Anatomy of play: breaking down the 49ers sail concept touchdown in week 2 and the Seattle coverage bust that led to it
Anatomy of play: breaking down the 49ers sail concept touchdown in week 2 and the Seattle coverage bust that led to it
This play breakdown looks at the touchdown pass on "Sail Basic" from Jimmy Garoppolo to tight end Ross Dwelley early in the second quarter.
49ers backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is now the starter again for the remainder of the season after Trey Lance went down with a season ending ankle injury. On his first full drive back since being named the backup, he led the offense on a 78-yard touchdown drive after the 49ers already led 3-0.
The play call is “Sail Basic” which is a scissors concept to the passing strength (deep post over a corner or sail route underneath) paired with a backside “basic” or dig route in the 12-14 yard range downfield. Versus cover-3 or single high coverage, the quarterback should throw the scissors side of the concept as it puts both the flat defender and the corner in conflict. If the flat defender sinks, the pass can go to the flat receiver.
If the cornerback runs with the post, then the pass goes to the corner route. If the cornerback peels off to the corner route, the pass can go to the deep post route before the safety is able to get over. The post route is more ideal to throw versus quarters coverage where the offense can get the safety to chase the corner or sail/out route.
Versus cover-2, in the example above from the Rams in a week two game against the Colts in 2021, the quarterback would move through the progression to the backside dig route in front of the deep safeties.
Against Seattle in week 2, Kyle Shanahan found yet another way to exploit Seattle pass coverage like he does nearly every season for at least one or two big plays.
The 49ers are running play action sail basic out of a pistol formation.
Seattle is in a single high cover-3 defense playing a 3-deep/3-under 5-man rush fire zone. Pre-snap shows Jimmy Garoppolo that the scissors side is where this pass is going. The only thing he has to read now is where that corner goes, with the post or with the sail route.
Garaoppolo motions Deebo Samuel (No. 19) across to put him in a jet motion to the flat. To the defense, Deebo becomes the “fast-3” player to the flat and automatically becomes linebacker Cody Barton’s (No. 57) responsibility in the flat as the seam/curl/flat defender.
The middle hook or “3-receiver hook” (3RH) defender automatically becomes linebacker Jordyn Brooks (No. 56). In “3RH,” since the fast-3 receiver is in the flat, the 3RH defender should take tight end Ross Dwelley down the seam as the new #3 but he is still visioning the flat and gets caught in conflict because of where his eyes go.
The cornerback ran with the post so Dwelley was wide open at the numbers for Garoppolo. The coverage bust was on Seattle’s Jordyn Brooks (No. 56) but in past defensive structures under Pete Carroll, it is also possible that the cornerback that ran with the post route should have peeled off to the corner route and passed off the post to the safety.
It’s not clear if that should have happened here. What is clear is that Shanahan found yet another way to exploit the coverage rules of the Seahawks offense.