49ers film room: Takeaways from the 49ers defensive performance versus Green Bay - pass rush and pass defense
In part 2, we'll take a look at the pass rush and pass coverage in the divisional round win over Green Bay.
This season there has been a lot of talk about the 49ers not getting enough sack production from the mostly first round pick defensive line and premiere pass rushers. And against Green Bay, they logged zero sacks.
Later in the week, Wilks had this to say about the lack of sacks:
“I thought we affected the passer. We didn’t have the results we wanted from a standpoint of sacks. If you look at it, he got rid of the ball quickly in their quick game. He does a great job of really hitting that back foot. I’m talking Love now and just getting rid of the ball.”
Sometimes it isn’t just about physically recording a sack. Well-timed pressure can have nearly the same result if it forces the quarterback into errant and rushed throws, which the pressures did for Jordan Love several times at critical moments. He was 7-for-13, 62 yards, zero touchdowns, and one interception.
Pass rush
One creative way Wilks schemed up pressure was this play on 3rd down late in the 4th quarter before 49ers game winning drive on offense. The Packers would also miss the ensuing field goal.
The 49ers show seven across the defensive line but only rush five here. Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw are mugged up in the A-gaps showing pressure too. The secondary is in man coverage behind them. At the snap, Greenlaw and Warner rush the A-gaps but peel off late in the down into underneath zones, causing the right side of the Packers offensive line to be late seeing the pass rush from Armstead and Bosa.
Armstead and Bosa get a free rush at Love who backpedals trying to find a receiver but can’t. They’re unable to sack him for a loss and he gets the pass off but the pressure causes the throw to be errant and off-target.
Pressure from Bosa also forced an errant throw on the game-ending interception too.
Love was able to get outside of the pocket here and should’ve thrown it away when Bosa got to him. But he forced an errant throw across the middle into triple coverage to Christian Watson, a pass that fluttered that Dre Greenlaw was able to intercept.
Pass coverage
Outside of clear bad luck in the pass game (slippery field), a couple of bad pass interference penalties and a blown coverage were the only other negative plays in coverage versus the Packers. For the most part, the pass defense was generally pretty solid.
Although it happened early in the game, this pass break-up from Charvarius Ward on the Packers first drive was as crucial of a stop as any other they got in the game, stopping the Packers on third down and forcing a field goal. The Packers had a chance to get a first down here but rightly went for the score.
The defense is showing a cover-0 blitz look here with Greenlaw and Warner mugged up in the A-gap. The coverage post snap rotates into red zone quarters. Love looks for the corner route but the corner and safety to that side have it covered.
The rotation doesn’t speed him up, he has time to survey and throw but now he has to work through his progressions. Ward, sitting on the goal line and not giving ground, drives on the pass to Romeo Doubs and knocks it away.
On another stop, Lenoir showed textbook cloud force technique to the cover-2 side of the call and broke up the pass to the flat.
The 49ers are in cover-6, quarters to the two tight end side, and cover-2 to the two receiver side. Lenoir is the cloud/flat corner to that side responsible for the flats. He reads the routes and jumps the quick flat route, knocking the receiver as the ball gets there and breaking up the pass.
Warner also had two key plays in pass coverage as well.
On the first play, he ran stride for stride across the field with Luke Musgrave on the Y cross concept, forcing Love to throw a highly accurate pass but ended up being off target. Warner under-cutting the route makes this play possible as he closes the window on the throw.
Later in the game, in the clip above, he ran in coverage with Watson as Love looks for a throw. Tucker Kraft chip-releases and sits in the flat as Love concedes the down and looks for his checkdown. As he goes to throw, Warner falls off the double team coverage and makes a play in the open field for no gain.
Lastly, Dre Greenlaw, outside of his two interceptions, also had a play that went largely unnoticed as these plays so often do because they occur off camera. But he did not give any ground in coverage to the Packers tight end running a same side leak concept down the left sideline where Love wanted to throw.
Unfortunately the Packers scored on this drive anyways after Ambry Thomas gave up a huge defensive pass interference, but Greenlaw was superb all night. Traditional “Y Leak” has the tight end coming from the opposite side of the formation but here the Packers try to leak the tight end up the field underneath the deep routes on a delayed leak.
Greenlaw isn’t fooled though, and runs with Musgrave, forcing Love to checkdown to Jones, who stepped out of bounds as he caught the ball but bobbled it, placing it incomplete.
Outlook
The issues in this game the defense faced were primarily self-induced wounds. They won’t face an athletic quarterback like Love when they take on the Lions on Sunday in the NFC Championship game and the only real threat the Lions pose on offense is their ground game. If the 49ers can mostly clean up those issues and keep the Lions off schedule behind the chains, then it will allow them to get after Goff a little better with some more creative pressures and pre-snap alignments.