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49ers Notebook: Saleh on defense’s ‘egregious mistake’ and what went wrong containing Murray

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Photo by Michael Zagaris/San Francisco 49ers/Getty Images


The 49ers’ defense was not the cause of their season-opening, 24-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. But by the end of the outrageous 82 plays the defense had to endure (the most in the past two years), they were sapped of energy and sloppy, independent of the abbreviated training camp devoid of preseason games.

The new approach at corner and that ‘egregious mistake’

Robert Saleh switched the way the 49ers employ their corners. Rather than the old, Richard Sherman on the left side, whoever else on the right side approach, in which Sherman would rarely leave his post, the team adjusted its scheme to maximize Sherman’s skillset and *whispers* minimize the liability of the other corner.

Now, Sherman plays the field side, i.e., the receiver playing on the side of the field with more open space. The other corner, Emmanuel Moseley at this juncture, plays as the boundary corner, generally responsible for a tighter area.

Saleh didn’t explicitly state that he was trying to minimize the liability of Moseley (who is not a bad corner) because the adjustment also highlights Sherman.

“The field corner in our scheme plays with a lot more vision,” Saleh said. “When you look at the corners that we have, some guys can play with a lot of vision. For example, Sherm had four of his five interceptions when he was playing the field last year, where he played with vision and he could go take things. He’s got an unbelievable skillset to be able to go do that. So, to be able to have guys who play with vision, who have the mental makeup to be able to play routes and play the game with the quarterback, to get another set of eyes where we can go get the football, it felt like that would be a very advantageous thing for us to do this season as opposed to left and right, and not taking advantage of the skillset that each player has.”

But however clever that adjustment was, Deandre Hopkins still caught 14 passes for 151 yards and a near-touchdown. Again, the defense was wiped. The 33-yard play on the Cardinals’ penultimate drive, as it appeared on second viewing, looked like half the defense was playing zone coverage (the side Hopkins stayed on) and half the defense was playing man coverage (the side Hopkins was not on). The result was Hopkins running his route into a wide-open area.

Saleh was visibly upset after the play and in describing the error, which he took credit for.

“We called man coverage and the huddle call didn’t get out to the defensive backs,” Saleh said. “So, that’s an egregious mistake across the board, all the way, starting with me, obviously. But obviously, it’s a lack of communication, but it wasn’t a coverage bust. It was just a complete blown call. So, yeah, unfortunate it happened when it did.”

What went wrong in trying to contain Kyler Murray: ‘A recipe for disaster’

Again, 82 snaps. It’s an absurd number; the most for the 49ers’ defense since a 12-9 Week 2 loss against the Seattle Seahawks in 2017. The defense got tired. When they got tired, the defensive line stopped maintaining gap integrity, and the Cardinals’ up-tempo offense ran rampant.

Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said that containing Kyler Murray, who ran for 90 yards, starts with the defensive ends.

“Whenever you play a scrambling quarterback, you really have to honor the level of the quarterback as a pass rusher,” Saleh said. “So, it really starts at the defensive end spot. You want to rush and capture a corner and try to get over the top with speed, but when you do that, you open up those B gaps. You just think about, there’s four pass rushers, you’ve got five lanes that you have to defend, so you’re always going to be a gap short. For those guys, understanding the level of quarterback… We do have to do a better job containing them, keeping them in the pocket and it starts at the defensive end spot.”

Nick Bosa said that the beginning of the game was stellar from the defensive line, but as those snap counts climbed higher and higher, that fatigue and sloppiness set in. He compared the Cardinals’ dictation of play to the Baltimore Ravens.

“First 10 drives were as good as you could pretty much do against those guys,” Bosa said. “And then once the tempo got going, a few stupid plays, a few mistakes, a few penalties and they get the tempo going and you’re tired, you can’t get off the field, and then it turns into their type of game. And that’s not what you want against the Cardinals, because if they can play their type of football, they’re really tough to beat. They’re kind of like the Ravens in the sense that when you play them, you have to change what you do to stop what they. We started off good, towards the end, we got a little tired and got out of our rush lanes and Kyler broke the pocket and it’s just a recipe for disaster at that point.”

Kinlaw’s harsh self-assessment

Javon Kinlaw looked like a project player coming into training camp and during camp. He was a massive human being with off-the-charts athletic potential, but inconsistent, given that he’d never been properly trained in defensive line technique. There were times where he looked lost and times where he would rip off an interior linemen like a piece of scotch tape.

There was a question of which Kinlaw we would see come the regular season and for the most part, it leaned towards the man who bullied his opponents in college. Bosa said he’s “seen substantial improvements” in Kinlaw’s technique and that he’s “probably at 50 percent of his potential.”

Saleh was “very pleased” with Kinlaw, who clearly had two pressures and a nice run stop. From a qualitative standpoint, having watched every down, Kinlaw, by my own assessment of the defensive line, had the third-most “good snaps” of any defensive linemen (snaps were categorized by “good,” demonstrated by beating your mark, clogging a run lane, maintaining gap integrity against a double team or preventing a pass, versus OK snaps, and bad snaps, in which players were pushed off their mark, failed to track the ball, or woefully failed to maintain a gap).

“I know it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but he played with a tremendous amount of violence,” Saleh said. “There aren’t many humans that can do what he did. He had two fantastic pass rushes. Quarterback, obviously, got rid of the ball pretty quick. So, it goes unnoticed, but he’d won clean.”

There were, of course, a few times when that rookie sheen was evident. He got buried a handful of times or was lost and/or ineffective on some pass rush attempts. But he leaned on the positive side of the scale.

At least, everyone but Kinlaw saw it that way.

“My performance Week 1 was very below average to me,” Kinlaw said. “Probably that way for a lot of people but yeah, it is what it is you know just come out and get better every day… From stance, alignment, aiming points just trying to get better at everything.”

As far as adversity is concerned, if there is any to be perceived by the Week 1 loss, Kinlaw seemed unbothered.

“Go punch it in the face,” Kinlaw said. “That’s how I deal with adversity. Punch it straight in the mouth.”