The San Francisco 49ers' game against the St. Louis Rams was closer and more anxious than expected. There weren't many clues from the scoreline alone, but the course of the game proved it.

The San Francisco 49ers' patched defensive team began to reveal problems one after another.

The first is the defensive front, and although the frontline pressure is still strong, with four tacks, four rushing quarterbacks and eleven effective presses, the stats are impressive enough to continue to cause problems for the opponent's pockets, but they have seriously missed the tackle.

Either because of a mismatch, or because of an individual error, or because of an accident, for whatever reason, there were at least five noticeable missed tackles throughout the match – two of which allowed the opponent to complete a three-gear transition, and the other two allowed for a 15-yard or more over-yardage ground push, which also allowed all the tactical set-ups and teammates to build up an advantage that instantly zeroed in.

Looking at the full-court stats, the San Francisco 49ers' defensive front line managed to limit the St. Louis Rams' ground offense to 124 yards, which was exceptionally good. However, it must be noted that just two missed tackles to release 35 yards can be seen at a glance as to the serious consequences of the misses.

Fortunately, the San Francisco 49ers are now facing the St. Louis Rams, who are not very strong in attack, and if they face a strong opponent like the New Orleans Saints, a mistake at a critical moment could directly bury the efforts of the whole game. Now the San Francisco 49ers need to be thankful that the St. Louis Rams offensive team was not able to take their chances.

What's more, the five missed tackles mentioned above are not all, they are just obvious serious mistakes. In addition, there were many small mistakes in the process of the game, but under the mutual assistance of teammates and timely supplemental defense, the situation did not make the situation worse, and the loss was stopped in time, which was not included in the statistics.

The second is the defensive second line, which is already relatively weak, and now faces more challenges after the absence of rookie safety guard Eric Ryder - in this game, St. Louis Rams head coach Jeff Fisher aimed at this, changing the team's style of ground offense, and letting backup quarterback Karen Clemens hold high the banner of passing offense, hoping to make a breakthrough from here.

Clemens, a 2006 second-round pick, is now a veteran, spending the first five seasons of his career with the New York Jets, then losing his job for nearly a year, going from team to team before moving to the St. Louis Rams at the end of the 2011 season as a backup for Bradford.

This is a quarterback who has been a starter many times, and has started more than 20 games so far, which is very rare among the bench quarterbacks.

Clemens' shortcomings are that his passing accuracy is extremely unstable, his career average single-season pass success rate has never exceeded 60%, and he lacks the ability to pass long passes, mainly short passes; The advantage is that they have sufficient knowledge and understanding of the tactical manual, can firmly implement the tactics of the coaching staff, and still have a certain level of ability to control the crisis situation on the field——

This is a big reason why the Rams were able to beat the Indianapolis Colts strongly; It is also the reason why Jeff Fisher has dared to shift the focus of the whole attack to the passing attack, and despite Clemens' poor passing accuracy, at least he has been able to faithfully carry out the coaching staff's tactics, which creates the possibility of Fisher winning.

Entering the game, the San Francisco 49ers' defensive front line flashed again, forcing Clemens to dance in the pocket at all times, as if he was standing on a tightrope and trying to pass the ball, rarely being able to stand firm to complete the pass, which also caused Clemens more problems.

Throughout the game, Clemens was steadfast in his short passing strategy, but even so, his pass completion rate was still only a measly 51.4%, barely half.

In other words, the 49ers' defensive front has created the conditions for the second-tier defense through their own pressure, but ...... However, the second line of defense has repeatedly made mistakes in positioning and missed tackles.

With the pass defense dominant, there were at least three missed tackles in the second line, and all three of these errors turned into a successful third-gear transition for the St. Louis Rams; What's worse is that the number of yards lost from a card slot mistake is also a staggering number -

For example, this is a five-yard short pass, and if the tackle is successful, then it is a five-yard drive; But as a result, because of his own card position error, the five yards became eight yards, or even more, and even ran directly to the end area.

Don't underestimate the loss of yards per card position mistake seems to be a small number, that is, two yards and three yards, but when it adds up, the advantage of the defensive group is gradually eroded.

As a result, in the face of the St. Louis Rams' passing offense at the bottom of the league, and in the face of a quarterback of Clemens' level, the San Francisco 49ers' defensive second line released a full 198 yards of passing offensive yards, which is really not reassuring.

