Revenge is a Dish Best Served GOLD: The Official 2012 SF 49ers Season Thread
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NYC Rebel
...on the otherside of the pond
As long as there one dimensional, if u let them run it sets up everything
yseJ
Empire strikes back
Ill say this game will be much tougher than last one, especially if ATL can get pressure on kaep
we converted a boatload of third and longs due to kaeps legs. however against teams that could put some pressure up and shut down kaeps running...STL, MIA, even AZ a bit, we were sluggish.
also we face a sideline throwing qb who has the best core in the NFL in terms of receivers. all of them have exceptional hands
I feel like we do well agianst middle of the field QBs like rodgers/brees/even brady
but against sideline bomb throwers like eli flacco ryan...thats kinda our kryptonite in coverage imo
hopefully tho ryan will be ryan and fukk up
so on o, its on our run game and pass pro
on d its getting to ryan
if we can do 2 out of these 3 things well, we win the game.
we converted a boatload of third and longs due to kaeps legs. however against teams that could put some pressure up and shut down kaeps running...STL, MIA, even AZ a bit, we were sluggish.
also we face a sideline throwing qb who has the best core in the NFL in terms of receivers. all of them have exceptional hands
I feel like we do well agianst middle of the field QBs like rodgers/brees/even brady
but against sideline bomb throwers like eli flacco ryan...thats kinda our kryptonite in coverage imo
hopefully tho ryan will be ryan and fukk up
so on o, its on our run game and pass pro
on d its getting to ryan
if we can do 2 out of these 3 things well, we win the game.
Harbaugh taking the 49ers back to school....literally
San Francisco 49ers come face to face with their younger selves - latimes.com
ANTA CLARA, Calif. Every member of the San Francisco 49ers can't help but look up to a high school player.
That's because above his locker at team headquarters, each 49ers player has a picture of himself in high school, along with where he was ranked by scouting services at the time.
Coach Jim Harbaugh had a laminated sheet made for each player during wild-card weekend, which the 49ers had off, then surprised the players with them when they reentered the locker room after a meeting.
The scene was like the day high school yearbooks are distributed, with players going from locker to locker, checking out what their teammates looked like as kids, comparing notes on who had a higher national player ranking, or who was ranked higher in his particular state.
"Coach really wants us to tap into what we wanted to be at that time," said safety Donte Whitner, whose team plays at Atlanta on Sunday in the NFC championship game. "When you look at this picture, it's like, 'At this moment, what did I want to be?' We all look at this and we understand what we wanted to be, and where we are now."
There has been endless ribbing over some of the photos and rankings. For instance, receiver Randy Moss' locker is next to that of long snapper Brian Jennings. Whereas Moss was ranked No. 1 in every category as the nation's top high school recruit, Jennings, in his 13th season, was unranked both nationally and in his state (Arizona).
Then again, Jennings and his teammates can laugh about this: Moss, 35, and guard Leonard Davis, 34, are the only players whose high school shots are in black and white.
"I don't think they had color pictures back then," 24-year-old cornerback Chris Culliver joked.
To remind Moss that he's surrounded by much younger teammates, someone wrote "B.C. 1202" on athletic tape and affixed it to the receiver's bio.
"It's just something that spices things up a little bit to break up the monotony of the day," said Jed York, 49ers chief executive. "Something new for them to think about.
"You'll get guys teasing each other, 'Oh, you were only a three-star,' or, 'You weren't even ranked.' I remember NaVorro [Bowman, a starting linebacker] saying, 'Guess they missed on me.'"
Harbaugh, the NFL's coach of the year in 2011, has used this type of motivational reminder before. Last season, he gave his players short-sleeved mechanics shirts with their names on them, perfect for a hard-working, lunch-pail team. This season, "blue-collar" performers were awarded corresponding blue work jackets.
Harbaugh declined to elaborate on why he had the photos made, but team spokesman Bob Lange said the coach "wants the players to be able to interpret the reason for it in any way they want."
