49ers Film Room: QB Jimmy Garoppolo’s Week 16 touchdown passes

Defending in the red zone, the Jacksonville Jaguars tried to outsmart San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, but the Niners’ QB got the better of the NFL’s top defense with two touchdown throws.

 

In Week 16, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan had a plan to attack the Jacksonville Jaguars’ vaunted defense, which consisted of quick passes to the middle of the field, in order to avoid Jacksonville’s two top cornerbacks.

The Jaguars also had a plan to attack the 49ers’ new quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo. When the Niners reached the red zone, the Jaguars tried to confuse the young quarterback, but quickly learned that Garoppolo is difficult to outsmart.

Both of his touchdown throws came on third downs, against similar defenses designed to trick  Garoppolo into throwing into coverage.

The 49ers have a 3rd-and-4 from Jacksonville’s 9-yard line. Shanahan has 11 personnel in a shotgun formation, with two receivers and tight end George Kittle on the right side of the formation. The Jaguars counter with nickel personnel, and one safety deep, but away from the middle of the field:

The 49ers are running similar slant-flat concepts to each side of the field, with Kittle running a Middle route:

In preparation for this game, Jaguars defensive coordinator Todd Walsh likely watched a lot of tape of the 49ers running the slant-flat concept, as it is a staple in Shanahan’s offense — which we have documented in recent weeks.

Although Jacksonville is primarily a Cover 3 team, their zone defense-of-choice in the red zone — like most teams — is Cover 2.

The wrinkle in the Jaguars’ defense on this play is SAM linebacker Miles Jack, who first fakes an A-Gap blitz before retreating to the middle third of the end zone, similar to a MIKE linebacker in a Tampa-2. With Jack covering the middle of the end zone, the Jaguars’ safeties are free to move farther outside to defend against potential slant routes. Jack’s absence does leave a small hole in the middle of the field, but after watching the 49ers’ tape, Walsh likely observed that Garoppolo primarily uses the Middle route as a decoy, as he did in his first touchdown pass as a Niner:

As Garoppolo begins his drop back, he looks to his left, and sees that due to the defense’s positioning, both the slant and flat route will be covered:

Before he hits the back of his drop, Garoppolo sees Jack retreating back, and Kittle sitting down in the area vacated by the linebacker:

Garoppolo quickly fires the pass to Kittle, who is a yard beyond the sticks:

Kittle catches the pass before linebacker Telvin Smith can make a play on the ball:

Kittle bounces off Jack, and dives into the end zone for a 49ers score:

Later in the game, the 49ers have a 3rd-and-goal from the Jaguars’ 5-yard line. Both teams have their same personnel — 11 personnel for the offense and nickel for the defense — in the game:

Shanahan runs a flood concept to the boundary side of the field, and a smash concept to the field side:

The Jaguars show a similar Tampa-2-style defense, but in an attempt to trick Garoppolo, defensive tackle Malik Jackson drops back into coverage. Jackson’s job is to first jump any quick pass to Kittle, and then cover the area vacated by Jack in the short middle of the field:

Garoppolo takes the snap and immedaitely looks right, but sees that his three receivers are outnumbered by four Jaguar defenders:

Garoppolo then looks left, where his receivers are again outnumbered:

Garoppolo knows that by vacating the pocket toward the wide side of the field, he can remove one of the defenders from his coverage responsibilities:

Garoppolo scrambles to his left, which is wide open thanks to the Jaguars’ three-man rush. This forces cornerback Aaron Colvin to leave his spot in the zone in order to pressure the quarterback. With wide receiver Trent Taylor continuing his route away from the sideline, the two remaining Jacksonville defensive backs are forced to switch off the receivers they were covering:

All Garoppolo needs to do is form a steady enough base to toss the sidearm pass to his receiver, who has position on safety Tashaun Gibson:

Taylor comes down with the pass, and the 49ers have another touchdown:

Although Garoppolo has only started a handful of games, he doesn’t play like a rookie quarterback. Thanks to his vision of the field, and ability to make quick decisions, defenses will need to be more creative if they want to outsmart the San Francisco 49ers’ new quarterback.