New Bengals in New Roles Part 3: Misdirection and Making the Old New Again

Frank Gore takes the handoff from Colin Kaepernick as the San Francisco 49ers take on the Chicago Bears.

After going in motion, it’s obvious that the Bears are playing cover 3. At the snap, the Bears linebackers flowed hard to the play side, naturally taking Sam backer Nick Roach out of the play.

This turned into a basic hat on hat type block, with the numbers evenly matched, and because Davis and fullback Britt Miller are both athletic, they could get downfield and clear out the path for Frank Gore, who picked up 17 easy yards.

Frank Gore takes the handoff from Colin Kaepernick as the San Francisco 49ers take on the Buffalo Bills.

This shows how the play works against linebackers from Buffalo, who are playing more of a read and react style. Davis was lined up at wingback this time around, and he used his speed to get to the circled safety and take him out of the play. It’s a little detail that can create a big play.

While the offensive line again put hats on hats, Walker shot through the gap to take out the Will linebacker. On the other side, Miller took the Sam linebacker. Now the Mike linebacker is unblocked, but Gore just has to be patient. As soon as the Mike committed to one gap, Gore chose the other and galloped to the open real estate.

Lastly, this play by Walker is the kind of play that Charles could provide out of the H-back position. We’ve seen that Charles can make catches in the flat or as a safety valve, but this is the type of play that a traditional fullback can’t execute.

Delanie Walker catches a touchdown pass from Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco 49ers as they take on the Seattle Seahawks.

At the snap, Kaepernick faked the handoff and looked downfield. The Seahawks, however, were playing cover 4 and were on top of the vertical routes. Walker had run a wheel route to the flat, and swiveled his head at the 15 yard line to look for the check down.

When it wasn’t there, Walker was able to convert the wheel route to a fade, and found his way underneath the deep flag route to the space vacated by Richard Sherman, who had to respect his deep corner duties.

Kapernick floated a pass to Walker to the front corner of the end zone, where he extended to snag it for a touchdown