I just stumbled upon a fascinating interview of current Atlanta Falcons offensive coordinator, Dirk Koetter. The interview was conducted a year and a half ago when he was the offensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars. In this interview, Koetter explains his offensive philosophy, how he puts together a game plan and which plays he prefers to call during games. This is essential reading for all you aspiring football coaches out there. To read the article, click here. Enjoy.
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If you consider that the team thinks MC is a better receiver then VD then we are already feeding our stud the ball. Thanks for pointing out they they need to continue doing so.
Good article.
Thanks for that link Grant. Having coached at the HS/Low College levels and spending a lot of time talking football with a former 9er QB, it is always interesting to see how close the game has become at all levels. The skill level of the players and the attention to the simplest of details is the only real difference.
Ken Dorsey?
Jeff Garcia. Worked a lot with his father as well who was a great coach.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Should we wonder about you JH, after all if it walks like a duck….
J/K
@ Jack:
Very cool. I am envious.
Mr. Happy Feet. That guy would bounce around in the pocket and then zap like a laser the ball would come out. The offense was a lot of fun to watch with him, he was very frenetic in the pocket.
Very cool Jack. I hope you gave him a hard time for that “This is Bob in Gilroy and you guys need to stop criticizing Jeff” call to that radio station.
No more pony kick passes, please. Lol.
“Happy feet” and “frenetic in the pocket” are other ways of saying that Garcia was running for his LIFE behind a terrible O line most of the time. I always had a lot of respect for his athletic abilities, his courage, and his survival instincts, and I always wondered about the “fans” who were on him incessantly for saving his own life. But hey, trashing QBs not named Montana or Young is what we do around here, right?
No, I didn’t mean to suggest that. A lot of passers set up in the pocket and maybe a shuffle forward or two before they pass or maybe a couple steps to move around but Jeff dropped back and looked like he was standing on hot coals. He’d bounce around while standing in the same spot like his legs were springs almost.
That was his way of making sure his feet were under him and he didn’t get flat footed.
Ask Jeff which player he would want to feature in the passing game if he were the 49ers QB right now.
like a dog with a bone
Don’t forget who the QB was when TO set the franchise record for catches. That kind of answers it, but I will ask the next time I see him.
You’re saying he’ll pick the 6’3″ athletic freak?
Yeah. He actually does a segment on 95.7 every Monday at 9:30. They asked him about it a couple weeks ago. His take is they should be able to get him open off play action on early downs when teams are generally playing them with an 8 man box and a single safety.
Jack,
I’ve noticed exactly what you just said. Teams are playing WR’s one on one with a single safety up top. It’s amazing to me the 9ers haven’t hit more deep passes or even had more explosive plays based on that coverage. Randy Moss still has speed. I’m not sure why they aren’t giving him a chance to make a play. I’m not sure how Vernon Davis isn’t dominating in the passing game right now. Send Moss on a Go to take the deep safety off and then run Davis on a Drag to the side Moss cleared out. With a safety playing up tight there is no way in the world they can cover him. With that defensive alignment a team has to chose to double Moss or double Davis. There’s absolutely no explanation as to why the 9ers aren’t exploiting the 8 men in the box defense for huge plays. It just mind boggling.
HOU I get what you are saying but even in that coverage the Niners offense has still been able to run the ball and exploit the middle and intermediate parts of the field somewhat succesfully.
To me, the objective is to be run focused, play action pass, and sustain long, physical grind it out drives, which in the grand scheme keeps the defense off the field and wears down the other teams defense.
Its not ball control offense but it is about limiting other teams possessions. Its like a well choreographed script that interrelates the defense, offense and special teams.
Now the arguement is, if one of those parts fails to fulfill its job, the entire process blow ups. Example, the Vikes and Giants game. This happens to every team.
By taking more vertical shots downfield, it almost seems counterproductive to who and what the Niners are trying to employ universally philosophy wise.
Houston,
They have been trying to take those shots mostly out of their 22 personnel and the defense has done a good job of making Smith go underneath. They also did hit Walker and Davis for 20+ yard gains out of this group off play action against Arizona.
What Jeff is describing in the interview I mention would be 21 personnel (2 TE’s/1RB) with Walker in his H Back role. Then run play action with 2 verticals from Walker and Davis working on that single high safety (almost exactly like what Koetter has drawn up).
The PA will get them past the LB’s and the safety will tell him where to go.
These guys are extremely smart and I wouldn’t be surprised to see something like this when the time is right.
Good point, Jack. Last year we all got frustrated with the Red Zone performance. For a long time the play calling down close was very limited. Then, later in the season, when push was coming to shove, Roman started varying his calls more and they got better in the Zone.
I am wondering if we will see the same in regard to Moss and the long game. If all the opponents see is running and check downs, they will be less prepared for the long ball than they would be if they’ve seen a lot of shot plays.
