Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Twitter and just about anyone else watching Saturday's Divisional Round game against the Green Bay Packers were floored when Trent Williams made a punishing play to convert a first down.
While scoreless in the third quarter on 3rd-and-1, the 6-foot-5, 320-pounder went in motion before the snap. Williams turned the corner and, at full speed, completely flattened a defender while pushing back another en route to opening up a lane for Elijah Mitchell to convert while also picking up a few extra yards.
What might be just as beautiful as the play (or terrifying depending on how you look at it) is the origin of the call.
Williams previously brought up the idea to 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan – a play that has been ran a multitude of times before, but with the option for the left tackle to be San Francisco's lead blocker.
During the team's final walkthrough before heading to Green Bay, Shanahan implemented the play, which didn't take much practice for the punishing O-lineman.
Down seven points and in dire need of a first down, the play's success helped lead San Francisco to a field goal, which proved critical in their 13-10 win.
"It's the same play we've been doing for 10 years," Shanahan said. "What's one more piece we can add to it. It used to only be Kyle Juszczyk, and then we added the tight ends. Then we added running backs and then we added receivers. Trent mentioned it to me a long time ago halfway joking. And he was the only guy left and he's probably the best guy you could imagine ever doing it. I can't believe it's legal. It's scary for me to even watch. We did it once. We did it in walkthrough the night before we left here. It's not something Trent had to practice too much.
"He just had to time out the motion with the snap count and run full speed through the D gap and clean up whoever shows. And when they showed, they got out of there pretty fast. I thought that was one of the cooler plays I've seen just because of who was on it. Not because of the play we ran."
Added offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel: "Have you ever been on the street when a car is driving at you? Yeah, it's scary. It's cool, just because it doesn't exist. I just haven't seen that and there's not a man that moves that fast with that much power. It's cool to watch how big he is and how fast he is."
Williams did not practice for the second-straight day on Thursday while working through an ankle injury. The left tackle limped to the sideline midway through Saturday's Divisional Round win, however, later returned with his right ankle taped.
Despite receiving negative X-rays, there are still questions surrounding his availability for Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Rams.
"In Trent's mind, there's no way he is not playing," Shanahan said. "That's why he was so crushed last game because he believed he would and his body wouldn't let him. So hopefully we'll have some better luck this game. But I know he believes he's playing and so do I, so we'll see how that pans out as the week goes. If he can, he will."
