This is part two of our series on San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s playbook. Today we look at the running game.
In part one of this series, we looked at San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s passing game.
Today we’ll look at the running game to to get a general idea what fans can expect out of his offense next season.
It’s important to note Shanahan is known for adapting his offense to player’s strengths.
More from SF 49ers News
- DraftKings NFL Draft Promo – Win $150 Guaranteed on Any $5 Bet
- Updated 49ers salary cap space ahead of 2023 NFL Draft
- Deebo Samuel fully admits his hatred of LA Rams
- Brock Purdy jokingly says he’s learning to throw left-handed
- 49ers news: Trey Lance is in the dark regarding trade talk
So what follows isn’t necessarily the base running game that we’ll see out of the 49ers next season, but given the 49ers recent history and Kyle Shanahan’s background, we can safely assume the 49ers will still primarily be a zone running team.
The Falcons, under Shanahan in 2016, primarily ran the outside-zone run, mixing in elements of inside zone, split zone, counter and power-gap scheme runs and some misdirection.
Most readers are already familiar with inside-zone run, so today we’ll go to the film and break down the outside zone, split zone, counter-gap scheme and misdirection power runs.
Let’s start out with the outside zone.
OUTSIDE ZONE
Kyle Shanahan comes from, obviously, the Mike Shanahan coaching tree.
One underrated coach in the Mike Shanahan coaching lineage is Alex Gibbs, who is widely considered the father of the modern day version of the zone-running game.
San Francisco 49ers
While coaching with the Denver Broncos under Mike Shanahan, his outside-zone scheme made Terrell Davis a star and propelled the Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl wins.
I’ve covered the inside and outside zone runs, but whereas the inside zone was the staple running play of the Chip Kelly offense, the outside — or wide zone — is the staple running play of the Shanahan offense, both Kyle and Mike.
While the inside zone seeks to push a defense vertically, the outside zone seeks to move a defense laterally and pin them to the inside.
To accomplish this, the linemen will use a blocking technique known as the “rip and run” to either pin defenders inside (rip) or, if they have that not reached their defender by the third step, seek to run them to the sideline (run).
At the snap, the telltale sign of an outside-zone run is the kick step to the sideline the offensive line takes.
On this particular play, each lineman’s goal is to get outside of their assigned defender and get between the defender and the play-side sideline:
One coaching point on this run by Gibbs and then under both Shanahan’s is that by the third step, the running back will be making his determination on where to cut up field.
Gibbs notes that:
"On the third step, the running back is either going downhill or taking the ball outside. The reason the decision is made on the third step is the timing of the blocks within the offensive line. On the third step, the offensive lineman make their push on the defenders. The push of the offensive line and the cut of the back must coincide. The back does not know where the cut will be until he gets his third step on the ground. He makes his decision on that step and commits to it. Whatever decision he makes, he lives with it. He does not dodge defenders or double cut with the ball. He takes what the picture says and gets the ball upfield and outside right away."
The running back’s responsibility is dictated by the movement of the offensive line. The blocking and movement of the defense create three reads for the running back: bounce, bang, bend. This is based on reading the two defenders on the end on the line of scrimmage to the play side.
The landmark to make the is butt of the tight end:
If there is no tight end, the running back will use the ghost alignment of where the tight end would be as his landmark. Once the back gets to this landmark, he will read the end man on the line of scrimmage (EMLOS).
If EMLOS No. 1 is hooked, the running back will “bounce” outside toward the sideline. If EMLOS No. 1 is outside of the landmark and No. 2 is sealed, he will “bang” between Nos. 1 and 2. If Nos. 1 and 2 are both outside the landmark, then the running back will “bend” it back inside No. 2.
Against the Packers in week eight, the Falcons here are in 12 personnel (one RB, two TEs, two WRs) in their pre-snap alignment.
At the snap (above pic), Falcons running back Terron Ward takes the handoff and by his third step, he already knows where he’s going. Both No. 1 EMLOS and No. 2 are sealed to the inside:
After that third step, Gibbs says this is where the running back will begin to act on his read so that on those fourth and fifth steps, he makes that cut.
In this case, with the defenders sealed inside, Ward “bounces” out toward the sideline and it’s off to the races:
The next two gifs show the “bang” and “bend” reads.