At Harbaugh's request, Lange and his staff spent several hours gathering the photos and scouring high school scouting services to find information on all of the players. The pictures from high school effectively connect players with their past, reminding them of their childhood hopes and dreams and
"Reminds me of how bad I [stunk] when I was in high school," said defensive tackle Ray McDonald, who was unranked in his home state of Florida.
Asked to describe that kid in the picture, the dreadlocked McDonald said: "Young. Didn't know a lot back then. Wet behind the ears. Different hairstyle had braids, not dreads about 50 pounds lighter. Probably a little faster than I am now."
When he was on the outside looking in, McDonald envisioned the NFL as a different place too.
"It's more work than you think it is," he said. "You've got to take care of your body. You've got to make sure you're getting the right protein, eating the right food, working out, lifting and training all the time. When you're younger, you don't know. You just think that life in the NFL is one big party."
Running back Kendall Hunter was the 40th-ranked running back in the state of Texas, a reminder he gets every time he changes clothes. Motivation?
"Always," said the 5-foot-7 Hunter, reasoning his size led to scouts' ignoring him. "A lot of people see you and they don't think you can play at this level. It's just another chip on your shoulder. It's a reminder of where you were at, and where you were trying to be."
A few lockers down, guard Daniel Kilgore knows the feeling.
"You look around the locker room and see guys with five stars, four, two and some without any stars," said Kilgore, who received a two-star rating.
"I look at it, and I never was that star athlete, coming from Tennessee, and I wasn't ever ranked or anything. So just looking back at it, and where all the 'men of football' in the magazines classified you. They never even looked at you, and now look where I'm at. Kind of just rub it in their face now."
Ah, yes, faces. Fifty-three of them. They stare down from those pictures, many smiling, most too young to need a razor.
"To see some of these guys in their early years, pretty bad-looking kids," practice-squad safety Curtis Taylor said with a laugh. "I'm just being honest. I ain't going to put nobody's names out there to say who was ugly and who looked good. But if you just look around "
Whitner laughs about that too. But he also sees deeper meaning in the nostalgic gesture, something that could help his team. Players forever taught to look ahead sometimes need a reminder to look backward every so often.
Harbaugh is "always doing little things to motivate us," he said. "With this, you really don't have to explain it. It's, 'Aw, man, I remember this.' It's something to make you play a little harder on Sunday."
San Francisco 49ers come face to face with their younger selves - latimes.com
ANTA CLARA, Calif. Every member of the San Francisco 49ers can't help but look up to a high school player.
That's because above his locker at team headquarters, each 49ers player has a picture of himself in high school, along with where he was ranked by scouting services at the time.
Coach Jim Harbaugh had a laminated sheet made for each player during wild-card weekend, which the 49ers had off, then surprised the players with them when they reentered the locker room after a meeting.
The scene was like the day high school yearbooks are distributed, with players going from locker to locker, checking out what their teammates looked like as kids, comparing notes on who had a higher national player ranking, or who was ranked higher in his particular state.
"Coach really wants us to tap into what we wanted to be at that time," said safety Donte Whitner, whose team plays at Atlanta on Sunday in the NFC championship game. "When you look at this picture, it's like, 'At this moment, what did I want to be?' We all look at this and we understand what we wanted to be, and where we are now."
There has been endless ribbing over some of the photos and rankings. For instance, receiver Randy Moss' locker is next to that of long snapper Brian Jennings. Whereas Moss was ranked No. 1 in every category as the nation's top high school recruit, Jennings, in his 13th season, was unranked both nationally and in his state (Arizona).
Then again, Jennings and his teammates can laugh about this: Moss, 35, and guard Leonard Davis, 34, are the only players whose high school shots are in black and white.
"I don't think they had color pictures back then," 24-year-old cornerback Chris Culliver joked.
To remind Moss that he's surrounded by much younger teammates, someone wrote "B.C. 1202" on athletic tape and affixed it to the receiver's bio.
