49ers: Blitz the Packers right out of their playbook
It’s hard to count the number of things that went wrong for the Packers in their 37-8 Week 12 loss to the 49ers, but one thing that was very apparent was Green Bay’s inability to pick up any manner of placement games from San Francisco’s defenders. The 49ers aren’t a blitz-heavy team — they did so on just 20.9% of their defensive snaps in the regular season, the fourth-lowest rate in the NFL. One reason they don’t need to blitz is that in like Nick Bosa, Dee Ford, DeForest Buckner, and Arik Armstead, they have pass-rushers who don’t need help. Another obvious reason is that, with all that talent on the line, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh would wisely prefer to keep his linebackers, cornerbacks, and safeties in coverage for the most part. Why give up extra defenders to the quarterback when you don’t need to?
Still, when Saleh, defensive line coach Kris Kocurek, and pass-rush specialist Chris Kiffin do send blitzes, they tend to be highly effective. Such was the case in Week 12, when on Green Bay’s first drive, the 49ers sent linebacker Fred Warner on a five-man blitz in which other coverage broke late from the line of scrimmage as safety Jaquiski Tartt and linebacker Dre Greenlaw dropped from a jailbreak blitz look.
Warner forced a fumble, which end Nick Bosa recovered at the Green Bay two-yard line. Running back Tevin Coleman scored a touchdown on the next play, and the 49ers were on their way.
Here’s a sack credited to Tartt and Armstead in which a couple of cool things happened. Pre-snap, San Francisco presented with a single-high look, only to drop into Quarters coverage. Warner dropped out of the blitz look to cover tight end Jimmy Graham, while Tartt blitzed from the left defensive edge, meeting Armstead (and just about everybody else) at the quarterback. Green Bay’s response, as the great comedian Eddie Izzard once said on another matter, was to collapse like a flan in a cupboard.
This combination of shifting coverages and blitzing defenders proved devastating to the Packers’ offense the first time around, and it could be equally so in the rematch.