How the 49ers Defence Was Revived by Steve Wilks
Wilks changed his secondary in a couple crucial ways that opened up everything for the 49ers.
The 49ers appeared to have made just two defensive adjustments during the bye week: they added Chase Young and moved Steve Wilks from the coach’s booth to the sideline.
However, those weren’t the 49ers’ most significant defensive line adjustments. And those were only the most apparent.
Wilks changed his secondary in a couple crucial ways that opened up everything for the 49ers. Furthermore, he kept these changes to himself before to the game. He simply made them, which opened up his pass rush and confounded the Jaguars.
First, Wilks finally benched long-overdue nickelback Isaiah Oliver. The 49ers signed Oliver, a veteran, this offseason to take Jimmie Ward’s spot, but he has been a terrible letdown. He’s not able to play because he can’t tackle or cover. Wilks benched him, shifted Deommodore Lenoir to the nickel position, and assigned Ambry Thomas to the outside position.
Wilks also at last began to urge for more active coverage, including press-man coverage. Because Charvarius Ward commits so many penalties in man coverage—he committed two illegal contact penalties against the Jaguars that led to automatic first downs—he had been reluctant to call this earlier in the season.
Unfortunately for the Jaguars, their offensive line is only able to block the 49ers defensive line for a short while, thus the tighter coverage made Trevor Lawrence, the quarterback, hold the ball longer than usual and compel his offensive line to block longer than usual. And the 49ers’ costly defensive line took over the game as the quick passes were eliminated by the tight coverage.
Give Wilks credit for coming up with the best plan of attack for a defence that he has never coached before this year.
