What the 49ers Defense Will Do to the Lions Offense Week 1

Despite how awful the Lions are, they still have a good offensive line.

The Lions don't have much going for them.

They had the worst defense in the NFL last season. Their starting wide receivers are Tyrell Williams and someone named Kalif Raymond. And their starting quarterback is Jared Freaking Goff.

The 49ers should cruise to a victory Week 1 in Detroit. But despite how awful the Lions are, they still have a good offensive line. How will the 49ers attack it?

Left tackle Taylor Decker is good, and center Frank Ragnow is better -- he's a Pro Bowler. If the 49ers can't get pressure on Goff, he could make some big-time throws.

49ers rookie defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans should focus his game plan to take advantage of rookie right tackle Penei Sewell's inexperience.

Sewell is a highly-talented top 10 pick, but he's young and he didn't play last season -- he opted out to prepare for the draft. And he'll have to face four excellent defensive ends.

First, he'll have to face Arik Armstead, who's not a dangerous edge rusher, but he's a violent player who will headbut Sewell and make him work.

Then, after Armstead softens him up, Sewell will have to deal with a rotation of Nick Bosa, Dee Ford and Samson Ebukam. Good luck, Penei.

The Lions surely will game plan ways to help Sewell in his NFL debut. Which means Ryans needs to game plan as manys ways as he can to isolate Sewell. Needs to call five- and six-man pressures that force each offensive lineman to block someone one on one.

Look for Ryans to expose Sewell. 

And Look for the 49ers defense to give up no more than 13 points to Detroit.


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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.