Of course, from a positive point of view, neither the defensive front nor the defensive second line made a fool of themselves at critical moments, but on the contrary, they were always able to cheer up and put out the crisis in time at critical moments, which prevented the team from falling into a worse situation.

In terms of scores, the defensive team only allowed the opponent to score 16 points, one free kick in each of the first three quarters, and a touchdown in the closing stages of the final game after the timeout in the final quarter, which is not to the level of "bad"; But the defense allowed 21 first-time strikes, more than double the previous game against the Washington Redskins, which is a problem.

However, this is not a bad thing, it is more precise, it is a good thing, because the problem can only be solved if it is found, otherwise it may be too late to reveal it in the playoffs. At the very least, Vic Fangio has built a San Francisco 49ers defense despite a lack of major generals, and it has gradually hardened through successive tests, which is a positive start.

When the defensive group began to fluctuate, the attacking group stepped up and took over the initiative.

From the fake fax run in the last game to the fake run and true pass in this game, the fake and the true, the real and the false, Lu Ke has brought the changes in the West Coast offensive system to the extreme.

In the game, Lu Ke repeatedly used Frank Goyle and Marcus Lynch, two running backs, to divert the attention of the opponent's defensive front line with fake runs, and then opened the situation with screen short passes or fast short passes, and Logan Newman and Michael Crabtree, who both returned to the starting lineup in this game, became the focus of attention-

The two receivers repeatedly used their size to take advantage of their size, completing stump catches in the short pass area, and then waiting for an opportunity to force a breakthrough.

If that's all there is to it, it's only a matter of time before the tactics are spotted and suppressed by the opponent.

Lu Ke's cleverness lies in defensive reading and tactical layout, when Logan or Crabtree attracts enough defensive power, he immediately unexpectedly passes the football to Ankuang Boulding or Garrett Sellek, focusing not on advancing yardage but on passing success rate, and it only takes two or three successful catches for defenders to start paying distracted attention to Boulding and Sellek's running routes, and then ...... Lu Ke will once again give full play to the characteristics of the West Coast offensive system, and dazzle the entire running route.

The St. Louis Rams defense finally realized that the starting lineup was tired of being tired - after Crabtree entered the starting lineup, he replaced Ted Jean, who was in good form, instead of Angang Boulding, who was more similar in size, style and type, because the San Francisco 49ers did not intend to take advantage of Jean's speed, and short and medium passes were still the focus of the entire strategy.

All four receivers have the ability to stand up in the short pass area, and the alignment advantage allows them to create more opportunities to push.

When the away team's defensive group thought that they had figured out the opponent's strategy, Lu Ke also completed the trial and exploration, and after entering the second quarter of the game, he boldly adopted two reading option attacks, and both times completed the first attack by rushing with the ball himself, further breaking the routine of the opponent's defensive group.

Such an unexpected style of play completely disrupted the layout of the St. Louis Rams defensive group -

Every team in the league knows clearly: Lu Ke does dare to run with the ball in the game, and he will not hesitate and hesitate when the opportunity arises; But at the end of the day, Lu Ke is a traditional pocket quarterback, and all technical and tactical combinations revolve around passing.

Although Lu Ke tried three reading option offenses against Washington Redskins last week, compared with the previous 100 and 1,000 tactical combinations, the sample is really too few, even insignificant, and the reference value is really not high, and the team cannot always be wary of the illusory "reading option offensive possibility".

So, Lu Ke easily succeeded again.

After breaking the fixed routine, Lu Ke's offensive methods became rich and diverse again.

To put it simply, when lacking the suddenness of the outbreak of long passes, Lu Ke eats the opponent raw with a close-end forward and a large wide receiver, and executes the task of pushing hard - is this a little familiar?

In the last game, Lu Ke used ground offense to open up the situation, and the running backs became the heroes of the victory; In this game, Lu Ke used short pass offense to open up the situation, and the near end forward and large wide receiver became the protagonists. Both ways reduce the offensive burden on the quarterbacks and open up the game by using more teammates to share offensive risk.

After suffering from injuries, Lu Ke's tactical style is also slowly adjusting, groping for different ways of playing. It's not an easy task, but it's something that must be started.

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