Henderson, Nevada — More than a week after their NFC Championship comeback victory over the Detroit Lions, the San Francisco 49ers defense has recovered from a grueling postgame film session.
Following the Niners’ 34-31 victory over the Lions, the defensive film review provided a few examples of how they fell behind by 17 points in the first place. The surprising reality was that the 49ers defense did not always have all 11 players giving their all.
Last week, defensive coordinator Steve Wilks described it as “unacceptable” and “embarrassing.” A couple of Niners defenders expressed disappointment in themselves on Tuesday at their team hotel, vowing not to repeat the mistake in Sunday’s Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“That’s something that never needs to be coached,” safety Tashaun Gipson explained. “That’s not something that has to be addressed… Obviously, everyone on that footage can point themselves out and say, ‘Man, I should have played with better effort on that.’… That film was difficult. You have to witness that and hear some choice remarks because that is not our style of football. We are a far superior football squad than that. It’s not anything I’m concerned about moving ahead.”
Because of those effort difficulties, the days following the NFC Championship Game were unsurprisingly tough. Defensive tackle Javon Hargrave stated that the entire defense “put our heads down” due to their disappointment with what they saw and Wilks’ harsh statements. Coach Kyle Shanahan also chastised his defense for what he deemed weak backside pursuit on Detroit run plays.
The two most disappointing plays on the tape resulted in Lions touchdowns. The most obvious was Detroit running back Jahmyr Gibbs’ 15-yard touchdown run in the first half. Chase Young, the Niners’ defensive end acquired from the Washington Commanders at the trade deadline, was seen jogging toward Gibbs as the rookie running back cut back in front of him for the touchdown.
On Tuesday, Young declined to go into detail about how the play came together, but he did emphasize the importance of never allowing similar errors to happen again, especially with so much at stake this week.
“The only thing we’re worried about is doing our job every play and preparing for this game the best we can,” he said. “We need to do better. “You’ll see it this game.”
Similar effort difficulties arose in the secondary during Lions receiver Jameson Williams’ 42-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. According to Dre Greenlaw, the Niners earned Wilks’ ire.
“I think the most important thing is just how we felt about it as a team,” Greenlaw said in an interview. “I fully agree. I thought that we could play harder, and that I could play harder as well. So you need to look at yourself as well. That’s essentially what it comes down to.
As Gipson, Greenlaw, and Shanahan pointed out, the Niners’ effort has never been questioned since Shanahan and general manager John Lynch came in 2017. However, this was also a factor in the jarring performance versus the Lions. It wasn’t simply that it happened. It was that it happened during the biggest game of the year, with so much at stake.
“For it to be on the biggest stage, obviously it’s magnified a little more,” he remarked. “To be on that stage is unacceptable. However, as I already stated, doing so is inappropriate. We pay the men too much to go out there and put forth that kind of effort. Myself included. So, we just know that that is not our style of play… It’s just one of those things that bit us, but luckily for us, we were able to overcome it and be here on a large platform right now.”
After using last week’s pre-Super Bowl bye to reflect on the difficulties, there is optimism this week that the Niners will be able to return to their customary level of energy. Linebacker Fred Warner and end Nick Bosa were key players on the 49ers’ last Super Bowl team, which lost to the Chiefs four years ago after blowing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead. This week, Warner and Bosa emphasized the significance of playing at full capacity for the entire 60 minutes in order to complete the task and defeat Kansas City.
With that in mind, Hargrave stated that the Niners accepted their comments, “and then we put our heads down and got back to work and back to playing Niner football.”
Shanahan feels his team will return to where it was for the most of the season.
“Our guys take a lot of pride in what they do,” Shanahan explained. “They have worked hard every day, during practice and games, since I have known them. So I don’t expect anything different on Sunday.
