SANTA CLARA – Not a single rushing touchdown breached the 49ers’ defense through the first 14 games of their 2011 revival. Vic Fangio, their first-year defensive coordinator, offered a simple explanation for their prowess.
“Some luck is involved, but it’s good play,” Fangio said back then.
Good play like Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman combining for 20 tackles for loss, behind a menacing defensive line. It didn’t stop there. “Everybody likes to get dirty. We have a secondary that loves to tackle,” then-safety Dashon Goldson proclaimed.
This season’s edition of the 49ers’ run defense runs counter to that 2011 dominance. It’s disjointed at every level.
The 49ers already have allowed 19 rushing touchdowns, more than in any of coach Kyle Shanahan’s previous seven seasons. Five games remain to halt that trend, with the 49ers (5-7) next hosting the Chicago Bears (4-8) on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium.
Coincidentally, Willis made a cameo to watch the start of Thursday’s practice, and when apprised of this year’s defensive woes, he noted how any team that can’t stop the run faces a tough season. Such is the case.
Shanahan didn’t pinpoint one damning aspect of the 49ers’ run defense, simply because there’s been myriad issues amid a talent pool thinned out by injuries.
Said Shanahan: “That starts with people being out of gaps. It can go to missed tackles, it can go to not getting off the field on third down so they get a few more runs called. It can go to not getting enough turnovers and it can go to missed assignments.
“So it’s all of the above.”
Between 1981-1997, the 49ers did not allow more than 10 rushing touchdowns in a season except in 1994, when their last Super Bowl-winning team yielded 16.
This year’s defense is on pace to eclipse the franchise record of 25 rushing touchdowns allowed, set in 2016, a year before Shanahan’s arrival. The 49ers have allowed three rushing touchdowns in each of their past two blowouts, 38-10 at Green Bay and 35-10 at Buffalo, where opponents ran for 169 yards and 220 yards, respectively.
Linebacker Fred Warner has just 13 tackles combined over the 49ers’ three-game losing streak, albeit while playing with a lower-leg fracture the past two months. “It comes down to everybody doing their job, as simple as it sounds,” Warner said. “There’s plays in there, we’re not aligned, we’re not all on the same page when it comes to the call and different things like that.”
Perhaps Chicago cures the 49ers’ ills. D’Andre Swift (705 yards, five touchdowns) has run for just one touchdown in the past five games; the Bears have lost six straight.
No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams has run for 378 yards, and while he’s yet to score on any of his 59 carries, perhaps the 49ers will change that for him, seeing how they’ve allowed rushing touchdowns to quarterbacks Kyler Murray (50-yarder), Patrick Mahomes (1 yard), Geno Smith (13 yards), and Josh Allen (8 yards).
Those latter two quarterbacks scored daggers, with Smith’s rallying the Seahawks to a 20-17 win on Nov. 17 and Allen’s capping last Sunday’s Buffalo blizzard.
Don’t overlook the fact the 49ers yielded eight rushing touchdowns in the past 10 quarters since Nick Bosa got sidelined by an oblique injury. Bosa has yet to practice, and when asked if he’ll play again this season, Shanahan replied: “I’m not God, but I think he’s got a chance to play this week. So I would think that would lead to getting a better chance each week.”
Each loss this season has seen the 49ers allow over 90 rushing yards, and that balloons to an average of 154.2 rushing yards per loss thanks to the Bills’ surge in the snow. Of the 49ers’ 19 rushing touchdowns allowed, seven came from the 1-yard line, and 14 were inside the 10-yard line.
“When we get to the 1 (yard line), we can’t let them in,” defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said. “First of all, it shouldn’t get to the red zone. The best red zone defense is not letting them get down there. … It’s all of us. We have to do better.”
“We can put up with a guy on their team making an outstanding play,” Warner said, “but if we’re beating ourselves we’re never going to give ourselves a chance to win.”
PRACTICE NOTES
Bosa remained out of practice, as did left tackle Trent Williams (ankle), guard Aaron Banks (concussion), and running back Jordan Mason (ankle). Special teams ace George Odum (knee) was added to the injury report and did not practice.
Participating again were cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (knee), linebacker Dre Greenlaw (Achilles) and safety Talanoa Hufanga (wrist), the latter two of whom are in their Injured Reserve evaluation windows. Defensive end Yetur Gross-Matos (knee) was limited. Quarterback Brock Purdy was a full participant for the third straight practice after last month’s shoulder woes.
NOBLE CAUSE
Chris Foerster, the 49ers’ run-game coordinator and offensive line coach, shared Thursday he’s honoring his late wife, Michelle, and raising ovarian cancer awareness as part of the NFL’s “My Cause, My Cleats” promotion. Michelle Foerster was 62 when she passed away last Feb. 4, a week before the 49ers played in the Super Bowl. “She was diagnosed and given six months to live in 2018, and ended up living six years,” Foerster said. “Sure we all hope for a cure one day, to be able stand up and say ‘I fought the fight.’ Don’t say, ‘I lost the battle.’ She didn’t lose the battle. She fought a good fight and gave us six years. And I’m proud of her.”
ROBINSON HONORED
Linebacker Curtis Robinson is the 49ers’ nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. His devotion to community service was best reflected three months ago: despite a season-ending knee injury in practice, he visited a children’s hospital and read to local elementary school students. “My parents instilled in me to be involved, give back to the community,” Robinson said in a statement. “I witnessed the sacrifices they made to ensure I had access to resources I needed to pursue my dreams. As a kid, I thought that’s what was normal. They set the standard for me to use my platform to pay it forward and bridge the gap for others.”
