SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Entering the 2016 season, the one ray of hope for the San Francisco 49ers was a defense stocked with young, highly-drafted players. Even if the offense played down to the minuscule expectations, the belief was that general manager Trent Baalke's investments on the defense would start to develop.
That didn't mean the group had to dominate, just had to take a step forward and show those picks were more than potential. Instead, of the many disappointments the Niners have produced in their 1-6 start, none outrank this dismal defense.
"We have to be better on the defensive side of the ball in terms of stopping the ball,” 49ers coach Chip Kelly said.
That would be a good place to start. Through Sunday night, the 49ers rank 30th in yards allowed per game (407.6), 32nd in rushing yards allowed per game (185.1) and yards allowed per rush (5.14), 26th in third-down defense (opponents are converting 43.6 percent of the time) and 31st in points allowed per game (31.29).
All of that for a team that has used its top pick in each of the past four drafts and 10 of its past 15 picks in the top 100 over those four years on defense.
Instead of steady improvement each week, you can see defensive tackles DeForest Buckner and Arik Armstead and linebacker Eli Harold getting pushed aside in the run game. Or safeties Jaquiski Tartt and Eric Reid getting beaten for big plays in coverage or missing tackles in the open field.
Sunday's 34-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the latest example. The Bucs finished with 513 yards of offense, including 249 yards on 41 carries with a touchdown. Jacquizz Rodgers led the way with 26 carries for 154 yards while someone named Peyton Barber had 12 carries for 84 yards and a score.
Much of that damage came courtesy of missed tackles. Rodgers had 97 yards after contact, third most by a player this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The 119 yards after contact the Niners yielded on Sunday was the most allowed by a 49ers team in the past five seasons.
Perhaps the most disturbing part was that the rushing yards and average were actually an improvement over a week ago in Buffalo, when the Niners allowed the Bills to rush for 312 yards. At the current pace, the 49ers would allow 2,962 rushing yards, which would be one of the five worst performances in the NFL's modern era.
"I don’t think there’s a person on this team that’s packing it up," Reid said. "We have just got to eliminate the mistakes that we’ve been having because we have been doing the same thing too consistently. Turnovers on special teams, with missing tackles and allowing big runs to happen on defense. So we have just got to eliminate those mistakes and put ourselves in a better position to win games."
To be fair, the 49ers have been plagued by an endless stream of health issues. They've lost starting inside linebackers NaVorro Bowman and Ray-Ray Armstrong to season-ending injuries and defensive tackle Ian Williams, perhaps the team's best run-stopper, never even made it to camp because of an ankle injury. In Sunday's game, they lost inside linebackers Nick Bellore and Gerald Hodges, outside linebacker Aaron Lynch, Armstead and cornerback Rashard Robinson in a span of minutes. Bellore and Hodges returned but the others did not.
San Francisco is also in the midst of learning a new defensive scheme under coordinator Jim O'Neil. It's a scheme that has some complexity, enough that O'Neil recently acknowledged the coaching staff was subtracting some of the things it was asking of the defenders in order to put players in better position to succeed.
"When you look at it, everybody is responsible for a gap," Reid said. "When you get blocked you have to get off of those blocks and I think that we have to do a better job at getting off of blocks, securing tackles and not letting big plays happen. We have to just get rid of those explosive plays.”
After the latest loss, Kelly said he doesn't plan to use the bye week to make any changes to his defensive coaching staff. The offensive-minded Kelly was asked if he needed to spend more time with the defense but insisted that he already puts in a lot of time.
“We spend time together during the week," Kelly said. "We carve out time in terms of how we watch film and what we do and understand the plan as we’re moving forward. There’s good communication going on form that standpoint. It’s not like I don’t know what’s going on on the defensive side of the ball.”
Indeed, it would be hard to miss all that's going on on the defensive side of the ball. Identifying those issues isn't the problem. They need to be fixed. For a defense that pitched a shutout in Week 1 and was supposed to be the bright spot in a rebuilding season, that's possibly the bitterest pill to swallow.