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Willard and Dibs break down how well the 49ers defense has played up to this point. Is this defense here to stay with Raheem Morris?
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00:00defense wins championships is it true i mean to a degree sure i think offense does too
00:11i think you have to have at least a decent defense if you have uh the best offense going
00:17and a decent defense that is usually better than the best defense going and an average offense
00:24and you can look at the 2000 ravens as the one exception to the rule that offense was
00:29hirotious to borrow from low the defense was unbelievable then you get the 85 bears mike
00:34dicker rest in peace they were pretty good at both they were pretty good at both but they didn't even
00:39really need an offense that defense was so insane i mean they had walter payton so yeah they were good
00:46i was listening to the guys yesterday i think they were trying to talk about like why isn't terry
00:50bradshaw more appreciated and they had their reasons and whatnot and sure terry bradshaw and
00:56lynn swan and and uh stalworth and you know franco harris like yeah the steelers had some real stuff
01:02on offense but why is he underappreciated because his side of the ball was the worst side of the ball
01:07their defense had a nickname right it was insane it's funny you said that because coming in yesterday i
01:14was thinking if your defense has a nickname then you win you're pretty good yeah like even the doomsday
01:20defense in dallas and the steel curtain curtain and you know the uh 46 zone in chicago where you
01:27know they were running the 46 defense that nobody else had did ray lewis's ravens defense have a
01:31nickname or were they just you know terrifying yeah i think they were just terrifying terrifying i don't
01:38remember if they did like the vikings way back the purple people leaders people eaters yep and all
01:43that so you know you've got named defenses and that usually means that you're pretty good okay so
01:4849ers and raheem i'm sorry radio rocky morris appreciation hour matt barrows joins us at 510 let's
01:56talk about this defense 888-957-9570 um it's well overdue here's why in the assessment of the 49ers and
02:07i did a piece of this last week but i want to expand it remember when i kept telling you
02:12um god
02:13the assessment of this entire game is only focused on half of the football game all we're doing is
02:19going can kyle beat mike mcdonald seattle's defense niners offense seattle's defense niners offense it's
02:25all anybody wanted to talk about and i understand why but i'm like what about the other side of the
02:30ball i think the 49ers have an advantage there certainly played out that way as well now i want to
02:36extend it to beyond just the assessment of that game how about the assessment of the 49ers what do
02:42we often hear people say well they're old they do have a lot of hall of famers but they're old
02:50and they get injured a lot and whatever else you want to bring up you are largely talking only about
03:00the offense the 49ers defense is decidedly not old i think in fact it's the sixth youngest defense
03:09in the national football league and i think if you're a niner fan and you want to find a reason
03:16to be excited about this team there's the obvious hello they're five and oh they've won all of their
03:21games two of them on the road against division mates this is huge all of that normal stuff but
03:26the idea of those offensive players if they stay healthy being good duh you knew that if brock
03:33purdy was throwing to mike evans and george kittle with trent williams on his left and handing the ball
03:38off to christian mcafree they're going to move the ball you knew this what did we not know we did
03:44not
03:44know that the defense could or would look like this for them to rush the passer without nick bosa
03:51for them to have this many rookies contributing is incredibly exciting raheem morris has gathered
03:59everybody into his corner right away and this to me is why the 49ers have become super bowl favorites
04:07after week five dibs they're balanced they are almost as good on defense as they are on offense
04:16yes and it's what we always talk about complementary football and i was thinking about yesterday and
04:21one thing i've been charting all year because i think it's really impactful is the offense and their
04:27first down success this year they've been very successful on first downs and they haven't had
04:32negative plays against seattle they had six negative plays on first down and usually when you have a
04:38negative play it leads to a punt they had a sack it led to a punt well what happened next
04:43fred warner
04:44punched the ball out two plays later you scored a touchdown you had a false start you had to punt
04:49one play later grayson halton forced it out recovered it for a touchdown now there were three times on that
04:55touchdown drive where they had a negative play on first down and the offense picked them up because it
05:00was the focac does you like to say intentional grounding it started with offensive pass interference and
05:06the offense was able to fight through three negative first down plays on the same drive but it had me
05:12thinking about what you were talking about to start the show is the defense so even when the offense
05:18had a negative play and they had to punt the ball the defense immediately first play pow two plays pow
05:25we got the ball back and either in the red zone or the end zone the defense the defense i
05:32want to talk
05:32to any 49er fan who's had a problem with the draft over the last five years i want to have
05:39a healthy
05:39conversation about this i want to understand because um i'll meet you halfway they've made some glaring
