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00:00This is another thing that is a feather in the cap,
00:04and I won't point to one person, everybody involved.
00:08Kyle Shanahan, sure.
00:09Brock Purdy, you bet.
00:11Mack Jones, absolutely.
00:13You all kept it together in the face of what all of the other quarterbacks
00:18who are kind of in the same situation didn't.
00:22They didn't.
00:23Hey, Doc, how's your defense?
00:26Oh, it's awful, so we missed the playoffs.
00:28Hey, Jared Goff, how's your defense?
00:31It's all hurt, so we missed the playoffs.
00:34Joe Burrow, how's your defense?
00:36Well, I'm questioning football.
00:38Patrick Mahomes, how's your defense?
00:41Well, not as good as it was last year.
00:46Lamar Jackson, how's your defense?
00:48How's your backup?
00:50Unable to hold it together.
00:52How's your back holding up?
00:53Exactly.
00:55But 49ers, how's your defense?
00:57Well, they're young and struggling, but we figured it out.
01:01And we still won most of the games anyway.
01:03Right, and we figured it out by realizing that the way we win with Shanahan
01:07is to run the ball.
01:09And this year, when they run it more than 30 times, they don't lose.
01:13They're 8-0 this year when they run it more than 30 times.
01:15And I know part of that is you lead late, you run it more, but even though they haven't
01:20run it that effectively, they run it well enough to where they're not in a lot of second
01:25and terrible and third and long.
01:28And so at that point, you're able to use McCaffrey as a weapon, as a receiver, and Kittle, and
01:33all the rest of it.
01:34I mean, that's part of what I find to be maybe the most surprising thing of all of this.
01:38If you, like, we always do this, right?
01:40If you had told me at the beginning of the season, right, no Fred, no Nick, blah, blah, blah,
01:43and we go, but you're 10-4, I would have called you crazy.
01:47Well, let's double back and do double crazy.
01:50Because if you had told me you'd be able to achieve that while also not really being able
01:56to run the ball at a high level or at a high yards per carry, where do they sit in the
02:00NFL in terms of yards per carry?
02:0249ers.
02:05DFL, Mark.
02:07DFL?
02:08Dead.
02:09Really?
02:10I knew they were down there.
02:11Last.
02:12Yards per attempt, they're at 3.5.
02:14The Raiders are 31st at 3.6.
02:18Okay, and what have you all, this is a big fantasy football thing, all of you Ashton Jinty fantasy
02:23owners, who, by the way, finally, you finally had a pop at the right time, because I think
02:28he put up, like, 38 points yesterday, but all year, the Raiders, everybody's been like,
02:36Jinty can't even get the ball before someone is sitting on it.
02:39Yep.
02:39They average more per carry than the Niners.
02:410.1 more.
02:42But still.
02:43Yes, even if you look at, like, total yards rushing, the Niners are 28th.
02:48They're ahead of, and just tell me what you think of these teams.
02:52They're ahead of Tennessee, New Orleans, the Bengals, and the Raiders.
03:00And that's in total yards, and the Niners will go up, they'll pass the Browns tonight
03:04if they get 44 yards, if they get 43 or 53, they'll pass the Cardinals.
03:10They might climb up above Pittsburgh, but you're getting the theme here.
03:13Like, the other teams that are down there with you, Arizona, Cleveland, Tennessee, New
03:18Orleans, the Bengals, and the Raiders, you're bad.
03:21Yep.
03:22You're bad.
03:22So I think it feeds the question that we're asking of how did they do this?
03:27How did they do this?
03:29Just think.
03:30It's not just the injuries.
03:32They almost never intercept the ball.
03:35They almost never sack the other quarterback.
03:38They almost never run the ball well.
03:41So how did they do it?
03:43How did they do it?
03:45It's a great question.
03:46Special teams has been really good.
03:49The defense has kind of been bendy, don't breaky, I guess.
03:53Yep.
03:55The passing game has been strong.
03:57The passing game has been strong.
