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The 49ers Defense has been Surprisingly Mediocre Through Eight Games

Check out their stats and rankings.

Grant Cohn

Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) celebrates after the sack of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (not pictured) during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
Oct 27, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa (97) celebrates after the sack of Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (not pictured) during the second quarter at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images / Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images
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Since 2019 when the 49ers became title contenders, they've always had an elite defense. Until now.

Don't get me wrong, their offense was good too, but the defense was better. It was the identity of the team and it closed out games. Now it doesn't do anything at an elite level.

Check out their stats and rankings.

Points allowed per game: 22.8 (17th best out of 32 teams)

Yards allowed per game: 314.8 (10th)

Passing yards allowed per attempt: 6.4 (12th)

Rushing yards allowed per attempt: 4.3 (9th)

Sack percentage: 7.14 (15th)

Third down conversion percentage allowed: 44.12 (26th)

Red zone touchdown percentage allowed: 61.54 (23rd)

The 49ers have way too much talent to be this mediocre on defense. They have the best middle linebacker in football (Fred Warner) plus three good cornerbacks (Deommodore Lenoir, Charvarius Ward and Renardo Green). That's why the 49ers currently rank fifth in the NFL in pass breakups with 40 and tied for second in interceptions with 10.

So why isn't the defense better?

Despite having a defensive end in Nick Bosa, who ranks second in the league in pressures with 25, the 49ers pass rush as a whole is average at best. And their run defense isn't much better. So the best thing they do is cover, which means they're kind of soft. Which is why they struggle on third down and in the red zone.

To be fair, the defense is missing Dre Greenlaw, Javon Hargrave and Talanoa Hufanga, and those players are good. When they return, the defense should improve.

But in the meantime, defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen and assistant head coach Brandon Staley need to get more out of the players they have.

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Grant Cohn
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.

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