Film room: 49ers run defense, a lack of effort or a lack of execution in the NFC Championship game?
Effort might have been bad on a couple of plays but the 49ers defense has execution issues they need to clean up in advance of the Super Bowl.
Author’s note: I wanted to get these out sooner but I got sick when I was mostly finished and didn’t do much. Finished up 2 articles on this game today.
There was a lot of buzz this past week over the 49ers defense’s “lack of effort” in the 34-31 win over the Lions in the NFC Championship game. To be fair, the defense was borderline abysmal in the first half of that game and needed several lucky breaks to go their way in the second half because of the hole they were already in.
Still, the entire week’s worth of press conferences had 49ers players and coaches answering questions about an overall “lack of effort.” On their effort, Kyle Shanahan stated “Were we 100-percent? No.” And Wilks stated on Friday that “collectively as a team, I can tell you as a defense it’s unacceptable.”
The players acknowledged it as well. Fred Warner spoke about effort, but he made sure to emphasize execution above everything else. And from that Shanahan quote above, the last part of his comments on it? “That game was more about how we played run defense, just not all 11 guys running on every single play.”
The effort might have been lacking on a couple of plays but the main issue they faced was more of an execution issue than with total effort. A lack of execution does not equal a lack of effort. A player can play with full intensity and speed and still blow his assignment or miss a tackle.
Three plays that show this in the first half of the NFCCG game last week illustrate that it isn’t really a lack of effort, but instead is just poorly executed assignments. I would also just be reluctant to criticize a player for lack of effort, especially on a team that qualified for the Super Bowl. Nonetheless, let’s talk through some of the plays.
First play
On the game’s first drive here, the Lions play call here is a split-flow inside zone run to the weak side against the 49ers 8-man front. They are in a double tight end “Y-off” formation in an 7-man surface. The 49ers defense is “gapped out,” meaning they have 8-man spacing and every gap accounted for with single high coverage behind it.
When the linebackers see the split flow action post snap, they correctly bump a gap over, using what’s called “indicator run fits.” In this type of run fit, the “indicator” is the tight end across the formation. When they see this, they should fold inside to the next gap over with the flow of the split action. This ends up happening for everyone except linebacker Oren Burks, who’s reading the running back flow.
There’s nothing from running back David Montgomery indicating a wide zone run though. His shoulders are square to the line of scrimmage, indicating a downhill inside run. Burks should be reading the action of the Y-off, in this case the split flow action. Instead, he tries to fit outside and leaves the A-gap wide open for Montgomery to shoot through for an 11 yard gain.
Second play
Later in the first quarter, on a 2nd-and-10 on the Lions second scoring drive, Randy Gregory failed to set the edge properly, leading to a 10 yard gain inside the red zone for the Lions. The Lions are running a long trap where instead of blocking the 3-technique defensive end, they pull the guard to block the edge and try to create a crease off the front side tackle/tight end, who are blocking down.
Gregory, as the edge setter, is playing a “box fit” where he engages the puller with outside leverage by attacking his outside shoulder and “boxing” the run in.
This is different from what’s commonly referred to as a “spill fit” where the defender uses a “wrong arm” technique and engages the puller by attacking his inside shoulder with the defender’s outside shoulder, which has the effect of spilling the ball carrier outside.
Source: Blitzology
Notice how the defenders shuffle down the line of scrimmage, staying square so they don’t give up their leverage.
That’s not what Gregory does here. Instead, he gave up the edge the second he went perpendicular to the line of scrimmage. The box fit allows a defender to be in a position to make the tackle if the ball carrier is spilled outside. Gregory, by being perpendicular, was not in position.
Gregory lost his leverage outside so he wasn’t in a position to make a play, allowing Jahmyr Gibbs to get to the edge. The defense was not able to rally in time to limit the gain because they were washed down inside as the corner was able to get two defenders on the perimeter blocked up. But since Gregory came so far inside, the defense was not in a position to limit the gain.
Third play
The infamous clip that went viral that appears to show Chase Young “loafing” and taking a play off. I do not believe this was the case. I believe they felt confident the man next to them was going to make a play and I believe going forward they won’t let that happen.
But it wasn’t just Young. Javon Kinlaw and Kevin Givens were also on bad pursuit angles and their body language, where they let up thinking Gipson saved the play with a tackle, suggests as much. It wasn’t so much as loafing as it was them believing they had just tackled the ball carrier. Mistakes that can’t happen regardless.
The Lions are running just a basic toss play to the edge again, 15 yards out from the end zone, where they pull the tight end around and down block on the edge with receivers.
The defense does what they’re coached to do on this until the moment of pursuit and Gipson missing the tackle. First, Bosa is crack blocked inside. When that happens, Deommodore Lenoir, the force player, should replace him on the edge. He does. But he gets crack blocked too. When this happens, that should trigger Gipson to get to the perimeter and replace Lenoir as the force player. He also happens to be the alley runner here.
Gipson has a free run in the alley at Gibbs on this play but fails to make the tackle as Gibbs quickly changes direction. Not ideal, but not the worst thing in the world either. There’s still a chance to limit this to a 5 yard gain if anything.
This is where the pursuit comes in. With Givens, Kinlaw, and Young all in the same circle of space, there is no one to cut off the downfield angles of the running back should he get there.
Ward keeps the play inside but the three defensive linemen pull up just slightly thinking the play might be over, and then can’t recover when Gibbs breaks downfield. This is pursuit drill 101: defenders should be running at different angles to cut off the ball carrier path and make a stop. Brown is downfield protecting the goal line but there is no one else there to wall off Gibbs’s path. It wasn’t just Young.
Outlook
There is a lot to clean up and understandably the coaches and players are, and should be, mad at themselves. It’s stating the obvious but they cannot make these mistakes in the Super Bowl. It will be a long night if that happens. Fortunately, I think they learned some valuable lessons and their own personal and team outlook on their situation might look a little different. Several players have been on this stage before for this team and they know what’s at stake.