NFC Championship Schematic Preview
The Rams host the 49ers in their third matchup of the year with the chance at a Super Bowl appearance. Join me as I write about some of the concepts you'll see.
This Sunday the 49ers travel to LA for their first second NFC Championship in three seasons, and for the Rams it’s their second in four. The 49ers have won their previous two matchups with the Rams this season (and the four before that) but this time the stakes are much higher. Let’s look at some of the core offensive concepts these teams call in high leverage situations.
49ers
Obviously you all know their offense is built around their zone run, but looking deeper than that, one of their core runs is Zorro or Toss Zorro.
Zorro is a strong side zone run with the FB, H or sometimes a lead WR helping the TE on the edge block the EMOL before climbing to the secondary force player. The RB’s read is the same as any zone play.
The way teams have tried to counter this (and the way LA will most likely try to counter it) is by tweaking their odd fronts. Typically, Zorro would be able to get a double team on both the strong side defensive tackle and the EMOL. In the adjusted front, teams will have their play side lineman play tighter and the 5t (outside shoulder of the tackle) will force the play inside.
One of Kyle Shanahan’s favorite quick game calls is Lookie Squirrel. It is a 1-step quick game call, Lookie is the slant route that can break out if the defense has extra bodies inside. Squirrel is the concept to the right with a stick china, stick nod and go.
Double Swirl is a concept Shanahan loves on 3rd and long. It has the two outside receivers running corner stop routes at around 17 yards, vertically pressing the defense.
Choice is not only one of my favorite concepts, but it is one of Shanahan and McVay’s too. Choice is an option route. The coaching point for the receiver is to break the leverage of the defender and break opposite. If a defender is playing with outside leverage, break inside. If he’s playing inside, break outside. If you can get him widened, cross his face. Choice is one of Shanahan’s go to man beaters and the best way to get a playmaker the ball in space.
Flag is another one of Shanahan’s often used calls on 3rd down. Typically called from bunch with the point man running the flag (corner route) and the outside receiver running a stick china. This gives the QB two good options. You could either get the ball to in stride to the stick china or hit the flag.
A good amount of concepts that Kyle Shanahan calls frequently are quick hitting routes over the middle to get the ball in a receivers hands for YAC. Jimmy Garropolo leads the league in YAC per completion at 6.5. To take this away, teams have started to call Cover 1 Lurk. A man coverage call starting in a two high shell with one safety rotating down to take anything away over the middle. Garropolo has struggled with reading safety rotation in his career as well as pushing the ball outside the numbers.
In the clip, San Francisco tries to work a basic route to Deebo Samuel. The lurker (or robber) comes from his pre-snap 1/2 zone look to take away the throw. This coverage takes everything away over the middle and funnels the throws to the outside unless you can fit the ball into an incredibly small window with perfect timing and accuracy consistently to force defenses out of it.
In the Week 18 matchup the Rams called Cover 1 Lurk a good amount of times. In the example above Jimmy was able to drive the ball into the post window to Aiyuk to beat what the coverage is designed to do. No quarterback wants to make those throws consistently and only a few can, Jimmy is not one of those. Expect the Rams to lean heavily on this call and others like it.
Rams
The Rams offense used to look a lot more like the 49ers offense than it does now, obviously because Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan come from the same background and worked together in the past, but since the Rams traded for Matthew Stafford they’ve evolved into a straight drop back team operating heavily out of empty.
Pitt is a red zone call for McVay. Pitt refers to the route Van Jefferson attempts to run, which is an arrow stop, basically a quick hitch to hold the coverage. The corner route is the main read.
Chevy is a multi purpose call for McVay, calling it in multiple situations. the Chevy route is a six step glance route with a Tony route underneath it (a 5 yard curl with the option to break out). It’s designed to hi-lo the hook line backer forcing him to make a decision and then playing off of that decision.
As said earlier, McVay and Shanahan come from the same background so a lot of the same concepts are used. Flag is also used on 3rd down for McVay and the Rams.
Choice is another concept that almost every team in the league calls not just McVay and Shanahan. McVay usually has either Cooper Kupp or Tyler Higbee running the choice routes.
These are just some of the concepts that Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan put in front of us every week. Now that you have a guideline on what to watch for Sunday, be sure to scream out at your TV in front of your family that McVay just called Chevy!