In this episode of Study Ball, I manage to call Nick Bosa "Joey" at least once, as we deep dive the 49er D...it's been a long week, ya'll!

Defensively, the Niners are actually pretty simple...kind of like offensively, they like to do the same thing over and over again. Because they are really good up front, defensively that’s where they thrive. They typically don’t give up the big plays, relying on Nick Bosa and company to get after the quarterback. Some of their struggles last year came when Bosa suffered the injury. He’s such a difference maker, and that’s really what makes this defense go. Pressure up front, Fred Warner right in the middle, one of the best linebackers in the NFL, and then smart players on the back end. Simple concepts through base downs, try not to give up the big play and get after the quarterback.

With the 49er D, it starts up front: PRESSURE, PRESSURE, PRESSURE. They believe in their four guys up front, so they don’t have to get too complicated on the backend. Keep everything in front of you…we’ve got good players, good linebackers. Fred Warner can cover sideline to sideline. So put the pressure on the offense to make play-after-play, and to block us up-front. We will change it up every once in a while; give you that shell, drop into a base cover-3. Nothing fancy, nothing complicated, just dropping an extra guy down low to take away some of those quicker throws. The changeup comes on 3rd Down. We are going to help those guys up front, we are going to mug, give pressure from different looks, come off the slot and that’s where they hope to stop you. Bend, bend, bend; we get you in 3rd Down and now we believe we are better than you scheme-wise and player-wise and we are going to force you into making mistakes. That is going to be the key this next season. Can offenses block the front four starting with Nick Bosa? That’s number one. Can you stay out of 3rd Down situations, can you deal with their scheme and can you as a quarterback make a positive play in those situations? All that will determine how teams do against this 49er defense. Or more importantly, how far can this 49ers team can go, because the defense led this team a couple of years ago. They’ve got the pieces to be able to do that again as long as they can create that pressure up front.

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