“I’ll throw the caveat in there that Russell needed 16 drives to do what he did in the overtime period, but I thought in regulation we were doing pretty well,” Saleh said. “You always go back and look to what worked, what didn’t, how you can get better. So, you’re always trying to evolve. And then of course, this scheme is much different than those two. They’re completely different schemes. The whole idea of when he’s a passer, to me, stays the same, with respect to your rush lines, but with regards to the run game and how they use him is much different than the way they do Kyler and Russell.”
The good news, we suppose, is that the 49ers are a heavy zone defense, and zone defenses are about as close to Kryptonite as Jackson has these days. As I wrote last week, per Sports Info Solutions, all five of Jackson’s interceptions have come against different zone coverages in 2019 — three against Cover-3 (three-deep coverage), one against Cover-4 (“Quarters,” or four-deep coverage, and one against Tampa-2 (Cover-2 with a deep-dropping linebacker up the middle of the defense). Of course, he tore the Rams’ defense apart against zone last week (11 of 13 for 138 yards and three touchdowns).
As it has been for most defensive coordinators facing the Ravens over the last two months, you pick your poison, with the knowledge that you probably won’t make it through that particular experiment. And Jackson is especially effective as an outside runner. Per SiS, he’s taken about half his runs outside the tackles this season, averaging 9.1 yards per carry. And over Baltimore’s last three games (a span in which the Ravens haven’t had a drive end in a punt when Jackson’s been on the field), he’s gained 159 yards on just nine outside attempts.
This is where the immovable force meets the exceedingly movable object. Per SiS, San Francisco has allowed 6.7 yards per carry and three touchdowns on 52 outside runs this season, as opposed to 4.2 yards per carry and two touchdowns on 210 runs that were either inside or off-tackle.
So, there’s that.
One defense that’s similar to San Francisco’s and has already faced the Lamar Jackson challenge belongs to the Seahawks. Saleh was a defensive quality control coach for Seattle from 2011 through 2013, and he has credited Pete Carroll with a lot of his own defensive philosophies. Both teams play heavy Cover-1 and Cover-3 shells, with the occasional 2-man and renegade blitz thrown in. Both defenses are schemed well, but ultimately rely as much or more on execution than playbook genius.
“This is a game that really calls for great discipline,” Carroll said the Wednesday before that Week 7 game, in which the Ravens won, 30-16, and Jackson gained 116 yards and scored a touchdown on 14 carries. “To play the running game and defense, it’s always discipline first. You think it’s just being hard, tough and physical. We like that, too, but that’s just part of it. You’ve got to do things right. This offense, more than any offense that we’ll face, will demand that we have to do right. That means you’ve got to gap-control stuff. The way we scrape. The way we fill and thin our run plays. They tax you to the maximum. It’s all about being really tuned in and being really focused. Every single play you have to do right, or the ball will break. It’s a great challenge. It’s exciting for us to try to figure it out and see if we can do it.”
Obviously, they couldn’t.
There was this 28-yard run, in which Jackson seemed to want to make Seattle’s entire defenses miss him at some point in the play …
… and this 30-yarder, in which he put a speed test on Seattle’s defense before he got tripped up.
Not to mention this eight-yard touchdown run, in which Jackson proved fearless when running inside as an additional compartment of a rushing attack nobody appears able to stop,
“I always wanted to play against Michael Vick,” Seahawks defensive end Jadeveon Clowney said after the loss. “I guess I’m getting the new era with Lamar Jackson right there. I’m a fan of him, though. He’s a great player, did his thing today and won the game. He’s on a different level. He’s on a whole different level. He’s in a lane of his own. Fast guy. He can make anything happen for that team. [They’re] on a bandwagon riding what they’re supposed to do, getting behind a quarterback.”
When facing Lamar Jackson, everybody preaches the gospel of containment. Do your job, and all that. The problem is, Jackson turns that football fundamentalism into hesitation more often than not, forcing defenses to play on their heels as they now wonder whether he’ll kill them with his arm or with his legs. Saleh and the 49ers have a fighting chance with their secondary, but they lost in overtime to Wilson’s Seahawks, and escaped with two close wins against Murray’s Cardinals. They’re 10-1 with the NFC’s top seed, and there’s no doubting the 49ers’ overall excellence, but as much as Lamar Jackson has been a problem for everybody else, it appears that he will be an epic issue for this particular defense.
The clock is ticking for Saleh as he tries to re-create that narrative.