The Return of Red Right 49!!!

[Thirteen Below]

I didn't see any mention of it in the game day thread, so I thought it was worth a thread of its own. The "red right 49" LaFleur called early in the 2nd (about the 4 minute mark). Absolutely my favorite play of the game, for sseveral reasons.

First of all - I'm thrilled to see it in our playbook, because "red right 49" was Lombardi's name for one of the most iconic, even legendary plays in the history of football - the old power sweep, designed by Lombardi 65 years ago. I'm delighted to see Green Bay running a version of it, proud of LaFleur for going back to the roots of our old dynasty and honoring our traditions, and hopeful that it'll become a regular feature in our offense. As Lombardi used to say, "if they can't stop that, they can't stop us."

And it really was just that simple. 5 world championships in 7 years.

Second - I'm really impressed with how smoothly and how cleanly our #2 offense executed that play; some of them are rookies, with only a couple of weeks of the their first camp under their belts. I'll talk a bit more about that in the first post below, but it impressed the hell out of me.

And, the best part of the play for me - the way Wilson just grabbed hold of Sean Rhyan's jersey and held onto it as Rhyan dragged him another 5 or 6 yards like a load of firweood while he was being pulled down by a linebacker. Man, I loved that play! Laugh my *** off every tiime I watch it, with Rhyan dragging him along like he's pulling a wagon.

He just refused to go down; he wanted to squeeze every single inch out of it that he could possiby get.

All in all, just a very well-executed play on many levels, with solid contibutions from a number of players - many of whom are young players trying to earn a spot, and who really stepped up to make an impression. The sense of competition on this team between the younger players is strong; you get the feeling that as well as these guys get along, and how supportive they are of one another, most of them are competing for a job against the others.

It's worth slowing down to quarter-speed and watching a couple of times and break it down. There's an awful lot going on here, and to me it all looks really positive. These young players seem to know that every one of them needs to bust their *** to earn a roster spot, with over 30 players in camp with only a couple of years experience. Every player is taking every snap seriously.

Edit: YouTube makes it a little difficult to link, so you have to manually skip forward to the 24-second mark. Deffinitely worth it though, IMO.

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[Thirteen Below]

This is the longer part of the post

I've broken this down and watched it a couple of dozen times over the last couple of days, and I'm just really impressed with how well our 2nd team executed it. There's a hell of a lot going on here.

The concept of this play is actually quite simple, but the execution of it is extremely complex. It requires perfect timing and coordination from several blockers, and precise lateral movements by the offensive line across the flow of the play. Lombardi's Packers used to practice this for hours at a time, over and over again, and these guys have done very well with it in just a few weeks.

Look at how quickly the center, Sean Rhyan (#75), snaps the ball from the shotgun, then (while the left guard takes over his man) immediately drops back 3 full yards and pivots to his right to get in front of the ballcacrrier, Wilson (who has already taken the handoff and is accelerating outside to his right) and leads the whole play downfield.

Look how fast the left guard, Royce Newman (#70), first "shows" a straight-ahead run block on the nose tackle (who is lined up against the center ) and then releases his man and proceeds past the D line - then cuts downfield to his right to get completely behind the whole first 2 levels of the defense, and position himself in front of the play in case any defenders have gotten loose downfield ahead of the runner and need to be mayhemed.

Wilson is comnpletely behind Rhyan throughout this entire sequence, so Rhyan has no way of knowing how the play is developing behind him - or for that matter, whether it even is developing. He doesn't have tiime to look over his shoulder, and he knows that - he's trained to just execute his assignment at full speed as though everything behind him is proceeding as designed, because if it isn't (if it's already broken down) there isn't anything he can do to fix that anyway. His job is to just keep going until he hears whistles.

