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Carlos Hyde in Position to Assert Himself as One of NFL’s Top Backs in 2016
- Updated: September 14, 2016
After his showing against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football, you can make the case that San Francisco 49ers running back Carlos Hyde is one of the breakout players from Week 1’s action.
The third-year running back out of Ohio State posted 88 rushing yards, good for seventh league-wide, and two rushing touchdowns, tied for the NFL lead.
When you look at how he was able to produce like he did, though, it’s even more surprising than his raw statistics.
Last year, Hyde was a popular fantasy football back, and after rushing for 168 yards in Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings, many thought they had struck gold. Unfortunately, Hyde cracked over 55 rushing yards just once after Week 1 as teams forced the 49ers to throw the ball, their offensive weakness.
Hyde eventually went on injured reserve after missing five straight games due to a stress fracture in his foot.
At least against the Rams, it looked like Chip Kelly was able to balance the offense out a little more than the team could under Jim Tomsula’s guidance, and Hyde looked to return to pre-injury form, if not better. According to ESPN’s Total Quarterback Rating, Blaine Gabbert finished second league-wide in the stat in Week 1, but his 4.86 yards per attempt meant there were very few explosive plays in the 49ers passing game, something Hyde brought to the team on the ground.
Hyde had 23 carries, 17 of which were for four or fewer yards, including several tackles in the backfield due to the matchup of his offensive line and the Rams’ talented defensive front. With that being said, Hyde proved several times that he could single-handedly bring a home run aspect to the 49ers offense.
He had four rushes of over 10 yards against Los Angeles, a very good mark considering some entire teams didn’t have a 40-yard rusher in the league’s opening weekend. One run came off a well-blocked counter-play, while three were saved by him on designed inside zone runs.
From the 11-yard line, Hyde was able to take in a Counter Trey concept in for a score. The 49ers got the right look, a two-high defense near the goal line, which essentially forced defensive backs who were 12 yards off the line of scrimmage to make a play.
Counter Trey concepts are fairly simple: The backside guard pulls along with another offensive player, in this case the backside H-back, to kick out the play-side defensive end and play-side off-ball linebacker. Everyone else has down blocks, other than the backside tackle, whose job it is to close down the B-gap.
With a massive alley in a perfectly designed and executed play, Hyde burst to pay dirt and established the threat of a running game in the first quarter.
As mentioned before, though, the rest of his explosive runs stemmed more from his own individual ability to read blocks and determine the leverage of defenders, rather than his linemen playing at a high level.
On inside zone-option plays, everyone is moving in the same direction. There isn’t the folding, down-blocks and pulling as with power and counter-runs. You don’t have an assigned man as a blocker, but rather a zone or gap. It takes some level of chemistry, but there are built-in answers to prevent stunts and blitzes.
The basics are: The backside defensive end is going to be the option man, an unblocked …
