a running play on 3rd-and-2.

On the front side, the Raiders have an extra offensive lineman plus they are in a closed YY formation. This likely means the corner/safety duo that side is playing quarters due to the run fit responsibility. Lenoir is responsible for outside force and crack-replace and Huf has the gap between the tight ends. This would put them in 1/4s responsibility (tough assignment already to play out this run look) as this takes pressure off of Lenoir’s fit/coverage responsibility.

The defensive line is in an under front.

At the snap, Lenoir comes up as the force/crack replace defender seeing the defensive end get cracked so he has to fill that part of the run. This means that Hufanga, seeing #2 tight end stay in, has to get eyes on #1 and get over him.

The coverage is likely cover-6. Gipson’s initial footwork, backwards read steps, plus his eyes on Adams suggest cover-2 “post to curl” read. Hufanga is the 1/4s “curl to post” defender and has a flat-footed key read of the tight end to running back/backfield flow.

With no release of the #2 tight end, Hufanga got caught looking at the backfield flow and lost Waller. This is an extremely tough assignment for him.

Lenoir probably should’ve chased the quarterback booting out his way too. So it’s not all on Hufanga but has the primary responsibility here.

No matter the coverage, cover-2, quarters, etc., this puts the deep vertical route responsibility on Hufanga to carry. That means he cannot get caught with his eyes in the backfield and must learn (or re-learn) quick recognition. It was also just a good play call by Josh McDaniels to put the 49ers coverage in conflict. And it wasn’t the first time he did that (more on that later).

Later in the same game, Hufanga got caught looking at the quarterback and chasing him on a scramble to the sideline when he should have plastered Devante Adams and ran with him downfield.

When Hufanga came up, quarterback Jarrett Stidham threw to a wide open Adams for a 60-yard touchdown.

Week 16, 2nd quarter, 2nd and goal at SF 4, :27 remaining

Late in the second quarter here versus Washington in week 16, another late check by Hufanga resulted in a late half score to tie the game at 7-7.

The offensive play call is a red zone snag/arrow concept or “657 H Flat” in Norv Turner/Marty Schottenheimer system (Scott Turner, Norv Turner’s son, is the offensive coordinator). The H back is running a flat route, the backside “6” route is a dig route, the tight end is running “5” route, and inside curl route, and Jahan Dotson is running the “7” corner route.

The defense is playing red zone coverage called “sub red stuff” (nickel RZ cover-6 QQH) where Hufanga has a 1 to 2 read as the half safety on the cover-2 side. If #1 goes vertical, Hufanga should run with him. If #1 releases under or inside, he should zone off. The corner, Deommodore Lenoir, has the flat and has no vertical receiver responsibility.

Dotson releases vertically inside and it’s at this point Hufanga should be keying his release. The angled release sort of messes with the rules here but his inside up field release should tell Hufanga he needs to run with #1. The running back is out to the flat so Deommodore Lenoir stays put. That’s ultimately where they want the ball thrown.

But since Hufanga sat over the widened curl route by the tight end, Dotson was running free in the back of the end zone since no one carried him. Easy pickings for Taylor Heinicke.

Week 15, 4th quarter, 1st and 10 at SF 10, 3:39 remaining

This is the same coverage as above, red zone cover-6. The other important coverage responsibility in this red zone cover-6 coverage is Dre Greenlaw, the red zone vertical curl player. His responsibility is the vertical seam to the curl zone. If #2 runs vertical, he should run with him underneath.

The Seahawks are running 2x2 four verticals against the 49ers red zone cover-6 here. Tight end Noah Fant is split out wide to the right with Greenlaw in coverage and Hufanga as the deep half safety.

Hufanga makes a coverage check at the last second to alert the defense of the likelihood of verticals to their side but Greenlaw doesn’t run with #2 vertically. He should be traveling with Fant underneath the receiver into the end zone. Hufanga is caught in no-man’s land here as he has to play the #1 vertical and squeeze the #2 if possible.

In my own opinion this coverage bust isn’t so much on him post-snap as it is on Greenlaw, just based on the way Hufanga is halving the two verticals and his reaction at the end of the play. Greenlaw got caught looking at the checkdown instead.

