SB Nation User Blog: Viliphied

Alex Smith and the Shotgun Spread

Viliphied — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:18:54 -0000

As we've been discussing Smith and his success (or lack thereof) in the 49ers offense, many, myself included, have advocated moving toward a more open "spread" attack, utilizing plays mostly out of the shotgun. I've been advocating this because it has certainly seemed like Smith was more comfortable in this formation, and the 9ers offense as a whole is more successful.

During this conversation, some people have been wondering what the "spread", "shotgun", "desperation" or whatever you want to call it offense actually entails. To me, it means running plays primarily (>50%, more like 60-75%) from the shotgun, with either 3+WR, 2 WR 2 TE, or 2WR 1TE 2RB (that's 2 RB, not 1 RB, 1 FB). The latter formations allow for players to begin on the line and shift out to WR spots, or vice versa. What it DOES NOT mean is throwing on every down, completely abandoning the run.

I wanted to take a look at the Niners' O since Smith has been starting, and see how successful they've been when they're in the "spread", so I looked at every drive, and compiled all of the drives where >50% of the snaps were taken from the shotgun. I did this becasue I wanted to differentiate between when the offensive philosophy was to execute from the spread, as opposed to being forced to use more WR / the shotgun because of down and distance on isolated occasions. As a result, several of these drives include plays made from under center, and with non-spread personnel, but the overall drive conformed to the philosophy. The results may surprise you:

The Niners have had 14 such drives since Smith became the starter, surprisingly enough, only 2 in Houston. Here's how they went:

Green Bay

plays yards result

3 5 punt

9 50 turnover on downs

7 68 TD

3 2 punt

3 24 TD

7 83 TD

3 TD in 6 drives, 2 3 and outs, one of which had only 2 shotgun plays on 2nd and 15 and 3rd and 9.

Chicago

plays yards result

11 48 punt

On this drive, we ran 9 times. 6 times from the shotgun for 35 yards, with 3 successful runs (>33% required yardage on 1st down, >50% required yardage on 2nd down, >100% required yardage on 3rd or 4th down), and 3 times from under center for 2 yards with 0 successful runs.

Tennessee

plays yards result

9 82 TD

6 13 punt

1 0 int

11 78 TD

The last 2 drives are somewhat confusing, because the int happened on the only play of the drive, you can't really tell if they were truly going for a spread look or just an isolated play from the shotgun. I included it anyways because it met the criteria. The TD could be called a "garbage" TD, though technically they did have the opportunity to recover the onside kick to take posession to try to tie. However, this is the game some detractors point to and say "this is what happens when we try the spread". As it turns out, we didn't really try the spread very much in this game.

Indianapolis

plays yards result

7 89 TD

This was the 2 minute drive at the end of the first half of the game. As an aside, the number of plays marked (run formation) in this game was absolutely sickening. It's as if Sing and Raye have never seen our O Line.

Houston

plays yards result

7 73 TD

5 32 int

IMO if you're going to say that the TD at the end of the TEN game was a "garbage" TD and throw it out, you have to do the same for the int at the end of this game. I was surprised to find that there were only 2 drives that met my "spread" criteria in this game, I could have sworn it was more like the GB game.

Total - 14 drives, 7 TD, 4 punts, 2 ints, 1 turnover on downs.

All in all, I'd say we've been pretty successful, and this has completely reinforced my position that we should fully adopt the spread attack until a team shows they can stop it on a consistent basis.

The View From Section 127

Viliphied — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:26:31 -0000

or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Edgar Rentaria

So yesterday was my first game ever at the phone, and you know what? it turned out pretty well. My dad and I left Folsom around 230 and got into SF a little after 4. We went to Gordon Biersch for a quick bite before heading to the stadium, which was pretty good, good beer, not too expensive. We got an unexpected show when I noticed a guy on the train platform accross the street who was too drunk to stand up straight. He was trying to start a fight, and the other people on the platform were doing a pretty good job of ignoring him while his friend held him back. After a while, his friend got him to sit down, but then he lost his grip and the guy got up off the bench and promptly fell onto the train tracks.

We got to the park when the bums were taking BP. I don't know if you guys are aware, but they have this guy "Manny" something, and he can hit the ball pretty far.

My dad and I at the park.

Before the game they had the Carnival drum/dance troupe. They were pretty bleh.

Tim walking out to warm up. If I didn't know who he was, and someone pointed him out on the street and said "This guy pitches in the major leagues" I would not believe them.

Some guy I've never heard of is staring in RF. (cheer)

This picture holds the world record for "most grit and hustle ever captured on film"

Pablo Sandoval: Winner, Favorite Giant (non-Lincecum edition)

First pitch - Out. This is going well so far.

Photo evidence of the Molina triple.

Lincecum, abuot to strike someone out.

Brian Wilson is awesome, even if his hair is full of fail.

Snatchwig sighting!

All in all, awesome game, awesome seats, awesome experience.

Jersey Decisions

Viliphied — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:52:31 -0000

AKA Damn the 12 character customization limit.

I want to get a custom jersey with a player's nickname, unfortunately my first choice (Baron Pickoff Von Ironglove) is way too long. A couple of good ones are 13 characters as well, meaning I have to cut off a space somewhere.

Here are a few I've been thinking of:

KUNGFU PANDA - 48

PANDAEXPRESS - 48

ALBATROSS - 75

FRANCHISE - 55

SEABISCUT - 55

BIG MONEY - 1

LITTLE MONEY - 48

Any of those stand out as better than the others? Any other ideas? Keep in mind, there's a 12 character limit, including spaces.

Giants make roster move

Viliphied — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:35:32 -0000

to be announced tomorrow.

Who do you think got traded? Winn? Aurilia? Winn? Winn? I hope it was Winn. What teams in contention need an OF or utility IF? Will we get someone at least at the semi-prospect level like Denker? Are our chains being pulled and it's going to be Ochoa going down so McClain can get a cup of coffee? What SJ Giant will be used to fill the roster hole?

Open rampant speculation.

This is according to Damon Bruce on sportsphone tonight.

Baseball neophyte here

Viliphied — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:16:09 -0000

This is my first year of following baseball seriously, and I have a question for those of you who've been doing it longer.

About what level of competition to players face in college? When looking at a college player's numbers, what's a good comp? low A? high A? AA?