Quote:
Originally Posted by TwistedChief
Warren Sharp was on The Ringer podcast. Pointed out that the 49ers pass rush is average on 1st and 2nd down. It’s on 3rd down where they’re something like 10ppt better than the league average (Chiefs interestingly have the second best 3rd down pass rush).
Against that, the 3rd down sack rate on Mahomes is 3.3% which is nearly the lowest in the league.
Also mentioned that the 49ers are very susceptible to play action, 3 WR sets, and are 25th in red zone defense.
Finally, he noted that the Chiefs defense was absolutely horrible against pre-snap motion which Shanahan is obviously going to throw at them a lot.
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Thank you Warren Sharp!!
That's exactly what I was saying yesterday w/r/t Dee Ford - does he actually make them any better or are they actually just really good on 3rd down?
Moreover, their pass-rush win rate fell hard over the latter half of the season when they started playing quality teams. Meanwhile he played more snaps earlier in the season when they were playing poorer offensive lines. So again, it's going to LOOK like the pass rush was better when he was there.
I'm more and more convinced that Ford is just a spurious variable and has very little direct impact on his teammates. It's simply a line that's quite good in pass rush situations, especially against teams that lack premier pass-blocking.
Well okay - let's just keep being efficient on 1st and 2nd downs then.
Someday I'll figure out when Nick Bosa became Reggie White in the eyes of some of these analysts. Yes, he's an AMAZING rookie. Like, among the greatest rookie seasons you'll see. But he's still just a rookie and as a player writ large, he's merely very good. We can deal with very good because our Ts are pretty damn good in their own right.