'It was EMBARRASSING': 49ers DC Steve Wilks takes aim at his defense for an 'unacceptable' performan

The San Francisco 49ers will focus on improving its defense before facing the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl after an ’embarrassing’ display in the NFC Championship game.

Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan and his staff noticed a number of issues with a lack of effort in a narrow 34-31 win over the Detroit Lions.

‘Collectively as a team, I can tell you as a defense it’s unacceptable,’ defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said (via ESPN). 

‘We talked about that. I wish I could tell these guys on play four, on play 27, this is what’s going to happen. You don’t know. 

‘So, we’ve got to make sure that we play every down as if it’s going to be the difference in the ball game. And you could see on those particular plays, it wasn’t to our standard. Those guys understand and know that and quite honestly it was embarrassing.’

49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks (center) called his unit’s performance ’embarrassing’

Shanahan said there were at least two plays which were ‘not our culture’ of all-out, full-steam-ahead football that was instilled by past defensive coordinators like Robert Saleh and DeMeco Ryans. 

That hasn’t really been an issue throughout the season, but it was against the Lions when the defense allowed 24 points and fell into a 17-point hole against Detroit. 

Shanahan specifically highlighted poor pursuit defense on run plays – like on Jahmyr Gibbs’ 15-yard touchdown run, where defensive end Chase Young was seen jogging at the running back before he cut back and rushed into the end zone. 

‘They were expecting someone else to make the tackle,’ Shanahan said. ‘Whenever you’re expecting someone else to make the tackle, bad things happen.’

San Francisco has had two close calls against the Green Bay Packers and the Lions, giving up an average of 26 points and 159 rushing yards. That’s significantly more than the average 89.7 rushing yards the team gave up during the regular season.

For their effort, leaders on the Niners defense have recognized that they need to improve.

‘I’m going to just relay to the guys that there has to be a different level of effort and intensity and unselfishness that you have to get to for every single snap that you’re in there,’ defensive end Nick Bosa said.

Nick Bosa said there has to be a ‘different level of effort and intensity and unselfishness’

Fred Warner (54) said that the team has ‘a great opportunity to correct’ their errors

Linebacker Fred Warner echoed that sentiment, noting that he was left ‘scarred for life’ by the previous loss to the Chiefs while also extolling the importance of playing with maximum energy for every minute of the season’s final game.

Middle linebacker Fred Warner said, ‘The standard has been what it has been for as long as I’ve been here and we’ve relied heavily on winning games on defense, holding teams to minimal points, suffocating teams, dictating how the game’s going to go based off how we go.’ 

‘And that hasn’t been the case the last two games and that’s for a bunch of different reasons… But we have a great opportunity to correct that and make sure that we give our best performance in the Super Bowl. I think that’s exactly where our mindset is at.’

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