"It's just something that spices things up a little bit to break up the monotony of the day," said Jed York, 49ers chief executive. "Something new for them to think about.
"You'll get guys teasing each other, 'Oh, you were only a three-star,' or, 'You weren't even ranked.' I remember NaVorro [Bowman, a starting linebacker] saying, 'Guess they missed on me.'"
Harbaugh, the NFL's coach of the year in 2011, has used this type of motivational reminder before. Last season, he gave his players short-sleeved mechanics shirts with their names on them, perfect for a hard-working, lunch-pail team. This season, "blue-collar" performers were awarded corresponding blue work jackets.
Harbaugh declined to elaborate on why he had the photos made, but team spokesman Bob Lange said the coach "wants the players to be able to interpret the reason for it in any way they want."
At Harbaugh's request, Lange and his staff spent several hours gathering the photos and scouring high school scouting services to find information on all of the players. The pictures from high school effectively connect players with their past, reminding them of their childhood hopes and dreams and
"Reminds me of how bad I [stunk] when I was in high school," said defensive tackle Ray McDonald, who was unranked in his home state of Florida.
Asked to describe that kid in the picture, the dreadlocked McDonald said: "Young. Didn't know a lot back then. Wet behind the ears. Different hairstyle had braids, not dreads about 50 pounds lighter. Probably a little faster than I am now."
When he was on the outside looking in, McDonald envisioned the NFL as a different place too.
"It's more work than you think it is," he said. "You've got to take care of your body. You've got to make sure you're getting the right protein, eating the right food, working out, lifting and training all the time. When you're younger, you don't know. You just think that life in the NFL is one big party."
Running back Kendall Hunter was the 40th-ranked running back in the state of Texas, a reminder he gets every time he changes clothes. Motivation?
"Always," said the 5-foot-7 Hunter, reasoning his size led to scouts' ignoring him. "A lot of people see you and they don't think you can play at this level. It's just another chip on your shoulder. It's a reminder of where you were at, and where you were trying to be."
A few lockers down, guard Daniel Kilgore knows the feeling.
"You look around the locker room and see guys with five stars, four, two and some without any stars," said Kilgore, who received a two-star rating.
"I look at it, and I never was that star athlete, coming from Tennessee, and I wasn't ever ranked or anything. So just looking back at it, and where all the 'men of football' in the magazines classified you. They never even looked at you, and now look where I'm at. Kind of just rub it in their face now."
Ah, yes, faces. Fifty-three of them. They stare down from those pictures, many smiling, most too young to need a razor.
"To see some of these guys in their early years, pretty bad-looking kids," practice-squad safety Curtis Taylor said with a laugh. "I'm just being honest. I ain't going to put nobody's names out there to say who was ugly and who looked good. But if you just look around "
Whitner laughs about that too. But he also sees deeper meaning in the nostalgic gesture, something that could help his team. Players forever taught to look ahead sometimes need a reminder to look backward every so often.
Harbaugh is "always doing little things to motivate us," he said. "With this, you really don't have to explain it. It's, 'Aw, man, I remember this.' It's something to make you play a little harder on Sunday."
I love reading about this stuff, shows you that Harbaugh might look like the nutjob coach, but there's a lot of psychological side to his madness.
I remember reading he did something like this last year, gave players a choice to have a football that said 13-3 NFC West Champs or an 13-3 duffelbag.
The thinking behind it, what I got at least, was you pick the football you want to show off a trophy, you pick the dufflebag that means you`ll need it for the road trips you're going to have to make to get to the SB.
This recent story makes me fukking love our coach even more
I remember reading he did something like this last year, gave players a choice to have a football that said 13-3 NFC West Champs or an 13-3 duffelbag.
The thinking behind it, what I got at least, was you pick the football you want to show off a trophy, you pick the dufflebag that means you`ll need it for the road trips you're going to have to make to get to the SB.
