SANTA CLARA — Two days after the 49ers blitzed the Rams into oblivion, buzz about the defense is still dominating conversations inside the team facility.
Ahmad Brooks, now in his eighth season with in San Francisco, thinks this defense shocked some people around the NFL with their shutout performance on Monday Night Football.
“They’ll see it on film,” Brooks said in the locker room Wednesday.
The story of that film? Packages. Defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil isn’t running your run-of-the-mill nickel and dime looks. Formations and personnel groupings are unpredictable and even became alluring on Monday night. The varied looks let the 49ers get exotic when pressuring the quarterback, where they schemed up blitzes for Brooks in the A-gap, sent Jimmie Ward screaming off the edge and used Arik Armstead at nose tackle. It was like musical chairs.
O’Neil half-joked he might use safety Eric Reid at defensive end. There’s a lot of buttons the 37-year-old coach can push, and he says he’ll be unveiling new ones Sunday against the Panthers.
“I’m so used to it just being a dime package, or a nickel package,” Brooks said. “I’m still trying to organize all of them myself.”
Perhaps the most intriguing package used by the 49ers was the three safety look. Reid and Antoine Bethea were joined on the field by Jaquiski Tartt for 16 snaps against the Rams. And from the sounds of it, using all three at the same time is not going away any time soon.
“If we feel like we can win with you, we’re going to put you out on the field,” O’Neil said.
Tartt’s role on defense is designed for multi-pronged reasons. Quarterbacks are put on high-alert when they try and diagnose the odd alignment of three safeties pre-snap — O’Neil scattered them all over the place against the Rams. Tartt’s presence also serves as a way to free up Reid and tap into some of his untouched skill set.
“I blitzed more Monday than I had in my entire career,” Reid said. “It feels like I’m playing a different position.”
On paper you would think a package with three safeties would be used to defend the pass. Don’t jump to conclusions. O’Neil used it for run-stopping purposes, too. On a third-and-three, Tartt charged in the backfield to slow up Todd Gurley, while a gang of 49ers defenders finished him off.
Ward, who has bridged the gap playing both a safety and a cornerback, says the three safety look gives the 49ers more hard hitters on the field. Comparable to the Warriors’ lineup-of-death, O’Neil is discovering the 49ers’ personnel is extremely versatile and can be meshed together in various ways. When Tartt enters the game it obviously takes an inside linebacker or pass rusher off the field. Here’s the thing: Tartt can serve as a hybrid-linebacker, or DeForest Buckner can slide back and take snaps at outside linebacker if Eli Harold comes off.
“Some of our defensive backs and linebackers are interchangeable,” Ward said. “Ray-Ray Armstrong used to play safety and now he’s a linebacker.”
Moving forward, this three safety look could come in handy Sunday against Carolina. Tartt seems like the ideal player to play the role of a QB spy, lurking around the middle to ensure Cam Newton doesn’t scramble for 25 yards. The Panthers don’t want Newton out of the pocket as much as he was last week against Denver (where he took a brutal beating), but it’s an NFL football game. Newton’s going to make plays with his legs and the 49ers can’t blitz too much or he’ll leak out of the sides. The 49ers might have a counter to that in this three safety package.
Last year, there was frustration from 49ers players that the defensive scheme was playing sideways, according to Brooks. This season?
“It’s a promising defense,” said Brooks.