Examining the 49ers Game Plan for the Seattle Seahawks

For my latest project, I take a week by week game plan view of Kyle Shanahan's offense with the San Francisco 49ers for the 2021 season. 

In week 13, the 49ers had game planned a few really neat play action concepts to attack Seattle's defense. The following examples are also included in my latest book. 

PLAY 1

The 49ers featured their Counter – Solid run scheme against the Seahawks in week 4, and also in this matchup. The next image shows a neat play action concept off this motion and run action.

 

The route concept has been in the 49ers playbook for a while now. The tweak is the fast motion and bluff from the F, Kyle Juszczyk. The first off-ball defender is responsible for fitting a new C-gap created if the F slices/kicks the DE, so he has to work downhill and under control with the motion.

Against single high coverage, with the first off ball defender in a bind and the post clearing out the corner, the bluff-wheel route has a ton of space to work with down the field. The next image shows how this plays out. 

Many of the 49ers play action concepts in this game attacks the seam/flat player with a run/pass conflict.

 The 49ers call this at 1^st Q 4:02.

PLAY 2

The next image shows another way the 49ers put the seam/flat player in a no win situation. The play shows another way to get to the same concept on the previous page. A bluff-wheel with a bang route on the other side of the field. 

In this clip, Kittle (Y) sells like he is arcing for the down safety in a single high structure. He bluffs the safety and gets vertical, having the same effect as the concept on the previous pages.

If the defense has a hard edge (a man outside the Y), Kittle would sell the reach block on this defender before releasing.

PLAY 3

Around 6:30 in the 3^rd quarter, the 49ers ran a nice constraint off their gun 2-back Counter – Solid action. The next image shows the play. 

This concept is a combination of a crack toss (without a puller) and outside zone. I have classified it in the past (and in the 2019 49ers Manual) as a version of lead outside zone (weak). The 49ers like this concept against heavy/5-down fronts, especially with a 3 technique set weak. With a 3 technique weak, this allows for a double team up to the first linebacker. 

PLAY 4

The next image shows another fun play action concept from week 13. 

This concept is similar in structure to the two previous play action calls. This time, the bluff-wheel/seam runner comes from inside the new C-gap. Additionally, the route land marks witch and the bluffer is now the seam route instead of working up the sideline.

 This concept was called at 4^th Quarter 12:43

After writing the 2019 San Francisco 49ers Complete Offensive Manual, I wanted to dive deeper into the week to week adjustments and how the 49ers prepare for each specific opponent. the format of this book allowed me to do so, and also explore some fun one-off plays. A few of these examples are included in this article!

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