Three times in my NFL career along the pathway to the Super Bowl, I ran into a defensive buzzsaw. The first was in 2000 against the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC championship game. The Ravens were a great defensive team, led by middle linebacker Ray Lewis along with a dominating front seven and a playmaking safety in Ed Reed. When watching the game film, it was obvious they were fast, relentless to the football and rarely missed an open-field tackle. There were no free yards. When watching them live and in person, they were faster than the tape indicated and held our Raiders to three points and won the Super Bowl allowing only 23 points in the four playoff games.
After that game, I promised myself that the next time the Raiders faced a fast explosive defensive, I would see them play live before the game to accurately judge their team speed. Only viewing the game film can slightly slow down the speed. Two years later, I watched the Tampa Bay Bucs live and in person and understood their speed, their open-field tackling talent, and their dominating front seven but felt our team could compete and move the ball — and most of all protect the football. Fooled again. We turned the ball over five times and were soundly beaten in the Super Bowl.
Then in 2014, observing the Seattle Legion of Doom defense before Super Bowl 49 with the Patriots, my first thought was: not again. Another fast, explosive, athletic, great tackling defense is going to keep my fingers from wearing another ring. Well, thankfully for Tom Brady and others, we prevailed — barely.
All season, and again Monday night, the 49ers defense has reminded me of those prior three teams. Extremely fast, great tacklers, impossible to consistently find positive plays against in the run game and hard to pass block. The strengths of their defense are their speed and open-field tackling, there are no free yards off a missed tackle. The play ends when the tackler arrives — which is the key to being a great defense. They play with a relentless passion, like those three teams mentioned earlier and they have a simple but slightly diverse scheme, with a great play caller in DeMeco Ryans. The slight evolution of their scheme, directed by Ryans, is the key. He is simple in terms of his alignments in the front, and coverages, yet offers a more diverse package than former defensive coordinator Robert Saleh, now the head coach of the Jets. Ryans will blitz more with different combinations and attack the protections, thus allowing a free runner to the quarterback. When a team h as a great defensive front, with four elite, well-coordinated pass rushers, the best thing they can do on passing downs is rush five, forcing each of the offensive linemen to win an individual matchup, and most often they can’t. The 49ers’ front is relentless on the way to the passer, and like all truly great defenses, can shut down the run and make teams play one-dimensional.