The 49ers have struggled to wrap up in recent weeks.
The San Francisco 49ers had a weekend to forget in Week 5 against the Arizona Cardinals, losing a 24-23 game to fall to 2-3 on the year.
While much of the blame resorted to the offense, and deservedly so, the defense had one clear issue, which was really seen as the game went along: missed tackles.
Overall, San Francisco has seen 29 missed tackles over their past two weeks, while seeing 43 missed tackles over the whole year.
Why has it been a recurring issue for the 49ers this year?
“I wouldn’t say it’s fatigue,” defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said earlier this week. “I think we miss tackles sometimes because we’re aggressive. We do coach our guys to take their shots. If you make me a cut-up of those tackles, I’ll tell you if it’s a good or bad one to be honest.”
“We play aggressive, we play violent. I think sometimes [LB] Fred [Warner] shows up with quite a few missed tackles, but if a guy stops his feet and they’re having to take time and that guy loses a yard, but you kind of fall off, and now we’ve got two other guys coming, then that’s not a bad missed tackle. You know? Sometimes, they’re a little bit different. I’d have to quantify it by looking at tape then I could probably talk you through if they’re good or bad or not.”
According to PFF, Nick Bosa leads the team with seven missed tackles, which was unexpected, but DeVondre Campbell stands second on the team with six, posting a missed tackle rate of over 16 percent thus far this year.
Malik Mustapha has had four missed tackles as well through minimal reps, and was the culprit of two misses this past weekend.
The tackling was especially an issue late, as the Cardinals looked to grind their way on the ground behind running back James Conner, who has a knack for making defenders miss with his physicality.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan noted the issue after the game, which helped Arizona get to a go-ahead field goal late, which ultimately was the determining factor in the game.
“We got a little sloppy with tackling towards the end,” Shanahan acknowledged postgame, “but held them to a field goal and would’ve loved the chance of going that drive, but ended up getting another tip there and another turnover.”
Linebacker Fred Warner wasn’t pleased with the team’s second-half performance, specifically in defending the run, which was a huge part of Arizona’s attack down the stretch.
“In the first half, it felt good,” Warner said of the run defense postgame. “We obviously gave up that long one to [Arizona Cardinals QB] Kyler [Murray]. I wish we hadn’t given that one up. Other than that, I thought we were great. The second half was a meltdown. We gave up too much leaky yardage and missed tackles. We were just not good enough.”
Now, they have a tough matchup this week, with Seattle Seahawks running back Kenneth Walker going for over 5.5 yards per clip to begin the year, so tackling will need to be an important emphasis, even if the gameplan is to be aggressive on Thursday.
If the 49ers are able to wrap up, their defense could see some more success against a Seattle offense that has looked good in both facets offensively to start the year.