FanPost

49ers: Worst defense in the NFL, by a large margin!

Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

Great Job, Baalke-Tomsula-Mangini!

I took Expected points, looked at them per-play, from pro-football-reference. I then combined expected points added for both offense and defense to get a 'power rankings' of sorts (per game). On defense, we're 19% worse than the next-worst team. Overall, we're the worst team in the NFL, about 8% worse than the Dolphins.

On offense, we're the 24th-best team, nestled in between the Jags and the Texans.

So, please don't pin everything on Kap -- in fact he's played above average or even very good in 3 out of 5 games this year...but one awful game and one not-good or bad game. Run game is terrible, as is the OL. and everything is awful on defense.

Rk Tm Offense/ply Defense/play EPA/G (No ST)
1 Arizona Cardinals 0.24 0.12 21.87
2 New England Patriots 0.27 (0.03) 15.73
3 New York Jets 0.03 0.17 12.42
6 Carolina Panthers 0.08 0.08 10.49
4 Atlanta Falcons 0.16 (0.02) 10.39
5 Green Bay Packers 0.14 0.03 10.06
7 Cincinnati Bengals 0.17 (0.02) 9.51
8 Pittsburgh Steelers 0.15 (0.02) 7.28
9 Tennessee Titans 0.03 0.07 5.54
10 Denver Broncos (0.07) 0.14 4.68
11 Buffalo Bills 0.04 0.03 4.64
12 New York Giants 0.11 (0.04) 4.13
13 Seattle Seahawks 0.02 0.03 3.04
14 Philadelphia Eagles (0.02) 0.06 2.79
15 Washington Redskins 0.03 (0.03) 0.20
16 Minnesota Vikings 0.01 (0.02) (1.09)
17 San Diego Chargers 0.07 (0.11) (1.35)
18 Cleveland Browns 0.10 (0.15) (3.34)
19 Indianapolis Colts 0.01 (0.06) (3.53)
20 Kansas City Chiefs 0.01 (0.08) (4.41)
21 Baltimore Ravens 0.01 (0.09) (5.28)
23 St. Louis Rams (0.11) (0.00) (5.78)
22 Oakland Raiders 0.03 (0.12) (5.83)
24 Dallas Cowboys 0.02 (0.12) (6.28)
25 New Orleans Saints 0.06 (0.18) (7.23)
26 Houston Texans (0.02) (0.10) (7.60)
27 Jacksonville Jaguars 0.00 (0.12) (8.17)
28 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0.04) (0.10) (8.77)
29 Chicago Bears (0.04) (0.13) (9.85)
30 Detroit Lions (0.08) (0.08) (10.55)
31 Miami Dolphins (0.08) (0.11) (12.70)
32 San Francisco 49ers (0.01) (0.21) (13.76)

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Niners Nation's writers or editors.