The San Francisco 49ers are 2-0, getting close wins over the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints to start hot on the road. Now, they take on the Arizona Cardinals in the season opener, looking to continue that trend at home.
Through the first two weeks of the year, the 49ers haven’t necessarily played the cleanest football on either side of the ball, but they’ve still managed to come together in the clutch, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
Where can they grow there, though, heading into Week 3?
“As the year goes on and more tape is being put on, there’s things that offenses will look for with regards to us creating and vacating different parts of our zones,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh acknowledged. “Offenses are always chasing space. So, we’ve just got to be very cognizant of the space that we’re allowing to get created. From a precision standpoint, it could be a heck of a lot better.
“It was awesome that we closed the game with the last two drives, and we had a really good kind of in the middle, a few good series in there where we played good ball, but on a couple of those touchdown drives, we just weren’t as clean as we needed to be. The last touchdown drive was unfortunate with a couple of those penalties, but overall felt like we could have played a heck of a lot cleaner. Especially from a technique and fundamental standpoint.”
With a younger team, the 49ers will have to live with some of those penalties that will hopefully go away as the season progresses.
But, we did see San Francisco look to make a shift defensively between Weeks 1 and 2. After Upton Stout took a majority of the nickel reps and got picked on in Week 1, the 49ers played him primarily in man coverage in Week 2, involving Ji’Ayir Brown as the big nickel early in the game.
That allowed Stout to be as physical as he’s used to, while giving Brown, who was demoted from his starting spot at safety, a path to playing time in a comfortable role.
Elsewhere, though, the 49ers have gotten good contributions from other young pieces. Along the defensive line, both Mykel Williams and Alfred Collins had solid Week 2 performances, showcasing glimpses of why San Francisco took them high in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Dee Winters has been flying everywhere at linebacker, finally enjoying the breakout season that he’s been projected to have. Fred Warner looks the part and potentially even more through the first two weeks of the season.
And Deommodore Lenoir has been targeted only six times through two games across 72 coverage snaps, allowing a passer rating under 57 so far. So, there have definitely been quite a few positives defensively for the 49ers. Now, they’ll look to clean up the mistakes they’ve had and be a top unit in the league this year.
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