San Francisco Defense Faces Test Against Shifting Opponents
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 The KC offense versus the San Francisco defense because this isn't a typical
00:08 Kansas City offense. They've become more concentrated but they've done enough
00:13 this postseason and do you feel like it's possible that they turned a corner
00:18 in some way playing two different styles of games to get the playoff victories?
00:22 I do. This is a team that really has made some adjustments that I think are really
00:27 going to benefit them for the Super Bowl. Number one, they're utilizing a lot
00:32 more runs to the perimeter and moving Kelsey to the perimeter and both of
00:37 those things are going to be very important especially as they kind of
00:41 narrow their target tree down. They're only focusing on fewer receivers. They're
00:46 really eliminating some of those guys that they tried to roll out there
00:49 earlier in the year that didn't really have a lot of success. They're taking
00:52 those targets and shifting them back to Travis Kelsey, back to Rasheed Rice, back
00:56 to Isaiah Pacheco and then running the football more. Right, right. So in that
01:01 vein we saw Isaiah Pacheco touch the ball 28 times against Baltimore. I have
01:06 an expectation that he's a massive part of the game plan again. I've already
01:09 talked about how I like his over on rushing attempts. So even though he's not
01:14 racked up a ton of yardage, they stubbornly are still giving him the
01:17 football. Do you expect more of the same as they go up against the San Francisco
01:21 defense that has a lot of big names on it but perhaps maybe not playing up to
01:26 the name on the back of the jersey? I do and so the way that they need to
01:29 utilize Isaiah Pacheco and just offensively in general, they like to use
01:33 a lot of two tight end sets. They use top five rates of multi tight end sets. Very
01:38 different from the 49ers that use second highest rate of two fullback sets, two
01:43 running back sets. So the two tight end sets, that's what they actually need to
01:47 be utilizing a little bit more to pass the ball out of. When they want to run
01:50 the football, they need to spread the field with their 11 personnel, three wide
01:54 receivers. That's going to give them a little bit more success running the
01:57 football. But the way that they're going to get more rushing success is by
02:00 running to the edges. San Francisco's defense is basically top eight, top ten
02:06 in all measurable metrics when you run the ball between the guards against them.
02:10 But when you run the ball to the perimeter, they struggle tremendously.
02:14 They drop down to near bottom ten averages when you run the ball to the
02:20 tackles or to the edges of the defense. And without Joe Thune there at the
02:24 guard, it's going to be even more vital to run the ball to the perimeter because
02:28 they're going to have even less success run blocking guard to guard. And so one
02:33 of the interesting elements is they had the fewest edge runs over their entire
02:39 regular season. However, in the playoffs, because they would run a little bit more
02:42 to the interior guard to guard, the Chiefs would, but in the playoffs they
02:46 have actually started, they're now almost 50/50 on early downs at running to the
02:51 edges as opposed to into the middle, which is great because they need to lean
02:55 on those perimeter runs. I think they're going to have some success here. That to
02:58 me is more important than the actual run type because they run a lot of inside
03:03 zone. I just care about run to the perimeter, attack the 49ers at their
03:07 weak point, run at chase young, you know, run at these ends a little bit more
03:11 because they aren't nearly as good defending the run as they are the pass.
03:14 [Music]