San Francisco 49ers: Can great defense continue with new staff?

By Brian Spaen | Feb 14, 2015

The San Francisco 49ers stunk on offense most of the year, but the defense was their redeeming quality. With defensive coordinator Vic Fangio leaving after not getting the head coaching job, the biggest question is if this team can still be as dominant defensively. From the perspective of the roster? Absolutely.

San Francisco’s defense helped them win multiple low-scoring affairs and gave the team a chance to defeat the Seattle Seahawks twice in a three-week span. Despite the defense only giving up an average of 18 points to Seattle, the offense could only muster 10 points in the two outings combined.

More from San Francisco 49ers

Prior to the big games against Seattle, the 49ers’ defense only looked terrible once. That was a 42-17 Sunday night game against the Denver Broncos, and that could be marked with an asterisk. Peyton Manning was going for the NFL passing touchdown record. It was made to be a special night in Denver.

Other than that, San Francisco gave up over 20 points five times. The other bad moment was a second-half collapse to San Diego at home and a terrible road loss in Oakland. Four of the total times the 49ers gave up over 20 points came on the road.

Week 3 at Arizona: Lost 23-14
Week 4 vs. Philadelphia: Won 26-21
Week 10 at New Orleans: Won 27-24 (OT)
Week 14 at Oakland: Lost 24-13
Week 16 vs. San Diego: Lost 38-35 (OT)

There’s been little that went wrong with the 49ers defense. Eliminate the Seahawks losses, and the team went 2-1 in games that didn’t see the total score tally over 30 points for both teams combined.

Some of the main reasons for the Super Bowl-caliber defense is efficiency and not missing tackles. They didn’t have the highest efficiency — believe it or not, Cleveland had the best defensive efficiency in the league because they took 116 more snaps than San Francisco. However, the 49ers had just 94 missed tackles, which is fewest in the NFL.

The efficiency is going to drop if the 49ers end up blitzing more. Rumors are swirling that the coaching staff is going to run more blitz plays, and it’s certainly understandable why they’re doing so. San Francisco could lose a lot of their starters in the front line of the defense.

Ray McDonald was cut after police raided his home in a sexual assault investigation. Ahmad Brooks is doubtful to return after being benched twice and committing head-banging penalties throughout last season. Justin Smith has played for seven seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals and 49ers each and will be 36 years old at the end of September. However, he is still actively involved with the 49ers and could give it a shot.

Let’s not forget that Aldon Smith is down to his last strike. He’s made multiple mistakes during his career and if he does one more stupid thing, that could potentially a lot of new faces in the front seven.

However, there’s still a ton of depth. Experienced linebacker Patrick Willis played in six games and NaVorro Bowman was out for the year. That led to younger players taking advantage of their opportunities (via The Sacramento Bee).

"The statistic certainly reflects well on their backups, including rookie Chris Borland (108 tackles) and Michael Willhoite (87 tackles), who finished first and second on the team in tackle total."

It’s going to be interesting to see how efficiently the San Francisco defense runs next season. Despite potential huge turnover at the front of the defense, the roster is still set up to succeed. We’ll just see if the coaching staff’s plan for more blitzes hurts or helps.

Next: Should Kaepernick worry about his future with 49ers?

More from NFL Spin Zone