Relive the Packer Defense Against the 49ers Playoff Edition

[pbmax]

The pictures alone are causing vertigo:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/word-muth/2013/word-muth-san-francisco-clinic

[woodbuck27]

Forward that memo to MM.

I also recommend supplying some of this:

http://gravol.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/icon_adult.jpg

[pbmax]

And Nutz, this one is for you. The author of the piece above predicts the 49ers will bust out a play called Veer Power and it looks like this (taken from Smart Football's writeup of Gus Malzahn's offense):

http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2009/06/gus-malzahnauburn-tigers-run-game.html


Power

The "power" run is another that has ancient, "power football" roots but has been adapted to the spread. And it, again, is very simple: the line essentially "down" blocks, meaning they block the men over them or to their inside, and will use teamwork to combination block the defensive linemen until one releases to hit the linebackers. The exception is the defensive end or other outside, on the line of scrimmage defender. (Aptly referred to as the EMLOS -- "end man on the line of scrimmage.") The fullback -- or H-back, or someone -- plows at him to kick him out, thus opening a crease.

The crease becomes a hole, however, because the backside guard pulls and "leads" into it to block the linebacker, or other first threatening defender. In this way the blocking works much as it does on "counter," but with more of a frontside attack. Below is a diagram of how an NFL team runs the play; it is in every NFL team's playbook. (Click on the diagram to make it larger.)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1PiTuBhELbU/SjqBa36F2sI/AAAAAAAAAt0/Am2T3NsNjlg/s400/power-pro.GIF


And below is a common look Malzahn ran "power" from while at Tulsa, using the "pistol" (short shotgun with the runningback directly behind the quarterback) and a cross between an H-back and a fullback. See below.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1PiTuBhELbU/SjqBt5TWnwI/AAAAAAAAAt8/gGC3QbIVyuQ/s400/auburnpower.GIF


This will be a common set for Auburn. Malzahn likes lining up with three wide receivers, but then also likes the versatility of the H-back/tight-end/fullback type as a blocker in a variety of directions. Again, compare his straight ahead blocking on "power" with his about face to the opposite side on "counter." (And with the pistol set the runningback could go either direction.)

[KYPack]

And Nutz, this one is for you. The author of the piece above predicts the 49ers will bust out a play called Veer Power and it looks like this (taken from Smart Football's writeup of Gus Malzahn's offense):

http://smartfootball.blogspot.com/2009/06/gus-malzahnauburn-tigers-run-game.html



http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1PiTuBhELbU/SjqBa36F2sI/AAAAAAAAAt0/Am2T3NsNjlg/s400/power-pro.GIF



http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_1PiTuBhELbU/SjqBt5TWnwI/AAAAAAAAAt8/gGC3QbIVyuQ/s400/auburnpower.GIF

In that bottom play, the LG seals the SAM with a reach block on the outside shoulder?
He's gonna make that block once a lfetime.
Any Mike worth his salt is gonna slide the D to the strong side.

[pbmax]

OK, let's dissect. 56 Yard Ck touchdown run outside of Walden. Muth gives us two pictures:

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/images/Muth/Muth011713-5.jpg

http://www.footballoutsiders.com/images/Muth/Muth011713-6.jpg

Muth claims this defense has Raji in it. Which means Raji is LDE, Pick is at NT and Wilson is RDE. Matthews is at his normal ROLB and Walden is LOLB with Jones RILB and Hawk at RILB.

He claims the circled player is Raji being blown 3 yards to the right and exposing both the A and B gap. He identifies Jones as in position in the B and possibly C gap and assigned to look for Gore on this play. He names Walden as contain and responsible for CK. First problem here is with his screen cap. The player circled isn't obvious from the pic. First glance, I thought it was Pick, later viewing I thought that could be #90 there. But he isn't being blocked. Whoever it is, is running right. Some combo of lineman and Hawk(50) are jumbled in front of the circled player, but its hard to tell who is who in this pic. Looks like hawk is in the middle of the scrum.

The second problem is that Kevin Green has come out publicly said Walden was not at fault. And the Packers did indeed spend a lot of the game crashing OLBs inside to squeeze the inside option and send the ILB outside to chase CK back inside. If that version is true, then there are two other issues. Walden gets far too tied up with the H back and doesn't squeeze anything. Two, either Jones got faked out by the handoff action CK-Gore or he doesn't know the call. He is out of position for a scrape.

