How the 49ers exposed Sean McVay and the Rams

In the 49ers 34-31 win over the Rams in week 16, the 49ers made a crafty defensive adjustment to stall out the Rams offense. Sean McVay has a concept called “angle,” it’s one of his play-action flood concepts, and he uses it every single week. In the 49ers game, he called it an insane nineteen times. In the first quarter of the game, the Rams ran it eight times, Goff went 7/7 for 87 yards and a touchdown (with a QB scramble). The 49er’s defensive adjustment was to two-gap their defensive lineman instead of one gapping, which they usually do. Two gapping calls for the DLineman to strike the middle of the offensive lineman’s chest, hold him in place and read the flow of the play. It frees up the second-level defenders in coverage, but since the D-line isn’t penetrating gaps upfield, there is less pressure on the quarterback. The 2nd level defenders had more freedom to roam around and stop the angle concept. The rest of the game, the Rams went 4/8 for 37 yards on angle (with a few more quarterback scrambles).