Chapter 818: Opening Adjustments
"Hut!"
In the unique quietness of Candlestick Park, it was easy to tell that the San Francisco 49ers' offense was on the field. In this game, their opponent was the defense of their division rival, the Seattle Seahawks. This crucial Thursday night game was started by the home team, the San Francisco 49ers, with the first possession.
Interestingly, the Seattle Seahawks won the coin toss, and they chose to defer, giving the ball to the San Francisco 49ers. On the one hand, they chose to have the first possession in the second half, and on the other hand, it showed their strong confidence in their defense. They weren't afraid of facing the opponent with the highest rate of scoring on the first drive in the league.
This game was already interesting right from the start.
Jonathan Goodwin snapped the ball, and Lu Ke received it. As he moved back, he quickly scanned the entire field.
The Seattle Seahawks' defense gave up their aggressive strategy and all dropped back, leaving only three players to rush the offensive line. The short- and medium-pass areas immediately became crowded with players. But they still didn't relax their guard. They left two players in the backfield, wary of Lu Ke's potential surprise deep pass.
In the sea of people, Lu Ke quickly analyzed and made a judgment. He paused for a moment, shifted his weight, and moved to the right. After just two cross-steps, Lu Ke raised his right hand and made a clean and sharp slant pass.
It wasn't a bullet pass, but it had a slight arc. It was an eight-yard over-the-shoulder pass.
Before the snap, Ginn, under Lu Ke's direction, slowly moved from the left side to the right to check if the opponent's defensive alignment had changed and to make a simple judgment on the man-to-man and zone defenses. Then, he got behind Logan and Crabtree, forming a three-pronged attack. Only Vernon was left on the left side.
This was a combination of two wide receivers and two tight ends, an arrangement made to target the Seattle Seahawks' secondary defense, which was slightly stronger than their front seven.
Moss still wasn't a starting wide receiver, not because of his condition but because of energy management. Crabtree was back in the starting position. Furthermore, the Seattle Seahawks preferred man-to-man coverage over zone defense, and Crabtree's physical advantage would allow him to gain more space.
As expected, Ginn's movement showed that the opponent was indeed using man-to-man coverage.
After Ginn completed his move, he hadn't even found his footing when Lu Ke snapped the ball. So, Ginn didn't adjust and immediately sped up, even getting ahead of Crabtree and Logan. Then, the two big men followed Ginn.
The three of them formed a three-pronged attack.
Ginn continued to rush forward, his footsteps light, attracting the attention of the safety. Logan and Crabtree made a cross-switch. Logan rushed inward, blocking the two linebackers' defensive routes and creating some space behind them. This meant that Crabtree had a one-on-one advantage.
This was the only open space.
"Crabtree vs. Sherman."
Sherman's positioning and movement had obviously matured. He had already found his position, forcing Crabtree to press his back against Sherman. The two of them were in a stalemate.
In a pincer move, Crabtree suddenly turned and went to the outside. After just two small steps, he was already at the designated position. As soon as he got there, Lu Ke's over-the-shoulder pass was already at the designated location.
Sherman leaped high, trying to break up the pass, but Lu Ke's over-the-shoulder pass was incredibly accurate. The arc just barely went over his head, accurately bypassing all the cornerback's blocking routes and entering the wide receiver's catching zone. Then, Crabtree slightly raised his hands and caught the football just over his shoulder.
Sherman saw that it was too late. He quickly closed in, changed his pace to disrupt Crabtree's center of gravity, and then pushed and pulled, forcing the football out of Crabtree's hands. The pass was incomplete.
However, a yellow flag was thrown.
The referee announced the penalty. Sherman was called for defensive holding, and the penalty was five yards.
Lu Ke stood there and frowned slightly.
Although Sherman's positioning and coverage had indeed improved greatly, it was clear that he had cut off all the routes, leaving only one open. Even on this route, Sherman was constantly trying to disrupt Crabtree's positioning, creating more difficulty for the catch. As annoying as he was, Sherman's skill was not to be underestimated.
But even so, Crabtree shouldn't have been in such a bad position.
