With four games remaining for the San Francisco 49ers, the bye week was a bit late in the season, but it could be just in time for the stretch run. Given all the adversity and injuries to Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, the 49ers’ defense has allowed just 17 points combined over the last two games against Carolina and Cleveland. The formula has been bend, but don’t break, and make enough plays to end drives with either third-down stops or turnovers.
It’s hard to nitpick a defense that has allowed under ten points in back-to-back contests, but the 49ers have a missed tackles issue. Against Carolina, the 49ers missed eight tackles, but that number ballooned to 15 against Cleveland. The Browns routinely shot themselves in the foot, giving the 49ers’ offense opportunities, but with that many missed tackles, it will be hard for the 49ers to keep offenses from scoring.
Curtis Robinson is filling in at middle linebacker, but has five missed tackles in his two starts. Upton Stout racked up three against Cleveland, with the 49ers’ safety duo of Malik Mustapha and Ji’Ayir Brown had two each. The issue needs to be cleaned up as the games get bigger and the lights get brighter.
49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh offered a theory for the 49ers’ poor tackling in Week 13 during his press conference yesterday.
When you spend the Bye Week self-scouting and stuff, I’d imagine the last couple games, obviously impressive, holding opponents under 10 points. So, what’s your state of the defense going into the final four here?
“Same thing. We’ve got to continue getting better. You never want to sacrifice your style of play, the effort, the violence, the technique that we preach, and I think our guys have done a really good job of that. I think the Bye Week came at a perfect time. I think our guys were getting a little tired, which probably led to the, you know we had a lot of missed tackles, for example, against Cleveland. And a lot of missed tackles towards the end of the year, there’s a direct correlation between being tired and missed tackles for football teams throughout the course of the year. So, this Bye Week came at a perfect time. But overall, I’m going long answer short, it’s been good. We’ve got to continue getting better. We’ve still got a long way to go.”
A week off this late can be viewed as a blessing. The team will return Yetur Gross-Matos sooner rather than later, and others eventually. The little things add up in big games and playoff games. Cleaning up the missed-tackle issue is the last thing Saleh’s defense needs to do to be at its best.
Cheers to a late bye week. The 49ers will need every advantage possible for the rest of the season.
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