Week 14, 1st quarter, 2nd and 8 @ TB 32, 5:43 remaining

Fortunately this play didn’t count due to a penalty by the Buccaneers but it was still the result of late recognition by Hufanga, even though his instincts were correct. 

The Buccaneers are running a 3x1 slot fade concept to the wide side of the field. Hufanga recognizes something in the offense based on an earlier play in the game where the Bucs ran a series of slot fades that Jimmie Ward and Hufanga both covered. It’s likely he’s alerting Ward to run with the slot fade and it looks like either cover-1 or cover-2 to Hufanga’s side that’s supposed to be a 4-man rush instead of a 3-man rush but Charles Omenihu zone drops off the end of the line where Warner also drops.

On the back end, Ward lets the slot fade go and no one covers Mike Evans. Hufanga looked like he wanted to when he realized Ward might not have heard the coverage check. It was a late check and Hufanga was already out of place as the deep safety. A holding on the left side of the offensive line called this one back.

This would have been a bust on Jimmie Ward if the play had counted.

Week 13, 1st quarter, 1st and 10 @ MIA 25, 15:00 remaining

There were two coverage busts that led to touchdowns in this game versus Miami, and they were both on Hufanga. On the first one, the first play of the game, a 75 yard touchdown catch and run by former 49ers receiver Trent Sherfield, Hufanga got width with Tyreek Hill’s motion to a two receiver stack at the snap and no one ran with Sherfield.

The defense cover-6 pre-snap, then shows cover-2 shell coverage with Tyreek Hill’s short motion in and back out, where the 49ers rotate back to quarters coverage. The other side of the defense is in cover-2 over the single receiver side.

The Dolphins are running their staple run-pass option concept with a receiver running a glance route from the slot. Tua is reading the defensive end for the run or pass read and then if he reads pass, he’s reading the leverage of the defender covering the slot and the defender covering the flat.

In quarters coverage here to the bottom of the screen, Hufanga should not have widened with Hill and should have stayed over the new number two, Sherfield. Instead, both he and Charvarius Ward stayed over the top of Hill’s route and no one ran with Sherfield, who was wide open on the pass over the middle. Combine that with a poor tackling angle by Tashaun Gipson and it was off to the races for Sherfield.

Week 13, 4th quarter, 1st and 10 at SF 45, 14:35 remaining

This is a play the 49ers defense has seen probably everyday or every week at the very least in practice and it’s a split safety coverage beater. A touchdown here cut the 49ers lead to 23-17.

The defense is in a pre-snap two deep shell that rotates to three deep (nickel cover-9) with safety rotation away from the nickel. Hufanga should be patrolling the deep middle or at least zone dropping as much as he can to the deep middle third of the field.

The play call is a split safety coverage beater but it works here versus single high coverage due to the coverage bust. The play is a post on the outside by Hill, a deep sit route over the middle the Shanahan tree calls “Miami” and 7-stop route or “swirl” route on the backside of the play. 

Hufanga gets caught looking inside to the slot receiver and jumps the route over the top of Warner and leaving the deep middle of the field open for Hill to run to. With the corners bailing quickly to deep thirds, they’re expecting safety help in the middle of the field but it wasn’t there for them and Ward is left helplessly chasing Hill on an island by himself.

Outlook

There has been coverage every week since week 13 that has led to touchdowns for the opposing teams. They have to clean this up and Hufanga and others need to “discipline their eyes” again as defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans said earlier this week. In the playoffs they cannot allow this to happen as much as they have already. For an all-pro safety, this unacceptable.

Hufanga has the tools to clean it up and he clearly was playing at a high level in the first half of the season, which tells me he can and will get better. But he needs to correct it sooner rather than later.

The defense is going to have to play nearly perfect in the playoffs with a rookie quarterback on the other side of the ball who is now being counted on to take this team on a deep run. To do that, the defense must limit these big plays and get their pre-snap communication checks sorted out. If they do, they’re going to be the toughest defense any playoff team has to face.