Kyle Shanahan is among the brightest offensive minds in football. His offense has its share of razzle-dazzle, but his greatest strength as an offensive coordinator is his understanding the rules that defenses have to follow, and how to expose them. We aren’t talking about rules like pass interference. Instead, we're referring to the rules defenders have to follow in their defensive system.

Defenders are all part of an overarching system, and within that system are rules that they have to follow to ensure they do their part and defend certain offensive concepts the way their defensive coordinators envisioned. However, these rules aren’t always perfect and are designed to cover what happens most of the time. The gray area is what what happens some of the times. Shanahan’s genius is his ability to attack these gray areas. An example of this, his “follow” concept out of a three-receiver bunch formation.

Against bunch formations, defenses will play a cover-1 with a “banjo” technique while pressing the “point” of the bunch. They do this to avoid getting picked by crazy route distributions out of the bunch. Essentially the defender that is pressing the point will guard him man-to-man no matter where he does, while the two other defenders will take the first receiver that releases into their area.

 

In this example, the linebacker (LB) will press the tight end (Y) and has him man-to-man no matter what. The cornerback will take the first outside release from either the X or the F. The Nickel (N) will take the first inside release from either the X or F.

These rules were set so the defensive backs don’t have to cross over each other and possibly run to each, which could cause some serious defensive breakdowns. Shanahan understands these rules and is able to take advantage of them by designing a route combination that creates a natural pick and leverage.

 

The X receiver releases inside and runs a drag so the nickel picks him up. The Y releases outside so the linebacker presses him and has to cover him. The F, Julio Jones, goes outside so the cornerback has to pick him up. However, the cornerback has to get around the Y running a fade.

The corner is waiting outside and sees an outside release, so according to the rules of the defense, he has to cover Jones from that position. Jones’ outside release makes it seem like he’s going to continue going outside, and since the corner is already outside, he naturally waits outside, while having to fight through the pick by the Y.

The pick and the natural leverage disadvantage proves to be too much for the corner to handle, and when Jones breaks back inside, there is no one there and he gets wide open for a critical first down.

This play is just an example of great coaching. Shanahan saw a common way the defenses played bunch formations, figured out the rules, and designed a concept to take advantage of those rules. By proving that the rules that defensive coordinators teach their players don’t work, he is also seeping doubt into the minds of defenders that their defensive system might be flawed, which could increase the chances of players going rogue and causing more breakdowns later in the game.