After the 49ers’ 51-13 demolition of the Carolina Panthers in late October, Richard Sherman — the Godfather of San Francisco’s compelling new dynamic defense — stood before a large media contingent that once again had come to see if the 49ers are for real and launched into an unsolicited 500-word soliloquy, reveling in the magnificence that had just been witnessed before him.
San Francisco’s shutdown of a capable Carolina offense was something the 49ers had been doing for a while now, and Sherman didn’t quite know where to begin.
He decided to start with himself. “Well, it’s great defense. It’s great, sound defense,” Sherman said of his third-quarter interception — the four-time All-Pro cornerback’s third pick this season — that quickly led to a score that put the 49ers up by four touchdowns with plenty of defense still to play.
But Sherman also was talking about the others around him on a resurgent San Francisco defense that has become the talk of the 2019 NFL season. In fact, Sherman simply couldn’t stop gushing about that defense, what it has done, what it is doing and where it is going.
“When your D-line is hunting like that, pressure all day and night on them, the great thing about this defense is you just have to play sound,” Sherman said. “It’s team defense, and that’s what we’re playing. These guys are playing great, and I think they deserve all the credit in the world.”
Those San Francisco defenders are getting credit now from all corners of the football world, which has caught on quickly to a new brand of 49ers defense that is stifling opponents, taking no prisoners and becoming the rage throughout the league.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2019 من Niner Report.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة December 2019 من Niner Report.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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In the weeks that follow after you read this — and perhaps sometime even sooner than that — Kyle Shanahan and the rest of the 49ers organization will make a titanic decision that will have present, future and perhaps even everlasting implications for the franchise. It will chart the course for the team’s pivotal 2021 season while determining whether San Francisco really does have the juice to return to powerhouse status and again be considered a legitimate contender to get back to the Super Bowl.
TOP 10 Linebacker seasons
Fred Warner vaulted to stardom with a spectacular 2020 season — and the 49ers rewarded him this summer with a $95.225 million deal that makes him the highest-paid inside linebacker in NFL history. By today’s standards, Warner’s performance last year was worth the money as he posted an Approximate Value of 19 — matching the highest score ever recorded by a San Francisco defender according to a Pro Football Reference formula that puts a single number on each player-season across all positions since 1960. Patrick Willis and NaVorro Bowman (twice) also had seasons with an AV of 19 as they dominate this list of the greatest individual seasons by a linebacker in 49ers history.
