One Downside to the 49ers Defense Playing at a Dominant Level

As tremendous as the 49ers defense has been, there is one downside that could occur from it.

Nothing short of “elite” will suffice when describing the 49ers defense.

They have been lights out through the first four games of the season. Aside from a penalty “palooza” against the Bears, they have been incredible. This defense is on track toward becoming one of the best in history. It truly is a real treat to watch.

However, there is one downside to the defense performing at an unworldly elite level.

The downside is that it can cause complacency out of the offense. Right now, the offense has been underwhelming. There’s a lot of room for improvement when it comes to them. They should be feeling motivated to get themselves clicking on that side of the ball. 

But the fact that they know they have a defense that is stingy in allowing points, it can create complacency on their end. The urgency to score points won’t be felt 100-percent of the time. It surely wasn’t felt in the last game against the Rams. Kyle Shanahan had an interesting finish to an answer on how his offense played against the Rams.

“It was cool to not play perfect, but to overcome a lot of things and have a good, big victory,” Shanahan said.

Again, potentially there can be some relaxed mentality going on here and moving forward. Shanahan knows the defense is a cheat code and doesn’t have to figure out how to get the offense clicking anytime soon. There is still plenty of season left for the offense to get into a groove and find what works efficiently for them. It took them half the season last year to do so. The hope is that the offense isn’t wasting the defensive dominance that’s been on display so far, which they have on one occasion against Denver.

There’s likely going to be games where the defense is having fits and will need the offense to show up. That is where my concern lies with the 49ers because if that were to occur soon, I would have my doubts that the offense can pull through. I’m not saying that the offense will be complacent indefinitely, but it cannot be ignored that they could easily feel it isn’t necessary to put up points. 

Scoring fewer than 20 points in games will eventually catch up with them. Maybe not now or even on this two-game road trip against significantly lesser opponents. But if they’re going about this kind of lackadaisical, then this is going to be a boring and struggling side for the majority of the season. This offense cannot be sustainable throughout the season. Some huge strides need to start being hit in the coming weeks. The 49ers face their toughest stretch of the season in three weeks.

Will the offense prove capable of putting up points by then?