49ers have big defensive issues to solve vs. Lions despite misconceptions about divisional display
The San Francisco 49ers didn’t attract a lot of praise this week following their narrow divisional round win over the Green Bay Packers. San Francisco barely squeaked by the Packers thanks to a game-winning drive from Brock Purdy and a clinching interception from Dre Greenlaw, yet their performance on both offense and defense has since […]
The San Francisco 49ers didn’t attract a lot of praise this week following their narrow divisional round win over the Green Bay Packers.
San Francisco barely squeaked by the Packers thanks to a game-winning drive from Brock Purdy and a clinching interception from Dre Greenlaw, yet their performance on both offense and defense has since attracted scrutiny.
The 49ers’ defensive effort revealed flaws that the Detroit Lions will look to take advantage of in the NFC Championship Game, but a study of the All-22 tape and the numbers revealed a performance from Steve Wilks’ group, which stopped the Packers three times in the red zone, that was much better than many believe.
Cutting out the errors
Green Bay did have success moving the ball on the San Francisco defense, but the Packers’ production was a little deceiving.
Excluding penalties, the Packers only managed five explosive plays (pass plays of 20 yards or run plays of 10 yards) in the entire game, with much of their progress on offense the product of uncharacteristic 49er errors. Three first downs came on pass interference penalties, the most costly a 41-yard penalty on Ambry Thomas that set the Packers up at the San Francisco 19-yard line and was immediately followed by a touchdown strike to Bo Melton.
Three more first downs came on pass plays where 49er defenders fell down in the wet conditions, while the touchdown that gave the Packers a seven-point lead going into the fourth quarter came after a 73-yard kick return from Kei’Sean Nixon, who went close to losing the ball on a fumble.
That is not to say such errors should be ignored, however, with dry conditions forecast for Sunday’s title game with the Lions, it’s unlikely that such issues with footing will persist.
Beyond the special teams problems that have remained throughout the season, arguably the biggest issue relating to the passing game was the play of Thomas, who gave up five catches on five targets for 74 yards in addition to his two flags for pass interference.
Should he retain his role as a starting outside corner in nickel packages, Thomas will surely be targeted consistently by a potent Lions offense, yet defensive coordinator Steve Wilks is confident the former third-round pick, who had previously been dealing with a wrist injury, will bounce back.
“He didn’t have his best game as we all saw,” said Wilks of Thomas “He’s pretty resilient in his demeanor and I know he is going to bounce back strong. Again, we have to be able to get over the mindset of his wrist and he has to go out there and play. But, I’m very confident that he’s going to go back out there and respond this week.”
A strong secondary
Thomas was the clear weak link in a secondary that otherwise performed much better than first thought. Though Charvarius Ward was responsible for a 38-yard reception to Romeo Doubs on which he fell down, the 49ers’ top corner was otherwise flawless, giving up only two catches for nine yards outside of that play.
Deommodore Lenoir fared even better as he continued to rotate between outside corner in base downs and the slot on nickel downs, surrendering just eight yards on two catches and playing with a physicality and aggressive mentality that is a must in the pressure cooker of the postseason.
In front of the defensive backfield, linebackers Fred Warner and Greenlaw did an excellent job squeezing throwing windows and taking away the middle of the field.
The impressive play of that duo and the 49ers’ top corners is illustrated by the fact that the Packers did not have a single explosive pass play in the second half, with San Francisco’s success in that regard also a consequence of an underrated performance by the 49er pass rush.
Plenty of pressure
The 49er pass rush did not have a sack of Jordan Love, but it did record 22 pressures, per Pro Football Focus.
Love is adept at evading pressure and getting the ball out quickly, meaning that Nick Bosa’s efforts in recording seven pressures did not result in him being brought to the ground. Arik Armstead was impressive on his return to defensive tackle spot after five weeks out with ankle and foot injuries, consistently winning one on ones and recording five pressures, while Javon Hargrave and the increasingly maligned Chase Young had three apiece.
“I thought we affected the passer,” said Wilks on Thursday. “We didn’t have the results we wanted from a standpoint of sacks. If you look at it, he got rid of the ball quickly in their quick game. He does a great job of really hitting that back foot. I’m talking Love now and just getting rid of the ball. [Jared] Goff does the same thing, so we have to do a good job really getting our hands up when we can’t get there and we have to find different ways to get to him, which we will.”
Wilks found a way to get there on a critical defensive stop that set up a field goal attempt, which Packers kicker Anders Carlson missed, allowing the Niners to drive down the field for the game-winning score.
He did so by calling a pressure look on which Warner and Greenlaw lined up in a double mug either side of the center and each faked a pass rush at the snap before bailing out into coverage, this wasted both the center and right guard in protection, leaving the right tackle with the impossible task of trying to account for both Armstead and Bosa. They each had a free run at Love, forcing him into an incomplete throw off his back foot.
Facing a stellar but banged-up Lions offensive line in the title game, Wilks may need to delve into his bag of tricks to got impactful pressure on Jared Goff, though doing so will be easier if the Niners find a solution to their biggest defensive issue.
Dissecting the run defense
Unquestionably the greatest concern coming out of the divisional round on the defensive side for San Francisco is the run defense, which the Packers exploited consistently as Aaron Jones went over 108 yards rushing.
The raw numbers are a little misleading. The bulk of his yardage came on a 53-yard run on the Packers’ penultimate drive that ended in the missed field goal.
More pertinent, though, is the contrast between the Packers’ success on runs around the edges compared to what they were able to achieve running up the middle.
The Packers gained 92 yards running around the left and right end. Runs to middle left and middle right went for 23 yards on seven carries, while Green Bay managed just two yards on five carries behind the guards. Carries to left and right tackle amounted to eight yards on three attempts.
In other words, though the Packers were able to attack the edges extremely successfully, with their wide receivers proving bizarrely proficient at cracking down on Young and Bosa on pin-pull concepts, they find next to no joy attacking anywhere else.
The 49ers’ ability to shut down runs up the middle is a testament to some strong performances on the interior, chief among them former first-round pick Javon Kinlaw.
But the Niners won’t be able to hang their hat on interior run defense against Detroit if they allow the speedy Jahmyr Gibbs to consistently gash them attacking the edges. And if Detroit's run game thrives, that figures to facilitate passing game success for Goff and the Lions.
Asked about that issue, Wilks did not solely focus on the poor play of the defensive ends against blocks from wide receivers and tight ends, also pointing to issues at the second level in linebackers and safeties getting too wide.
“We’ve got to do a much better job containing the edges and it’s not really the defensive ends, it’s the second level, we’re getting too wide where we’ve got to get vertical,” said Wilks.
“That’s the key thing, we had a point of emphasis with that as we watched tape this week and most importantly the same thing in practice yesterday, really work on perimeter run game and doing the things we’ve got to do to make sure we set edges on the defense.”
In the wake of unconvincing performance against the Packers, there were a lot of misconceptions about how the defense played. The perimeter run defense is not one of them. That is a clear and undeniable problem for San Francisco, one that must be minimized if the 49ers are to put themselves in the best position to knock off the Lions and advance to the Super Bowl.
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