How Kyle Shanahan and Brock Purdy Picked Apart the Giants' Blitzes
The Giants blitzed the 49ers on nearly 85% of their dropbacks on Thursday night. But head coach Kyle Shanahan had an answer for defensive coordinator Wink Martindale’s aggressive approach, and his quarterback executed brilliantly.
Shanahan used motion and personnel distribution to help give Brock Purdy a clear view of the defense throughout the night. You could see it on the 49ers’ first touchdown. Here, running back Christian McCaffrey motioned from the backfield to the perimeter. Linebacker Bobby Okereke followed:
That was an indicator of man coverage. Given where they were on the field, the fact that the Giants appeared to be matching up in man coverage across the board, and the 6 defenders on the line of scrimmage threatening to rush, this appeared to be a cover-0 blitz:
With the defense identified, now it was on Purdy to execute.
Against cover-0, quarterbacks don’t work through progressions. They pick their favorite matchup or route and make the throw to beat the coverage. Here, Purdy liked Ronnie Bell’s route from the slot against Deonte Banks:
Given that the protection could not account for all 6 pass rushers if they came, it was on Purdy to handle the free rusher, who would end up coming from his left.
Purdy back-pedaled to buy enough time and then delivered a perfect ball for the touchdown:
Not only did Purdy make an exacting throw off his back foot with a defender in his face, but he also threw this pass with great anticipation. You can see below that the ball was out well before Bell had turned around:
That’s a great job by Shanahan of putting his quarterback in the best position to succeed, and that’s high-level execution by Purdy.
There were plenty of other plays from Thursday night where Shanahan created a clean pre-snap picture for Purdy. On this next example, the 49ers came out in “22” personnel (2 RB, 2 TE) and an I-formation. Then they shifted. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk and running back Elijah Mitchell motioned to the perimeter. Giants linebackers Bobby Okereke and Micah McFadden followed: