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The Vikings can’t stop the 49ers defensive line.
The 49ers defensive line is flying around in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s divisional playoff game vs. the Vikings.
They ended two consecutive Minnesota drives with sacks, including a big hit from DeForest Buckner for their fourth sack of the game.
All ⛽️no 🚫@DeForestBuckner with the sack! #BeLegendary pic.twitter.com/swDPHRk9j1
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 12, 2020
DeForest Buckner came up with his first sack since Week 14 to end a Seahawks drive.
The 49ers defense is all over the place Sunday night in Seattle. They came up with a huge stop on third-and-2 after a 49ers touchdown. The Seahawks started to find some room against San Francisco, but DeForest Buckner blew through the line for a huge sack to force a punt.
Here comes DeFo 😤@DeForestBuckner takes down Wilson for a loss of 10! #GoNiners pic.twitter.com/7Roql7Pk44
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 30, 2019
That’s sack No. 7.5 for Buckner, and his first since the Baltimore game in Week 14.
A look at the San Francisco 49ers, who play the Ravens in Week 13, from a tendency point of view.
In one of the games of the week, if not the entire 2019 season, the red hot Baltimore Ravens take on the San Francisco 49ers at M&T Bank Stadium in Week 13. The Ravens have won their last six games and sit atop the AFC North at 9-2. The 49ers also lead their division and if the season ended today would have the No. 1 seed in the NFC on the back of their 10-1 record. These teams have met five times in the regular season since 1996. Baltimore has a 3-2 advantage. They also met in the Super Bowl following the 2012 season, with John Harbaugh emerging victorious over his brother Jim who was 49ers head coach at the time.
Let’s take a closer look at San Francisco to give us a better look at what we can expect to see from them on offense and defense.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has long been thought of as one of the better offensive coaches in the NFL. His team has certainly lived up to his billing this season as they trail only the Ravens in points scored. They sit at sixth in total yards. The 49ers, in another similarity to the Ravens, have found most of their offensive success on the ground so far this season. Their 1,602 rushing yards are the second-most in the NFL, while they are close to the middle of the pack in terms of passing. The 49ers have 2,603 passing yards this season, which ranks 14th.
From a formation point of view, the 49ers are one of the more versatile in the NFL. They line up in 11 personnel (one back, one tight end, three wide receivers) on 40% of their offensive plays, a long way below the league average and more than only two teams. They predominantly pass out of this formation, doing so on 70% of their plays. San Francisco averages 7.6 yards per passing attempt out of the 11 formation, but also average 5.4 yards per rushing attempt.
The 49ers use 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends, two wide receivers) on a quarter of their plays and tend to run out of this formation despite only averaging 3.4 yards per attempt.
The 49ers use 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end, two wide receivers at the second-highest rate in the league, lining up this way on 22% of their plays. They have a pass:run rate of 42%:58% with two backs on the field, averaging 9 yards per pass attempt and 4.9 yards per rush.
In a shotgun league, the 49ers put their quarterback under center at one of the highest rates in the NFL — 59% of their offensive plays are run with Jimmy Garoppolo under center. They run the ball on 69% of their plays when this happens. When Garoppolo has lined up in the gun, it has been a pass on 77% of the plays. In neutral situations (when the 49ers are up or down by seven points or less), the 49ers have a pass:run rate of 54%:46%. But their overall pass to run ratio of 0.83 is the second-lowest in the NFL this season.
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The 49ers started the half with a scoring drive but wasn’t able to get on the board again despite another long series.
The 49ers started the half with a scoring drive, but they weren’t able to get on the board again despite a long series that ended in an interception. Arizona was able to take the lead with a Zane Gonzalez field goal late in the quarter.
It’s 19-17 heading into the final quarter in Santa Clara. Here’s what stood out in the third quarter:
The 49ers offense looked out of sorts against Seattle without George Kittle, but Ross Dwelley has helped the group pull it together on Sunday. Dwelley has stepped into the security blanket role and has two touchdowns including one that gave the 49ers the lead in the third quarter. His production has been a pleasant surprise for an offense that has been up-and-down on Sunday.
What a start to the half!
Jimmy G connects with Ross Dwelley for the 5-yard TD 🙌 #GoNiners pic.twitter.com/O4nVuB96hc
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) November 17, 2019
Buckner came up with a big individual defensive effort following the Dwelley touchdown. The drive started with a first-down sack from Buckner to give Arizona a second-and-13 when he was able to tip a screen pass from Kyler Murray to Kenyan Drake and get enough of it that while Drake caught it, the ball floated long enough for the defense to swarm for a loss. Buckner creating plays was a welcome sight for a defensive line that hasn’t been able to create much pressure on Murray.
It hasn’t happened in a while but Jimmy Garoppolo threw an interception that makes you wonder what he saw on the play. It was a third-and-5 at the Arizona 12-yard-line when Garoppolo threw a pass allegedly intended for Emmanuel Sanders but right to Jordan Hicks who returned it 48 yards to set the Arizona offense off with good field position. It was a terrible time for the turnover as the offense was knocking on the door to extend their lead to two scores.