This recent story makes me fukking love our coach even more
can one of you post the niners kickoff coverage unit? thanks.
can't wait to see those wr's against that secondary
yseJ
Empire strikes back
I think its something like this on punt/kickoffs with some variation
akers/lee
spillman
goldson
bowman
gooden/wilhoite (willis was a couple of times when gooden was out)
cox
dixon
culliver
brock
miller
grant
also walker sometimes in for one of the guys
on punts the longsnapper jennings is in, obviously
out of curiosity, why ?
thanks.
i'm just comparing different special teams rankings and the number of starters they have on the unit.
B90X
All Star
Nice Article. There's more pictures in the link...
Break It Down: Can Vernon Davis copy Zach Millers*success? | Audibles - SI.com
Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers offense present a laundry list of issues for the Atlanta defense, not the least of which being Kaepernicks dual-threat abilities Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan called him a game-wrecker this week.
But a potentially big problem arose for the Falcons in their win over Seattle: an inability to cover tight end Zach Miller.
Miller finished last Sundays game with eight catches for 142 yards (a 17.8 per-catch average). He also caught a wide-open 3-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter, as part of Seattles rally from 20 points down.
The Seahawks and 49ers do not run the exact same offenses, but the basics are similar. Like Seattle, San Francisco utilizes the pistol, some zone-read looks and relies on Kaepernicks run/pass combo abilities to create plays. Atlanta struggled with Russell Wilsons comparable skill set last week, especially during the second half.
And because of the extra attention the Falcons paid to Wilson, Miller continued to find cavernous gaps in the Atlanta defense.
San Franciscos Vernon Davis had to be licking his chops while watching that Davis made just 41 catches during the regular season (his lowest total since 2008), but he remains one of the most dangerous tight ends in the league.
Our first conference finals Break It Down looks back at how Miller hurt the Falcons, and how the 49ers and Davis might be able to take advantage of Atlanta, too.
Were it only so simple for Atlanta to point to Seattles pistol, zone-read looks and say, OK, lets adjust our tight end coverage there
But the truth is that Miller burned the Falcons secondary out of a variety of formations. On this first play well look at, for example, the Seahawks lined up Wilson under center, with two tight ends (Miller and Anthony McCoy) plus WR Sidney Rice to his left.
The Falcons countered with a look they showed a lot Sunday. It was a 4-3 in personnel that looked a lot like a 5-2 set linebacker Stephen Nicholas moved up tight to the right side of Atlantas line, while safety Thomas DeCoud (circled) dropped down to give the Falcons eight players within five yards of the line of scrimmage.
Miller and Rice ran routes (Miller being the inside one), while McCoy shot across the line to pick up John Abraham. The use of McCoy there is similar to how the Vikings distributed players out of a trips (three-receiver) formation to run the zone-read vs. Green Bay. By doing it here, Seattle had Wilson protected after he faked a handoff to Marshawn Lynch and rolled to his right.
The difficulty for Atlanta, even though this play did not come out of the pistol or utilize the zone-read, is that the Falcons had to respect both the Lynch run and a potential Wilson rollout.
As a result, Miller was able to slip into the gap between the linebackers and deep safety William Moore. Miller then ran his route to the sideline, where Rice had cleared out the remaining Atlanta defender.
Over and over again, Miller shot into vacancies created either by Atlantas commitment to stopping the run or by a Falcons blitz. Here, the Seahawks again showed a run-heavy formation three tight ends overloaded to the right side, with Lynch in a single-back set behind Wilson. Just as on our first example, Atlanta had five on the line and three in the traditional linebacker spots.
Even with Lynch breaking out of the backfield immediately, Akeem Dent and Sean Weatherspoon froze, wary of Wilsons ability to escape the pocket.
As they did that, Miller again cleared that linebacker level and shot free into the secondary. Wilson hit him for a 34-yard gain.
Miller had multiple catches with Wilson in the shotgun with an empty backfield, too. There, the only ground threat was Wilson himself, yet Miller on at least three occasions found himself wide open immediately at the snap.