I also wonder (though less) if that’s the story with Jacobs.
We all should have been expecting lower Red Zone numbers last year. No real off-season, new system, that adds up to low TD conversions.
But AS has always been good in the red zone. So, one would expect a return to that norm this year, and that has happened. It gets really cool in future years because AS will know all these new guys better, and we’ll become dominant in the red zone once more.
I said it last year. It will take lots of reps, which takes time. Last year we were 13-3. And we have this huge room to improve, which we’ve started doing so.
The empire has returned guys.
@ Jack, I get what you’re saying and I know you’re right about the formations and play action. What I’m talking about is the actual production. With weapons like VD, Moss, and Crabtree I think you’re giving defenses too much credit for limiting the passing offense. At some point, a team must find a way to exploit formations designed to take away the run. Defenses are daring the 9ers offense to pass against them but the 9ers haven’t been very successful in exploiting it. If last year is an indicator, I expect the 9ers coaches to develop a more robust passing attack later in the year but we haven’t seen it yet.
@ Houston:
Defenses are daring the 9ers offense to pass against them but the 9ers haven’t been very successful in exploiting it. … I expect the 9ers coaches to develop a more robust passing attack later in the year but we haven’t seen it yet.
Did you not watch the Arizona game?
AZ stacked the box, Alex burnt them. DET and GB tried the same thing, burnt. Throw in BUF and we know Alex had a career day.
The Niners are capable of beating you either way. Load the box and they might just run it down your throat as well. They want to be balanced but if you think you can stack the box and beat Alex, go ahead, look what has happened so far.
Prime
Quite right. Only we can stop ourselves. Look at the Buffalo and AZ games. Our own stupidity in penalties is what stopped us early in those games. Yet we still blew out the opponent.
We lost to the Giants and Vikings because we lost our identity and in turn lost the TO battle. We’ll beat ANYBODY if we stay true to who/what we are. A tougher and smarter team than the opponent. AS is the perfect QB for this philosophy. No QB has shown this much resilience, and toughness who is playing today.
The key word their DS is “philosophy”. Everyone has bought into Harbaughs philosophy of what they want to do scheme wise. It really is about the team. Asking for more explosive plays is great, for the fantasy football lover, but its not what or who the 49ers are or want to be.
@ Claude, I did watch the Az game – Did you or were you out of town again? I agree with Cosell on the Az game. The 49ers once again relied on the dump down passes. The 9ers were the beneficiary of abysmal AZ tackling in the secondary which allowed huge YAC. The 9ers did not exploit the secondary which relied on single coverage of the WR’s and a single safety. The 9ers relied on the check down + YAC which is most definitely not exploiting such a risky defense.
HOU, your words of “relied’ and “exploit” are not what the 49ers do offensively. They insted use the approach of “take what the defense gives you”. Cliche but very effective.
@ Houston:
The 9ers did not exploit the secondary which relied on single coverage of the WR’s and a single safety.
Wow. I don’t think it is possible for a person to be more in denial than you are right now. In 2½ quarters, the 49ers “did-not-exploit” the Cardinals’ secondary to the tune of 18-19, 232 yards and 3 TDs. Just imagine what they could have done if only they had exploited the secondary. This has to rank right up there with your Smith-played-poorly-against-the-Packers delusional comments.
The Earth is round. Obama was born in the U.S.
Wow Claude who peed in your cheerios this morning. You’re really on the attack with your malicious idiocy today. I know you don’t watch much 9er football or much football at all considering your ignorant posts but I’ll try to give you a quick lesson. The fact of the matter is the 9ers did not exploit the Az defense for playing single coverage up tight. They did exploit the Az defenses terrible tackling. The 9ers attempted only 3 passes over 10 yards in that game. That is not exploiting teams that are giving up the middle to long range passes. Exploiting single coverage when the CB is playing up tight is actually making pass attempts in the middle to long range. When the 9ers were up comfortably they had a chance to show other teams that they will attack deep if the defense plays those 8 in the box alignments. But the 9ers chose not to try to make plays in the intermediate-deep passing game. Alex Smith is ranked #34 in the league in pass attempts > 15 yards among the QB who had enough attempts to qualify for the ranking. Get that? He’s #34 out of 32 teams in attacking the medium – short range. As I’ve said before, this can be a dynamic offense with a good passing attack and a great rushing attack if they can get teams to come out of the 8 man in the box defenses. They did absolutely nothing in the Cardinals game to scare teams off of that alignment. In fact, the 9ers encouraged teams to play up tight by only throwing the very short passes. Teams will look at that tape and say, “we tackle better than the Cardinals. Play the single coverage, stop the run, and tackle in the secondary and the 9ers won’t be able to put up many points.”
