For the New York Jets defense, the San Francisco 49ers ground game is balanced and dangerous
The San Francisco 49ers present a double threat to the New York Jets this Sunday. While the Jets offense tries to put enough healthy bodies together to present a scoring threat, the defense will have to contend with a West Coast offense that lead the Niners to the Super Bowl a year ago.
The 49ers had the NFL’s second-best rushing offense last season and averaged 144 yards per game. Last week in a season-opening loss to the Arizona Cardinals, the Niners had 123 yards among six rushers and averaged 4.9 yards per carry.
“What we do is we have to stay in front and understand the adjustments part of it,” Jets defensive coordinator Gregg Williams told reporters Friday in a virtual press conference. “They do a really good job on formulating those type of plays to run common plays that everybody else in the league does, but they disguise it so well with their shifts and their motions and their personnel packages. So, we’ll have to stay on top of all that. We’ve had a good week of preparation, so we’ll see.”
The running back position is an area of strength for the 49ers.
"We have some depth there," 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters this week. "We have four running backs who have all helped us over the last few years. … It's good to have all the depth we have. We have a bunch of guys who can do some good things in the run and pass game. I think every year we've gone through at least four backs in a year, so it's good to have four good ones."
Jets defensive end Quinnen Williams, who had three tackles and a quarterback hit in the Jets Week 1 loss, said the 49ers like to attack the edges. Given that the defending NFC champions are committed to establishing the run, this will put Williams under the microscope.
Williams is coming off a training camp where he was healthy after suffering both neck and ankle injuries a season ago.
“Much improved on pocket presence, played the run very physical and was a part of the bounce out,” Gregg Williams said. “He was a part of, a major part of why the quarterback couldn’t step up into the pocket and was bouncing out of the pocket. He did a very good job of collapsing the pocket. With him too, got to get the ball out, punch the ball out, or get the big quarterback down, but he’s taken the next step and you know, we’re only going to see him do that week by week. He’s healthy and he’s playing very well.”
The Jets defense held the Bills rushing attack of Devin Singletary and Zack Moss to only 44 yards on 18 carries. This week they will have to contend with 49ers running back Raheem Mostert who rushed for 772 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2019. The ‘Niners also feature Tevin Coleman and Jerrick McKinnon.
The Jets hope to get linebacker Avery Williamson back this week. He’s been limited in practice, but Williams is hopeful he has him back.
“(Williamson’s) a good football player,” Williams said. “But you saw that we’ve done a lot of things here, you know when Avery has been down before. And we’ve done a lot of good things here with the other guys here too. But obviously, you always like to have all those guys have the opportunity.”
Unlike an offense that is already banged up, the Jets defense is healthy and primed for the challenge. They will need to contain the ‘Niners rushing attack and force quarterback Jimmy Garapolo to throw the ball under pressure give the Jet offense a chance to compete.