Even though most of Millers action came with Seattle in sets other than the pistol, the same deceptions were there the majority of the time. So long as the play-fakes, misdirection and potential of a QB run are prevalent in the defenses mind, offenses can take advantage.
One more example, off a play-fake to Lynch. Wilson held the linebackers, a wide receiver cleared one side of the field and Miller sprinted to the opening.
With the threat of a Kaepernick run in their back pockets, the 49ers also like to move Davis around.
The 49ers do use the pistol a great deal. Green Bay tried to counter it early in the NFC divisional round with a look similar to what Atlanta used vs. Seattle five on the line, two linebackers five yards deep and a safety dropped down. The Packers did this out of their 3-4 personnel with Clay Matthews to Kaepernicks blindside and another defender on the opposite side of the line.
But on pass plays, be it out of the pistol (as seen here) or another formation, that left Davis one-on-one.
Thats Tramon Williams with the red X there. He shifted out to cover a motioning Bruce Miller out of the backfield, leaving LB A.J. Hawk responsible for Davis on a pass.
Hawk actually did a decent job recognizing the play-fake Kaepernick made to Frank Gore, allowing him to stay with Davis early as Kaepernick completed a pass to Michael Crabtree instead. However, Davis had Hawk beaten deep in that hole between the linebacker and deep safety exactly where Miller did most of his work last week vs. Atlanta.
The 49ers will also slide Davis out to a flanker spot, if the matchups arise. With Green Bay blitzing Kaepernick, on the play pictured below, Davis drew a holding call on Williams.
Davis one catch against the Packers was a 44-yard, on a deep ball from Kaepernick. Again, the 49ers lined up in a pretty traditional single-back set, while the Packers countered with that eight-up look.
This left the Packers with a two-pronged problem when Kaepernick dropped to throw:
1. Davis had a juicy matchup with a linebacker again, which he exploited to make a play downfield.
2. Kaepernick had a clear running lane, if he had chosen to take it, because the Packers front five did not get home with pressure and the back six had to drop quickly in coverage.
And lest you think weve forgotten about the zone-read: It will be there for the 49ers, though they most often use it as a run, as opposed to a play-action decoy. But the play-action might be there Sunday, if the 49ers opt to use it.
This is a shot from Kaepernicks 56-yard TD run against the Packers. Miller came across to block the weak side as McCoy did for Seattle above while Davis stayed home to block. Had the 49ers adjusted their line assignments and used play-action here, though, Davis easily could have darted behind the linebackers for a substantial gain.
The long and short of it is this: San Franciscos offense, as Seattles did, will create mismatches against the Atlanta defense. The Seahawks were able to turn those mismatches into a big day for Miller.
Can the Falcons learn from that to slow down Davis, knowing that theyll see a lot of similar looks from San Francisco? To do so will require better play recognition from the linebackers and too much attention on Davis could leave the Falcons vulnerable elsewhere.
Break It Down: Can Vernon Davis copy Zach Millers*success? | Audibles - SI.com
Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers offense present a laundry list of issues for the Atlanta defense, not the least of which being Kaepernicks dual-threat abilities Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan called him a game-wrecker this week.
But a potentially big problem arose for the Falcons in their win over Seattle: an inability to cover tight end Zach Miller.
Miller finished last Sundays game with eight catches for 142 yards (a 17.8 per-catch average). He also caught a wide-open 3-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter, as part of Seattles rally from 20 points down.
The Seahawks and 49ers do not run the exact same offenses, but the basics are similar. Like Seattle, San Francisco utilizes the pistol, some zone-read looks and relies on Kaepernicks run/pass combo abilities to create plays. Atlanta struggled with Russell Wilsons comparable skill set last week, especially during the second half.
And because of the extra attention the Falcons paid to Wilson, Miller continued to find cavernous gaps in the Atlanta defense.
San Franciscos Vernon Davis had to be licking his chops while watching that Davis made just 41 catches during the regular season (his lowest total since 2008), but he remains one of the most dangerous tight ends in the league.
