Steve Wilks, 49ers defensive coordinator, moved from the coaches box to the sideline, although it is only a minor portion of his unit’s success.
It didn’t happen merely because Steve Wilks swapped the isolation of the coaches’ box for the passion and excitement of the sideline.
However, since the 49ers defensive coordinator was fired after consulting with coach Kyle Shanahan, things have been going well.
Since the three-game losing skid that prompted Wilks’ transfer from the box to the sideline, the 49ers have been rolling on defence, allowing an NFL-low 15.8 points per game and dominating in every department. The modification, which Shanahan described as minimal, was merely a primer for what was to come.
Wilks anticipated this when he agreed to replace DeMeco Ryans, who, like Robert Saleh before him, parlayed his success as the 49ers’ defensive coordinator into a head coaching position.
When taking over a defence as good as the 49ers, there was nowhere to go but down in the eyes of the public, much like the transition from the eighth floor to ground level at Levi’s Stadium.
“Like I told you guys before, I’m a very small piece of this puzzle,” Wilks remarked on Thursday. “I knew coming into this situation when we didn’t do well, I was going to get blamed, and when we did good, we were supposed to.”
Wilks, 54, is correct in his assessment of his job, but he’s playing the good soldier by downplaying it. Comparing the 49ers’ defence from Weeks 6 through 8 to the five-game win streak from Weeks 10 through 14 is like comparing two different units.
In three losses, the 49ers allowed 24.0 points per game, 395.3 yards per game, 6.2 yards per play, 122.1 yards rushing, and a 4.7 yards per rush average, with five sacks and four takeaways. The 49ers have allowed 13.0 points per game, 277.0 yards, 4.6 yards per play, and 65.8 yards per game running with a 3.5 per-rush average, 22 sacks, and 10 takeaways during their five-game winning streak.
Nick Bosa began to accumulate sacks instead of pressures. The replacement for injured All-Pro strong safety Talanoa Hufanga was rookie Ji’Ayir Brown. At linebacker, Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw are on par with Patrick Willis and Navorro Bowman.
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