One Thing the 49ers Can Do Better

The 49ers simply don't stop the run well under defensive coordinator Steve Wilks.

Grant Cohn | Dec 19, 2023

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San Francisco 49ers

It's hard to imagine the 49ers could do anything better, because they keep blowing teams out.

But eventually they'll meet a team that can hang with them -- maybe next week when they face the Ravens. Or maybe in the Super Bowl if they face the Bills or the Chiefs. And when the 49ers meet their match and have to play a tough, close game, one issue could hurt them.

That issue is run defense.

The 49ers simply don't stop the run well under defensive coordinator Steve Wilks. He likes to play two-deep safeties to take away long throws, which means he typically plays seven defenders in the box instead of eight. And as a result, the 49ers defense ranks 19th out of 32 teams in yards per carry allowed.

This past Sunday, the 49ers gave up 234 rushing yards to the Cardinals, who have won only 3 games. They lost the game because they have no defense, but they ran the ball easily. And their quarterback, Kyler Murray, scrambled for big gains.

What will happen when the 49ers face Lamar Jackson, or Patrick Mahomes, or Josh Allen?

Those are three of the most dangerous scramblers in the NFL. And one of the easiest ways to move the ball against the 49ers is to scramble, because Nick Bosa is so hungry to sack the quarterback, he often rushes past him and opens up gigantic scramble lanes that you and I could run through.

The 49ers must tighten up their run defense now before the playoffs begin, otherwise it could end their season.

Published Dec 19, 2023

GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.