Our first conference finals Break It Down looks back at how Miller hurt the Falcons, and how the 49ers and Davis might be able to take advantage of Atlanta, too.
Were it only so simple for Atlanta to point to Seattles pistol, zone-read looks and say, OK, lets adjust our tight end coverage there
But the truth is that Miller burned the Falcons secondary out of a variety of formations. On this first play well look at, for example, the Seahawks lined up Wilson under center, with two tight ends (Miller and Anthony McCoy) plus WR Sidney Rice to his left.
The Falcons countered with a look they showed a lot Sunday. It was a 4-3 in personnel that looked a lot like a 5-2 set linebacker Stephen Nicholas moved up tight to the right side of Atlantas line, while safety Thomas DeCoud (circled) dropped down to give the Falcons eight players within five yards of the line of scrimmage.
Miller and Rice ran routes (Miller being the inside one), while McCoy shot across the line to pick up John Abraham. The use of McCoy there is similar to how the Vikings distributed players out of a trips (three-receiver) formation to run the zone-read vs. Green Bay. By doing it here, Seattle had Wilson protected after he faked a handoff to Marshawn Lynch and rolled to his right.
The difficulty for Atlanta, even though this play did not come out of the pistol or utilize the zone-read, is that the Falcons had to respect both the Lynch run and a potential Wilson rollout.
As a result, Miller was able to slip into the gap between the linebackers and deep safety William Moore. Miller then ran his route to the sideline, where Rice had cleared out the remaining Atlanta defender.
Over and over again, Miller shot into vacancies created either by Atlantas commitment to stopping the run or by a Falcons blitz. Here, the Seahawks again showed a run-heavy formation three tight ends overloaded to the right side, with Lynch in a single-back set behind Wilson. Just as on our first example, Atlanta had five on the line and three in the traditional linebacker spots.
Even with Lynch breaking out of the backfield immediately, Akeem Dent and Sean Weatherspoon froze, wary of Wilsons ability to escape the pocket.
As they did that, Miller again cleared that linebacker level and shot free into the secondary. Wilson hit him for a 34-yard gain.
Miller had multiple catches with Wilson in the shotgun with an empty backfield, too. There, the only ground threat was Wilson himself, yet Miller on at least three occasions found himself wide open immediately at the snap.
Even though most of Millers action came with Seattle in sets other than the pistol, the same deceptions were there the majority of the time. So long as the play-fakes, misdirection and potential of a QB run are prevalent in the defenses mind, offenses can take advantage.
One more example, off a play-fake to Lynch. Wilson held the linebackers, a wide receiver cleared one side of the field and Miller sprinted to the opening.
With the threat of a Kaepernick run in their back pockets, the 49ers also like to move Davis around.
The 49ers do use the pistol a great deal. Green Bay tried to counter it early in the NFC divisional round with a look similar to what Atlanta used vs. Seattle five on the line, two linebackers five yards deep and a safety dropped down. The Packers did this out of their 3-4 personnel with Clay Matthews to Kaepernicks blindside and another defender on the opposite side of the line.
But on pass plays, be it out of the pistol (as seen here) or another formation, that left Davis one-on-one.
Thats Tramon Williams with the red X there. He shifted out to cover a motioning Bruce Miller out of the backfield, leaving LB A.J. Hawk responsible for Davis on a pass.
Hawk actually did a decent job recognizing the play-fake Kaepernick made to Frank Gore, allowing him to stay with Davis early as Kaepernick completed a pass to Michael Crabtree instead. However, Davis had Hawk beaten deep in that hole between the linebacker and deep safety exactly where Miller did most of his work last week vs. Atlanta.
The 49ers will also slide Davis out to a flanker spot, if the matchups arise. With Green Bay blitzing Kaepernick, on the play pictured below, Davis drew a holding call on Williams.
Davis one catch against the Packers was a 44-yard, on a deep ball from Kaepernick. Again, the 49ers lined up in a pretty traditional single-back set, while the Packers countered with that eight-up look.
