Simpleton
DCC 4Life
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2013
- Messages
- 17,535
I've been thinking quite a bit philosophically about how our pass rush should look to contain Hurts similar to what San Francisco did.
Normally when pass rushing you're trying to get upfield, beating an OL to their upfield shoulder or crossing back to the inside to basically shoot a gap to one side or the other. Obviously pass rushers will go through the OL's chests at times with a bull rush or speed to power, but in general you're trying to attack half their body and get around them in either direction, which is even more so the case with how our defense plays with lots of it predicated on speed and attacking upfield.
That can work but I think the 49ers made a conscious effort to do more "mush rush", 2-gap rush type stuff where the first priority was keeping Hurts contained and slowly closing in the walls around him without opening a bunch of escape routes, especially up the middle (B gaps as Bosa said in particular). I think it's a very astute observation and one that probably means we should alter our normal pass rush plan a bit.
I think our pass rushers need to play through the chest of their OL more, try to close in the walls on Hurts and plug up the escape routes up the middle first and foremost. The obvious question with this strategy is what you do with Parsons who is kind of wasted if you're asking him to play a power/bull rush game.
If it were me I'd use him almost as a spy, let guys like Lawrence and Armstrong play the power/close in the walls game on the edges with the DT's more or less doing the same. I'd let Parsons roam and kind of pick his spots to attack when he sees a gap and be the guy who chases Hurts down when he tries to escape the pocket.
The most important thing is the pass rush has to be patient, they can't be out there hunting sacks and recklessly rushing upfield to a spot 7 yards in the backfield just because that's what they'd do against most QB's. Hurts does a great job of making the first guy miss with little shoulder fakes and using the momentum of defenders to let them fly by/shrug off initial contact to buy himself time/space, you don't want situations where he gets past that first guy and there's all sorts of space in front of him because the other 3-4 guys are just flying around recklessly.
They have to be thoughtful with their rush and patient in their pursuit, with the point being that you're kind of just surrounding him and constricting space. You make him make the first move and then go off that, don't make the first aggressive move and allow him to react as space opens up, you want him to be the first to move and then you pursue with speed.
Finally, I'm not saying this is how they should play for 90% of the snaps. There is a time and place to do the things we normally do, but there has to be a conscious effort to play a bit differently than we normally would in certain situations.
Normally when pass rushing you're trying to get upfield, beating an OL to their upfield shoulder or crossing back to the inside to basically shoot a gap to one side or the other. Obviously pass rushers will go through the OL's chests at times with a bull rush or speed to power, but in general you're trying to attack half their body and get around them in either direction, which is even more so the case with how our defense plays with lots of it predicated on speed and attacking upfield.
That can work but I think the 49ers made a conscious effort to do more "mush rush", 2-gap rush type stuff where the first priority was keeping Hurts contained and slowly closing in the walls around him without opening a bunch of escape routes, especially up the middle (B gaps as Bosa said in particular). I think it's a very astute observation and one that probably means we should alter our normal pass rush plan a bit.
I think our pass rushers need to play through the chest of their OL more, try to close in the walls on Hurts and plug up the escape routes up the middle first and foremost. The obvious question with this strategy is what you do with Parsons who is kind of wasted if you're asking him to play a power/bull rush game.
If it were me I'd use him almost as a spy, let guys like Lawrence and Armstrong play the power/close in the walls game on the edges with the DT's more or less doing the same. I'd let Parsons roam and kind of pick his spots to attack when he sees a gap and be the guy who chases Hurts down when he tries to escape the pocket.
The most important thing is the pass rush has to be patient, they can't be out there hunting sacks and recklessly rushing upfield to a spot 7 yards in the backfield just because that's what they'd do against most QB's. Hurts does a great job of making the first guy miss with little shoulder fakes and using the momentum of defenders to let them fly by/shrug off initial contact to buy himself time/space, you don't want situations where he gets past that first guy and there's all sorts of space in front of him because the other 3-4 guys are just flying around recklessly.
They have to be thoughtful with their rush and patient in their pursuit, with the point being that you're kind of just surrounding him and constricting space. You make him make the first move and then go off that, don't make the first aggressive move and allow him to react as space opens up, you want him to be the first to move and then you pursue with speed.
Finally, I'm not saying this is how they should play for 90% of the snaps. There is a time and place to do the things we normally do, but there has to be a conscious effort to play a bit differently than we normally would in certain situations.