03:59But even that, not like overwhelmingly, you know, I look at...
04:05They were, like, early on when Mack was there, when Brock was out, they were number one in,
04:10like, passing yards, which is weird for a Shanahan team.
04:14And even now, like, net yards per attempt, they're eighth.
04:18They're tied with Buffalo at seven yards per attempt.
04:21The answer I'll give you, I think, is really McCaffrey-centric, and that's the fact that they
04:27have been so good in the red zone.
04:28You get in the red zone, you score, and the other team gets in the red zone, and a lot
04:33of times you hold them out.
04:34And that's been, you know, the difference between this year and last year.
04:37And I'm just looking at their offense.
04:39This year they are 63% red zone, and last year they were 57.
04:45And, you know, that one drop right there is pretty significant, I think.
04:50I know somebody who works with the Niners who said to me after the game against Seattle,
04:55we had no business winning that game.
04:57And I wonder, like, it popped into my head today, because I go, I wonder if anybody said
05:01that to each other last night.
05:04As I hope somewhere in a hotel room, because, right, like, I hope somebody pops some champagne
05:10and, like, we made the playoffs.
05:12Right.
05:12Like, not the players, but, like, I hope some front office people, like, we made the playoffs.
05:16Let's have a glass.
05:18And do you think they looked at each other and went, how the hell do we do this?
05:23We got no business.
05:25Based on all of these numbers that you're, I'm trying, you know what I mean?
05:30What if I asked it a different way?
05:31What are the Niners good at?
05:33What are they really good at?
05:35I don't even know.
05:38I don't even know how to answer it.
05:40Kicking field goals?
05:43I mean, even that, like, you know.
05:45What are they good at?
05:47Winning?
05:49They're good at winning.
05:50Yes, Mike.
05:51Like, honestly, this is, it really is, it's quite a mystery to me how this looks the way
05:59it does.
05:59It's a little bit of a mystery, and, I mean, we can go through the autopsy of every single
06:04game, and it comes down to, for me, a couple of games in particular, and it's the Ram game,
06:11and it's the Seattle game.
06:12Like, the Seattle game, you got a Tungis touchdown, and then you got a Nick Bosa, remember him?
06:18A shrug, a sack fumble recovery all by Nick, and the Ram game, you got a punch out at the
06:24one-yard line, and then your boy McVay, McVegas, went for it in overtime.
06:29And you got another stop.
06:30So, this year, for me, has been a lot like last year, except when those plays were in
06:36the balance last year, you didn't make them, and this year you made them.
06:39So, if you don't beat Seattle in the opener, excusable, on the road, if you don't beat the
06:44Rams on a Thursday night down there, excusable, the Rams are really good, you're 8-6, and
06:50so we think a lot differently about this year.
06:52Right, but you still would be in the 7th seed.
06:54At 8-6.
06:55You wouldn't have clinched yet.
06:56Right.
06:56But you'd be in, you would stand right now as in a playoff spot, even if they lost those
07:01two games.
07:02So, you know, there's no way to slice this and not say the 49ers are one of the, I
07:11guess you'd call it, is it six elite teams in the NFC?
07:16Is it six?
07:18It's probably six, right?
07:19You think?
07:20Eagles, Bears, Packers, and then the three NFC West teams.
07:25I mean, I don't know if you would.
07:27People want to put Detroit in there.
07:29I guess, okay, but I mean, they're 8-7.
07:33That's not a, you know, I think they're an elite offensive team.
07:36Right.
07:37And, I mean, their path to get in would have to be they win two and the Packers lose,
07:42right?
07:42That's correct.
07:42So, the Packers have to lose both.
07:44Right.
07:45Now, it feels momentarily possible because I don't know what's going on with the Packers
07:49quarterback situation.
07:51Yep.
07:51I don't know if they've got a quarterback for the next two weeks.
07:53They'll find one.
07:54I mean, somebody will play.
07:56Maybe Phillip Rivers' dad is available.
07:59I don't know.
08:00A great grandpa.
