NFL Films analyst Greg Cosell spoke on the Murph and Mac Show Thursday morning. Here’s what he said about Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman.
Q: What warts are you seeing on the 49ers defense?
COSELL: We can start by throwing out a few numbers. If you subtract the Arizona game – Arizona’s not a very good offense – they played in the other three games New York (Giants), Seattle and St. Louis. In those three games, they’ve given up an average of 148 yards rushing per game, and they’ve given up 12 runs of 10-plus yards in those three games. That’s not the 49ers defense we’ve come to expect. It might be blasphemous, but I think Willis and Bowman have not played as well of late in the run game. I think they’re playing a little too laterally as opposed to playing downhill with the aggression that we’ve come to expect.
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Blasphemous or not, something’s up lately. What was the stat, only 1 100-yard runner in 43 straight games, but 3 in the last 4 games?
I’m no expert but this D has looked extremely porous lately. If St. Louis can ostensibly move the ball downfield at will, something needs to change.
It has been a weird year… last year we shut down pretty much everyone running the ball and don’t recall giving up so many big plays. C.Rodgers seems to have been getting torched lately as well. Hopefully they turn it around the 2nd half of the season.
The defense is simply not getting the turnovers they did last year. Ints are being dropped. Carlos Rogers is being exploited for his inability to cover the slot. These were all concerns we mentioned at the begining of the season.
The defense to this point is defensing more plays at this point in the season than they did last season.
I would disagree. Bowman and Willis are moving as fast and tackling as well as before. However, in several plays I see that the Niners D linemen have not been able to stop the opposing O linemen from getting to the second level and getting in the way of the MLBs. That lateral movement that Cossell sees in the LBs is mostly in pass defense where Niners are much improved.
Mood
That Rams game was the worse performance by PW in his career. He got pushed back by the runner. That never happens.
I recall Steven Jackson doing the same thing to PW under the Nolan/Singletary era. That wasn’t the first time he got ran over by Jackson!
Mood, you are right the D-line particularly Soap has been playing horrible in the 3 game that runners topped 100 yards. You can’t let lineman get to the second level! Just look at how successful the Niner’s run game is due to the O-line getting to the second level.
Actually JJJ, that is the fist time I remember seeing it.
Jackson is the best RB not named FG. The guy is a pure out stud. But you take a look at how he has done against PW his whole career, and it wasn’t close to what he did on Sunday. The announcers I think brought that up about how the Niners have kept Jackson under check.
PW shut him down till Sunday. PW never was pushed backwards for the first down. PW wasn’t blocked by Jackson in the 4th that allowed the Rams to get their final points. PW got owned. That has never happened before, and he’s played against Jackson for something like 8-10 times or so.
Yes, it’s true that Willis rarely gets pushed by a runner. But we are talking of the entire game. I can’t put it as well as Wikipedia does. So I’ll just quote them:
“A well-known drawback of the 3–4 is that without a fourth lineman to take on the offensive blockers and close the running lanes, both the defensive linemen and the linebackers can be overwhelmed by blocking schemes in the running game. To be effective, 3–4 linebackers need their defensive line to routinely tie up a minimum of four (preferably all five) offensive linemen, freeing them to make tackles.”
Rams executed a variety of blocking schemes very well. Niners D line could not tie up the O linemen. Bowman and Willis did not have the openings to run downhill and make the plays. When they are running downhill and making plays, they have those gaps. Instead they had guards or center coming free at them (Sopoaga was blocked by the full-back on some plays).
If a 320 lb guard and 260 lb MLB run into each other at the same speed, the guard will win at least some of the time. I wouldn’t say it’s an indictment of Willis’ and Bowman’s performance.
mood
I’m talking exclusively of PW against Jackson. No OL to deal with.
1 concern I had for the D was PH not playing. How often did big plays happen near him (coverage or tackling problems or runs on his end getting the edge?) last year? Not often. With Aldon, they are. Aldon, gets sacks, but overall he isn’t the defender PH was in stopping big plays from happening.
Nope! Willis and Bowman have NOT been tackling as well as last year. Nor is anyone else. What team are you watching?
Doesnt take a Yale graduate to see that the defense isnt playing to its ability. I still can not put a finger on the problem but to me it appears to be mental preperation. The fire seems to be gone except for the Cards game, they are missing something. Missing tackles, bad coverage, and no pass rush highlight the problems. Still this defense is very good just not elite so far this year.
Cossell mentioned on KNBR that Niners are playing more zone this season than man coverage. I thought it was the opposite. Especially in the slot where Carlos Rogers did better in zone last year than more in man coverage this year.
Matt Barrows who certainly follows the team closer than cosell said last week on KNBR that the team was playing alot more man this year than last. Just another example of Cosell talking out his butt again.
@ old coach:
Don’t say that in front of Houston.
Ugh. I’ve never thought much of his analysis, always banal and glib. I didn’t hear the interview up here in the great white north, but it’s hardly surprising to me that he is showing his lack of actual knowledge. He might want to watch more ‘tape’.
Fangio has always been successful in his first year as a d coordinator then his results begin to diminish. maybe the league has figured him out.
Too early to write off Fangio. He had poor personnel at many of his earlier stops. Niners D is still in the top 3-4 defenses.
Old coach
Niner players were put in position to make plays. That is the coach’s job. The players haven’t made them.
Really thinking about the Rams last TD. PW HAD to get there. Perfect blitz called. Jackson stopped PW.
I was wondering what the source of the drop off in run defense was. Would the absence of Parys Haralson have an affect? Aldon can set the edge and gets tackles for a loss, but he sometimes bites down inside too hard, letting backs swing wide. I also noticed Sunday the run defense picked up when RJF was at nose tackle. Would not be surprised to find out if some players had pesky injuries affecting productivity.
Long term, the 49ers Achilles’ heel is lack of depth at outside linebacker.
There are a couple of problems with the defense.
1 are they playing soft to save it for the playoffs? They have stepped up when they needed to in some games and haven’t in others.
2 J Smith has taken a step backwards. (That’s huge)
3 Again Minn laid out the formula on how to attack this defense. Big power running backs that continue to run. And dink and dunk when you get man from the running game. Throw it CR’s way and get good YAC
4 the tackling. It’s pathetic
I was actually hoping they would go to a 4-3 front against the Rams to stop the run. THEN they woke up and stopped them from quarter 2-3… That to me shows rust from the bye or not playing up to their potential. I just hope they are just cruising and playing to the level of their opponents. It’s not a good thing, but I’d take it right now. And wait for them to get motivated.
The things that have bothered me the most about our defense in our losses/tie:
Coming out flat, allowing the other team to open the game with back to back scoring drives, usually on long time-consuming drives
The inability to get the stop with the game on the line. granted, that was only evident in the actual game that was on the line at the end, this last one. But it doesn’t bode well for squeezing out tight wins in future games.
@ribico – I am with you. Its about w/l
The tie to me was a loss.
The overall stats are still good.
I’m shocked. The last three articles of Cosell’s I have actually agreed with.