Trade 3 Firsts and a 3rd for a 4th Brehs - Official 2023 San Francisco 49ers Season Thread!!!

[Busby]

@Busby peeps that one….. Sherm is legit about to lose it on Ky

I had to cause Sherman got caught up in his emotions and wasn’t LISTENING to Keyshawn because Keyshawn DID agree with him he was just letting him know how the PUBLIC feels.

I know that feeling from Sherman when you feel everybody around you is stupid and you just

 

[Dat916nigga]

Watching this clip is hilarious and gave me PTSD at the same time

 

[Jmare007]

@JLova @yseJ @FaTaL @jwonder @calh45 here's a good piece about Wilks and what changed after the Bengals game. Our breh @Heretic was spot on about the change



Click here to read the full article

Excerpts:

“He’s one of the guys who could come into my office and basically say, ‘Coach, you f—ed that up,’” Ron Rivera recalled earlier this year. “He’d be very honest and very blunt and tell me what I needed to hear, not what I wanted to hear.”

Which, of course, is nothing like Wilks’ onboarding experience in San Francisco. Shake things up? Heck, no. The 49ers had the NFL’s top defense last season, after all. Wilks’ instructions were to keep everything the same, which is like hiring a decorated head chef and telling him not to change the menu. And not just that — Wilks arrived without a single assistant. He was a head chef who had to lean on sous chefs to learn how things were done in the Bay Area.

“It’s definitely been unique,” he said in a recent interview with The Athletic. “A lot of people, individuals, probably could not handle being in this situation because if you haven’t experienced a lot, it probably could be intimidating for you.”

At midseason, Wilks and the 49ers seemed like an awkward fit. His unit looked nothing like a No. 1 defense in losses to the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals, he’d been publicly chided by head coach Kyle Shanahan for a calamitous play call in Minnesota and he’d been prodded to relocate — from the coaches box to the sideline — on game days. San Francisco and its loaded roster had a three-game losing streak heading into its Week 9 bye, and everyone was eying the new guy.

After the bye? It’s been an entirely different story. The 49ers defenders haven’t merely been playing like their 2022 selves, they’ve been even better.
In Week 10, Wilks’ unit thoroughly confused quarterback Trevor Lawrence and held the Jacksonville Jaguars to 3 points, their lowest output in two years. In Week 11, it limited the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to two touchdowns. The following Thursday, Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks offense never reached the end zone. In Week 12, the 49ers went on the road and held a Philadelphia Eagles offense that had been averaging 133 yards on the ground to 46 yards. And Sunday, the Seahawks were a meager 2-of-11 on third downs.

No defense has been stingier over the last five weeks — San Francisco’s has yielded 11.6 points a game over that span — and no assistant has rebounded as sharply as Wilks, whose name now routinely appears on head-coaching lists for the upcoming hiring cycle. (Sunday, Wilks and the 49ers will square off with the Arizona Cardinals, who made Wilks a one-and-done head coach after a 3-13 season in 2018.)

Players and coaches cite various reasons for the post-bye rebound:
- For one, the defense finally had gotten some rest. An emotional win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 5 was followed by road games in Cleveland and Minnesota. And when the 49ers returned home to play the Bengals, it was like they were running in mud.
“I felt like we were really tired,” Wilks said. “You could really see it in that Cincinnati game. But ever since then, man, the guys in the locker room have just stepped up to the challenge.”
- The 49ers added defensive end Chase Young over the bye, which seemed to stimulate all of the defensive ends on the roster. Collectively, they had 8 1/2 sacks in the eight games before the bye. They have 11 in the five games since.
- The 49ers defensive backs, particularly the cornerbacks who are coached by Wilks, have been strong in the last five weeks. That includes Ambry Thomas, who took a step backward last season and played only 41 snaps, but who has logged 274 snaps — starter-level numbers — since the bye.

Along with Javon Kinlaw and Drake Jackson, Thomas is one of the young players Wilks took special interest in as far back as the spring.

“What I love about him most is that he’s emphasizing working on the details,” Wilks said. “I always talk about the details and competing against yourself. And I can see that with him each and every day.”

• Finally, there’s Wilks’ game-day descent to the sideline, which was downplayed at the time. But team leaders now say the move had a galvanizing effect. Wilks could better see how the pieces worked together on game days. And the relocation highlighted his strength as a leader and communicator.

Captain Munnerlyn, a former cornerback who had two stints under Wilks in Carolina, said he saw Wilks in the coaching booth early on and knew he wouldn’t be there long.

“I said, ‘Wilks is gonna hate it up there!’” Munnerlyn said with a laugh during a phone interview this week. “He’s a guy who needs to be on that field so he can talk to you, man. I knew he’d be coming down soon. That’s not him. It’s not him at all.”

 

[Jmare007]

More:

There are also strategic elements behind the 49ers’ defensive surge.

During the bye, Wilks concluded that the defense had become too stagnant. The impulse to not tinker with a good thing was working against it, particularly against savvy, veteran quarterbacks.

The Vikings’ Kirk Cousins and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow knew what to expect when they walked up to the line of scrimmage, and they picked San Francisco apart. Cousins’ 77.8 percent completion rate was his highest of the season. Burrow’s 87.5 rate was the highest of his career.
“We have such a great roster of players,” Wilks said. “Just being able to line those guys up and not think a lot is key. But you also have to be creative and know that teams know what we do. And you have to evolve just a little bit. And that’s what we did coming out of the bye. We kind of mixed things up.”

The 49ers tested the theory on Lawrence in Week 10. When the Jaguars quarterback initially surveyed the defense, he might have seen the 49ers in a single high safety look. When he looked again, they were in a two-high alignment. There were all sorts of disguises and pre-snap movement and things the 49ers hadn’t shown before.

