The 49ers Hang 30 Points on a Lifeless New England Team and I'm Here for It

“I tell ya... I didn't know he was dead until you told me he was dead. And now that I know he's dead, you want to know how I feel about it? I don't feel the least bit bad about it.” - Butch Coolidge. Pulp Fiction.

For some reason, I remember a headline from years ago: “49ers Look Good Beating a Bad Team.” I don’t know who the 49ers beat or the journalist who penned the article, but the headline stuck in my brain.

The 2024 San Francisco 49ers looked good, beating a third-rate New England Patriots franchise in Week Four. Frankly, I don’t care if the Patriots’ roster consisted of a battalion of legless corpses from a Civil War morgue – a victory is a victory, especially following two dreadful losses.

The 49ers played a better game across the board last week, especially on the defensive side of the football. Training camp, preseason football, and three weeks of the regular season were not enough to get this year’s team ready to play. But in Week 4, things finally got themselves straightened out to play a proper football game.

The offense still has some struggles to overcome, chiefly stalling out early or not converting in the red zone. Additionally, the officiating crew exacerbated the issue, throwing flags at phantom penalties which ultimately killed drives.

However, here’s what I found interesting from Week 4. If you want more from the game, view my X thread here.

1st Quarter – 2 & 2 at the SF 29 (7:40)

I believe in taking a deep shot early, even if the play is unsuccessful. Shot plays can set a tone for the offense and plant some seeds of doubt in the minds of a defense. Further, the typical defensive coordinator may expect a handful of vanilla plays to get the offense in a rhythm first or test staple plays to find where to attack. Therefore, a deep shot like what head coach Kyle Shanahan called on the 49ers’ first possession is a rarity.

Shanahan took a Yankee concept, which he calls ‘Rider,’ and blended it with a hybrid pass protection that combines ‘Pass 16/17 Stutter Solid’ and ‘G 6-7 Stay.’

‘Stutter’ is a gap run that attacks off-tackle. Essentially, it’s a power run that runs to the weak rather than the strong side. ‘G 6-7 Stay’ also provides gap protection and sends the back in the opposite direction of the pulling guard and fullback. I am unsure what Shanahan calls this protection, but it is a mix of both.

The conflicting motion can put a linebacker in a spin – if he reads the guards, he will flow one way. Should he read the back, he’ll go the other. No matter what, it’s enough to pull the linebackers closer to the line, freeze them, and then open up a large throwing window behind them. Watch both of the Patriots’ linebackers nearly cross themselves before figuring out the backfield circus had duped them. Linebacker Jahlani Tavai couldn’t find where he should be in the pass coverage once he needed to drop. Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, who was running the high cross, could easily drop behind a lost Tavai while both safeties tracked with Jennings on a streak route.

It was great to see Aiyuk get involved in a big play early in the game, which gained 38 yards. The drive made it to the Patriots’ six-yard line but fizzled out, and the 49ers had to settle for a short field goal.

1st Quarter – 2 & 9 at the NE 21 (4:47)

Often, I read some noting that Shanahan does not allow Purdy to audible at the line of scrimmage. That’s not an accurate statement. Turn up the volume on your television, Grandpa, and listen to what’s said at the line of scrimmage. When Purdy shouts ‘can,’ he’s audibling to the second play called in the huddle. If you hear ‘Oscar,’ he’s flipping the run play from one direction to the other. Typically, the ‘Oscar’ calls when the 49ers are in a formation such as Solor or North Clamp. Finally, if you hear ‘flipper,’ Purdy is flipping the pass protection.

In Shanahan’s system, the center is responsible for the offensive line audibles. Part of this makes sense, and I’ve played in systems where the center set the blocking scheme for a run or alert for a linebacker creeping up on the line of scrimmage. However, I understand the other side of that argument. Purdy has a better view of the defensive box and should play a greater role in adjusting the protection. It would make sense, for example, for Purdy to tell his back to stay put on ‘scat’ protection or alert the back to a possible backside stunt. Asking the back to remain in the backfield to help does not impact the routes downfield.

As seen above, Scat protection is slide protection that is nearly identical to ‘jet’ protection. The line will slide to the right or left, where the two widest defenders are. Unlike ‘jet’ protection, the offensive line has no backfield help to pick up a late stunt or a defensive lineman who might sneak through a gap.

On the pre-snap read, it appears that the 3 Scat protection would work against the Patriots’ front. The line was executing a four-man slide – called Ricky – since there was only one threatening defender to the left. However, Tavai was close to the line of scrimmage, and I am curious why center Jake Brendel did not let left guard Aaron Banks know that he should ‘double bump.’ A ‘double bump’ audible would have told Banks to take two defenders – hit the nose tackle who was in the 1-technique and then come back for the linebacker.

Brendel may have shouted the audible, but Banks didn’t hear it. As viewers, we can’t hear every word players shout while on the field. But Purdy also didn’t even point out Tavai lurking around the line of scrimmage. It looked as if nobody bothered to think Tavai was a threat, and therefore, let Banks continue to slide to this right and open the B-gap up for pressure.

Some articles floating in the Internet claim Shanahan does not allow the quarterback to audible, but please do not believe every word in them. However, it does seem there is room for Shanahan to man an adjustment, which would allow Purdy to take a greater role in pass protection adjustment, at the very least as a redundancy in case Brendel cannot see a defender.

4th Quarter – 3 & 2 at the SF 23 (2:35)

Bill Walsh once predicted that, at some point, football plays would devolve from long, complex terms to one word. We’ve seen some of that come true, especially if you’ve heard quarterbacks give audibles in a two-minute offense. I’ve also seen quarterbacks give sign language to a receiver for a route.

Shanahan’s system is still quite wordy, but he has a few short calls – one being ‘Q8’, which he called to help seal the victory on Sunday.

‘Q8’ should look familiar to any hardcore 49er fan—it’s the sprint right option, the play that won the 1981 NFC Championship game. Shanahan doesn’t call many straight roll-out plays; typically, if he rolls the quarterback right or left, it’s a movement play-action.

On this play, Jennings ran a sprint-option route past the sticks, while Samuel ran a ‘whip’ route. I found the play call incredibly timely, which caught the Patriots flat-footed. But I also find that no football play is brand new; most are just old plays that coaches have repurposed, adjusted, or renamed.

Jennings made the snag and gained 11 yards.

The Week 4 win helped iron out some of the problems the 49ers had been having on offense and defense, and hopefully, they can ride that positive wave as the Arizona Cardinals roll into Santa Clara this weekend.

All images and videos courtesy of NFL.com, except the cover image which is courtesy of myself and a ticket to 49ers-Bengals in 2023.

All statistics courtesy of Pro Football Reference unless noted.