49ers-Colts video: Breaking down San Francisco’s 4 sacks on Jacoby Brissett

The San Francisco 49ers only allowed two sacks against the Indianapolis Colts, and I think they had a pretty decent game blocking for Brian Hoyer overall. Similarly, I thought Jacoby Brissett had a little too much time with the ball for the Colts, but ultimately, the 49ers did manage to bring him down.

They sacked Brissett a total of four times, with different players getting in on every sack for the most part. All of the sacks were group efforts, and the defensive secondary, for the most part, held up well. Only on one of the plays did I think Brissett missed a for-sure option before he was actually pressured by the 49ers.

As has become customary, I’m including coaches film in the footage below. I’d also like to do some kind of call to action — if you guys see things on gameday that you want broken down with video/gifs, please let me know. The best way to do that is Tweeting at me, or mentioning it in the comments of that evening’s DOOM Index, because I can’t keep up with every post.

Let’s get to the film study.

10:50 in 1st Quarter, 2nd and 10 from SF 25: Brissett sacked at SF 31 for -6 yards (Xavier Cooper, Jaquiski Tartt)

Poor, poor Frank Gore. Jaquiski Tartt makes short work of Gore on this play, and winds up splitting the sack with XAVIER Cooper. By my count, Brissett spends less than a second actually looking downfield before he’s forced to spin away from Tartt, directly into Cooper and, behind him, Arik Armstead. Only Solomon Thomas struggled up front.

I think the first important thing to note here is that no 49ers player bit on the short play action.It’s a simple zone defense and I don’t think anybody is ever really close to being open for Brissett. Even if he had another second or two, I fail to see where he would go with the ball. Just a good play all around.

8:36 of 2nd Quarter, 3rd and 10 from SF 44: Brissett sacked at IND 48 for -8 yards (Elvis Dumervil)

High motor and high energy from Elvis Dumervil, a veteran I assumed had very little left in the tank. He’s the only one who gets great pressure here, though Aaron Lynch does give the left tackle a handful on the other side. Again though, it looks like Thomas is struggling, though he is double-teamed on this play.

At the point where Brissett’s dropback ends, he has one receiver running a curl route — second from the top of the screen. I suspect it’s a timing route that Brissett aborted. It’s possible the defender could have closed to step in front of that, but I think it’s a missed opportunity to lead his man outside, where there would be another 5 yards or so to gain. Otherwise, fairly solid coverage by the 49ers.

1:51 of 2nd Quarter, 2nd and 4 from SF 4: Brissett sacked at SF 5 for -1 yard (Brock Coyle, Arik Armstead)

Here, Thomas first defends the shovel pass, crucial in a short situation. Then he follows Brsset, tracks him down, and along with Brock Coyle combines to sack both Brissett AND a Colts tight end who happens to get in the way. Nice.

I didn’t include the coaches film for this play because we can see everything that’s important on screen. The shovel pass seems to have been the top option on that play, and Thomas did a good job taking that away by undercutting the running back.

9:18 of 3rd Quarter, 2nd and 18 from SF 20: Brissett sacked at SF 31 for -11 yards (Elvis Dumervil, DeForest Buckner)

DeForest Buckner really does make short work of the left guard here, and he forced Brissett to try and move to his right. Unfortunately for him, Dumervil is already barreling toward him — and is actually pushed harder into Brissett by the second offensive lineman trying to assist the tackle that Dumervil beat. Brissett goes down.

Looking at this coaches film, I actually think Brissett has time to fire off a shot. A high level quarterback hits his receiver in the seam for the touchdown or at least the first underneath option at the bottom of the screen. The 49ers’ safeties didn’t play that one well, but pressure collapsing both sides of the Indianapolis line forced Brissett to get out of his motion sooner rather than later.