Alright. Who wants a quick-and-dirty look at some Packers run defense from the last time these teams met? I haven’t tagged all of these as I’d like and I haven’t marked them up at all. Right now, we’re just throwing clips at you. Ready? Ready. Let’s do it.
1st & 10 (4 yards)
Packers in 2 high shell. Preston Smith starts over the slot, but rotates to the end of the line pre-snap. Five men on the line, with the outside guys lined wide, 3 iDL between the tackles. Clark just doesn’t move, man. Inside zone run, edges held, zero movement inside.
1st & 10 (-3 yards)
Two high defenders flowing with the play. Roughly the same front as before, with Gary & Preston swapped sides. 49ers motion to offset I and outside toss it. Kenny Clark does some BULLY SHIT and Preston holds a hard edge.
1st & 10 (0 yards)
Toss to the jet/orbit man out of a flanked shotgun alignment. Gary does a good job slowplaying the backside. Preston holds the edge, Campbell shoots a cutback lane and it gets strung out to the boundary, where Jaire & Savage are waiting. Beautifully done.
2nd & 10 (9 yards)
Nifty little sweep to Kittle, who is slicing away from the toss motion. Deebo starts as the jet man and turns into the kick-out blocker on the edge. Campbell holds his block and Barnes is able to knife under for the tackle, with Savage coming over the top.
1st & 10 (2 yards)
Inside handoff to 44 out of shotgun. 5 man line with wide outside. Clark again with some bully shit, shoving his man into the backfield then dipping back under for the tackle.
1st & 10 (2 yards)
4 man line. Lancaster is an immovable object with Keke/Sullivan occupy a gap. Kittle slices under to take out Garvin on the backside, but Garvin is able to keep his feet. Just not a lot of movement generate by the o-line.
3rd & 1 (0 yards)
49ers rush to the line and quick-snap it, but the Packers are ready. 5 man front, Lancaster shifts to head-up over the C. Every gap is accounted for. 28 goes for the B gap, but Lowry is stout and a whole heap of Packers stone him in the hole.
Looks like he’s originally looking in the left A gap, but Clark is sitting there. No open gaps.
3rd & goal (1 yard, TD)
Trey Lance package. Packers not quite as wide on the edge here, which makes sense: they’re packing the middle. 49ers pin down the left side, Stokes gets sent to the shadow realm by Trent Williams and Lance waltzes into the end zone.
Worth noting that, while they did get beat by this outside run, it’s tough to evaluate with the rest of the field, because the front alignment is just so different here. If this play was at the 45, I doubt it’s overly successful. But that’s why the 49ers ran it in this situation instead of the 45.
2rd & 3 (2 yards)
Inside zone against a wide front. Clark swims over 50 and leaves that poor man grasping for air. He can’t make the tackle, but he slows down the play enough for the defense to rally & tackle.
3rd & 1 (2 yards)
Lance at QB. Jimmy G motions over quickly and sneaks it up the middle. Clark doesn’t move, but Jimmy G finds a seam.
1st & 10 (16 yards)
Inside zone against an initial 4 man line, with Amos rotating down pre-snap. 49ers get good lateral movement up front. Campbell fades out with the flat, leaving Burks as the only ILB in the box. He fades with his gap and there’s no one in the cutback lane.
I don’t have quite as much time as I thought, so we’ll end it there. What are some of the main takeaways:
Interior of the defensive line needs to control the line. Not necessarily dominate, but don’t get pushed around and get Clark in the backfield on a couple plays.
They had a lot of success with the 5 man line with the 2 edges split WIDE. With the iDL being stout the front is muddied and the wide men setting the edge doesn’t give the outside rushing stuff much room to breathe.
49ers are going to throw a lot of window dressing at you. Be assignment sure. Own your gap.
The Packers are going to give up some rushes, but as long as the 4 yard gains don’t become 12 yard gains on a regular basis, they’ll be fine.