WCF Film Room: Detailing the 49ers plan to defeat the Jets toss plays
The 49ers defense was determined to not let the Jets toss plays out flank them on the perimeter of the defense.
Back in the 2023 regular season, and in the playoffs, the 49ers defense was susceptible to explosive runs on the perimeter by opposing teams who would run crack toss, outside zone toss, or sweep runs to the edge. The Packers and Lions killed them on those plays in the divisional round and NFC Championship game, largely due them to a being an aggressive 1-gap defense aggressively pursuing up-field and certain schematic tweaks that former defensive coordinator Steve Wilks made last season.
In week one on Monday night, the Jets probed the perimeter numerous times with toss plays trying to expose the one weakness in the 49ers run defense. It didn’t work well for the Jets because the 49ers clearly spent time working on this in the off season and did not let the Jets rip off any decent gains while running this play.
In the playoff games against the Packers and Lions, the 49ers rotated to two deep safeties with motion across the formation and were down a defender in the box to defend the run. That is not an ideal position to be in with offenses very skilled at changing the blocking and shifting the gaps at the point of attack.
In the NFC Championship game, the Lions were able to get the 49ersedges on run after run in the first half. They’re out-gapped on the perimeter, chasing too far down the line of scrimmage, and effectively unable to set any kind of edge with crack-replace defenders not replacing on the perimeter and missing tackles when they do.
Against the Packers, the motion to 2x2 formations pushed the safeties to a 2-deep shell where post snap they were able to change the gaps at the point of attack and outnumbered the 49ers defense on the edge 3-to-2.
Having no safety in the box and having the opposing interior offensive line being able to cut off the linebacker pursuit was a recipe for disaster. The edge defenders were unable to fight through the crack blocks as well and the Packers got to the edge with ease.
It does look like the 49ers spent time this offseason working on defending the toss plays that teams will try to run again on them this season and with the Lions and Packers on the schedule later this year, it became imperative that they cleaned up these issues. In Monday night’s game, you can clearly see the emphasis on staying gap sound and not letting the crack block influence their assignments.
In addition to this, the scheme tweaks made this offseason also revealed that 1) the 49ers don’t prefer to play these run game concepts from a split safety coverage shell and instead shifted to a more single high defense and 2) it appears that defensive coordinator Nick Sorenson moved the box safety back to primarily strong side role.
Under Wilks, that safety (Hufanga) primarily played the weak side as they were more comfortable with Gipson rolling coverage and guarding the #2 receiver inside in certain situations. It appears for now that the down safety will shift back to the strong side of the formation away from the pass strength.
On the first play of the game on Monday night, the 49ers stayed in a single coverage shell and indicated they were in cover-3 by bumping over a gap at the linebacker position and not running with the tight end.
The Jets are running a wide zone toss to the left in 12 personnel. With the safety Ja’Ayir Brown down in the box, the 49ers are not outnumbered anymore at the point of attack and are actually +1 to the Jets blockers, 4-on-3 on the edge.
Demetrius Flannagan-Fowles is the unblocked defender, tracks the inside hip of the running back, and nearly tackles him for a loss but missed the tackle. It was only a positive play due to the missed tackle but Brown and Deommodore Lenoir were able get outside the ball carrier on the perimeter and limit the run.
Later the Jets called another toss to their right this time but the 49ers showed through alignment and technique that they were ready for this concept this season.
Instead of aligning in a 2-deep coverage shell post snap, the coverage rotated to a single high shell pre-snap before the motion. The Packers were aligned in a condensed 3x1 and motioned to a 2x2 just before the snap and got the 49ers box defenders to bump a gap over (zone alignments again).
The Jets moved the point of attack 3 gaps over with the pullers. The key here is Lenoir’s quick trigger inside once Nick Bosa get’s cracked on the edge. Lenoir replaces him as the force defender with a textbook crack-replace technique to knife through one of the gaps. Bosa erases the other gap by spinning out of the block, leaving one Jets blocker to take on Fred Warner and Charvarius Ward on the edge. The Jets gain 2.
In the second quarter, the Jets came back to the toss play, running it to the right again and the result was the same. The Jets stayed static and didn’t motion to move the defensive alignment. They figured they could probably get that extra blocker to the right this time but the 49ers were able to cut the gaps again.Â
This time the defense aligned the safety to the strong side in the box instead of away from it like in the second play. The offense created extra gaps again on the perimeter but the 49ers simply beat them to edge and forced just another 2-yard gain.
The key here again is the crack-replace by George Odum (No. 30) after Leonard Floyd gets crack blocked. Odum and De’Vondre Campbell quickly get to the edge faster than the blockers. Floyd spins out of the block and Warner has already beaten his blocker to the perimeter as well.
Overall it was a solid defensive performance from the 49ers. They immediately found answers to the Jets passing game as well and were able to break up passes, generate turnovers (1 forced fumble and recovery, 1 interception), and were able to put the clamps on an Aaron Rodgers-led offense all night. The Jets eventually pulled him from the game in the last half of the fourth quarter and outside of two Jets scoring drives, the game never felt close again by about halfway through the 2nd quarter.
The 49ers travel to Minnesota this weekend to face their former backup Sam Darnold in a stadium where they lost last season 22-17 and haven’t won a road game against the Vikings since 1992. Perhaps that changes this weekend?