49ers are Feeling the Impact of Defensive Injuries

Half of the defensive starters were out of action in week 15 against the Falcons. The compilation of injuries are becoming too much to overcome.

The San Francisco 49ers' shock Week 15 defeat to the Atlanta Falcons came as a result of significant failures on both sides of the ball, but what was perhaps most striking was a much-vaunted defense's inability to get a stop when it needed one most to cling on to victory.

Atlanta needed to go 70 yards in under two minutes on the final drive for a game-winning touchdown. This should have been a situation in which a top-two pass defense in the NFL closed the game out. Instead, Matt Ryan was able to move the ball down the field and hit Julio Jones on the final play from scrimmage to earn a stunning win for the Falcons.

Though it was a brutal and unexpected loss for the Niners, it did not change the equation for San Francisco. If the 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks in the final two weeks of the season, they will be the NFC West champion and top seed in the conference.

What it did do, however, was lay bare the significance of the absences to key players, which had a huge impact on the Niners' ability to slow down an offense much more talented than the Falcons' 4-9 record going into the game suggested.

Richard Sherman missed the game with a hamstring injury, slot corner K'Waun Williams was out with a concussion and safety Jaquiski Tartt remained on the sideline with broken ribs. Edge rusher Dee Ford's nagging hamstring issue also kept him out of the action.

Without Sherman, Williams, and Tartt, an inexperienced secondary was left to try to defend Jones. The results were not pretty. Jones finished with 13 receptions for 134 yards and two touchdowns, beating bracket coverage on the final play to barely break the plane of the endzone.

Whether Sherman would have allowed Jones to have such a massive game is extremely debatable. Even in the Week 14 shootout with the New Orleans Saints, Sherman allowed only four catches for 33 yards, per Pro Football Focus. His PFF coverage grade for the season is 88.7, the fourth-highest of his illustrious career.

Sherman has locked down receivers all season long and, though Jones is as tough of a matchup as it is possible to have in the NFL, the smart money says he would not have had the same impact had the former Seattle Seahawk been on the field.

D.J. Reed had a solid game from the slot deputizing for Williams, but his inexperience was there for all to see when he got in the way of Fred Warner as the linebacker attempted to intercept a Ryan pass. Harris was not the coverage liability he was against the Saints, but he lacks the versatility of Tartt, who can switch seamlessly between the strong and free safety positions and brings significant value as a pass rusher on blitzes.

It is his blitzing upside that may have the biggest miss in Week 15 for a defense that has seen its depth up front decimated by injuries. Season-ending injuries to D.J. Jones, Ronald Blair, and Damontre Moore have significantly shortened the rotation and increased the workload for Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, and DeForest Buckner. The Falcons game was one in which Tartt's ability to blitz from the second level could have had a massive impact.

Yet the Niners would surely not have struggled to bring down Ryan had Ford not again been reduced to the role of spectator. Buckner and Armstead had 15 pressures between them, according to PFF, but with Ford on the sideline and Bosa's impact clearly limited by his increase in snaps, Ryan was able to escape on a consistent basis. He likely would not have done so had Ford – who has the speed to burst into the backfield almost instantly – been on the field.

It was the inability to convert pressures into sacks and the secondary's struggles in defending Jones that ultimately proved the biggest factors in the 49ers' stunning loss. The returns of Sherman and Williams – both of whom practiced in full on Tuesday – should help the secondary bounce back against the Rams on Saturday. 

However, it is Week 17 in Seattle that is the key to the Niners' first-round bye chances and getting Tartt and Ford back on the field will be absolutely crucial to their hopes of emerging from that mammoth clash victorious.