Originally Posted by
Mojouw
All good talking points and ideas.
I think that Vance going out of the game early may have shuttered the play action before it got started. With just Grimble available, I can see why the team wanted to run 4+ WR sets. Especially when facing multiple 2nd and 3rd and longs. They didn't stay ahead of the chains all that much and once they did, the main TE threat was hurt. So you start moving away from offensive formations that provide play-action opportunities.
I believe that a bigger component of the gameplan would've been that TE screen right behind the pass rushing DE/OLB. But they likely didn't seem to have confidence or any desire to run it with Grimble. I fail to see why. Even if it doesn't work, force the 49ers to at least consider it. Bottom line, Vance getting hurt likely kicked the legs out of a portion of the gameplan. This is where Shoes can jump in and breathe fire at the poor plan for 2019 TE depth on the roster. I teed it right up for him!
The play of the OTs was difficult to watch. I do not know enough about the 49ers pass rush to know if they are scary good or just looked that way against the Steelers. Why there was no other players brought in to help chip on those pass rushers, I don't know. Maybe, again, we are seeing the disastrous results of McDonald and Nix being off the field. I don't know, because it is hard to see OL play during the TV broadcast. Or, at least for me it is. I do know that almost everything I feared about Feiler is kinda coming true. He simply isn't that good. If he keeps playing like this, I believe we are going to see Banner or Chuks get a chance.
The style of attack is truly infuriating. We have seen with both Ben and Rudolph at the helm, that simply lining skill position guys up and having them each run an isolated route isn't working. I realize they can't run Juju out of a stack on every play, but certainly maybe more than they are? As you point out, whether it is pick/rub routes or literally anything - why are so many of the routes not related to the other routes? Sometimes it is better to run 3 routes designed to get only one guy open then to try and get all three open. Especially with a rookie QB who isn't , at this point, going to get too deep into his progressions anyways.
Three weeks now and other offenses are killing the Steelers defense with route combinations designed to really only get one guy open. The Pats did it a bunch and the Seahawks were brilliant on the deep TD to Metcalf. Ran TEs and backs into the flat to hold the CB and LBs. Left Edmunds to defend Metcalf with no help over the top and Metcalf having the ability to bend the route in or out with open field in either direction. Puts the DB in a horrific situation. Meanwhile, the Steelers WR run routes that pin them against the sideline or leave them running into coverage (the first Rudolph pick today). If the ball doesn't come out on-time and highly accurate, then the route is basically over. Shockingly, Rudolph was not consistently on time or accurate.
A side note on the above. That is why I never bought the "AB doesn't really run the right routes" critique too much. Often he was allowed/trusted to run to open space and the veteran QB saw the same space. Where it was a problem was when the vet QB expected AB to run it a certain way and he didn't. But that is in the past, so I won't spend anymore time on it.
For the shotgun spread - I think it is a double edged sword. Clearly, that is where Rudolph is most comfortable and it is out of that type of formation that he looked the most decisive and aggressive. However, the design for those packages needs to improve. The TD to Juju was great. The formation made the 49ers show their alignment early. Then the rest of the routes cleared a path for Juju to run one on one to open space. Rudolph put it right on him and it was a huge play. The other long TD to DJ was them getting lucky that an ice cold back-up got smoked off the line and there was no over the top defender. And Rudolph could just throw the WR to space. I think what Fichtner et al need to look at is how on those plays did they dictate coverage and manipulate the safeties away from the primary option? Identify that and find ways to do it again and again. Unfortunately, in too many of the plays out of that formation, they aren't dictating coverage to the defense and are losing the match-ups.
I believe that forcing the defense into the coverages you want or expect pre-snap is going to be the entire key to the passing attack for the rest of 2019. Ben was capable of manipulating defenders post-snap with pump fakes, looking off and then coming back across, and other "I'm a damn good QB" stuff. Rudolph isn't there yet. He needs defenders cleared out of passing lanes for him because he isn't, yet, able to do it himself.
Is the rest of the team up to that challenge of supporting the development of Rudolph? Today, no. Moving forward? No idea.