The San Francisco 49ers tried something new on the offensive line against the New York Giants, and after watching the game a couple times over I'm still not sure how I feel about the results. The offensive line did seem to block better as a whole in Sunday's game, but there were still issues and they came at the worst times.
Jordan Devey is still the weakest player on the line, and when he was rotated out the line did look better at times, but his replacement was also struggling. Erik Pears is still a huge liability, and nobody is truly blocking as well as they should.
Against the Giants, the 49ers only allowed two sacks, but they were bad sacks. I went ahead and took some gifs of the breakdowns, and also included some coaches film so you could see what Kaepernick was seeing on the field. The biggest issue I can see if the fact that the 49ers run very long routes -- they take far too long to develop and this was also a problem last season.
Let's get to looking at it.
(3:44 in 1st Quarter) 3rd and 8 from SF 33: Colin Kaepernick sacked at SF 30 for -3 yards (Damontre Moore)
Sorry for the start of this one speeding up, that's what happened in my source so I could only capture it like that. However, the initial pressure is given up by a combination of Alex Boone and Marcus Martin. Martin originally goes to block a guy who disengages with him, and Boone acts like he's just chipping a guy that Martin will eventually handle. It's a bad mis-communication, and it caused Kaepernick to roll out on a a third down play. Pears and Staley handle their business as well as could be expected from them.
But what about the coaches film?
As you can see, Kaepernick would have had a man outside at the top of your screen, potentially for a touchdown, but he immediately is forced out the other way. His underneath option is taken away by the player who disengaged from Martin, at least briefly. That happened at the just the right time for Kaepernick to be unable to hit him. The other routes were all slow to develop.
(:11 in 4th Quarter) 2nd and 10 from SF 22: Colin Kaepernick sacked at SF 19 for -3 yards (Damontre Moore)
In this play, the routes were obviously going to take a long time to develop. There's a lot of field to cover, and not a long time so you can't blame the offensive coordinator on that. Unfortunately, Kaepernick is immediately pressured as Boone, Martin and Devey all try and block the same guy. I'm not sure what the blocking assignment was but it was clear how many guys they were sending and I don't think there's any excuse for Boone not blocking the guy that gets to Keapernick.
An extremely poor play from Boone. Below, I've got a look at the coaches film.
As you can see, the 49ers ran mostly streak routes and the Giants had it well covered. There were options developing late, but everyone drifted to Kaepernick's side of the field as he was immediately flushed out of the pocket. Kaepernick has the arm to put something deep and hope for a miracle, but the offensive line didn't even give him a chance.
What about when he has time?
This is what it looks like when Kaepernick DOES have a lot of time to throw. That's a play earlier in the game in which Kaepernick has a ton of time due to strong blocking from the offensive line, but his receivers are mostly well-covered and there's really nothing he can do. When he steps up at one point like he's going to run, I feel like he has his man deep but he doesn't throw it. You can blame him for that part but as a whole, the Giants covered it well.