The San Francisco 49ers defense was shredded on Sunday, giving up 312 yards to the Bills running backs and quarterbacks. The game was a mess on defense, and a big reason for it was the play of the 49ers inside linebackers.
Pro Football Focus dinged Michael Wilhoite for two missed tackles, and included him among their ten worst players from Week 6. PFF recorded four missed tackles for Nick Bellore, giving him nine for the season. I am guessing he did not get on the “ten worst” list because he was not able to get into better position to fail.
On Monday, head coach Chip Kelly told the media that they will make some changes at the inside linebacker position. Kelly mentioned Gerald Hodges and Skayne Skov, but did not get specific on what exactly would change. Whatever the change is, I don’t know that it could get any worse than what we saw in Buffalo. Jeff Deeney offer up this stat:
#49ers allowed 9.8 yards per carry vs. Buffalo when in nickel package. For the season they are allowing 6.6ypc when in nickel/dime.
— Jeff Deeney (@PFF_Jeff) October 17, 2016
I suppose the team could give up 10+ yards per carry, so yes, technically it could be worse. But given how bad they have played, odds would seem to suggest that changes would result in something similar or maybe improved. You can only hit your head against the wall so many times before trying something else. Maybe it ends up just being another wall, maybe not. But this current wall is making my head hurt.