Despite great success last year, the 49ers' defense lacked an actual number one cornerback they felt confident matching up against the opponent's number one wide receiver consistently. The 49ers made their only big splash in free agency to address that weakness and signed Charvarius "Mooney" Ward from Kansas City. On today's Gold Standard podcast, we discussed how he faces his first real test this week against the Seattle Seahawks.
Being a number one cornerback in the NFC West is hard. Like, really hard. Six of your games every year come against some of the best wide receivers in the sport. This week, DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett are on the docket.
DK Metcalf has mostly had his way with the 49ers in his young career. In six career games against San Francisco, Metcalf has 36 catches for 458 yards and four touchdowns. Out of those six games, he's had at least 60 yards in all but one of them. So if the 49ers are going to slow down the Seahawks' passing game, limiting DK's damage is priority number one.
Last week against Chicago, Ward was hardly tested. He allowed two catches on five targets and had one tackle in the game. He was one of the few 49ers whose jersey didn't look like it had been sitting in mud for four hours (as evidenced by the picture above).
Some people may have a distorted view of how the secondary performed last week because of JustFields'ds’ escapability and a couple of big throws. Before the long touchdown pass to Dante Pettis, Fields first had to scramble for 30.6 yards, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Geno Smith might have some mobility, bhe'se’s not doing that.
Last week, it took until the third quarter for the opposing offense to complete a pass to a wide receiver. If Ward and company can do anything close to that again this week, the 49ers should be winless no longer.
Other topics today'sy’s show
- Why it makes sense that some players favor Jimmy G. (3:52)
- The coverage of Lance is illogical and weird (9:31)
- Does Trey Lance look at the rush too quickly? (13:40)
- Why the offensive liwasn'tn’t as good as their grades last week (15:37)
- Kyle Shanahan needs to leaTrey'sy’s gimmie plays (19:52)
- The 49ers need to giLance'se’s brain a chance to learn (25:0We're’re too worried about how many hits Trey takes (27:30)
- How much would Kittle being out make a difference? (34:54)
- Will we see a change in red zone play-calling? (39:43)
- Does Deebo being a RB make it easier to double team someone else? (41:34)
- The Seahawks might suffer an emotional letdown (50:05)
- The rawon'tn’t be an excuse two straight weeks (52:03)
- Final score predictions (1:00:29)
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