So what do Rhyan and Wilson do? The instant the first stages of the play develop, and Wilson has the ball securely in his hands and catches up with Rhyan, he stretches his "off" arm (the non-ball arm) forward and grabs the back of Rhyan's jersey. Rhyan now knows Wilson has got the ball, he knows he's in stride and not yet fighting off tacklers behind Rhyan's field of vision, and at this point all they need to do is keep executing - keep going. The play is working at that point.

This happens roughly 3 yards behind the line of scrimmage, and Wilson never lets go of his jersey again.

At this point, the two of them have become one unit, and they will remain linked as one for the rest of the play. Rhyan will now know how fast Wilson is in step with him, and unless Wilson pushes against his back with his hand, he''ll know that there aren't any defenders outside of his field of vision who need to be accounted for - he is free to pick the best point of attack and hit it at the best possible speed, because the two-man unit is ahead of the pursuit and just needs to keep moving. Wilson's telling him, "go, man, I'm with you."

Look at how quickly right guard Jacob Monk (# 62) takes a half step back, drops behind the right tackle, and runs across the field ahead of Rhyan and across his path all the way to the far side of the play to blow up the cornerback Hailassie and take him completely out of the play before Rhyan and Wilson can get there. Haliassie might as well have been hit by a garbage truck; Monk just stonewalled him.

And then of course came the Nantucket sleigh ride, where the 220 pound Wilson just grabs his jersey and lets the 325 pound Rhyan drag him 5 more yards for the first down. That man wanted every single inch he could get.

This is just teriffic coordination between the OL and the runner, especially when you consider that some of them were studying for college finals 6 months ago.

It's obviously not as smooth and clean as when Taylor, Thurston, and Kramer were running it, but.... it worked for 11 yards and a first down. I'm really excited to see it.

 

[rmontro]

I had to watch the game on the NFL Network replay, which was the Browns broadcast, and even the Cleveland announcers mentioned it. I remember LeFleur has run this in the past, but it is definitely fun and nostalgic seeing it. I mean, as long as it works, why not, right? The thing with Lombardi was you knew they were going to run it, but they couldn't stop it because they ran it so well. Is there some reason in can't work in the modern game?

 

[mradtke66]

I don't think this is a perfect Lombardi sweep, though in the modern NFL run games, very little is new. This just looks to me like a sweep with two interior linemen pulling.

Things that are different (having just watched Lombardi's blackboard session and the particular play in slo-mo too many times)

1. The real sweep doesn't have the center pull. It's both guards.
2. Different personnel and alignment (12 out of pistol vs. 21 under center with split backs).
3. The tackle blocks down like Lombardi's "odd" call, which makes sense as the DT to the playside is a 3T and the center shouldn't be able to make that reach block. Also the center is pulling, moot point.
4. the inline TE (89) is doing something more like the tackle is supposed to in the "even" call. Get up field and turn inside to seal. In the original, the TE is supposed to deal with the OLB to his side and invite him upfield and wide.
5. The Wing (82) is filling the role of a FB of the original and is taking the wide lineman out. Part of why the "real" screen isn't used any more is that a FB vs. DE is a gigantic mismatch in favor of the defense. TE vs. DE is less so.

Lombardi teaching his sweep:

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[Heyjoe4]

I don't think this is a perfect Lombardi sweep, though in the modern NFL run games, very little is new. This just looks to me like a sweep with two interior linemen pulling.

Things that are different (having just watched Lombardi's blackboard session and the particular play in slo-mo too many times)

1. The real sweep doesn't have the center pull. It's both guards.
2. Different personnel and alignment (12 out of pistol vs. 21 under center with split backs).
3. The tackle blocks down like Lombardi's "odd" call, which makes sense as the DT to the playside is a 3T and the center shouldn't be able to make that reach block. Also the center is pulling, moot point.
4. the inline TE (89) is doing something more like the tackle is supposed to in the "even" call. Get up field and turn inside to seal. In the original, the TE is supposed to deal with the OLB to his side and invite him upfield and wide.
5. The Wing (82) is filling the role of a FB of the original and is taking the wide lineman out. Part of why the "real" screen isn't used any more is that a FB vs. DE is a gigantic mismatch in favor of the defense. TE vs. DE is less so.

