Kyle Shanahan called a great game today.

[Diesel Hog]

Glad to see that a few people "get" what the running plays were about, ie. running the D to tire them out, take some of the steam out of their pass rush, set up the bootleg, etc. Kyle called a well thought out game, a strategic game that needed those running plays as a part of the overall effect. The WRs were breaking loose regularly, Davis had a great game because of the attention to those runs, you have to see how it fits into the big picture rather than just griping because every play wasn't broken open for a 50yd run.

Were there elements that could have worked better? Sure, but a lot of that was in the execution, not the calls made.

Agreed. I kept saying during the game that Kyle was called a great game. Sure not everything was great, and there were some definite miscues, but overall, I thought it was a very well called game.

[oldskoolskins]

The run set up the pass, if you don't believe it watch the game again, the midgets put 8 men in the box to stop the run but Kyle kept calling the run, and the midgets kept stacking the box. That is why our receivers were open and Rex had 305 yds passing.

[TimmySmith]

Agreed--the run game play calling was piss poor.

Same as last year. Shanny Jr. is a pass first guy who forgets about the run, then just throws a couple in there to change the pace. Very Norv Turner. I worry about clock management.

Overall I give him a B- yesterday.

[Larry]

Same as last year. Shanny Jr. is a pass first guy who forgets about the run, then just throws a couple in there to change the pace. Very Norv Turner. I worry about clock management.

Overall I give him a B- yesterday.

You know, it's really hard to do sarcasm well in text-based communication. It's so easy for people to simply read the text at face value and completely miss the sarcasm.

But when it works, and people "get it", it's a beautiful thing. Thank you for cheering me up, this morning.

[roanoker]

Kyle did a good job. It was obvious that his play calling had the G-Men concerned about the run.

[RandyHolt]

One of Kyle's best called games. We used the shotgun. Completed an end zone fade. We went 4 wide, an OC taking advantage of a injury depleted team, finally!

I knew Davis was going to be lined up wide this year when I heard he has lost 15 pounds. Cooley's injury had kept that off of most radars, and Davis was awesome. The patterns he called to Moss were MUCH better than last years junk 1 or 2 yd routes, or that stop running slant that never worked. Rex to Moss looked unstoppable yesterday, hitting Moss in stride and not leading him into a defender.

The G had a DE waiting for the boot and Kyle abandoned that quickly. But he seemed to keep running THT to the short side of the field which rarely worked. But he kept the Giants looking for it, which seemed to open up some passing lanes.

He is not caulk blocking the rex machine, he is embracing his innate needs. 300 yd games were not in Rex's resume but they are now.

[darrelgreenie]

I've always been a big fan of Kyle's play design and passing concepts.

Kyle's passing game creativity and design are some of my favorite to watch; to my eye he's right up there with Chan Gailey, Josh McDaniels and Jason Garrett and (Kubiac/Dennison).

Like many innovative pass focused OC's he's been quick to get away from the run and that was the main things that bothered me last year.

This game (and this offseason) showed a commitment to the run that imo was absent last year.

We ran the ball 26 times @ 2.8 ypc; the ypc numbers aren't pretty but the number of attempts is gorgeous.

As on old coach told me 'I'll run it into a brick wall if I have too'.

Running the ball is like any relationship its not always easy and sometimes sticking even when it doesn't appear to be working/smoothly is neccesary to reap the benefits i.e. 8 in the box and play action passing.

My only complaint is with the creativity of the run plays themselves.

As creative as Kyle is with the passing game he's conversely vanilla in the run game.

It to my eye mainly consisted of Singleback outside zone stretch.

And IIRC at least inside lead zone from I-form.

*This is just a nit-pick but I thought he would have started running the 4 minute offense earlier in the second half.

But, Kyle is an aggressive dude and came out attacking through the air.

I would have liked to see a ball control methodical drive.

In my heart of hearts I would like to see a bit more diversity in the run game.

A few traps, a few draws and a few toss/pitch.

But, I'll gladly settle for 25+ carries.

[SWFLSkins]

i didnt like his calling of the run game, but we got the win thats all that matters.

I am glad someone else said it. Hightower was running hard but the holes were not there and the avg per was really low. I wanted to see some mis-direction, a reverse or a trick play. Some thing to shake up the D.

