49ers notebook: Kyle Shanahan expecting tough game with Packers after November blowout
The 49ers thumped the Packers in one of their most lopsided games of the season, 37-8, in late November. But don’t expect that game to get much attention from Kyle Shanahan and his coaching staff this week as San Francisco prepares to host Green Bay at Levi’s Stadium Sunday in the NFC title game.
Human nature would suggest the 49ers enter the week with confidence they could have a repeat performance of that Sunday blowout with the Super Bowl on the line.
But Shanahan said he will caution his players against it and remind them to maintain the same edge they’ve had during their slew of big games throughout the season, including Saturday’s drubbing of the Minnesota Vikings, 27-10, in the Divisional Round.
“Don’t be that stupid. That’s not real,” Shanahan said Monday when asked about his message to the locker room. “This is about Sunday’s game. I have 1,000 stories of things like that, playing games from my history that I’ve been a part of.”
Shanahan mentioned the 2015 season when he was the offensive coordinator with the Atlanta Falcons. His team lost 38-0 in Week 13 to the Carolina Panthers, who played in the Super Bowl that season. The two teams played two weeks later and the Falcons won 20-13, dealing Carolina its only regular season defeat.
The 49ers jumped all over the Packers early in their matchup seven weeks ago. Linebacker Fred Warner forced a fumble from Aaron Rodgers that Nick Bosa recovered at the 2-yard line. The offense scored a touchdown on the first snap, went into halftime with a 23-0 lead and Green Bay didn’t score until late in the third quarter.
“We know it’ll be different,” said Shanahan. “We know that game got away from them early. That’s definitely not the team we’re going to see this week. Everyone knows how good Green Bay is, how good the coaching staff is, how good the players are, how good the quarterback is. They haven’t lost a game since then. So I think that game really holds zero relevance in what’s going to happen this Sunday.”
The Packers earned the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with a 13-3 record, the same as the 49ers, with the tiebreaker being San Francisco’s win when the two teams played. Rodgers in that game threw for 104 yards while his 3.15 yards per attempt was the lowest of his any start in his 15-year career. San Francisco’s ferocious pass rush sacked Rodgers five times.
Green Bay on Sunday beat the Seahawks 28-23, by holding off a comeback attempt from Russell Wilson after going into halftime with a 21-3 advantage. Seattle scored three straight touchdowns to climb within range to take the lead, but couldn’t complete the comeback as Rodgers put together a nine-play drive to ice the game, which included a crucial third-down completion to tight end Jimmy Graham which Seattle believed was wrongly spotted and should have been short of a first down.
Rodgers completed 16 of 27 passes for 243 yards and a pair of touchdowns, good for a 113.7 passer rating to help his team advance to its third conference championship game since 2014.
Shanahan Monday said he hadn’t gone back through the Packers game from November because him and his staff were evaluating the tape from the Vikings game over the weekend. He had a meeting with players after his news conference and would start breaking down the Packers afterwards.
Kwon Alexander’s ‘ride or die’ impact
Linebacker Kwon Alexander was flying around the field and providing his typical high level of energy after returning to the lineup on Saturday after going on injured reserve more than two months ago with a torn pectoral.
“I thought Kwon did a real good job,” Shanahan said. “I knew he was going to be fired up to get out there. I’m always nervous for guys when they’re that excited to get out there and they haven’t played in a while. You knew he was going to run around and hit, but he also did a good job not making mistakes.”
However, Alexander didn’t register an official statistic Sunday during his 25 snaps, which was 54 percent of the action. Still, despite not recording a tackle, Alexander was consistently around the ball and impacting the Vikings offense.
“You could feel his speed out there,” said Shanahan. “I thought he made a number of plays on the screens and stuff. Even when he didn’t, making backs come to a complete stop and having them change their course to where the pursuit of the rest of our defense can get him. It ends up being a 3-yard gain where I feel like it would have been 8. And that all adds up to third down.”
The 49ers limited the Vikings to just seven first downs and 2-of-12 on third-down conversions. Running back Dalvin Cook, who was a focus of the defense all week, was held to just 26 yards on 15 touches.
Alexander, meanwhile, played predominately in base downs while Fred Warner and rookie Dre Greenlaw received most of the work in sub packages when only two linebackers were on the field. Players after the game spoke about the energy around the team all week knowing Alexander would be back in the lineup after missing the final eight regular season games.
“Kwon is ride or die in everything he does for this football team,” Shanahan said. “He will go out there — he plays that way when he’s healthy, he plays that way when he’s hurt. He talks that way, he lives football. That’s why his football character is one of the highest I’ve been around.”
Shanahan said the plan, for now, is to evaluate Alexander’s workload on a weekly basis and wouldn’t divulge if he’ll see more playing time against the Packers.
“We’ll look at it each week. We’ll see how this week in practice goes,” Shanahan said.
Dee Ford, Raheem Mostert good to go on injury front
Shanahan opened his session with reporters announcing there were no injuries coming out of Saturday’s game, which is positive as the 49ers head into their biggest game of the year.
Dee Ford came out of the game feeling well after missing five of the previous six contests with a hamstring injury. He played 22 snaps (48%) and provided a noticeable boost to the pass rush, including a third-down sack before halftime that limited Minnesota to a field goal following Jimmy Garoppolo’s interception.
Ford entered last week as questionable to play after being a limited participant in all three practices.
“It should be the same deal for him this week,” Shanahan said. “(He had) no set backs. So hopefully he’ll take a step forward. But, regardless, he played at a high level for us and he was very impactful when he was in there.”
Running back Raheem Mostert, meanwhile, dealt with a cramp in his calf Saturday and saw his workload decrease as Tevin Coleman was given most of the carries with Matt Breida back in the mix. Shanahan reported there were no lingering effects from Mostert’s injury and he should be fine heading into Sunday’s game.
This story was originally published January 13, 2020 at 12:46 PM.