DeForest Buckner paid tribute to injured DE Ronald Blair with his sack celebration.
DeForest Buckner opened the second half for the 49ers defense with a sack of Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray.
He celebrated by doing Ronald Blair’s signature sack celebration.
Kicking down doors and taking names! @DeForestBuckner with the QB sack and @superblair celly 🙌 #GoNiners pic.twitter.com/Bztn45u5YT
— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) November 17, 2019
Blair tore his ACL on a sack vs. the Seahawks last week and is out for the year. That’s a cool tribute to a teammate by Buckner.
Although the Seattle game is the only loss on the season, it may have been the defense’s best performance.
Although the Seattle game is the only loss of the season, it may have been the defense’s best performance. If it weren’t for the turnovers from the offense, the story would have been dominated by the 49ers’ defensive dominance.
Now they take on an Arizona team that gave them some fits and forced what may have been their worst performance just two weeks ago.
The defense will want to show they can hang against Kliff Kingsbury’s offense and rookie quarterback Kyler Murray. Here are the six players to watch on that side of the ball:
Warner impressed against Seattle with the best game of his career. He finished with 10 tackles, 2.0 sacks, a forced fumble, and a pass deflection, and was all over the field in general. The defense lost a leader in Kwon Alexander, but if Warner can continue his performance from Monday night, he can step into a new role as the heart of the defense.
The Seahawks and 49ers went into overtime in a Monday night classic, with Seattle prevailing, 27-24, to hand San Francisco their first loss.
In an instant classic that should reignite their rivalry, the Seattle Seahawks escaped with a 27-24 overtime victory over the 49ers on Monday night, handing San Francisco its first loss of the season.
As the clock expired, kicker Jason Myers nailed the game-winner from 42 yards out after his counterpart, Chase McLaughlin of the 49ers, missed a potential game-winner earlier in the extra period. It was the second straight overtime win for the Seahawks, who beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 40-34 in Week 9.
The Seahawks once again got off to a very slow start against San Francisco, quickly going down 10-0 in the first quarter. It almost went very differently, with Shaquill Griffin appearing to pick off Jimmy Garoppolo on the first drive of the game — but a holding penalty on nickel cornerback Jamar Taylor negated the pick and led to a field goal for San Francisco.
Taylor got beaten badly on the following drive, allowing Garoppolo to find Kendrick Bourne for a touchdown to give San Francisco an early 10-0 lead.
The momentum eventually swung back to the Seahawks, however, with Jarran Reed forcing a fumble in the second quarter that was recovered by Jadeveon Clowney, who picked it up and walked into the end zone for his second touchdown of the season.
Seattle nearly scored again right before halftime, but wide receiver DK Metcalf was stripped at the 2-yard line by Jaquiski Tartt, allowing the 49ers to take their 10-7 lead into the break.
The third quarter was mostly uneventful until Garoppolo, while getting hit by linebacker Mychal Kendricks, overthrew Dante Pettis. The ball landed right in the hands of Seattle’s new safety, Quandre Diggs, who returned the interception 44 yards to the 49ers’ 16-yard line.
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson found Jacob Hollister in the end zone a few plays later, giving Hollister his third career touchdown — all which have come in the last two games. It was Seattle’s first lead of the game, with 4:37 left in the third quarter.
The Seahawks scored again to end the third on a one-yard touchdown run from Chris Carson. That score was also created by Jadeveon Clowney, who forced a fumble that was recovered by Poona Ford and gave Seattle outstanding field position.
However, San Francisco’s defensive line had tricks up their sleeves as well. Wilson was sacked, and the ball landed in Germain Ifedi’s arms. He promptly fumbled it away, which allowed DeForest Buckner to pick it up and score a touchdown. A two-point conversion brought the score to 21-18 with 12 minutes to play.
After a San Francisco field goal tied things up, Wilson and the Seahawks marched down the field and scored on a field goal from Myers, who redeemed himself after missing a potential game-winner at the end of regulation last week. But the Seahawks missed a pair of interception opportunities on the ensuing drive, allowing San Francisco to nail a field goal of their own and send the game into overtime.
Seattle got the ball first, but after a handful of magnificent plays — including a third-and-16 conversion to Malik Turner after a highly questionable call in which Wilson was ruled to have been sacked — Wilson threw a red zone interception to Dre Greenlaw that put the 49ers in great field position. It was Wilson’s second interception of the season.
Seattle’s defense stepped up, though, and McLaughlin couldn’t convert his second consecutive 47-yard field goal attempt.
After a pair of failed drives for both sides, the Seahawks turned to Myers once again, and the former Pro Bowler nailed the 42-yard attempt to give San Francisco its first loss of the season and lift Seattle to 8-2.
It wasn’t the prettiest game, with both quarterbacks posting passer ratings below 90, along with myriad penalties, turnovers and injuries, but the Seahawks got the job done when it counted and have given themselves an excellent opportunity to still win the NFC West.
They’ll head into a much-deserved bye week next before taking on the Eagles in Philadelphia on Sunday, Nov. 24.
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