---------- Post added September-12th-2011 at 12:41 PM ----------

I've always been a big fan of Kyle's play design and passing concepts.

Kyle's passing game creativity and design are some of my favorite to watch; to my eye he's right up there with Chan Gailey, Josh McDaniels and Jason Garrett and (Kubiac/Dennison).

Like many innovative pass focused OC's he's been quick to get away from the run and that was the main things that bothered me last year.

This game (and this offseason) showed a commitment to the run that imo was absent last year.

We ran the ball 26 times @ 2.8 ypc; the ypc numbers aren't pretty but the number of attempts is gorgeous.

As on old coach told me 'I'll run it into a brick wall if I have too'.

Running the ball is like any relationship its not always easy and sometimes sticking even when it doesn't appear to be working/smoothly is neccesary to reap the benefits i.e. 8 in the box and play action passing.

My only complaint is with the creativity of the run plays themselves.

As creative as Kyle is with the passing game he's conversely vanilla in the run game.

It to my eye mainly consisted of Singleback outside zone stretch.

And IIRC at least inside lead zone from I-form.

*This is just a nit-pick but I thought he would have started running the 4 minute offense earlier in the second half.

But, Kyle is an aggressive dude and came out attacking through the air.

I would have liked to see a ball control methodical drive.

In my heart of hearts I would like to see a bit more diversity in the run game.

A few traps, a few draws and a few toss/pitch.

But, I'll gladly settle for 25+ carries.

DG you do an excellent job of breaking down the plays, and I agree fully with your break down here. It seemed as though they kept trying the same sweeps over and over again.

[Redskins4ever]

The offensive play calling was very good. Kyle Shanahan called an excellent game and the players executed all game.

[gbear]

Don't the sweeps require the most from the opposing defense in terms of energy needed to cover all cut back lanes. I know the backs and the line spend a lot of running going side to side rather than north south. I thought a huge point of the number of sweeps was not just to gain yards, but also to force the DL to run and fight through blocks for as long as possile with the idea of reducing their energy for rushing the passer. or chasing back towards a completed short pass. I just remember reading about Shanny's bio and how he always thought his teams could wear opponents down and own the end of games. I know many thought he over did it with Haynesworth, but I suspect he really wants his team to be in better shape than our opponents because his game philosiphy requires it to win.

Yes, sweep after sweep makes one question why they don't just run a few up the gut, but maybe the whole point of the sweep was to tire out the edges allowing for high percentage plays on 3rd down or later in the series. It's not like we have a size advantage up the middle on most teams. So our advantage with our current personnel is probably speed and conditioning. We're not exactly trotting out Dockery any more. Besides, thought we did a pretty decent job sustaining drives yesterday, especially compared to the last few years.

[Year_of_The_Monk]

He called a good game today, though I wish that we would have ran up the score a little instead of running clock out. HTTR

[RandyHolt]

I think tiring out the defensive players works best in hurry up. Shanny probably does like the end of game wear down, but TOP is of vast importance if that is a priority. Which mandates a strong anti bend dont break defense. I wonder what our previous 5 years TOP numbers look like. Blache hadnt a care in the world about TOP, our defense out a ton.

Otherwise teams freely rotate folks on D all day long after a few failed stretches, they go nickel and many catch a breath. Our OL has to run out for those sweeps too and only if we have superior conditioning, do I believe it to be a significant factor. Since almost no teams rotate OL, it seems to me the constant stretches left are to set up a later play or to exploit a weak player / strong run blocker on that side. Or get the D just thinking every run will be to the left. Throw in a counter type of play and make them over commit out of habit. Maybe it was because we wanted to tire out Pierre, let Trent pancake and slow him down.

Thats a great question media lurkers, ask why we ran left repeatedly yesterday. Mike won't asnwer, but maybe Kyle or Grossman will.

[SirClintonPortis]

Well, he doesn't have PRO BOWLER McNabb calling the plays for him and thus putting the O in the wrong formation.

[Enter Apotheosis]

When you see that zone stretch going to the edge as opposed to taking it up or cutting back, that MEANS those gaps are being filled.

Sometimes. Some backs just seem to like trying to take it to the edge (e.g., Torain).

On a side note, I love that by and large people are finally showing signs of understanding ZBS and 3-4 concepts around here (as I say this I glance at LD0's post saying the same thing ).