This left the Packers with a two-pronged problem when Kaepernick dropped to throw:
1. Davis had a juicy matchup with a linebacker again, which he exploited to make a play downfield.
2. Kaepernick had a clear running lane, if he had chosen to take it, because the Packers front five did not get home with pressure and the back six had to drop quickly in coverage.
And lest you think weve forgotten about the zone-read: It will be there for the 49ers, though they most often use it as a run, as opposed to a play-action decoy. But the play-action might be there Sunday, if the 49ers opt to use it.
This is a shot from Kaepernicks 56-yard TD run against the Packers. Miller came across to block the weak side as McCoy did for Seattle above while Davis stayed home to block. Had the 49ers adjusted their line assignments and used play-action here, though, Davis easily could have darted behind the linebackers for a substantial gain.
The long and short of it is this: San Franciscos offense, as Seattles did, will create mismatches against the Atlanta defense. The Seahawks were able to turn those mismatches into a big day for Miller.
Can the Falcons learn from that to slow down Davis, knowing that theyll see a lot of similar looks from San Francisco? To do so will require better play recognition from the linebackers and too much attention on Davis could leave the Falcons vulnerable elsewhere.
Jmare007
pico pal q lee
I hear ya'.
I like our chances and I might off someone if we come out flat in the first quarter and Roman has "one of those days".
Sunday can't come soon enough
Nice Article. There's more pictures in the link...
Break It Down: Can Vernon Davis copy Zach Millers*success? | Audibles - SI.com
Colin Kaepernick and the San Francisco 49ers offense present a laundry list of issues for the Atlanta defense, not the least of which being Kaepernicks dual-threat abilities Falcons defensive coordinator Mike Nolan called him a game-wrecker this week.
But a potentially big problem arose for the Falcons in their win over Seattle: an inability to cover tight end Zach Miller.
Miller finished last Sundays game with eight catches for 142 yards (a 17.8 per-catch average). He also caught a wide-open 3-yard TD pass in the fourth quarter, as part of Seattles rally from 20 points down.
The Seahawks and 49ers do not run the exact same offenses, but the basics are similar. Like Seattle, San Francisco utilizes the pistol, some zone-read looks and relies on Kaepernicks run/pass combo abilities to create plays. Atlanta struggled with Russell Wilsons comparable skill set last week, especially during the second half.
And because of the extra attention the Falcons paid to Wilson, Miller continued to find cavernous gaps in the Atlanta defense.
San Franciscos Vernon Davis had to be licking his chops while watching that Davis made just 41 catches during the regular season (his lowest total since 2008), but he remains one of the most dangerous tight ends in the league.
Our first conference finals Break It Down looks back at how Miller hurt the Falcons, and how the 49ers and Davis might be able to take advantage of Atlanta, too.
Were it only so simple for Atlanta to point to Seattles pistol, zone-read looks and say, OK, lets adjust our tight end coverage there
But the truth is that Miller burned the Falcons secondary out of a variety of formations. On this first play well look at, for example, the Seahawks lined up Wilson under center, with two tight ends (Miller and Anthony McCoy) plus WR Sidney Rice to his left.
The Falcons countered with a look they showed a lot Sunday. It was a 4-3 in personnel that looked a lot like a 5-2 set linebacker Stephen Nicholas moved up tight to the right side of Atlantas line, while safety Thomas DeCoud (circled) dropped down to give the Falcons eight players within five yards of the line of scrimmage.
Miller and Rice ran routes (Miller being the inside one), while McCoy shot across the line to pick up John Abraham. The use of McCoy there is similar to how the Vikings distributed players out of a trips (three-receiver) formation to run the zone-read vs. Green Bay. By doing it here, Seattle had Wilson protected after he faked a handoff to Marshawn Lynch and rolled to his right.
The difficulty for Atlanta, even though this play did not come out of the pistol or utilize the zone-read, is that the Falcons had to respect both the Lynch run and a potential Wilson rollout.