In that pass and catch, Crabtree's movement was clearly not in sync with the rhythm. Moreover, after successfully catching the ball, his body wasn't able to hold his position, not to mention the carelessness of his hands at the critical moment.
In other words, Crabtree had actually caught the ball, but it ultimately led to an incomplete pass. One reason was that Sherman's defense was indeed excellent, and the other was that Crabtree was still not at his best.
The only good thing was that Sherman committed a defensive foul. Otherwise, the drive would have failed.
The game had just started. Hopefully, Crabtree just needed some time to warm up and wasn't continuing the poor form from the last game.
After a deep breath, Lu Ke gathered the offense together again, facing a first-and-five situation.
"Hut!"
It was still a multi-route attack, but the players' positions had changed. On the right wing, Logan stood closer to the inside, almost side-by-side with offensive lineman Boone. Ginn was in the center, and Crabtree was on the far outside. On the left wing, Vernon's position was also compressed inward.
After the snap, the San Francisco 49ers' offense was like a torrential storm of needles. After a signal was given, all of the players rushed forward—at least the receivers did. Running back Frank Gore, who was standing beside Lu Ke, also sprinted out through the open space on the left side. At the same time, they all ran in a straight line, creating a surge of air with their vertical attack.
Just when everyone thought this might be a medium or deep pass, the receivers started to slow down at different times, like an open hand where the thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and pinky finger were all different lengths. This forced the Seattle Seahawks' secondary defense to switch from man-to-man to zone defense, but in the process of changing the defensive formation, open spaces were created.
Wait, not all the players.
What about Logan Newman?
After a forward rush and an inward cut, with no fancy moves, Logan took two big steps forward and then moved sideways to the left. With three more big steps, Logan had already created an open space in the short-pass area. Just when everyone's attention was on judging the direction and position of the pass, there were no defensive players around Logan.
One second. Two seconds.
Lu Ke immediately completed the pass. It was a quick, short pass. Within seconds, Logan had already caught the ball in the central area near the left side.
Logan turned around and started to look for an opening to break through. All the defensive players in the nearby area swarmed toward him. Logan only had enough time to advance two steps before he was tackled to the ground, stopping his forward momentum.
Even so, Logan successfully got the first down of the game for the San Francisco 49ers.
First and ten.
Lu Ke tried to pass to the left to find Vernon Davis, but Vernon was half a beat slow, and Lu Ke's pass was half a beat fast, creating a mismatch in time. This caused Vernon to stretch out his hands but still couldn't touch the football. He watched helplessly as the football flew out of bounds.
Simply put, there was a slight issue with the rhythm between Vernon and Lu Ke.
Looking deeper, the Seattle Seahawks' defensive line suddenly applied pressure, and the pocket was constantly being shaken, forcing Lu Ke to speed up his pass. At the same time, the cornerback and linebacker teamed up to disrupt Vernon's running rhythm, delaying his arrival time. In the end, he wasn't able to get to the catching position smoothly.
The first pass, an over-the-shoulder pass to Crabtree. This pass, a quick-out pass to Vernon. Both of these plays were the San Francisco 49ers' signature moves last season, but they didn't work today.
It seemed that the Seattle Seahawks had thoroughly studied the game film and were truly showing the strength of a division rival.
Second and ten.
Lu Ke tried to break through to the right, but Ginn and Logan were completely trapped. Sherman was holding his position tightly, and there were no open spaces to throw the ball. Then he tried to break through to the left, but Crabtree and Vernon were also surrounded by three players.
In the end, Lu Ke chose running back Frank Gore.
Gore deliberately delayed for two counts before running out. He was in the short-pass area on the right side. He made a sudden stop and turned around. Lu Ke's pass followed right after, but Lu Ke made a mistake with the pass—
Gore was a little shorter than Marcus, about half a hand's length.
This time, Lu Ke's pass was a little too high, forcing Gore to raise his hands and catch the ball near his mouth. But he couldn't get his hands in the right position. The football hit Gore's helmet, and before he could react a second time, the football fell to the ground. The pass was incomplete.
Lu Ke couldn't help but frown slightly. That was his fault.
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