As satisfying as it was to wrap up the NFC West title a week after clinching a playoff berth, coach Kyle Shanahan and his staff were diving in to solutions for a leaky run defense that had previously been a strength.
The Arizona Cardinals rushed for 234 yards, with the 49ers missing two key players in starting defensive tackles Javon Hargrave and Arik Armstead. Those absences hurt, but weren’t the only reason Arizona was able to break loose in the run game.
“I definitely think it hurt,” Shanahan told the local media Monday on a conference call.
Making things more difficult was that Kalia Davis, who was sliding into the role of third tackle behind Javon Kinlaw and Kevin Givens, sustained a high ankle sprain and played only 13 snaps. That meant practice squad promotion T.Y. McGill needed to play 20 snaps.
Yet it was more than just the interior defense, according to Shanahan.
“I thought the biggest thing was the missed tackles, and our tracking angles on a couple of plays, just running to the ball,” Shanahan said. “We overpursued a couple of things and opened up the cutback, which gave them some big ones . . . we’ve got to clean up those tackles and have to try and get our depth back too.”
However, there are no guarantees that Hargrave and/or Armstead will be available to face the Baltimore Ravens, the top seed in the AFC, on Christmas night. That will work itself out during the week of practice.
The 49ers in years past have talked with free agent defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, but Shanahan stopped short of saying they’d be doing it again to shore up the defensive front.
“I’m not ruling out anything,” Shanahan said. “We have guys on our practice squad we used last week. We also aren’t exactly sure when Hargrave and Armstead are coming back. They do have a chance this week so there’s a lot of variables that are playing together that will be discussed the rest of today, tomorrow and probably continuing throughout the year.”
The last time the 49ers gave up more than 200 yards rushing, Shanahan was seven games into his rookie season as head coach and the only player on the roster who is still around is defensive lineman Arik Armstead, who missed the game on injured reserve.
It was Oct. 22, 2017, and Dallas rushed for 265 yards on 43 carries in a 40-10 win at Levi’s Stadium. From that day, the 49ers played 113 games — including postseason — before the Cardinals punctured the 49ers for 234 yards on 34 carries.
The most yards rushing the 49ers had allowed this season was 160 in a Week 6 loss to Cleveland that started their three-game losing streak after a 5-0 start. In 10 of the 49ers’ first 13 games, they held opponents under 100 yards rushing.
While delighted to adhere to a standard and win the NFC West title, middle linebacker Fred Warner — who joined the 49ers in 2018 — realized the 49er fell short of the run defense standard against the Cardinals.
“We’ve got to make sure we come back and go to work this week because we’ve got a team coming in that loves to run the ball and we’ve got to be better,” Warner said.
While Arizona attempted to spread the field and pair power runner James Conner with smaller, quicker players, the Baltimore Ravens lead the NFL with 2,293 yards on the ground and aside from quarterback Lamar Jackson are more ground and pound in nature.
The Ravens are coming off a 23-7 win over Jacksonville and gained 251 yards on 42 carries, with Jackson getting 97 yards on 12 attempts. Baltimore had 204 of those yards in the second half. Power back Gus Edwards had 58 yards on 16 carries and has 663 for the season with 11 touchdowns. Jackson has 741 yards rushing on both designed runs and scrambles. The Ravens did lose explosive rookie Keaton Mitchell (396 yards, 8.4 per attempt) to a knee injury against the Jaguars.
Missed tackles, an issue that plagued the 49ers during their three-game losing streak, were also a problem against Arizona. The Cardinals had 142 yards on five explosive snaps of the ball, including runs of 49 for a touchdown by Emari Demercado and 44 by Conner.
“I’m always going to point fingers at myself, and I’ve got to be the standard for everybody else and if we do miss a tackle we’ve got to make sure guys are getting to the football to get him down,” Warner said. “Too many exploive runs. That’s what sticks out the most.”
INJURY UPDATES: While Davis could be out awhile at defensive tackle, cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (rib contusion) and defensive end Clelin Ferrell (ankle) are day-to-day. In addition, wide receiver Jauan Jennings is in concussion protocol although the Monday game does give him an extra day to recover.
Tight end Ross Dwelley (ankle), linebacker/special teamer Oren Burks (knee), running back Elijah Mitchell (knee) will be evaluated at practice. Starting right guard Spencer Burford (knee), who gave way to Jon Feliciano against Arizona, is expected to be available for practice.
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There was a similar response when Harbaugh was asked if Jackson should be in the MVP conversation.
“Going back to my other answer. It’s like, I don’t really care,” Harbaugh said. “I could care less about any of that, and the beautiful thing is Lamar couldn’t care less either. What we care about is the game.”