Pay particular attention to the Nos. 1 and 2 defenders on the line of scrimmage, which they pursue, and where the running back makes his cut:
(Bang read)
(Bend read)
SPLIT ZONE
Another variant of the zone is known as the “split zone,” a play often run last season by the 49ers under former head coach Chip Kelly. The split zone, as the name implies, aims to “split” the defense in half to create a seam for the ball carrier on the backside of the play.
To accomplish this, offenses use what’s known as a “sift” block, similar to wham or trap block.
https://i.postimg.cc/0jwCXzG8/SZ1.jpg
The blocking remains the same for every other lineman regardless if the sift block is added to the inside- or outside-zone runs. The important distinction here is Kyle Shanahan has a variety of ways they run this play.
This particular play is out of 12 personnel but with the tight ends acting as wing backs, akin to what you’d see out of Navy’s triple option:
At the playside tight end comes across the formation to kick out the backside unblocked EMLOS while the back side tight end heads away from the play, taking a linebacker out of the box with him:
As the sift block hits the EMLOS, the left tackle/left guard double team on the defensive tackle flows toward the playside, opening a crease on the backside of the play:
Running back Devonta Freeman hits the open crease for a 10-yard gain:
COUNTER-GAP SCHEME
Teams that are either zone-run heavy or gap-run heavy always have a need to implement the other to not be predictable.
Chip Kelly learned this early, and the 49ers running game regularly featured counter, power, toss and toss-sweep runs.
Counter is one type of gap scheme running play:
Teams will need to do this regularly to serve as a tendency breaker. For the counter, it serves to create hesitation. The initial movement of the offensive line with their down blocks and double teams, looks like a zone-running play until the pulling blockers hit the hole.
The linemen to the play-side block down on the defensive line to create a wall, while two backside blockers pull to the play-side:
I’ve written about the counter trey before, but the counter here is different. Instead of the backside tight end or a fullback, the backside guard and tackle are the lead blockers.
The backside guard pulls and is responsible for kicking out the playside contain player, while the backside tackle will pull and lead into block into the hole for the running back:
MISDIRECTION POWER
This next and final play is a tricky play to dissect. It’s tough to tell what audible or hand signal the quarterback and running back to determine the direction of this play. This play is from the first Packers/Falcons game from Week 8 earlier in the season.
Green Bay did not play great defense this season, so they were a bit aggressive in reacting to the Falcons running game.
The blocking scheme itself is power-gap scheme. Instead of relying on traditional zone blocking to open a running lane, potentially anywhere along the offensive line, the power run seeks to create a new gap by using a double-team block and a pulling lineman at the point of attack.
Power has three main elements that define the scheme: 1) A double team at the point of attack, 2) a kick out block of the EMOL (end man on the line of scrimmage, either a DE or an OLB in a 3-4) and 3) a lead block through the resulting hole:
Running power gives an offense a chance to take advantage of a defense that over-pursues to one side. The movement of the defensive front hinges on the direction of the down-blocking lineman.
This gets the linebackers drawn into where they think the point of attack will be:
At the snap, the running back takes a step toward the direction of the pulling backside guard.
The middle linebacker keys on this and starts to pursue:
After that initial step toward the strong side, the running back takes the pitch from quarterback Matt Ryan headed in the opposite direction to the weak side after the linebackers pursue down the line:
The misdirection element, combined with the down-blocks, makes the start of the play look a lot like the inside zone.
The key is the middle linebacker reading the down block and flowing that way to where he thinks is the point of attack, not realizing that this rides him out of the true point of attack:
The purpose of this article is not to definitively say this is what the 49ers will absolutely do next season. But it’s safe to assume the zone-running game will be the base approach. The addition John Benton as the new offensive line coach suggests as much.
There are numerous ways Kyle Shanahan can run zone, power, counter, etc.
The 49ers already had the 11th most efficient running game in the league, according to Football Outsiders’ DVOA. For much of the season, they were in the top 10 of running game efficiency with the league’s 32nd ranked offensive line, also per Football Outsiders (It’s worth mentioning Pro Football Focus graded the 49ers offensive line as 28th in the league).
Next: Should the 49ers draft running back Joe Mixon?
No matter what happens, the offense should improve over last season’s improvements and fans should be very excited.