I watched some stuff and studied formations from Colin K.'s days at Nevada, and some of the stuff they did last year in the Pistol offense. I also did the same with the redskins, and decided to do informal breakdowns.
For the 9ers they run the pistol, and are very creative offensively. They run the read-option, but they also just run QB keepers via different formations and beat you that way. When you add traditional formations and concepts with play action with the flash fakes, and it's no surprise they had great success.
The redskins, on the other hand, ran their keepers differently. While the niners had good formations and blocking assigned so that Colin K. could run, the redskins keep plays were less formal. It's not surprise that bob got broken. It was basically a 4 wide or 5, and everyone would clear, and Bob would keep the ball and just run. Almost as if you were playing flag football or playground ball. Bob took a lot of hits that way, and he is a different body build then Colin K.
I broke down the niners offense on my formation sheet which I uncovered from my binders collecting dust. They do some great things. They basically run a keeper which is designed in a creative fashion.
Formation: 2 X 2 Pistol.
X....X.......OO[]OO.........TE........WR
...................QB
.................RB
What happens next is they tag the TE with a "home" tag, and motion the TE, in this case Walker back home.
..............................S
............S
CB........
...........CB
.......................B............B............. ....CB
....................E......T....T....E
X..........X......O..O..[]..O..O..................WR
............................QB
.......................RB
.............................TE
That's the formation before the ball is snapped. # 1 strong side stalk blocks the CB. The "slot" WR runs at the CB, contacts him, and chips off and hauls butt to the S. The RT blocks on the LE. The center and RG combo on the 3T with the Center chipping off to get to the B. The LG down blocks on the 1 T. The RE moves in reading the blocks, and the LT gets him and drives him to the middle of the formation like a down block.
Colin K. holds the ball out, and Hunter rushes and acts like he has the ball and goes to weakside A gap, where the combo block is taking place. This sucks in the LB on the offensive's left side, which was Bart Scott. This game was against the Jets last season. 7:32 1st Q, 1 and 10.
Colin K. flash fakes, and runs with the ball with Hunter maintaining pitch depth. In a way, they are optioning the Cb who was covering the slot wr. The slot, makes contact, like I said and then chips off to S. That leaves the CB having to make a decision. He has 2 guys coming at him. Hunter to his right side, and Colin K, to Hunter's left.
If it was Ice hockey it's a 2 on 1, or basket ball on a fast break 2 and 1. The defender freezes, and Colin K. hits his next gear and runs past him.
In this sense they ran out of the pistol, but no one was optioned in the traditional sense like you see with this system or the Houston veer where you option the playside DT and DE or spread option, where you option the backside DE.
In this all 5 fat people are blocking all 4 DL in this even front. In a way, you can say in this keeper, the CB was optioned, and left unblocked, because the WR went to block the safety.
It's great because you have Colin K and Hunter running past the CB into the secondary. In theory, then Hunter can block the incoming S playing the hash or the hole in center field, allowing Colin K. in theory to run to the house. He did get tripped up.
In reality, the system is amazing. It's well designed, well blocked, and there is order which in the redskin system lacks. Sure it's designed well at times, but the keeper plays are not well blocked, and thus not surprised this happened to Bob.
Overall, I came away a lot more impressed with the niners and the flexibility that their offense utilizes from the pistol-read option, so the well designed QB keeper plays. Factor in traditional passing and running concepts, and this system is fun to watch and hard to defend for a DC. That's a lot of stuff to put on your practice sheets for your scout team offense to line up in.
BigRoss71 : 8:48 pm
Anish. Hard to defend, but this definitely makes it easier to understand as a fan. What would be your best way of countering a look like this? 5 DL, 3-4 (which can be a 5-2) or a 4 man front with SLB up close?
I am not sure. I coached on the offensive side, so I am trained to beat the defensive scheme not counter it. However, it depends on the concept.
The thing that I realized is depending on the QB you can run the Pistol with traditional passing concepts, Pistol- read/option, or you can run out of the pistol, QB keepers. You can do all this one of normal looking formations and move players around accordingly, like Eli does with our offense.
What worries me is this. You get an "Eli" of that system who can process a lot of information, and now you can get a pre snap read, and starting moving people around and picking what he wants to do. Now that becomes a big time issue.
Usually you go with the mind set with pocket QBs that it's 11 on 10. Now with these Qbs specifically with Colin K. it's an 11 on 11 game. You have to account for him.
And it's not like the Vick way of doing things where no one is open and he takes off. Sure that's an issue too, but now he can call plays where he can do the 3 things mentioned above. And if he calls a keeper than you are going to get it very well blocked.
Here was another fun formation:
X.....X.....O..O..[]..O..O......WR.....WR..
..................QB
.................RB
The right slot WR motions to the left creating a bunchnleft formation.
.........X....O..O..[]..O..O...............X
.....X.......X......QB
..................RB
So now against the Jets they called a QB keeper where the most inside slot WR blocks down, allowing the OT to pull, along with the pitch man who is the RB. So on this play in the redzone you have 2 men, the LT and RB, both blocking as Colin K. runs the ball for a TE.
There was no read involved. It was a flat out keeper that was well designed.I am sure if he wanted to he can create a read/option or just run the play with traditional rules. The issue the league faces is a longer off season where the staff can put more on his plate. That's where I think the strength of this lies.
It's not just the Pistol-Read/Option to worry about. It's the Pistol, Pistol-read/option, and then the play ground ball, QB keeper, that is beautifully designed.
That's not even using flash fakes for play action either. Add that component and this system is one big pain in the ass. It differs from the Redskins version where keeper concepts were flat out sloppy.
I know if I scheme the system like they do, and if he can process information at a high speed, then he can dictate the terms via the pre snap read he gets.
The Jets game showed how much that system can do. On a simple I pro left formation, he looked he handed it off, and ran to his right, and just took off. No one was there because they were rallying to get Gore, who didn't have the ball. So in that regard Colin K. kept running and slide on the goal line. With the game winding down, my guess is that they ran out the clock so he didn't score.
My point is that schemed correctly, guys may not get good hits on him because they would be chasing him. So that ankle tackle would be common. If schemed correctly, he would have the defense off guard so the numbers would be favoring him, when or if he takes off. I would trust him to out run all the Lbs and DL men. So he would be faced with Cbs or safeties. The Cbs would be getting stalked blocked by the WRs, and the safeties would be the only threat.
Assuming the play is blocked well the pitch guy would get the safety. On other plays, it's Colin K. 1 on 1 with the safety. I saw plays, as described in the original post, where the safety was stalk blocked by the WR, and the slot CB was optioned.
So in reality this system differs in ways from the redskins. I like this niner system, and the different ways they can come after you.
So my point is that tendency breakers can be made easier by running this system. You can keep changing what you want to add every so games without making it a drastic change. It's not like we are making Eli run our offense and then running the option. This guy has the skill set to run it all, it's just a matter of how much, and what concepts. That's makes it a pain in the ass to prepare for.
If that LBer can maintain integrity then he can either make the play or force CK to pitch the ball to Hunter, who will now be near the sideline, where the CB can push him out rather than have to make an open field tackle.
of course, SF can then counter by actually handing the ball to Gore running behind the center and guard
very interesting stuff. big thanks to Anish for sharing his expertise and taking the time to explain the play so well
Oi,
I am not sure it has to do with integrity with the LB. That LB is watching everyone move or block to the right. So he would want to fill. This one play, but if the offense ran the play previously and handed it off, then he would think that would be the play again.
Also, that LB was Bart Scott. So if I am the OC, I am not worried about Scott or any LB going on 1 on 1 with Colin K. I will take that matchup 10/10 times.