Lombardi teaching his sweep:

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Great video, thanks! Never saw this before. It was such an effective play for Lombardi's Packers, I never understood why it fell out of favor. If anything, it should work better with the size and speed of the Gs, Cs, and Ts in the game today.

 

[mradtke66]

I never understood why it fell out of favor.

A few reasons.

Most importantly, defenses are so fast in the modern game. Sweeps in general of any kind are just harder. This speed and ability to flow to the ball is why cutback schemes work well today.

Second, the majority of defenses are gap systems. The defender aligns I. The gap. This makes reach blocks harder and it’s more typical for defenses to play the run on the way to the quarterback. In other words, chance for penetration is high. You can do things to work around it, but look at the preseason game. The offense was aligned with two tight ends to one side to get the leverage they needed. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not typically where you want to be all game.

Third, which is kind of a repeat of 1 and 2, but if a modern team used the sweep a lot, it would be game planned for. An 8 man box and the right shift to the tight end side makes things harder. The occasional run blitz or hot call into a run blitz could shut it down on a hurry. Wider defensive ends and 3-4 linebackers are just aligned to better rush the passer and has the side effect to stop sweeps.

Fourth, like I said in my previous post, a key block is the fullback on the defensive end. You think Deguara in the back field could effectively block Rashan Gary? That is a mismatch that wildly favors the defense.

I will say that sweep in general do have one thing going for them with recent rule changes. Since defenders can’t take out the legs of blockers, the balancer of power has shifted to the big men. I don’t think it can ever be a staple, it if you set it up over a game, 1 or 2 sweeps might work better than they did 10 years ago.

 

[Poppa San]

I also think the sweep was replaced by an effective screen game. It takes advantage of the defense rushing the QB as first priority allowing the OL to slip through a get out to block the much smaller DBs.

 

[Heyjoe4]

A few reasons.

Most importantly, defenses are so fast in the modern game. Sweeps in general of any kind are just harder. This speed and ability to flow to the ball is why cutback schemes work well today.

Second, the majority of defenses are gap systems. The defender aligns I. The gap. This makes reach blocks harder and it’s more typical for defenses to play the run on the way to the quarterback. In other words, chance for penetration is high. You can do things to work around it, but look at the preseason game. The offense was aligned with two tight ends to one side to get the leverage they needed. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not typically where you want to be all game.

Third, which is kind of a repeat of 1 and 2, but if a modern team used the sweep a lot, it would be game planned for. An 8 man box and the right shift to the tight end side makes things harder. The occasional run blitz or hot call into a run blitz could shut it down on a hurry. Wider defensive ends and 3-4 linebackers are just aligned to better rush the passer and has the side effect to stop sweeps.

Fourth, like I said in my previous post, a key block is the fullback on the defensive end. You think Deguara in the back field could effectively block Rashan Gary? That is a mismatch that wildly favors the defense.

I will say that sweep in general do have one thing going for them with recent rule changes. Since defenders can’t take out the legs of blockers, the balancer of power has shifted to the big men. I don’t think it can ever be a staple, it if you set it up over a game, 1 or 2 sweeps might work better than they did 10 years ago.

All good points, and yeah, the O linemen are bigger and faster, but so are the defenders. And you're right about defender now assigned to gaps. Kind of like skating to where the puck (running back) will be. Maybe it could be successful if executed well and only once or twice a game. But changes to the game and players make it much less likely to succeed. Thanks for the observations.

 

[Heyjoe4]

I also think the sweep was replaced by an effective screen game. It takes advantage of the defense rushing the QB as first priority allowing the OL to slip through a get out to block the much smaller DBs.

I love it when a screen works well, and properly executed, would result in much longer gains than the sweep. For the screen to work best, a lot of things have to happen. The defense should be blitzing, ideally with a CB or S rather than a LB, but with 6 men blitzing.

