Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a perfect example of the “Spider-Man” meme. Both teams are 3-0 on the road. They each have four wins. Neither team has won a game by more than a touchdown. That’s how two four-win teams have a combined point differential of 11 points.
The last thing either team needs to do is apologize for winning. It’s hard enough as it is. Every NFL team is dealing with injuries. There aren’t many teams as banged up as these two.
The 49ers have eight players who are currently eligible to return from the Injured Reserve/PUP List at some point in October. There are already six players who were placed on the season-ending Injured Reserve. And that doesn’t count players like Brock Purdy, Jordan Watkins, or Jordan James, who are injured, have missed multiple games, but haven’t been placed on IR.
Tampa Bay just played a game without two of its top cornerbacks, a future Hall of Fame wide receiver, and an electric running back. The Buccaneers have nine players on their Injured Reserve/PUP list.
Somehow, after five games, the 49ers and Buccaneers would host a playoff game if the playoffs started today. The postseason feels like a lifetime away, but these teams feel poised to cross paths in January.
The defensive coordinators in this game couldn’t be any different.
Saleh rarely blitzed with Nick Bosa in the lineup. Since Bosa’s injury, the Niners’ blitz rate has actually regressed. They are 29th in the NFL with a blitz rate of 19.6 percent.
Saleh has found ways to get creative, protect his secondary, and limit big plays. No team runs Cover 6 at a higher rate than Robert Saleh. Cover 6 allows players like Deommodore Lenoir, who is playing his first full season on the perimeter, to avoid being matched up 1-on-1 down the field against bigger, speedier wideouts. In the event of an injury, you can also “hide” a backup like Darrell Luter for a game.
Keeping two deep safeties forces the offense to beat you by 1,000 cuts, which few quarterbacks have the patience to do. The 49ers start two rookies in the secondary. Single-high safety alignments would put Upton Stout and Marques Sigle in situations like we saw in Week 5: Vulnerable.
Bowles is the polar opposite. Tampa Bay has run Cover 0 triple (6.3%) the amount of time the 49ers have (2.2%). If you’re remotely familiar with what Bowles wants to do defensively, it shouldn’t surprise you to know that the Bucs have the third-highest blitz rate in the NFL. For what it’s worth, Bowles only blitzed Sam Darnold ten times last week with a banged-up secondary, but Mac Jones won’t be as fortunate — especially if Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings remain sidelined.
These coordinators haven’t exactly faced a murderer’s row of quarterbacks. Bowles went against Michael Penix, C.J. Stroud, Tyrod Taylor, Jalen Hurts, and Sam Darnold. There’s…maybe…a Tier III quarterback in that group?...