You get your panties in a wad when you perceive anyone criticizing the only 9er you support. I said absolutely nothing about Alex Smith with that post. To pull one of your tricks, go back and look at my posts right after that game. I said Alex played well. He was very efficient. I just wanted the 9er offense to open up the passing game to deeper passes which would hopefully pull future opponents out of lining up almost the entire defense 5 yards from the line of scrimmage. The 9ers will not beat playoff caliber teams by throwing check downs 90% of the time. It worked fine against the Cards but against teams like the Giants it will only produce 3 points.
@ Houston:
That’s an awful lot of typing from a guy claiming that someone else is upset. You aren’t irritated by the election results, are you?
If the way to beat SF is to put 8 in the box, then teams would do that. They haven’t. The first team to try that with any consistency this year was Arizona, and the 49ers spanked them. Absolutely spanked them by throwing the ball.
Your disconnection from reality seems to be getting worse.
The Earth is round. The (re-elected) President was born in the U.S.
Why do you keep up with the silly attacks about the earth and politics. I could not care less about that or your moronic comments. Once again you prove you don’t watch the actual games. Teams play 8 in the box all the time against the 9ers. On obvious passing downs they back out of it. The 9ers have one of the best run games in the league and one of the worst passing games in the league. Teams would be stupid not to put 8 in the box. You can’t possibly be that obtuse, can you?
@ Houston:
Why do you keep up with the silly attacks about the earth and politics.
Because your stubborn adherence to discredited beliefs reminds me of (a) people who continued to believe the Earth was flat long after it was shown to be round and (b) the Birthers.
Your belief that teams have regularly been putting 8 men in the box to beat the 49ers is but the latest example. The Vikings and Giants are the only teams to beat the 49ers this year, and they did not do so by putting 8 in the box and daring Alex Smith to beat them through the air. That simply didn’t happen. Not on this planet anyway.
Your statement that that the 49ers have “one of the worst passing games in the league” is similarly delusional. Based upon other comments you have made today, the basis for you claim apparently is that the 49ers’ total passing yardage number is low. As you know, that number is low solely because the 49ers’ offense does not call for a lot of passes. There’s a big difference between not doing something a lot and not doing it well.
On other passing stats, ones that correlate much better to winning, the 49ers are Top 5 or Top 10: completion percentage, yards/attempt, yards/completion, overall overall passer rating, QBR and DVOA. The team has been producing an effective, much improved passing game this year – not consistently, but there’s still half a season to become consistent. To denigrate it solely because they aren’t putting up Fantasy Football numbers or Madden-like plays isn’t a particularly compelling argument.
Teams would be stupid not to put 8 in the box.
Yeah, because it worked so well for Arizona.
You can’t possibly be that obtuse, can you?
No, but apparently you are.
“Teams play 8 in the box all the time against the 9ers.”
Well, the Niners are the best rushing team in the NFL. So, if they are putting 8 in the box all the time, they aren’t very good at stopping the run at all then, are they? Not to mention stopping a top 10 QB to boot.
“On obvious passing downs they back out of it. ”
WOW! Shocking bit of insight there. FYI all teams do that. Whether you have TB as the QB or the Skelton as the QB. Teams don’t put 8 in the box on obvious passing downs.
Houston, when teams line up at the line of scrimmage when the Niners are on offense, press pause on your DVR, then count how many players are in the box. It’s a simple concept but sometimes you jive turkeys need it spelt out for you. There should be no more than 11 on the field. Good luck and you are welcome!
Teams play 8 in the box all the time against the 9ers.
No Houston they don’t and your insistence on this is either stubborn ignorance or you aren’t watching the games. Even AZ started out playing the deep coverage like others have tried recently but they got gashed by the run game so they gave up on it, leading to the Niners putting up good passing numbers.
Rocket,
In fairness to Houston, the Cards put 8 either in or close to the box on 1st and 2nd down almost the entire game. They were matching up based on personnel, if the 9ers were in 22 they would run a 4-4 with only one corner, if the 9ers were in 21 or 12 they would go base 3-4 and walk up a safety.
The only time they sat in coverage deep was on the few instances where the 9ers were in long to go situations, or on 3rd down when they would go Nickle.
As for Houston’s comment that they need to find a way to exploit defenses geared up to stop the run, I don’t know. It looked to me like they did a good job of doing that. Roman called a few shot plays, but they were out of 22 personnel, and the Cardinals still outnumbered the deep receivers 3-2, which is why Smith went underneath to wide open running backs.
Oops, I just noticed a mistake in my 2:57 pm comment from yesterday. The 49ers are not Top 10 in yards/completion.
I apologize for the error.
That mistake does not detract, however, from the larger point that Houston’s description of the 49ers’ passing game as “one of the worst … in the league” is wholly inconsistent with the facts.
Grant, I Like the poll questions you have been doing. Just wish people would actually answer honestly so we could see real results.
maybe it does and i don’t see it but i’d like to see who voted for what/who.
That would be cool. I dont believe it does that.
Anthony Davis!
Today, the Tea Baggers are hurting