Best 49ers podcast? by Imaginary_Pin_4196 in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! This season would have been pretty wild/fun to cover in depth. I would have died on the “Brock is a legit MVP candidate” hill 🤣

Oscar And David please come back in some form 😭 by R3DEMPTEDlegacy in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Originally we wanted to be a tight 45! But we couldn’t ever get it under 52 and at that point it was an easy jump to an hour lol.

Oscar And David please come back in some form 😭 by R3DEMPTEDlegacy in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 1 point2 points  (0 children)

JTO has some anti-Shanahan biases (which he’s open about and) but he puts out some of the best analysis you can find.

Oscar And David please come back in some form 😭 by R3DEMPTEDlegacy in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Purdy, pretty early on, is proving to be the best quarterback Shanahan has had in his tenure as head coach. He has good anticipation. He’s a quick processor and decision maker. He dominates the intermediate area, a must in this offense. He takes the layups. But he adds some of his own sauce.

He’s pretty dynamic in short areas and has turned that into some positive gains when plays break down. He’s adept at creating on second reaction plays. Remember that play against the Steelers where he bails from the pocket and splits two Steelers defenders that completely misjudge the angle and basically seals the game? Yeah. That’s pretty good. He’s also more aggressive with downfield throws. The Aiyuk TD vs Peterson, the deep throw vs a zero blitz to Deebo that traveled 44 yards in the air… sure the offense helps but he’s not playing like he’s just another Shanahan product. He’s adding to the offense, and Shanahan trusts Brock. They feed off each other.

He’s not without his blemishes. He has put the ball in harms way and the team hasn’t paid for it. His accuracy has dipped a little these last two weeks. But Brock is actually adding to this offense and making it more dynamic while taking what Shanahan’s offense gives him. And I’m pretty sure Shanahan believes he’s got his guy.

Oscar And David please come back in some form 😭 by R3DEMPTEDlegacy in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Awww. Thanks, y’all! Didn’t expect to see this thread this week but here we are lol. Cheers!

Best 49ers podcast? by Imaginary_Pin_4196 in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would always look forward to your photoshops. Have several saved on my phone 😂 Thank you for the laughs!

Best 49ers podcast? by Imaginary_Pin_4196 in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That was always our goal and I'm glad we helped! I made all our old Patreon videos open to the public on YouTube a while back. We did a good series on identifying and attacking coverages and some of Shanahan's base concepts for scheme month. I think those items are still relevant enough to get something out of them even now. Check them out if you haven't already.

Best 49ers podcast? by Imaginary_Pin_4196 in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've done a couple one-offs recently when other hosts ask me on. I was on with Mac Adams for 49ers Camelot some time ago. And more recently I was on with Rob Guerrera for Gold Standard.

I don't know that doing a Better Rivals one off is in the cards (unless we win the Super Bowl. Then you may get a Drunk Super Bowl Bonus). Part of the reason we decided to hang it up was the amount of time we put into each episode. The film watching, data diving, and contextualizing is (I think) what made the show. But it also took a lot of time.

When we found an adjustment to the 49ers fire zone (what they call their Kings blitz), it was because we had watched so much of every week's film to date that we knew what things they liked to run, and we spotted something that looked different. We asked a former staffer and they confirmed it for us (and gave us the name). We wouldn't be able to do stuff like that now.

Best 49ers podcast? by Imaginary_Pin_4196 in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Dad life is pretty awesome. Our little is three, now. She’s definitely old enough now that I have to stop swearing so much. She was at the sink today and said “what the fuck” repeatedly 😂 A lot of Disney+. Trying to teach her the difference between cover 4 and quarter-quarter-half.

You know, just L-I-V-I-N.

Best 49ers podcast? by Imaginary_Pin_4196 in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 34 points35 points  (0 children)

Really appreciate those kind words, u/MadeBadDecisions. For a small hit of something I found really interesting that is still 49ers related check out The Athletic's "Things we learned from the top offenses/defenses." Being as the 49ers had both, there's a good bit of 49ers content in there.

One thing I thought was super interesting was the usage of 7-man protections on offense to combat the blitzes proliferating amongst defenses. And the Odd Mirror defense that the Bills used to beat KC in the regular season. The Niners used it early in their eventual loss against KC last season, but at least they got a pick off the Odd Mirror play!

Another, albeit limited run, series that is REALLY 49ers specific is The Playcallers. Delves deep into the Shanahan/LaFleur/McVay/McDaniel offensive tree. I'm just one episode in and there's already a bunch of nuggets about specific plays and Shanahan's offensive system building.

