There was plenty of blame to go around in all phases for the 49ers Sunday in a 23-17 road loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
But as the 49ers embark on life without Christian McCaffrey, whether it’s three more games, twice that or longer, touchdowns are going to be harder to come by. Which means the 49ers defensively will need to step things up and go from being a simply good defense to one bordering on great.
Linebacker Fred Warner aside, they didn’t come close to that standard while seeing their record fall to 1-1.
“Defensively, when we say we’ve got to stop the run and be great on third down and we don’t do either of those things, it’s going to be a long day,” Warner told reporters. “We didn’t do anything to help ourselves in those areas, and obviously they played better than us.”
Life with McCaffrey has made touchdowns seem inevitable. Including the playoffs, McCaffrey has played 33 games with the 49ers and scored 39 touchdowns. You have to go back to Jerry Rice in his touchdown-scoring prime for anything close to matching it, and it’s worth noting that in two games without McCaffrey, the 49ers have had 19 possessions (not including a kneel-down) and scored only four touchdowns.
There was more good than bad in the Week 1 win over the New York Jets defensively. The inverse was true against Minnesota, with a crucial breakdown on a 97-yard touchdown play from Sam Darnold to Justin Jefferson and costly failures on fourth down, particularly late in the game after the 49ers had gotten within 20-14 on Jordan Mason’s 10-yard touchdown run.
In last year’s 22-17 loss in Minnesota, defensive coordinator-slash-scapegoat Steve Wilks took the heat for a zero blitz which resulted in a 60-yard touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to Jordan Addison just before halftime. It was the beginning of the end for a coach who was let go after one year.
This time, with Nick Sorensen wearing the defensive headset, the 49ers dialed up a man blitz on Darnold at the 3-yard-line on second-and-9 after the 49ers —without McCaffrey, of course — failed to score despite having first-and-goal at the Minnesota 4-yard line.
Darnold, however, had enough time to get off a perfect deep strike to Justin Jefferson. Whether it was the design of the defense or an error in the secondary, Jefferson broke free from safeties Ji’Ayir Brown and George Odum.
“Just beat a man in coverage and they launched the throw and got it past the middle-third safety, which made it a house call,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said.
We’re really about to put an active player in Canton.@JJettas2
: @NFLonCBs pic.twitter.com/cephalTst9
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) September 15, 2024
The touchdown put the Vikings up 10-0.
“We were in a man-coverage blitz,” Warner said. “I was one of the guys that was blitzing and I’ve got to get home and get some pressure on Sam. He’s able to step up in the pocket, deliver a great ball …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