Last question is what the hell happened to Hawk and Raji. Why are they bunched together to the right of the snap, in front of the Offense's Left Guard?

[KYPack]

Greenie was just publically "standing by his man".

NFL Films had Kevin miked up.

After this play, Kevin went up to Walden and said, "You can't do that, Erik Walden" and repeated it.

Walden just stomped around with that zoned out expression he gets and sat down.

Walden must have some kind of OCD thing going on. The guy just loses it.

[pbmax]

Greenie was just publically "standing by his man".

NFL Films had Kevin miked up.

After this play, Kevin went up to Walden and said, "You can't do that, Erik Walden" and repeated it.

Walden just stomped around with that zoned out expression he gets and sat down.

Walden must have some kind of OCD thing going on. The guy just loses it.

Really? Was it on the highlights or online?

[Bossman641]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPVkZwvMWrc

Here's the play. At the snap Raji engages the RG, then Davis comes in and shoves him clear across the formation.

[LegandofthePack15]

Here's the play. At the snap Raji engages the RG, then Davis comes in and shoves him clear across the formation.

Damn, Wood looked slow on that play.

[KYPack]

Really? Was it on the highlights or online?

It was "Inside the NFL" on 'Showtime. That one has all the best NFL films highlights and isn't bleeped much for language.

CMIII and Greenie were both miked up. Not much yield, tho.

There is another funny moment when KG gets the D together on the sideline. He leans in and very quietly gives his pep talk.

He talks so low, it's hard to hear. The only words that came across clearly were "these motherfuckers".

So Kevin is still fluent in "player-speak".

[pbmax]

Thanks Bossman, that's great. For some reason, Raji just lets himself get turned in and then gets hit, almost unexpectedly, by a double team. He seems to either not know the call or not care. Hawk looks to penetrate the LOS and just runs right into a Guard for no reason.

That leaves a lot of room for Jones who clearly has the A-B gaps and Gore. And this confirms Walden ignores his C-gap/QB responsibility to watch/help with Gore, all the while ignoring CK.

They need to bring Barry up to yell at them about the option and responsibility for an entire week before next year's game. Barry's defenses had trouble with speed, but they played the option very well.

[George Cumby]

This is great stuff, guys. I am learning a ton. Thank you.

[3irty1]

Jones bytes on this fake as hard as you can bite on one without actually tackling the back. A faster guy than Walden isn't in the worst position to make that play.

[mraynrand]

It's just startling to see how many defenders are turned completely the wrong way on the TD run. Startling.

[Guiness]

Jones bytes on this fake as hard as you can bite on one without actually tackling the back. A faster guy than Walden isn't in the worst position to make that play.

Did he ever! I think Jones actually made contact before realizing Gore didn't have the ball. Walden seemed more than happy to engage the FB, Miller on that play. Walden may not have been in the worst position, but given that CK had a 40 time around 4.4, and Walden ran a 4.7 he was never going to catch him in what was pretty much a straight line run.

[pbmax]

Same bad read on the handoff when he went around Matthew for a big gain. They should be able to simulate the option handoff with Cobb and a couple of other guys. Rodgers uses it even though he is running a read option pass. Matthews at least had the excuse that they were running a scrape (OLB and ILB swap containment gaps) and he was supposed to cover the handoff.

The problem, again, is discipline. You don't want the D falling for the ol' hidden ball trick. So you, Mr. Jones have or the first ball carrier through the hole. Not until you see he doesn't have the ball affirmatively, do you peel away.

Walden falls for this completely and you can watch his head turn. He has to keep an eye on CK and not until he doesn't have the ball do you leave that gap unmanned.

[smuggler]

You can see from the side view that Walden still believes Gore has taken the handoff. Even if Walden were miraculously faster on this play, CK will still gain a huge chunk or the TD, because Walden would not have been in pursuit soon enough to make an impact on the play. If we'd been playing Collins or Burnett in Wood's spot, there's a chance of a TD saving tackle. If Shields weren't held, he would have easily run CK down.

[pbmax]

You can see from the side view that Walden still believes Gore has taken the handoff. Even if Walden were miraculously faster on this play, CK will still gain a huge chunk or the TD, because Walden would not have been in pursuit soon enough to make an impact on the play. If we'd been playing Collins or Burnett in Wood's spot, there's a chance of a TD saving tackle. If Shields weren't held, he would have easily run CK down.