And then the offense has to do a great job of selling the pass. the offensive line has to block but still allow the defenders to get through. If all goes well, the RB has the football and 6 defenders are behind him. I see, to recall that MLF Ikes the screen, but it demands a lot of precision.

 

[Poppa San]

see, to recall that MLF Ikes the screen, but it demands a lot of precision.

Packers recently have a terrible screen game. Payback for the excellent years with Dorsey Levens running it.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Packers recently have a terrible screen game. Payback for the excellent years with Dorsey Levens running it.

Agreed. Whether MLF likes the screen or not, I haven't seen them do it well. Hopefully that changes this year. One disadvantage of a young team is that the guys haven't played together a lot. And the screen requires precise communication and execution to be successful.

 

[El Guapo]

And then the offense has to do a great job of selling the pass. the offensive line has to block but still allow the defenders to get through.

Right on. The key to any deception play is selling it. That often starts with the non-deception plays. However, once you run the deception you have to concentrate on the foreplay as much as main event. The QB has to sell a real pass, the WRs have to explode into their routes to clear out the DBs, and the OL needs to block but let the DL win. Most good DL can tell when you're not blocking as normal, and then stop their rush.

Just today, I saw Max Crosby of the Raiders stop his rush and immediately scrape down the line expecting deception. The OL didn't sell it well enough, Crosby sensed something was up, and reacted.

 

[OldSchool101]

Right on. The key to any deception play is selling it. That often starts with the non-deception plays. However, once you run the deception you have to concentrate on the foreplay as much as main event. The QB has to sell a real pass, the WRs have to explode into their routes to clear out the DBs, and the OL needs to block but let the DL win. Most good DL can tell when you're not blocking as normal, and then stop their rush.

Just today, I saw Max Crosby of the Raiders stop his rush and immediately scrape down the line expecting deception. The OL didn't sell it well enough, Crosby sensed something was up, and reacted.

That’s something I’ve noticed both Musgrave and Kraft do well, but in particular Kraft. On replays he sells the block at Gronk level, then fades away undetected. Very good timing of being confident and not anxious in his letting the play develop. He had several plays that jumped off film that I thought were brilliantly executed in which he ended up with a big time gain. Watch him. He sells the initial block and draws the D into overpursuit by baiting them and as they Win he just lets them into the trap.
I think Kraft is that TE we’ve been looking for that we kept striking out in RD3

 

[El Guapo]

Great point. Tight ends are the ones who consistently play after play are either blocking, running a route, or pretending to block to sneak off into the middle.

Most young dudes don't know when a good is too good to be true.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Right on. The key to any deception play is selling it. That often starts with the non-deception plays. However, once you run the deception you have to concentrate on the foreplay as much as main event. The QB has to sell a real pass, the WRs have to explode into their routes to clear out the DBs, and the OL needs to block but let the DL win. Most good DL can tell when you're not blocking as normal, and then stop their rush.

Just today, I saw Max Crosby of the Raiders stop his rush and immediately scrape down the line expecting deception. The OL didn't sell it well enough, Crosby sensed something was up, and reacted.

Yeah I was thinking specifically about the O linemen and how they have to engage and not engage without tipping off the defense. That's tough for a number of reasons. Yes the good DLs will sniff that out and back off. And it goes against all the instincts of the blockers to let a guy get a run at the QB. So it's a tricky play and needs a lot of practice. But when it works, it's beautiful.

And that's an interesting observation on Crosby. These guys get the spotlight when they make a sack, not so much when they sniff out a play and blow it up.

 

[Heyjoe4]

Great point. Tight ends are the ones who consistently play after play are either blocking, running a route, or pretending to block to sneak off into the middle.

Most young dudes don't know when a good is too good to be true.

It can be very effective when a TE pretends to block and the coverage backs off. The great ones then slip into an uncovered spot 7 or 8 yards downfield and are easy targets.