Before I start writing, a couple of caveats. First, I'm just a guy who watches too much football. Second, I'm going to write this stream of consciousness style. I was planning on buffing up my post with some charts and graphs (gifs), but it came down to whether I wanted to watch film or figure out gif making. Also, I'd like to generate discussion here, so I won't mind disagreements, nitpicks, stupid questions, anything.
SF - Offense
Let's start with my general observations of the 49er offense. They love to work formations and personnel to their advantage. Tight End Delanie Walker is a factor. He lines up wide, he'll line up in the slot, but mostly he lines up in the backfield. He acts as a fullback a lot and he's a pretty good blocker. He can also go deep and get open underneath. If he could catch, he'd be all world. Of course, if he could catch, he'd probably not be doing a lot of blocking. But the problem he really presents is to the defense. When the 9er's roll out 12 personnel (1 back, 2 te's), should the defense leave their base personnel in? Then SF can split Vernon Davis and Walker out wide and exploit the coverage mismatch. If the defense goes nickel, SF can line up in that full house pistol formation and ram the ball down their throat. iirc, Jim Harbaugh used a lot of 13 personnel at Stanford. He loves using tight ends.
Speaking of that full house pistol formation, I like how the run the option out of it. They use the full back to lead on the end and then option the backer. Makes the backer pick a hole instead of a man, basically making it impossible to hedge and try and cover both.
Michael Crabtree is playing great. Getting open and catching the ball. What more could you want?
Finally, Colin Kaepernick. He's playing great. Has an absolute cannon of an arm. If he gets loose, it can be six in a hurry. He has the same weakness that most young qb's and plenty of old qb's have, he can get confused with his reads against zone defense.
SF - Defense
Unfortunately, I only watched the playoff games for the 9er's. I watched them play over 90% nickel. With the amount of power set the Ravens run, I'm sure we'll see a lot more of their base 3-4 defense. I'm only going to talk about what I saw. SF shows the same bacic look with their nickel, play after play. 2 down linemen, 4 linebackers, 3 cornerbacks and 2 safeties. Both outside backers on the line, both inside backers over the guards.
Coverage wise, they usually presented the same look, press man with the two safeties playing over the top. From that position, they played that coverage quite a bit. They also rotated to various zone coverages. Occasionally, they'd blitz a backer and play man under/single high safety. I noticed that both high safeties have a tendency to be late on deep routes up the sidelines. The Ravens will definitely target there.
SF - Final Thoughts
It's a little wierd, but watching the film of the 49er's made me feel uneasy. Most teams have a complimentary offense and defense. What I mean, is that most teams have a defense designed to stop their own offense. SF has an offense designed to beat it's own defense. 1. CK's greatest strength is running the ball out of the pocket when the other team has turned it's back because it's playing man defense. 2. That two high, man under is vulnerable to mismatches vis-a-vis getting a TE/RB man-on-man against a slow line backer. 3. The defense is also vulnerable to power running from that nickel set.
BAL - Offense
The Ravens are a power running team that likes to throw deep off of play action, a tried and true offense in football since time immemorial. In order for this type of offense to really shine, you need a good offensive line. Well, Baltimore has a fantastic offensive line. Extemely physical in the running game, athletic enough for the passing game. It's in the pass protection that I feel like they really shine. From the film I watched, they never missed a trade off when dealing with stunts. They never left a free blitzer. Sure, guys got beat from time to time, but they never got out flanked or out schemed.
Ray Rice is just awesome. Pretty much has all the traits of a great rb. Runs with power, speed, shiftiness and patience. Similarly to SF, Bal will shift into some open formations to get Rice and Pitta mismatched on linebackers. Often times, the Ravens will come out in 12 personnel and motion into an empty backfield.
Joe Flacco is a capable quarterback, but I won't call him elite. He has a big arm and makes good decisions from the pocket. He is also immobile and not the best at buying time to throw. If the offensive line does what they've been doing and stuffs the pass rush, Flacco will look great. Most qb's look great with time and a clean pocket. He's most prone to mistakes if the rush gets home or at least close to home.
Personally, I like their 11 personnel set. They've been making hay in the playoffs with this set, particularly with the hurry up offense. Torrey Smith and Anquan Boldin are spectacular. Jacoby Jones is pretty good. Dennis Pitta can easily burn linebackers. And Ray Rice is Ray Rice. It gets all of the Ravens best play makers on the field concurrently. I just wish they'd run the ball more out of it. Wish may be too strong a term...
BAL - Defense
Baltimore runs a base 3-4. They show a ton of complex looks and differing coverages. It's all designed to confuse the offense. Confuse the line with who is rushing and who is dropping into coverage. Confuse the quarterback with the same. On top of that, they have Ngata and Suggs. The whole point of all that confusion is to try and get the opposing offense to try and single block Suggs. Dude is an alien freak, tough to stop with one man, even a tackle.
Coverage wise, while Baltimore will use everything under the sun, most of it is designed to keep the offense in front of them. They play off and are content to give up the underneath stuff while waiting for the offense to make a mistake or one of their playmakers to make a play.
As a bonus, I watched some of the Ravens/Redskins game to see how Baltimore dealt with the read option. I believe Washington ran it 6 or 7 times and RG3 kept the ball exactly zero times. The defensive end attacked the quarterback every time, making RG3 hand the ball off. The Ravens gave up some yards on the dive, but the defense is pretty good at flowing and getting off of blocks, so they never gave up massive gains. Most of the yards that the 'Skins got were in the air.
BAL - Final Thoughts
Actually, these are my thoughts from Harbowl I, the Thanksgiving primetime game from last season. The Ravens defensive front absolutely destroyed the 49er's offensive line. Nine sacks. Nine. Preparing for the Ravens in 3 days is not easy. Let's see what happens with two weeks to prepare. Will Baltimore show some new looks and will those looks confuse the SF offense?
Baltimore wasn't exactly efficient on offense in that game, either. Ray Rice was under 3 ypc. Can the 49er's hold up against the run again and take away the play action pass from the Ravens?