And that raises a good scheme question. Walden has to stay wide enough to keep CK inside or at least hesitate to allow pursuit. One thing college's do for this play to to send a safety or other DB up the field immediately as an alley defender. He supports the B-C gap by allowing the ILB to keep inside leverage and allow no cutback and the OLB to keep outside leverage and contain CK.

Woodson could do this but he was deep. Of the other safeties, only McMillan seems like a guy who would thrive in such a role. Burnett is probably OK for this.

And this all comes back to counting defenders and having the qb be a threat to run. Sam Shields is negated on this play. Normal defenses scheme against 10 players for a run. San Fran on a read option is forcing you to account for 11. The motion to the backfield leaves Shields with nothing to do on this play. So its 11 on 10, in favor of the O. He must stay on the right in case someone leaks out but the H back blocks as does Davis on Matthews.

And that probably means there might be a reverse direction off this play the 49ers run if you retreat Shields to play safety and allow the other two safeties to come up fast.

[smuggler]

That's a good point, but was Shields on the payside or the backside? From my memory, he was on the playside but was held by Crabtree, but that could have been another play. The refs don't call holding much at all in the playoffs, so it wasn't surprising they let 4 or 5 good ones go. They eventually had to call the one against Matthews because it was too blatant to ignore.

[Bossman641]

You can see from the side view that Walden still believes Gore has taken the handoff. Even if Walden were miraculously faster on this play, CK will still gain a huge chunk or the TD, because Walden would not have been in pursuit soon enough to make an impact on the play. If we'd been playing Collins or Burnett in Wood's spot, there's a chance of a TD saving tackle. If Shields weren't held, he would have easily run CK down.

Shields is on the other side of the field. I think you are seeing Tramon getting held, although he didnt make much effort to get off the block in the first place.

[mraynrand]

Shields is on the other side of the field. I think you are seeing Tramon getting held, although he didnt make much effort to get off the block in the first place.


That's the thing - sometimes you just have to fight enough to make the holding obvious, so they have to call it. If you just do the dancing bear routine, they won't call it. Fight hard and move to the ball, and maybe they see that uniform getting stretched and pulled. That's a physical fail on T. Will's part.

[gbgary]

"They weren't who we thought they were." - MM

[Carolina_Packer]

Thanks Bossman, that's great. For some reason, Raji just lets himself get turned in and then gets hit, almost unexpectedly, by a double team. He seems to either not know the call or not care. Hawk looks to penetrate the LOS and just runs right into a Guard for no reason.

That leaves a lot of room for Jones who clearly has the A-B gaps and Gore. And this confirms Walden ignores his C-gap/QB responsibility to watch/help with Gore, all the while ignoring CK.

They need to bring Barry up to yell at them about the option and responsibility for an entire week before next year's game. Barry's defenses had trouble with speed, but they played the option very well.

Who is Barry?

[Joemailman]

It's just shocking to me how long it took Walden to figure out Kaepernick had the ball.

[Freak Out]

Everyone gets fooled once in awhile, but man....that is some ugly shit.

[KYPack]

Who is Barry?

Alvarez. He admired WI's discipline in their run fits vs option plays. I guess.

[mraynrand]

I thought it was Barry Switzer, because of the amount of option he's seen in his life. Of course, with an IQ that matches the temperature of a cool spring day, Barry Switzer is the last guy you want to consult with to teach anyone anything.

[pbmax]

Who is Barry?

Alvarez. There were many occasions when the Badgers defense caused a lot of consternation with their performance, but one thing it usually did very well was stick to their responsibilities against the option. They were always prepared and rarely fooled.

They did have trouble with spread to run offenses with mobile QBs, but that wasn't assignment issues, it was a speed issue.

This is not an entirely serious suggestion, but meant to illuminate that the usual Packer attack of go forward with all speed, gets torched by mobile players or options. Atlanta played the 49er read to seal CK in by just sitting outside.

They then had to defend Gore's inside handoff with one fewer player, but they were consistent and disciplined and stopped CK from killing them. Gore got two scores, but both came on big drives one of which was helped by an Packer-like defensive penalty on 3rd down. You have to give the offense a chance to make a mistake if you can't match CK's speed.