Archives for April 2013

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Here are two more successful plays that are also ran out of the Pistol formation. The first is from the NFC Championship game between the 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons and the second is from the Thanksgiving match up between the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. Just like the 49ers, the Redskins and Robert Griffin III run the Pistol very well. After drafting RGIII, coach Mike Shannahan went down to Baylor to visit with head coach Art Briles to learn more about the Pistol offense. The Redskins are a good example of a team that uses the passing game very well out of the Pistol, due to RGIII’s supreme arm strength and dual threat ability.

Counter: Once again, here are the 49ers running the three back “diamond” formation out of the Pistol. They used the same formation and same personnel when they ran the lead play, with Frank Gore (#21) behind Kaepernick and their two tight ends, Vernon Davis (#85) and Delanie Walker (#46) as lead blockers. This is blocked the same in Pistol as it would be in any other formation, as it is your basic counter play.

Gore has a great hole to run through because Vernon Davis kicks out the defensive end and the pulling guard  gets to the second level to block the linebacker. Walker should have gotten inside the hole a little quicker, but with a patient back like Gore the play is still a success.

Gore’s patience allows Walker to double team the linebacker and he follows his blockers for a solid gain of six yards on first down. If Gore was a bit more explosive he may have been able to gain a few more yards but you cannot complain about a six yard gain and a well executed play.

Play Action: Here is a good example of how the Redskins used play action against the Cowboys for a big play on Thanksgiving. The ‘Skins lined up in their diamond formation out of the Pistol, with two backs and a tight end in the backfield along with RGIII. With RGIII’s running ability and Alfred Morris’ success running the ball, you can see that the Cowboy’s are expecting run from this formation.

When RGIII fakes the hand off to Morris, you can see the entire secondary stop to play the run. The lead blockers in the backfield and the RGIII/ Morris combination have effectively fooled the defense into thinking that they are running a lead play, while the two receivers are effectively running their routes. I am guessing that the top receiver is more of a decoy to keep the corner and the safety on his side of the field occupied, while the receiver at the bottom (Aldrick Robinson) is about to take advantage of the over aggressive safety that is peeking into the backfield.

Now that it is known that the ‘Skins are passing the ball, the secondary is already beat. Both of the safeties stopped their feet while Robinson has been running full speed and is about to defeat this cover 4 by the Cowboys. The safety on Robinson’s side should have read play action and dropped back, not stopped his feet to make a play on the running back. The top receiver has done his job to sell the route to the other safety and now the deep post will be wide open.

The safety on Robinson’s side is responsible for this easy touchdown but it was all set up by the Redskins’ effectiveness of running the ball and setting up play action.

In cover 4, it would be on the safety to stay inside on Robinson, as it would be impossible for the corner to cover this post alone. The safety was clearly looking in the backfield and stopped his feet, which allowed this easy 65 yard touchdown pass.

Just like any other formation, play action is set up by a successful running game. If the Buckeyes use a lot of Pistol and have success in the running game, it opens up big plays like the one above. We all know the running game will be successful with Miller, Hyde and the plethora of running backs, so we shall see if Miller’s arm has improved to take shots down field against an overly aggressive defense.

If there are anymore play suggestions that you would like for me to breakdown, leave them in the comments!

This will keep B1G defensive coordinators up studying very late this offseason.

Meyer said he and some coaches went to San Francisco during the offseason to study the 49ers’ offensive sets. You’ll see pistol this fall.

— Kyle Rowland (@KyleRowland) April 2, 2013

The Pistol offense took the NFL by storm last season, most notably by the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers and quarterback Collin Kaepernick. 49ers Coach Jim Harbaugh used the Pistol formation at Stanford with Andrew Luck, then incorporated it into his NFL playbook. Many thought that the Pistol was just a college gimmick and an NFL fad like the wildcat formation but Kaepernick, Robert Griffin III and other dual threat quarterbacks will have something to say about that.

Kaepernick excelled in the Pistol offense at Nevada under Coach Chris Ault, the creator of the Pistol offense, and Braxton Miller possesses some of the same traits as Kaepernick. When one thinks of the Pistol, they think of just the read option but in reality, a variety of running plays can be run out of the formation. There’s the read option, counter, power, lead, inside trap, quarterback sweep, and almost anything else that is run out of a pro-style formation. Also, with the quarterback at 4-5 yards, he is still a serious threat to pass the ball and that is what makes this offense very difficult to stop when it is ran correctly. I can only imagine Meyer watching 49ers’ film and salivating over the thought of Miller, Carlos Hyde and two other playmakers (B. Dunn and R. Smith in practice) in the same backfield.

Read Option:

Here are a few screen shots of the 49ers in the Pistol versus the Bills last year. They’re in a 2- back Pistol alignment. Kaepernick is going to put the ball into RB Kendall Hunter’s stomach and keep an eye on the Bills defensive end to see if he crashes down on Hunter or stays home to play Kaepernick. The H-Back will pull across the line of scrimmage and kick out the outside linebacker if Kaepernick keeps the ball or create the hole if Hunter gets the ball.

Kaepernick puts the ball in Kendall Hunter’s stomach and reads the Bills defensive end. Kaepernick is looking right at him and sees that the DE is crashing down to play Hunter.

After seeing the end crash down, Kaepernick pulls the ball back from Hunter and runs through a huge hole with the outside linebacker getting kicked out by the H-Back for a huge gain.

Running the read option out of the pistol will highly benefit Miller and the offense. We saw Miller succeed in running the read option last year mostly out of shotgun for big gains and expect the same but with more wrinkles out of the Pistol.

Lead:

This is the 3- Back diamond formation of the Pistol that was seen at practice on Tuesday by 11 Warrior’s Kyle Rowland. If the two lead blockers get inside to the linebackers, that forces the safety down in run support to make the play on the running back. This play is your basic lead run play that can be run out of basically any formation. (These images below are from www.nationalfootballpost.com)

The 49ers used their two very athletic tight ends, Vernon Davis (#85) and Delanie Walker (#46) in front of Frank Gore (#21) as lead blockers. Davis got to the second level and got a good block on an inside linebacker and Gore gets a big gain up the middle with a chance to make the safety miss.

There are many, many more plays out of the Pistol that Miller will run this season. This is just a small example of two plays that the 49ers ran of out Pistol that Meyer will implement into the playbook this spring. If executed correctly by Miller and the rest of the offense, this will be an even scarier wrinkle to an already scary offense.

I’ll post a few more of these to elaborate later on and if you want me to breakdown any specific offensive plays or formations leave them in the comments!