Commanders defense gives up too many explosive plays in loss to 49ers
Breaking down some of the explosive plays that resulted in touchdowns for the 49ers
The Washington Commanders fell into old habits on defense against the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday. Washington’s defense, missing a few key players like safety Kam Curl, reverted back to familiar troubles from the start of the season of giving up multiple explosive plays. The 49ers first three touchdowns all came from explosive plays. So let’s take a closer look at what went wrong on those three plays.
On this play, the 49ers call a run that was probably designed to go to Deebo Samuel, but with the star receiver sidelined they give it to Ray-Ray McCloud instead. He aligns in the slot to the left and motions behind the quarterback before the snap. Once the ball is snapped, the quarterback hands it off to him on a run to the right. Up front, the offensive line does a terrific job reaching multiple Commanders defenders. Daron Payne gets reached by the right guard while the right tackle works up to the second level to pick up linebacker David Mayo. Tight end George Kittle reaches defensive end James Smith-Williams and wide receiver Willie Snead works up to the second level to block safety Bobby McCain. Running back Christian McCaffrey inserts into the blocking scheme too, helping Kittle secure Smith-Williams on the edge.
With so many defenders reached and blocked, the Commanders need the secondary to react quickly to fill the gaps. With Smith-Williams initially reached, cornerback Kendall Fuller has to replace him on the outside, but as McCaffrey inserts and picks up the block on Smith-Williams, Kittle is able to peel off and block Fuller. Safety Jeremy Reaves reads the play quickly from the back side, but because of his starting position, it’s hard for him to work across and make the play. Darrick Forrest is a bit slower to read the play, which makes him late to get down to the line of scrimmage. He then gets himself caught in the same gap as Reaves while McCloud is able to run freely to the edge and down the sideline. The Commanders fail to catch up with him and McCloud runs it in for a 71-yard touchdown.
After that one explosive play, the Commanders managed to put a cap back on the defense for the rest of the first half. However, in the second half that cap was blown off by the 49ers.
On the opening drive of the second half, the 49ers got to a third and four situation from Washington’s 34 yard line. Here, the Commanders try to confuse rookie quarterback Brock Purdy with a disguised coverage. Before the snap, they show a single deep safety in Darrick Forrest with the two outside corners playing off and soft. This suggests a likely Cover-3 call. However, once the ball is snapped, Forrest steps up, rather than drops back, while the two corners sink deeper than normal. It’s actually an inverted Tampa-2 coverage with Forrest acting as the hole player and the two outside corners acting as the deep safeties.
Unfortunately, when Forrest steps up in the hole, he fails to locate the threat of Kittle running right past him up the seam. As the hole player in Tampa-2 coverage, Forrest is responsible for any player running up the seam and has to turn and carry him down the field to allow the deeper defenders the opportunity to split wider and cover a deep half. With Forrest failing to pick up Kittle, he runs wide open down the middle of the field for an easy 34-yard touchdown to give the 49ers the lead out of the half.
The Commanders managed to get a three-and-out from the 49ers on the following drive, but after the offense failed to convert on fourth down, the 49ers got the ball back in Washington territory and hit yet another explosive play.
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