Playoffs, Divisional Round: Packers @ 49ers

[Jikkle]

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Interesting to see a breakdown that's more focused on the offensive line side of things.

Also Alex Boone is one of the dudes on the podcast and that's a name I haven't heard in a long while.

[CrimsonCrew]

A quick thought regarding personnel/alignments, I don't recall which game it was off the top of my head, I believe the Washington game, but there was one play where Kyle had both CMC and Mitchell in. I don't recall who was the upback and who was the tailback, but they just ran a basic draw up the middle with Eli out of it. I made the comment in the game thread, that I liked the potential of that personnel/formation but Kyle should be more imaginitive with it.

There is a lot you could do with an Eli/CMC backfield. Firstly its not a package that has been used much, so there is basically no tape on it. You would assume that with CMC and Eli lined up in 21 or 22 personnel, the defense would be expecting a run of some type. Which would create an opportunity to cross them up, you might not even have to get a receiver downfield to get a big play out of that. If the safeties collapse biting on a play action out of that alignment, a simple screen route could get big yardage. You could even still get a big play out of a run, by faking the handoff to the upback then having the tailback curl out and take a pitch and hit the outside. Both of those guys are capable of getting to the edges and doing damage, so it might not matter who was the up and who was the tail. If you had Eli as the up and CMC as the tail, you could do play action fake to Eli and have CMC run a wheel type route and hit him for what could be a big gainer. A play with a fake handoff to the upback could be especially useful and valuable in a short yardage situation. There are other formations and motions you can run out of that personnel, and not just lining up in I formation


IDK, maybe its just how my small football brain works. But I do feel like there is some untapped potential to a Mitchell/CMC personnel grouping. Its not something that you could run a lot, but it would have more potential for play design creativity and maybe cause more defensive confusion than having a 2 back field of CMC/Juice.

If Deebo is out, I certainly would not mind seeing some plays with Mitchell and CMC on the field together. CMC should be able to do a lot of what Deebo does. Obviously you lose some of that versatility with Mitchell back there, but he's still a good RB who can catch the ball out of the backfield.

The problem with that sort of package when Deebo is out there, is who do you take off the field? You want CMC, Deebo, Aiyuk, and Kittle on the field for every play that they can muster. That leaves us with one additional piece. Are you pulling Jennings? Or Woerner who would otherwise help out on Hutchinson? Or Juice (who, honestly, hasn't been great this year and might be reaching the end of his Niners career)?

I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of this, especially if Deebo is able to play, but not a full complement of snaps. But under normal circumstances, I think it's somewhat tough.

[zman1]

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Interesting to see a breakdown that's more focused on the offensive line side of things.

Also Alex Boone is one of the dudes on the podcast and that's a name I haven't heard in a long while.

More slipping than we even knew before. And Lenoir was an unsung hero.

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[thesack12]

A quick thought regarding personnel/alignments, I don't recall which game it was off the top of my head, I believe the Washington game, but there was one play where Kyle had both CMC and Mitchell in. I don't recall who was the upback and who was the tailback, but they just ran a basic draw up the middle with Eli out of it. I made the comment in the game thread, that I liked the potential of that personnel/formation but Kyle should be more imaginitive with it.

There is a lot you could do with an Eli/CMC backfield. Firstly its not a package that has been used much, so there is basically no tape on it. You would assume that with CMC and Eli lined up in 21 or 22 personnel, the defense would be expecting a run of some type. Which would create an opportunity to cross them up, you might not even have to get a receiver downfield to get a big play out of that. If the safeties collapse biting on a play action out of that alignment, a simple screen route could get big yardage. You could even still get a big play out of a run, by faking the handoff to the upback then having the tailback curl out and take a pitch and hit the outside. Both of those guys are capable of getting to the edges and doing damage, so it might not matter who was the up and who was the tail. If you had Eli as the up and CMC as the tail, you could do play action fake to Eli and have CMC run a wheel type route and hit him for what could be a big gainer. A play with a fake handoff to the upback could be especially useful and valuable in a short yardage situation. There are other formations and motions you can run out of that personnel, and not just lining up in I formation


IDK, maybe its just how my small football brain works. But I do feel like there is some untapped potential to a Mitchell/CMC personnel grouping. Its not something that you could run a lot, but it would have more potential for play design creativity and maybe cause more defensive confusion than having a 2 back field of CMC/Juice.

If Deebo is out, I certainly would not mind seeing some plays with Mitchell and CMC on the field together. CMC should be able to do a lot of what Deebo does. Obviously you lose some of that versatility with Mitchell back there, but he's still a good RB who can catch the ball out of the backfield.

The problem with that sort of package when Deebo is out there, is who do you take off the field? You want CMC, Deebo, Aiyuk, and Kittle on the field for every play that they can muster. That leaves us with one additional piece. Are you pulling Jennings? Or Woerner who would otherwise help out on Hutchinson? Or Juice (who, honestly, hasn't been great this year and might be reaching the end of his Niners career)?

I wouldn't mind seeing a bit of this, especially if Deebo is able to play, but not a full complement of snaps. But under normal circumstances, I think it's somewhat tough.

Oh, I think Juice would definitely be the guy you would take off the field. Off the cuff, the only scenario I think you could have any potential success with running a 30, 31, or 32 type of personnel would be in a short yardage situation and lining up in a power I formation. Even then, I wouldn't be real confident about it. I'm not even sure that anybody in today's NFL has any plays in their books that utilizes a 3 back set. That said, Kyle's system is one of the very few that still utilize a fullback so perhaps he has one or two plays like that buried deep in his playbook.

But yeah, I definitely agree that a CMC/Eli backfield is not something that could be deployed often. Maybe like having a 5 or 6 play package where you can dial up one or 2 of them this week and one or 2 in the Super Bowl. But I do like the potential of the package. It would certainly create a new wrinkle to throw at a defense, that they definitely wouldn't have seen on film. At the very least, seeing CMC & Mitchell on the field together might cause the defense to panic and burn a TO.

In any event, whatever that would come out of 2 back set of it can't be worse than a straight handoff to Jennings.