49ers Ride 2nd Half Adjustments to 30-23 Win Over the Rams
Week 2 was not as easy of a win as Week 1 for the 49ers but strong days from CMC and Deebo on offense paired with excellent second half defensive adjustments got the job done.
The San Francisco 49ers took down their division rival LA Rams in Week 2 by a score of 30-23. A game that less than a month ago projected to be a fairly easy win was far from that as the Rams have started the 2023 season looking far more like their pre-2022 selves.
The offense was once again fantastic for San Francisco averaging 6.8 Yards/Play and putting up 30 points for the second straight week. The offense in Week 2 was powered by the twin motors of Christian McCaffery and Deebo Samuel. McCaffery averaged 5.7 YPC and eclipsed the 100 yard mark for the second straight week while Samuel compiled over 100 all purpose yards on the day.
However, the biggest reason for the 49ers success, was their ability to keep HOF DT Aaron Donald relatively in check. He was only able to accumulate 2 Pressures and 1 QB Hit on the entire day. Slowing down Donald was a group effort up front, SF sent doubles his way all day as well as chip help when he slid out to the edge. However, eventually he was going to get his 1v1’s in the game and the 49ers IOL held up relatively well. In the clip below you can see C Jake Brendel (#64) not allow Donald to get a clean win off the snap and gives QB Brock Purdy to find an open target.
They also were not afraid to run at Donald. On their first quarter opening drive, LG Spencer Burford had an strong individual block to spring McCaffery for a score.
As good as the offense was for San Francisco the story on the day was the defense. The game started off poorly with a first half that was not up to their standards as one of the top units in the league. Rams QB Matthew Stafford was in complete control in the first half, leading an offense that scored on all three of their drives for 17 points and had a whopping 0.351 EPA/P.
The 49ers struggled to contain the Rams on the ground in the first half due to a game plan that used a lot of misdirection, counters and trap plays to take advantage of the their aggressive Front-4 players.
In the passing game, the vaunted 49ers pass rush struggled to consistently move Stafford off his spot and he was able to sit back and pick apart a soft 49ers zone defense. A lot of the first half looked similar to the play below with the 49ers secondary sitting in Cover 4 and allowing the Rams to get 5 to 8 yards on underneath throws.
San Francisco also had a couple uncharacteristic mental lapses when it came to passing off patterns in zone, as the Rams bunch sets and condensed looks led to multiple coverage busts like the one below.
Coming out of the second half the San Francisco defense made some big time adjustments that paid immediate dividends, something that was good to see as it was a concern how new DC Steve Wilks would handle the in game adjustments that made 2022 DC DeMeco Ryans so good.
The 49ers came out a lot more aggressive in the 2nd half, they showed a lot more Single-High/Middle Field Closed Looks with their safeties and swapped out their Cover-4/Cover-6 coverages for far more Cover-1 and Cover-3 when in Single-High and Cover 2 when in Two-High. The result? A lot more plays like the one below where their underneath zone defenders where able to close and limit yards after the catch.
They also became a lot more varied with their looks up front. Instead of lining up and rushing their standard four they moved around the DL’s alignments to create unbalanced looks and walked their LBs up to muddy the Rams protection calls. Wilks, who in Carolina, was know for his tendency to bring blitzes and simulated pressures unleashed MLB Fred Warner on a variety of stunts and twists like the one below.
Wilks also mixed in some secondary pressures, a CAT blitz in the early 2nd half did not hit due to poor tackling but did have the indented effect of creating pressure on Stafford and forcing him off his spot, a prevalent theme in the 2nd Half.
The end result was a second half where the defense only gave up 6 points (one of which was a garbage time FG to snag a cover Rams spread bettors), forced 2 turnovers and had an EPA/P of -0.360 almost an exact inverse of the 1st Half.
The 49ers defense and team as a whole has the talent to dominate most teams they face without diverting from their scheme too often, but for a team with Super Bowl aspirations it is a welcome sight to see both sides of the ball willing and able to make in game adjustments to counter their opponents.