49ers offensive line must cure biggest weaknesses ahead of test from the Rams
One of the 49ers most surprising weaknesses heading into 2020 will have to be fixed if they’re going to have a chance at rebounding Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams.
The offensive line, a strength of the team that bulldozed through the NFC playoffs last season, has gotten off to an uninspired start to 2020. And one of the NFL’s toughest tests awaits on a national stage.
The Rams enter the weekend tied for the league lead with 20 sacks as two-time defensive player of the year Aaron Donald is the ring leader with 7.5, including 4.0 last week in Washington.
“Aaron Donald is a game-changing player,” 49ers right tackle Mike McGlinchey said. “He has been for a number of years now and we have the ‘good’ fortune of facing him twice a year so he’s a guy that you have to account for both run and pass game.”
49ers offense has struggled
San Francisco, of course, is coming off two straight games in which the offense allowed five sacks. Head coach Kyle Shanahan said this week that three of the five allowed against the Dolphins were busted protections that were the result of miscommunication and assignments.
The pressure surrendered by the offensive line was critical in quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo’s bad day as he took three sacks before getting benched at halftime. The 49ers failed to get a first down after each of Garoppolo’s sacks.
Miami used a “bear” 3-4 front, which lines up three defensive tackles over the three interior offensive linemen. That prevented San Francisco’s guards and center from being mobile and getting out in space, which is a staple of Shanahan’s offense. Outside zone runs require offensive linemen to get up field and block at the second and third levels, but the Dolphins worked to prevent that by clogging up the middle with big-bodied linemen.
On the outside, the Dolphins disguised which outside linebackers would rush the quarterback and which would drop into coverage. And they would mix in blitzes up the middle behind the “bear” front, sending more defenders after the quarterback than San Francisco had blockers. It was generally a scheme the 49ers haven’t seen in recent seasons and one they struggled to adjust to as it was happening.
“We’ve gotten some wild looks, some things that were new to us, because of the things they haven’t shown and packages we haven’t had yet,” McGlinchey said. “And we just have to go back to our concepts, go back to our base communication rules and get on people.”
Rams defense is tricky
The Rams also run a 3-4 under first-time coordinator Brandon Staley who cut his teeth as a former assistant for renowned defensive mind, Vic Fangio, San Francisco’s former defensive coordinator and current Broncos head coach. A staple of Fangio’s defense: disguising looks, which was an area the 49ers offense struggled with the last two games. It appears to be working for the Rams, who have effectively gotten after quarterbacks despite blitzing 26 percent of the time.
Shanahan declined to offer specifics when asked about scheme and the team’s philosophy when it comes to handling disguised fronts. But as McGlinchey noted, there are rules in place based on defensive alignments for the offensive line to follow in order to ensure everyone is blocking the right defender.
“It has to do with who you’re targeting to, what the numbers are, lots of things go into it,” Shanahan said. “So that’s just working on that all the time and that’s also knowing, very rarely do you get through a game where someone doesn’t (beat) you. So you ask the quarterback when they do get you, is there a place to get rid of the ball so you don’t have to take a sack? So all that stuff goes into play and that’s pretty much up every week.”
Against the Dolphins, it appeared there was confusion on the left side of the line between left tackle Trent Williams and guard Laken Tomlinson. On one sack, Williams pushed his defender inside thinking there would be help from Tomlinson, but Tomlinson was occupied with his own defender, leaving Williams’ man a free shot at Garoppolo.
According to McGlinchey, fixing the issue could come by getting back to the basics.
“I think it’s just by going back to your base concepts and not falling asleep when they’re trying to play eye games with you,” McGlinchey said. “I think that’s something we have to get a little bit sharper at, just making sure we’re on our rules. Our protections are set up so when you don’t have the cleanest look, you don’t exactly see what’s in front of you, you don’t know exactly know who’s coming or where it’s coming from, that you have to get to the rules that we have in place for those types of situations. We’ve done a good job of it for the most part. We’ve been in some really, really backed up, tough situations in the last couple weeks with trying to get to the right calls and protections and stuff like that.”
McGlinchey has been the target of social media criticism for allowing sacks and pressures in high-profile scenarios. He’s allowed 14 pressures and seven quarterback hits through five games, according to Pro Football Focus. Last season, he allowed 28 pressures and just three hits in 15 games, including the playoffs.
McGlinchey was asked Wednesday if he thought those critiques were fair.
“They’re always fair,” he said. “Obviously, I don’t really appreciate the people who are the armchair quarterbacks who take a 30-second clip off of Twitter and think they understand offensive line play.
“But in terms of the overall picture, I’d ask those people to watch the entire game because I’m pretty confident that other than the one or two that have happened that have been glaring, I’ve been putting together a pretty good season and I continue to get better each week. So, obviously have to clean up the mistakes that are made. I can’t let those happen, my teammates, I can’t be the guy that lets our team down in any situation, whether it’s one play, whether it’s 10 plays. But yeah, I think each week it’s gotten better and better.”