For the most part, safety Antoine Bethea had a strong game for the 49ers last Sunday.
He intercepted Cam Newton’s first pass from scrimmage on a tip-drill and later forced a fumble on a hard hit. The 49ers have forced six turnovers to begin the year and the veteran has played a big role in that.
But Bethea was caught on the wrong end of a Greg Olsen 78-yard touchdown in the second quarter, a play that opened the floodgates in the secondary. Bethea bit on what he thought was an option route from the Pro Bowl tight end. When he tilted his leverage to the outside, Olsen made his move up the middle of the field. The Panthers did not relinquish the lead after that play.
And defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil is totally okay with Bethea gambling on the play, even encouraging Bethea to take more chances this Sunday against Seattle.
“He took a shot. He gathered pre-snap information and he took a shot,” O’Neil said Tuesday. “We want our guys to play fearless. We don’t want our guys to play scared. So, if guys study their asses off all week and they see something formationally or something that tips them, we don’t want to be that team that never makes any plays.”
Bethea’s blown coverage isn’t the main point here. It’s O’Neil’s approval of risky tactics on defense, concepts that originate from Rex Ryan’s Baltimore defenses with Ed Reed and Ray Lewis. O’Neil and the 49ers are okay with allowing some big touchdowns throughout the season, as long as they are coming up with enough interceptions and stops to counter it.
It’s often a boom or bust way of playing defense, giving offenses gain quick access to chunk yardage plays. On the other hand, when the anticipation and gambling is on point from your defenders, you can shut a team out 28-0 like the 49ers did with the Rams in Week 1. The 49ers are hardly the only team around the league playing defense this way. But some teams, those who play Cover-3 zone, choose to minimize the risk of allowing big plays more often than not.
Although his Cleveland defenses led the league in a handful of categories in 2014, O’Neil didn’t shy away from this flaw of his scheme.
“Where you get in trouble is when guys try to make plays that they’re not supposed to,” O’Neil said. “If you just play within the system, you trust your coaching, everybody will make plays. That’s how the system’s built. It’s not built for one guy to make all the plays. Everybody will have a shot.”
San Francisco’s defense gave up 529 yards to the Panthers, the most they’ve allowed since 2006. It was mostly a day to forget, but a reminder that O’Neil is not going to make any serious changes based on one blown assignment.
“We want our guys to go try to make some plays,” O’Neil said. “That’s what this whole league is about, is making football plays. Obviously, in that situation it didn’t work out.”