Movie theater: 49ers bash counter concept and the new double threat offense

Against the Las Vegas Raiders in the last preseason game last week, the 49ers replaced rookie quarterback Trey Lance to unveil what could be their regular season strategy, at least initially, with one offense ” double quarterback ”. On the game’s first two discs, Lance came in for Garoppolo to showcase at least some of his skills as a double-threat quarterback by performing a variety of play option concepts. Although they only faced most of the Raiders’ saves, the results were devastating.

Two discs, two touchdowns rushed by the quarters. Jimmy showed his tenacity when he started on a designed deployment, saw no one open and decided he was going to hit him himself from 5 yards while taking a crushing blow. On the next practice, Lance sent a receiver on a throwing motion through the formation, the lead blocker executed a downwind block, and Lance shot a zone read keeper and entered without touching the formation. end zone.

This might not be how they run the attack when Jimmy is the starter and Shanahan even said it after the game, but it wasn’t even the most interesting part.

As we’ve seen over the past few seasons, the 49ers under Shanahan have continued to diversify their rushed offense, and the last preseason game against the Raiders was no exception when Shanahan added a new concept to his. arsenal, but the one that has been used in league with great success with the Ravens: the bash counter.

Zone reading concepts

Stroke counter

Counter-bash is part of the counter-option family of racing games that use draw blockers and back-running action of the ball carrier to deflect defense. Like the zone reading, the quarterback counter option is executed by reading an unlocked defensive end.

The above counter option is a basic running game for the Oklahoma Sooners. The game is tagged with an arc block from the back side to the play side of the quarterback in case the quarterback continues. The combination of left tackle and left guard shoots the side of the play for the ball carrier. As the defensive end above the tackle widens with the back, Kyler Murray hands the ball over to the running back on the right side behind the shooting lineman.

The game diagram above is the concept of the bash counter in Jim Harbaugh’s playbook that Greg Roman uses in Baltimore with Lamar Jackson. The Bash counter reverses the responsibilities of the quarterback and the half-back. The quarterback becomes the inside runner on the bash meter, and the running back becomes the outside runner. Its poor orientation is intrinsically integrated. Shooters go one way, and ball carriers and lead blockers go another way.

The Ravens killed that concept with Jackson under center (former Shanahan quarterback and Ravens replacement Robert Griffin III also gained 39 concept yards in a single start last season for Jackson as well).

Against the Raiders in the last preseason game, the 49ers called the game twice on the same disc. And in either case, Lance gave it to running back Raheem Mostert instead of keeping him. In the first game, the donation was justified due to the fact that the reading defender was compressing the C-gap and the safety blitz on the opposite side. He should have kept it on second because the reading defender widened with the running back, but Mostert was so quick on the edge it didn’t matter. Instead, he just used his speed to turn no gain into 10 yards.

In the first game, the 49ers come out in a “right trip” – where three receivers line up on the right side – training and George Kittle tight movement to the left to create a 2×2. The defender read is n ° 51 on the left of the defense (offensive right).

Defender Lu climbs onto the pitch and squeezes C-Gap to pressure Lance to give the ball to Mostert. The safety blitz also dictated a surrender as the safety would have a clear shot on the quarterback. Dan Brunskill’s right guard and right tackle combination is a blocking convoy for Lance if he keeps.

Mostert takes over at the mesh, reaches the edge and hits the crease between the receptors blocking the downfield.

On the second game (in the second clip of the video above), Lance could have kept him, but there’s reason to suspect that Shanahan and the offensive staff didn’t want him to take unnecessary punches (even Raiders’ second team defense) even though it had a wide open lane.

A few other concepts the 49ers have scored in this game that we’re sure to see at the start of the regular season this weekend are the zone read arc, some play action out of the zone read mesh and the gun training.

Gun arc zone reading

To counter the zone reading, the defenses will trade a gap between a linebacker and the defensive end. This allows the defensive end to collapse no matter what happens to the running back, forcing the quarterback to stay. If the quarterback is guarding, the next line of defense in defense is the scraping by a linebacker on top to meet the quarterback.

The offense against this is a bow block through a tight end or back. Defensive ends learn to enter the backfield and look for the back or the screen blocker. The arc block initially looks like a sieve block and is designed to confuse the defensive end and cause him to crash onto the line. The arc blocker bypasses the defensive end and moves to the next level to block the scraper linebacker.

In the first clip, the Raiders played it really well and didn’t trade a gap. Instead, the defensive end widened with the arc block from behind, and the linebacker who would normally scratch the rally tightened the gap in C and stopped the running back for a gain. minimal.

In the second clip, Lance should have kept the ball and run behind Kittle’s bow block, but be very careful with Kittle’s bow. Instead, he sold the block on the defensive end so well that he froze it, allowing the running back to gain a few extra yards.

In another variation of the read arc, the offense ran a read area from a closed YY formation (double ended tight to one side).

The tight ends let the defensive end go as a reading defender as they climb up to block the safety and the corner out of the rim. Interestingly, the 49ers have a concept of overtaking that same lineup, a concept of two verticals out of play-action.

There is a strong possibility that we will see a false zone reading of this formation with Lance throwing a deep vertical.

Gun game action

Last week I wrote what the in-game action might look like with the various fake area read meshes out of gun training.

In this first game, the 49ers perform a basic shooting game in the Shanahan playbook called “blazer”. Blazer is a deep cross with a blazer route (sort of enlarged skinny post). The progression is the blazer route to the deep crossing below.

Lance, coming out of the pistol, performs the false game with the zone read mesh. This affects the recruiting of linebackers and makes them hesitate just enough that they can’t come back to properly cover the crosshair. Since the safety doesn’t bite while racing or stray deep to frame the blazer route, Lance pulls out the reading of Jalen Hurd running the deep crosser.

Throw puts the ball over the defender, but the pass hits Hurd in the face mask. Hurd didn’t use it as he actually rode the road too shallow and should have headed for the numbers earlier instead of drifting down late in the road. Instead, Hurd allowed the defender to cut the road, making the throw more difficult. He compounded the problem by dropping a perfectly placed pass.

Later in the game, Shanahan called out a simple and effective designed deployment that floods the right side of the defense (the left of the attack) with a slide-to-the-flat path, an end-run flat, an intermediate crossover. and a corner path.

Lance rolls left after the quick feint and passes the flat road for the intermediate crosseur, and hits Hurd perfectly in stride with a defender in a track technique position.

Spear as red zone threat

It looks like the 49ers will also use Lance in high leverage red zone situations that attempt to put maximum stress on the defense.

In Lance’s red zone touchdown run, the 49ers ran through the flashback zone. The return zone looks like a counter with a zone blocking in advance. The ball carrier takes a counter-step and then backs up against the current after taking the ball. On the game above, just in the downwind zone, the quarterback kicks the back in motion while the tight end blocks at the snap in the same way. Again, the ball carrier counter-steps before taking the snap and takes it for the touchdown.

During Lance’s red zone touchdown run, the 49ers called the kickback zone. In a split-weapon lineup with full-back Josh Hokit and Trey Sermon, Lance is reading the Raiders’ weak defensive end.

He sends wide receiver Jalen Hurd on a throwing motion. Defense takes into account his snap movement, Hokit’s movement to the weak side, and the mesh between Lance and Sermon. But the defense can’t react fast enough and Lance comes in for the touchdown.

Outlook

The final preseason game gave us a glimpse of how Lance will allow Shanahan to expand the playbook even though he’s not the starter right away. Using his legs early and often will allow him to go on the attack full time. Until then, it’s safe to say we’ll see Lance in limited use in some packages and in high leverage situations.