08:01Nick and Martinez on Willard and Dibs.
08:05Hi, Nick.
08:05Thanks for calling.
08:06What's up, Willard and Dibs?
08:09Hey, man.
08:10Great show.
08:11Love you guys.
08:13I will tell you this.
08:14Special teams, you got it.
08:16You have to hand it to them.
08:18And you named it, man.
08:20The Moody trade or getting rid of him.
08:23DeNero's been great.
08:24Not just him, but just special teams in general, man.
08:27They stepped it up, and we've needed it for a while.
08:30And it came down to the wire with those games and special teams coming through.
08:35But I'll give you this.
08:37I'll say this to you guys.
08:39It's Robert Sala, without a doubt.
08:41I know that Kyle, and we're giving him his flowers.
08:44I know offense.
08:46He knows that.
08:47But having Robert Sala, no other coach could do what he's doing right now.
08:54I know he could do great things as a head coach.
08:56And I'm going to put a spin on this in a little bit.
08:59But having him back home as just a DC, man, his connection.
09:04I could only imagine if Fred and Bosa were on that field with him.
09:09It would be a completely different story.
09:11It would be scary.
09:13But I will say this.
09:15To that duo, as far as Robert Sala goes and Shanahan,
09:20if Robert leaves and gets a Super Bowl before Shanahan,
09:26if he leaves, then there you go.
09:29The answer is right there.
09:30The proof is in the pudding.
09:31And that's my answer to you guys.
09:33I love you guys.
09:34I'll continue to listen.
09:35Let's go, Niners.
09:36Wake up, Bay Area.
09:37Appreciate it, Nick.
09:38Yeah, absolutely.
09:39Yeah, we're closing in on a big one.
09:42It's interesting.
09:43Look, I'm in agreement about all the things that Robert Sala has added.
09:47It's quite honestly rather obvious.
09:50But the way that Nick said it, to me, pushes it maybe a touch too hard.
09:55The whole idea of, like, at the end of the day, that's what this is.
09:58It's all about Sala.
10:00And I guess you could make that case if what you're talking about sort of the
10:04way we vote for Coach of the Year, which is to say they are –
10:09there's a bigger gap between what they are and what we thought they were going
10:13to be, as opposed to the opposite.
10:15Like, if we want to get into the ratings and rankings and numbers and all of that,
10:20the Niners' offense is performing way better than their defense.
10:23Yeah.
10:24I get it.
10:25Yeah.
10:25I think it's rather obvious why.
10:27But it's interesting that people will go, it's definitely Robert Sala.
10:31When the offense is performing better than the defense is.
10:36And it's always interesting when you, like, get everything boiled down to just
10:40that one thing.
10:41Is it Sala or is it Shanahan?
10:43Well, Robert Sala definitely has done great with the defense.
10:47But was it he who told Alfred Collins to, you know, go and try to punch the ball
10:52out on the goal line?
10:53Here's what I want you to do.
10:55Go ahead and punch for the football at the one-yard line.
10:57That was a player making a play.
10:59And you always say this, like, coaches coach and they put their players in a spot
11:03to where they go out there and they make plays.
11:05And, you know, Shanahan, similarly, doesn't get credit for the Jake Tonjes touchdown
11:09where I'm sure he didn't tell Brock, you know, Brock, I want you to throw it up
11:14and stuff and, like, throw it as high as you can and, you know, throw it to a guy
11:18who never really catches the ball and just go ahead and throw that up there and let
11:23him go up there and get that.
11:24So it's the players who made those plays.
11:27Now, Sala has definitely done a lot with less and Shanahan's done a lot with a little
11:33bit more, but the other point is Mac Jones.
11:36Like, you went out and you got Mac Jones and you coached him up from March all the
11:40way until September and it's like, oh boy, we need you.
11:43And he goes out there and he wins games, including the game at L.A. on a Thursday
11:46night.
11:47So, yeah, it's Shanahan, it's Sala, but for me, it's the players who've done it.
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