“I think all season long we’d just kind of lined up and played whatever we were playing,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “In that game we decided that we wanted to give him different looks. Because he’d shown on tape that he’s a really, really great quarterback when he knows what he’s got.”

The defensive masterpiece came three weeks later in Philadelphia.

As powerful as the 49ers defense has been in the last five years, it had consistently been gouged by running quarterbacks. Lamar Jackson rushed for 101 rushing yards in 2019, Kyler Murray had 91 in 2020, Jalen Hurts 82 in 2021 and Marcus Mariota 50 yards and a touchdown in an Atlanta Falcons win last season.

Those quarterbacks had been able to exploit San Francisco’s aggressive defensive line. They’d merely allowed the linemen to burst up the field, then slipped through openings to find plenty of green grass on the other side.

In Philadelphia, however, the 49ers changed their defensive DNA by having Nick Bosa and his linemates rush patiently and methodically so that Hurts had few escape hatches. The 49ers essentially built a fence around the Eagles quarterback, trading sacks for security. The result: Hurts gained just 20 yards on seven carries and the run-heavy Eagles wound up with their lowest rushing total in nearly five years.

“It is always hard to try to really deter from your identity, but it’s all about the element that particular week,” Wilks said. “It wasn’t about trying to get stats this particular game. It was about making sure that we maintain our rush lanes and didn’t rush past the quarterback, not giving them an opportunity to be able to step up inside the A and B gaps.”

Wilks didn’t enter the season with a “29-to-1”-like mantra like he had in San Diego. After all, there weren’t any dramatic improvements to be made in San Francisco and “1 to 1” isn’t all that catchy.

But he did note that for all their success and talent, the 49ers could stand to improve on the explosive plays they allowed. Last year, they finished seventh in explosive play rate, according to TruMedia, which defines explosives as runs of 12 or more yards and pass plays of 16 or more yards.
The 49ers aren’t at No. 1 yet. They rank fourth. But there are four games left and Wilks and the defense certainly have been moving in the right direction.

“You could see a little bit in the first five weeks that I was still trying to find my way, to mix in a little bit of who I am,” he said. “But now coming off the bye, having had time to reflect — from that point on it’s just been clicking.”

 

[JLova]

We were supposed to fire him

 

[Heretic]

We were supposed to fire him

Nah, he's got the pedigree but that stretch we had in the middle of the season was terrible.

And @Jmare007 i will always say, we got some of the most knowledgeable fans around. It doesn't hurt that I personally played defense but a couple of us on here did too. I can already see how Wilks being on the sidelines is making a HUGE difference. Even when Aiyuk fumbled last week he went up to him and said don't worry, we'll get it back for y'all. That kind of shyt will fire you up. His scheme has been so effective that Chase hasn't even recorded a stat in like 3 weeks but is still making his presence known

 

[C-NICE]

was at the game Sunday you can see this 49er team really likes each other Purdy got a command of the offense the guys believe in him and you can see the confidence he has super dope time to be a fan #goniners

 

[Heretic]

Watching this clip is hilarious and gave me PTSD at the same time

Jimmy a bench ass nikka now

 

[feelosofer]

I would be surprised if Steve Wilks stays past this year. Yes that 3 game stretch was bad but since then his defensive scheming has been amazing one thing that doesn't get talked about is how we aren't so vulnerable to mobile QBs anymore. But I think he will be a serious head coaching candidate this upcoming year.

 

[JLova]

Jimmy a bench ass nikka now

Cats were all over Jimmy though. @Bryan Danielson was insufferable

 

[Heretic]

was at the game Sunday you can see this 49er team really likes each other Purdy got a command of the offense the guys believe in him and you can see the confidence he has super dope time to be a fan #goniners

I know I said last year, people thought he peaked, I said he would get better because he took chances but wasn't seeing everything like a vet does. He took a leap this year but the funny thing is, he can still get better.

 

[Heretic]

Cats were all over Jimmy though. @Bryan Danielson was insufferable

I could never stand him. I'm so glad he's gone, I was damn near begging to bring back Kap over that fool's gold of a QB.

 

[Heretic]

I would be surprised if Steve Wilks stays past this year. Yes that 3 game stretch was bad but since then his defensive scheming has been amazing one thing that doesn't get talked about is how we aren't so vulnerable to mobile QBs anymore. But I think he will be a serious head coaching candidate this upcoming year.

I think we keep him at least one more year. He's had 2 stints as a head coach. The cardinals stint was a no-win situation but we all know team owners don't care. Carolina was a disaster also but that's because the owner is a pizzasheet.

 

[C-NICE]

I know I said last year, people thought he peaked, I said he would get better because he took chances but wasn't seeing everything like a vet does. He took a leap this year but the funny thing is, he can still get better.

He will get better he still a young player and the thing that makes him good is his processing not his physical gifts when Bradley roby said this I thought it was spot on

“And he has great anticipation. He throws the ball before guys get open a lot. You don't really see that very often. That's kind of almost a lost art. I played with Peyton Manning, and he used to do that. “I remember playing against him and, like, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ I'm right here, but he's throwing it before the guy even breaks. As soon as he turns around, the ball’s right there. I think that's what he does a great job of. Something that you don't really see too often, but he does a great job of anticipating.”

you don't see the anticipatory throws anymore the lg has gotten to extend the play backyard football like mahomes or hurts where Purdy is seeing the opening and getting rid of the ball before a guy is open.

 

[Bryan Danielson]

Cats were all over Jimmy though. @Bryan Danielson was insufferable

You haven’t seen insufferable yet

Depending on this season ends…. That’s to come

And YOU and @Jmare007 are attached to me and will be reflected and responsible for my actions


King Ghidorah is BINDING






And don’t laugh @Heretic


I can find a way to loop you into some fukkery too