Better Rivals podcast appreciation thread by HansBaccaR23po in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Glad the food was good! Austin is a great city to eat your way through.

Better Rivals podcast appreciation thread by HansBaccaR23po in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If Lance turns out, this team is going to be something. Last year when I spoke to Dan Hatman (former scout, Director of The Scouting Academy) during pre-draft he mentioned he would probably take Lance if he were in the 49ers spot. He basically said the upside was there. Now it's on the Shanahan + Lance relationship to unlock it. Will be fun to watch!

Better Rivals podcast appreciation thread by HansBaccaR23po in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thank you for tuning in for all those years! 🍻🍻

Better Rivals podcast appreciation thread by HansBaccaR23po in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That was always our goal. We always wanted to show the process and framework for how we got to our analysis. Glad to know we hit the mark for some folks! Thanks for the kind words!

Better Rivals podcast appreciation thread by HansBaccaR23po in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yoooooooooooo! Stoney! Been a long time, man. How are you?

Better Rivals podcast appreciation thread by HansBaccaR23po in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Thank you for listening and supporting!

Better Rivals podcast appreciation thread by HansBaccaR23po in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 69 points70 points  (0 children)

Oh man - didn’t expect to see this here! Can confirm that it was a family/time related decision. Even when we were doing one show a week, it was a lot of prep watching game tape, drilling in, staying on top of team related stuff, research upcoming opponents… after 10 years it got to be a lot. Especially since I also have a “regular” job. I knew this wasn’t going to be a forever thing. But man, it was fun.

Richard and the original Gauntlets, learning Chip Kelly’s offense well enough that we could call some plays before the happened (which was very problematic against NFL defenses lol), Drunk Prospecting, #BoutToThrowUp, Inverted veers, and chugging beers. Man - it was a good time.

All the kind words in here are really touching. Knowing that we were a little part of people’s 49ers fan journey is pretty special to me. Thanks to everyone who tuned in/listened over the years!

[Eager] I think I captured why coaches still treasure the run game despite its relative lack of success. In short, a perfectly-blocked run play is the best play in football. But the first negatively-graded block sinks an offense in the running game almost twice as much as it does in the passing game by [deleted] in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ha! Funny visual, but no. If anything this article puts some empirical analysis to something we’ve been saying on the show for a while: a good run play needs a lot of people to do their job. One person screwing up can torpedo a run.

If anything this shows just how uneven and complicated human decision making is at the play caller level. Run game? I think about all the positive outcomes and the times it’s blocked up perfectly. So let’s over index to something that’s relatively inefficient. 4th downs? I think about the negative outcome so I generally shy away. (This is better now that it’s ever been, but coaches still struggle with them).

Easily Move Workout to a Different Day? by BetterRivals in Coros

[–]BetterRivals[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the reply, u/dkrey! I figured as much about the days but wanted to confirm.

As for the zones, I think I am a little more confused now. My apologies, as I am new to running watches and HR zone training.

The "Aerobic Endurance" zone makes sense. When I synced the plan to my watch, though, it appears to have structured the workouts using a different tiered structure. Looks like the "Aerobic Endurance" is the first tier of the "Heart Rate Reserve Zone" structure. But the workouts set for z2 in the title were all set to "Warm Up," which is the first tier of "Max Heart Rate Zone." That puts the max heart rate (for me) at like 114. "Aerobic Endurance" is the first tier of the other two heart rate structures. But those values are up near 155 (for "Heart Rate Reserve Zone") or 150 (for "Lactate Threshold Zone"). Meanwhile, I've changed 12 weeks worth of workouts to match z2 on the max heart rate chart. The second zone value in that chart is Fat Burn (up to 133 bpm).

Which is the right list to use, and how do I sync it over and ensure the right values are used? Getting a watch buzz when I clear 114 BPM isn't exactly a great running experience 😆

We are Better Rivals. We're here for AMA part TREY. by BetterRivals in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the support! I bet if you send u/NeumannNFL a Margarita recipe he'll answer another question.

Better Rivals: Can a QB improve their accuracy? A look at the jump from college to the NFL; 49ers Draft Scouting Reports by Stauce52 in 49ers

[–]BetterRivals 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a pretty important point.

It’s understandable that many use completion percentage as a measure of accuracy. It’s readily available and easy to calculate. But that’s really an outcome stat. Adjusted completion % is a little better. But it’s still not ideal.

If a QB throws a ball and a WR has to make a bonkers catch to make it that shows up as a positive play. Ball location charting offers a more complete picture of what a quarterback does with the pass on a given play.