49ers film room: Kyle Shanahan deconstructs Seattle’s pass coverage again with a familiar play
Shanahan kept the offense simple and used Seattle's coverage rules against them for big plays in the wildcard game win over their division rival.
In the previous article, we broke down how Shanahan used play action to dismantle the Seahawks coverages concepts and rules but in this one, we’ll look at two additional plays that show the ways that Shanahan not only messed with the linebacker as in the previous article, but how he also took advantage of the safeties and corners.
First play, 4th quarter, 2nd and 11 at SEA 40, 15:00 remaining
This is a play call that Shanahan killed Seattle with in week 15 versus in the Thursday night game. It’s a two vertical play action concept that is designed to put the outside corner in conflict where he has a deep third responsibility but is also the force defender as the outermost player versus the run. You can read more in this now unlocked post that was for paid subscribers originally.
Instead of a closed two tight end formation, the 49ers came out in 11 personnel here with Jauan Jennings running the outside vertical to the sideline.
Seattle is in cover-3 with their strong side corner, Tariq Woolen (No. 27), the force defender up on the line of scrimmage. It is a tough assignment for a corner to execute at the line of scrimmage where there is no detached receiver because the second they realize that it’s not a run play, they have to turn and locate the receiver they’re covering.
Woolen does everything right. He gets outside Jennings when he sees the run fake, that’s what he’s coached to do as the force, to try and turn everything back inside. As soon as he does though, Jennings runs downfield after he sells the run block on Woolen. Woolen is unable to get back and Jennings is wide open for a 28 yard gain. The throw isn’t perfect but that’s a difficult throw rolling to his left that only maybe four of the league’s quarterbacks can throw consistently with accurate placement.
Second play, 4th quarter, 2nd and 8 at SF 26, 11:04 remaining
The result of this play was 74-yard touchdown catch and run by Deebo Samuel early in the fourth quarter that put the game out of reach for Seattle. Shanahan is good at exploiting a team’s coverage rules and he’s put Seattle defenders in a blender here in this game more times than anyone they’ve played in 6 years as head coach (just due to being a division rival). And this play was no exception.
The 49ers create a 4-strong receiver distribution from 21 personnel again just before the snap. The pre-snap alignment/numbers the defense is counting go from the outermost wide receiver (#1), the tight end (#2), fullback (#3), and running back (#4). The 49ers are running a play action concept with wide zone flow to the offense’s right before the crossing routes cross to the left side of the field.
The defense is in “cover-6 sky” or “cover-6 skate” (Nick Saban coverage term” where weak side safety Ryan Neal (No. 26) has coverage responsibility on the #4 (CMC) if the running back is out to his side of the formation and if he’s not, then he has to locate the first crossing route. On top of this, he has run keys he has to read before he reads pass.
Since McCaffrey is out away from Neal in the route distribution after the play action fake, Neal should be looking for Deebo. But Neal was aggressively chasing a potential cutback on a running play that he would be responsible for if Purdy handed the ball off. Deebo gets open in the space where the weak safety vacated to come downhill and Purdy tosses it out to him.
Neal might have blown the coverage responsibility here, but the more egregious aspect of this play is that if Seattle felt like they had a shot to get back into this game with plenty of time in the fourth quarter, over 11 minutes, the tackling attempts showed the audience and themselves that they pretty much threw in the towel on this one.
Deebo evaded nearly every defender on his way to a 76 yard touchdown catch and run and he didn’t even look like he was running full speed. Also Brandon Aiyuk had a great downfield block on the corner.
Outlook
The 49ers will need near-flawless execution of their offense versus Dallas like they had in the second half versus Seattle. Shanahan should have no problem finding ways to create space against another defensive scheme similar to Seattle’s with Dan Quinn’s Dallas defense, a scheme he spent two years going against and one he had success coaching against last year in the wildcard round at Dallas.
This rematch is the final game of the weekend and likely the de facto game of the week. The 49ers should be rested and ready.
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