As a result, Miller was able to slip into the gap between the linebackers and deep safety William Moore. Miller then ran his route to the sideline, where Rice had cleared out the remaining Atlanta defender.
Over and over again, Miller shot into vacancies created either by Atlantas commitment to stopping the run or by a Falcons blitz. Here, the Seahawks again showed a run-heavy formation three tight ends overloaded to the right side, with Lynch in a single-back set behind Wilson. Just as on our first example, Atlanta had five on the line and three in the traditional linebacker spots.
Even with Lynch breaking out of the backfield immediately, Akeem Dent and Sean Weatherspoon froze, wary of Wilsons ability to escape the pocket.
As they did that, Miller again cleared that linebacker level and shot free into the secondary. Wilson hit him for a 34-yard gain.
Miller had multiple catches with Wilson in the shotgun with an empty backfield, too. There, the only ground threat was Wilson himself, yet Miller on at least three occasions found himself wide open immediately at the snap.
Even though most of Millers action came with Seattle in sets other than the pistol, the same deceptions were there the majority of the time. So long as the play-fakes, misdirection and potential of a QB run are prevalent in the defenses mind, offenses can take advantage.
One more example, off a play-fake to Lynch. Wilson held the linebackers, a wide receiver cleared one side of the field and Miller sprinted to the opening.
With the threat of a Kaepernick run in their back pockets, the 49ers also like to move Davis around.
The 49ers do use the pistol a great deal. Green Bay tried to counter it early in the NFC divisional round with a look similar to what Atlanta used vs. Seattle five on the line, two linebackers five yards deep and a safety dropped down. The Packers did this out of their 3-4 personnel with Clay Matthews to Kaepernicks blindside and another defender on the opposite side of the line.
But on pass plays, be it out of the pistol (as seen here) or another formation, that left Davis one-on-one.
Thats Tramon Williams with the red X there. He shifted out to cover a motioning Bruce Miller out of the backfield, leaving LB A.J. Hawk responsible for Davis on a pass.
Hawk actually did a decent job recognizing the play-fake Kaepernick made to Frank Gore, allowing him to stay with Davis early as Kaepernick completed a pass to Michael Crabtree instead. However, Davis had Hawk beaten deep in that hole between the linebacker and deep safety exactly where Miller did most of his work last week vs. Atlanta.
The 49ers will also slide Davis out to a flanker spot, if the matchups arise. With Green Bay blitzing Kaepernick, on the play pictured below, Davis drew a holding call on Williams.
Davis one catch against the Packers was a 44-yard, on a deep ball from Kaepernick. Again, the 49ers lined up in a pretty traditional single-back set, while the Packers countered with that eight-up look.
This left the Packers with a two-pronged problem when Kaepernick dropped to throw:
1. Davis had a juicy matchup with a linebacker again, which he exploited to make a play downfield.
2. Kaepernick had a clear running lane, if he had chosen to take it, because the Packers front five did not get home with pressure and the back six had to drop quickly in coverage.
And lest you think weve forgotten about the zone-read: It will be there for the 49ers, though they most often use it as a run, as opposed to a play-action decoy. But the play-action might be there Sunday, if the 49ers opt to use it.
This is a shot from Kaepernicks 56-yard TD run against the Packers. Miller came across to block the weak side as McCoy did for Seattle above while Davis stayed home to block. Had the 49ers adjusted their line assignments and used play-action here, though, Davis easily could have darted behind the linebackers for a substantial gain.
The long and short of it is this: San Franciscos offense, as Seattles did, will create mismatches against the Atlanta defense. The Seahawks were able to turn those mismatches into a big day for Miller.
Can the Falcons learn from that to slow down Davis, knowing that theyll see a lot of similar looks from San Francisco? To do so will require better play recognition from the linebackers and too much attention on Davis could leave the Falcons vulnerable elsewhere.
they'll treat vd different, they didnt respect miller, lets be real