The San Francisco 49ers, officially, sacked New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady just once. They also, officially, gave up five sacks against the Patriots and Colin Kaepernick was hit quite a few more times than that on top of it all.
It wasn’t a great game from the offensive line. Kaepernick, in my opinion, actually looked good in the pocket for much of the game, but the pocket was consistently disrupted and he was consistently forced to step out of it to keep himself on his feet.
Of course, Kaepernick was more “surprisingly good” than “really good” or some variation thereof. But the offensive line certainly did him no favors in the game. Below, I’m going to break down all five of the sacks with video in gif form, though they are all pretty straightforward from an x’s and o’s standpoint.
Let’s break down the breakdowns:
1st and 10 from SF 25 at 15:00 of 1st Quarter: Kaepernick sacked for minus-0 yards (Malcolm Butler)
There isn’t a ton worth looking at in this one because it’s a case of Kaepernick taking off and trying to make something out of a play that wasn’t going anywhere. But there is something to note, and that’s the fact that Daniel Kilgore is the player who loses track of the first man to apply pressure. Kilgore gets beaten by a late spin move and that’s when Kaepernick has to escape to the outside.
The sack didn’t result in a loss of yardage, so that’s something.
3rd and 9 from SF 26 at 13:50 of 1st Quarter: Kaepernick sacked for minus-12 yards (Patrick Chung)
Do you notice a theme developing? Yes, safety Patrick Chung is the man through on the delayed blitz and he comes through unblocked, but if you look at the center of the line you’ll see ... Kilgore, getting beat again. Kilgore channels his best Marcus Martin impression on the play and Kaepernick has no chance even if Chung doesn’t come through unblocked at the top of the screen.
3rd and 6 from NE 6 at 3:30 of 1st Quarter: Kaepernick sacked for -8 yards (Dont’a Hightower)
I’m showing two angles for this gif so you can see the breakdown, and so you can see the play that should have been. Just as Kaepernick is stepping up, he’s got someone in his face. In my opinion, he had enough time to his his receiver coming across the middle for the touchdown or at least a gain to the 1-yard line, but he still didn’t get as much time as he should have.
And that’s because the running back is no match for Dont’a Hightower. The center of the line, between Kilgore and Zane Beadles, collapses as well, but the running back being unable to chip Hightower is where the real breakdown occurred on the play.
3rd and 8 from SF 42 at 12:55 in 2nd Quarter: Kaepernick sacked for minus-8 yards (Kyle Van Noy)
This one is a bit zoomed out so you can see the coverage, and also because the breakdown is pretty easy to see. Joshua Garnett isn’t sure who he should block, Kilgore passes a defender onto the left side and Garnett is sort of stuck in-between. Meanwhile Trent Brown is backpedaling and for some reason, he lets the defender squeak right through between him and Garnett to get to Kaepernick.
Still, three 49ers players end up on the ground or otherwise unable to contribute effectively due to one guy. Pretty ugly from the right side of the line this time around.
2nd and 9 from SF 40 at 3:20 in 2nd Quarter: Kaepernick sacked for minus-0 yards (Rob Ninkovich)
The Patriots run kind of a late stunt here and Kaepernick is forced to abandon the pocket when Garnett loses containment on his guy. On the left side, Joe Staley and Beadles are engaging the same player, while the guy who got away from Garnett manages to get around right past Beadles on the left side. Kaepernick steps up, he’s not throwing the ball and instead gets sacked. He fumbled, and Brown fortunately was able to scoop up the recovery.