49ers film room: Run game wrinkles and old staple classics fueling run game resurgence

Everything old is new again.

The 49ers are coming off two straight wins over the Rams in week four and the Panthers in week five on the road and are doing so on the strength of their run game and some wrinkles both old and new. Teams in the NFL are playing more two deep safety coverage shells and setting hard edges to try and keep offenses contained to the teeth of the defense in the interior by making it harder for those offenses to get to the edge.

The Rams learned this lesson in 2018 as they faced more 6-1 and 5-1 front defenses employed by former Chicago Bears head coach (and former 49ers defensive coordinator and Denver Broncos head coach) Vic Fangio. In that game in 2018, the Rams were unable to run the ball on the Bears 6-1 front and subsequently became very inefficient at play action passing. They still made it to the Super Bowl but the Patriots quickly shut that down and held the Rams to three points.

Shanahan, likely sensing the coming trend back in 2019, switched his running game to a slightly more balanced one that featured heavy usage of gap (counter, power) and man (duo) scheme running plays that complimented and borrowed from their base outside zone running game. He continued to tweak and evolve his run game schemes into 2020 and 2021 so much so that the defenses now will try to set a hard edge, even if they are not good at it like Fangio coaching tree teams, just to limit what the 49ers can do offensively.

Old school meets new school

In week four, the 49ers got on the board with the installation of a running play fans have not seen since the Jim Harbaugh days: wham. This gap scheme run design avoided running the ball to the edge and took advantage of a personnel deficiency by the Rams: Aaron Donald was not on the field.

Wham utilizes a trap block, or “wham” block, on the defensive tackle to the play side in an over or under front defense. Tight end Charlie Woerner (No. 89) is the wham blocker blocking the 1-technique defensive tackle to the play side. The rest of the line flows and blocks down left while center Jake Brendel peels to the backside SAM linebacker.

The Rams are in their base 3-4 over front defense with a two deep safety coverage shell. They have a hard edge with wide-9 technique stand-up linebackers on the ball. In an over front, the 3-technique is lined up to the designated primary tight end, George Kittle (No. 85), in the 49ers balanced two tight end “solo right” formation in 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends).

Before the snap, quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo checked into an audible at the line of scrimmage by yelling “CAN CAN!” after assessing that Donald was not on the field. Canning a play checks the offense into a new play, the second play call given in the huddle. At the snap, the left side of the offensive line blocks down as Woener’s sifts across to wham block the 1-tech defensive tackle. This opens up a massive hole for running back Jeff Wilson Jr (No. 22) to sprint 32 yards untouched for the touchdown.

New-ish wrinkles - split flow zone/misdirection/jet motion

One way the 49ers can deal with the hard edge setting defenses is to use a lot of eye candy to draw attention away from the ball carrier. Against the Rams, they did this through the use of jet motion and split flow action.

The bulk of the work the last two weeks was done by Wilson running their staple outside zone running concepts with a split flow design. In a split flow design, the run action goes one way while another receiver or tight end jet motions across or sift blocks to the backside. The intent of the split flow action is to hold backside defenders in place while moving others at the playside away from the ball carrier, essentially to split the defense in half.

The offense is running a split flow zone to the left here with the split flow going to the right. And left. The split flow blocker to the back side is the primary sift blocker here, Geor Kittle (No. 85) and Kittle is just a decoy to dress up the play even more and confuse defenders.

Just before the snap, Kittle goes in motion to the right. At the snap, Juszczyk sifts across to the left of the formation to block the backside edge defender and the offensive line steps to the left. The sift blocker is designed to “split” the defense and prevent pursuit coming from the backside. The linebackers cannot adequately fit the run and are left moving side to side as they follow the action of the split flow players. This allows Wilson to punch it up behind the right tackle and find a crease because the linebackers were slow to react.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

The 49ers relied heavily on zone misdirection and gap scheme running game in 2019 and look to do so again in 2022 as a counter to the hard edge setting teams. It best suits Wilson as a runner.

Zone misdirection - sift

Against the Panthers, the 49ers ran another zone misdirection play but one they frequently run, a staple called “14/15 F Sift”, which is a complementary play call to their outside zone run “Wanda.” Wanda is the base weak side outside zone run that the 49ers rely on quite frequently, designed to hit on the inside hip of the tackle.

On F sift, the initial motion is to the weak side toward those outside zone landmarks initially but ends up as an inside zone run. Teams who face the 49ers tend to flow that direction fast when they see it — the direction of the play changes when both backs wrap around to the strong side of the play.

The Panthers stack the box with eight defenders to counter the 49ers in 21 personnel. The run play starts off looking like weak side outside zone (Wanda) after Kittle motions over to the right. This gets the defense to fast flow as that is their assignment on wide zone, to get out of the box and to the edge as fast as possible before the offense can get there.

This allows the offensive line to get favorable blocking angles as the defenders move out of position as they chase the initial flow. After two steps by the fullback and running back in that direction, they both reverse course to the strong side (F sift) and Juszczyk kicks out the edge and Wilson sneaks in behind the second level blockers.

Counter GF fly

The counter run play is an old school gap scheme run that all teams run from traditional under center and mostly two back 21 personnel formations. The backside guard usually trap blocks or kicks out the defensive end or first up field defender while the rest of the line down blocks away from the point of attack. The use of a fullback adds an extra blocker to lead up through the hole, the down blocks, and the trapping guard.

One element Shanahan has added over the seasons is a jet or fly motion to the play call side of the run. Jet or fly motion on these gap runs does three things: 1) pulls a defender out of the box, 2) bumps the defense over a gap to the side of the motion and messes with the run fits, and 3) makes the offensive line blocking angles easier in space.

The 49ers are in 21 personnel under center running fly counter to the left. The fly motion messes with the gap assignments as the defenders have bump over a gap due to following the fly motion. Right guard Spencer Burford (No. 74) kicks out the defensive end with a trap block while Juszczyk lead blocks into the second level with a block on the first second level defender level defender in the hole.

Power Load

Similar to counter, power also uses a pulling lineman, and sometimes another lead blocker, to lead them back through the hole, but the running back does not take a counter step and instead takes a “draw” step in the direction of the play.

The run call here is power load, where “load” designates a fullback kicking out the edge or first defender in his track. This allows the pulling guard from the backside to lead up into the hole while the rest of the line down blocks toward the side the guard pulled from.

Typically, power load is a short yardage 22 personnel run design but here the 49ers run it from their 21 personnel package. Kittle motions over to the right pre-snap and post snap, Juszczk kicks out the edge rusher. The interior defenders come up to play the run but hesitate on the running back’s first step and get sealed off inside by the lead and down blocks of the offense. Wilson takes it up the middle a gain of 15 yards and narrowly misses a touchdown.

Outlook

The 49ers run game is starting to see the efficiency it once had as the offensive line becomes more consistent week to week with the rookies and veterans across the front. They are able to generate an efficient running offense without Trent Williams right now so his return soon should elevate this group and generate even more explosive runs. It will be interesting to see later one what kinds of wrinkles Anthony Lynn and Kyle Shanahan scheme up off these run designs.