“We play a wide nine, so we know for sure that we will not advance.”
SANTA CLARA – The 49ers gave up 160 rushing yards to the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. On Friday, Steve Wilks spoke to the media for the first time after the game and explained why the defense struggled in Cleveland.
ME: Regarding the run defense, DL Nick Bosa said yesterday that setting the edge has been an issue. What did you see there?
WILKS: “We always emphasize and talk about it because we know that’s where teams try to attack us. It’s on our perimeter that we have to do a much better job of, as you just mentioned, at defensive end, nickel, over the top scraping linebacker and route running safety. So that was the question. That was the focus this week.”
Q: The Cleveland Browns seemed to run the same play three times. RB Jerome Ford was left fielding TE Harrison Bryant, WR Donovan Peoples-Jones got a block. They just seemed to block it really well. Defensively, what should have happened?
WILKS: “Well, number one, we play the wide nine, so we know there’s certain runs we’re not going to make. And then there’s certain ways that teams attack us, which is actually trying to catch the nine and get away from the. rim. So we’ve got to do a better job of being able to stand up and hit somebody. Then we can’t make guys run to the sideline. It’s about trying to get down. We brought it up and talked about it once when we were trying to clean things up so the supporters and security could take care of the alley. That’s what it’s all about. I think guys just run too parallel when they should be going up vertically.