05:48errors i mean all you have to do is say trey lance and you can understand how the 49ers they
05:54kind of
05:54shot themselves in the foot for a period of two and a half years they wiggled their way out of
05:59it
06:00thank goodness mr irrelevant but this is always the question i have you can sit there and say
06:08well i don't like their first round i don't like those running backs in the third round that jake
06:14moody thing that was stupid and the the one that i really get and this always happens at trade deadline
06:20time is you'll get people to say trade those picks they're gonna screw them up anyway okay i hear you
06:30i
06:30really do there have been some players that have had big time name value and big time capital from
06:38trey lance to kin law to uh reuben foster solomon thomas we can do this all day i know i
06:44know jackson
06:45second rounder but explain to me how you can truly say well the rams and seahawks are awesome at this
06:54but the niners suck at it they just suck at the first three rounds but hold on like look at
07:01their
07:02defense right now just look at who's contributing on their defense right now and explain to me
07:10if the niners are so stupid at drafting players if their roster construction is so bananas and sideways
07:18how the hell is this what i'm looking at because it's the it's not the entire draft it's the first
07:27three rounds which with which i and many others take the umbrage because yeah you kick ass in rounds
07:34four through seven and even look at last year's draft michael williams jury's out should be good if
07:40healthy alfred collins there was talk about him not making the team nick martin doesn't play
07:45upton stout yeah so those your first four picks in last year's draft this year you've got romello
07:52height on defense he's got that gigantic club on his hand but he's out there competing and you know
07:58that would be your only defender in the first three rounds but you go further back and you're right
08:02renardo green second rounder looking good mustafa in the fourth i think later in the in the draft for
08:08whatever reason they tend to do really well early in the draft they don't do as well okay um i
08:14mean
08:14from a mathematical standpoint i don't know that that i can argue that but there are some other
08:19names to bring up was upton stout a two or a three third rounder third round michael williams um we
08:26haven't seen a lot of them yet number 11 pick that's the first round draft pick nick bose is the
08:30number
08:30two overall pick in the draft fred warner was a third rounder renardo green was a second rounder
08:37um you mentioned romello height that obviously is still coming together but they are they're they're
08:43they're cashing in on it on on some level um and then i guess the other thing i'd say about
08:51it is
08:51even and again i want to meet you halfway if i if i'm like yeah they they they kind of
08:57they've had
08:57some misses early in the draft and by the way we're only doing this on defense which isn't completely
09:03fair because some of these first and second round draft picks and third round draft picks
09:07they have they have been on the offensive end and there's been misses there too there's also been
09:11hits there's also been i mean if we want to go back to the full 10 years of drafting or
09:16if we want
09:16to look at the the recent days i think it's different because in recent years i do believe
09:21they've been more successful than they were early on first draft two firsts solomon thomas reuben
09:28foster double miss and yeah that was a golden opportunity so i think of late they've gotten
09:34better at finding value earlier in the draft and also hitting later in the draft i guess what what
09:40what strikes me is that sort of uh the overarching view like you're you're diving deep on analytics
09:47of rounds and offense defense where did it go what years are they getting better at it
09:54um but i often hear we just kind of head out into the world with like the niners aren't very
09:59good
09:59at drafting and and and obviously roster construction has three pieces to it you know there's there's the
10:06draft and then there's free agency and then there's trades and you can build it however you want
10:12um but if a roster looks like this if this is what you're getting if you're five and oh and
10:19you're
10:20littered with homegrown talent and on the defensive side it's young can we really have this criticism
10:29as firmly as we do obviously you can criticize whatever you want and and and you can point as you
10:36are to specific moments in a draft or specific you know decisions that they make but can we really
10:41cruise around with yeah hey kyle john boy i wish they'd get a a personnel guy i wish they'd get
10:49a
10:49drafter can we really do that like look at this defense look what's happening look how our opinions
10:56have changed about some of these players just in the last six weeks and the opinions of others
11:02haven't changed and you know i'm looking at collins and west as guys who no doubt you know you you
11:07can't
11:07make the club from the tub and right now you know collins was not looking good anyway and now he's
11:13hurt
11:13and so i think that it's just really a lot of day one and some day two picks where you
11:18look at it and
11:18you scratch your head but last year he did the unthinkable and they drafted a running back in
11:23the third round and it looks like knock on wood it's early but looks like they might have gotten
11:28one right for a change and and you know obviously the jury remains out on the stripling thing but
11:33um the uh the non in-game returns in august had the organization incredibly incredibly excited
11:42so we piece that into ricky pearsall uh same kind of vibe but the injuries you can't make the club
11:48from the tub um and by the way you're not gonna hit on them all you don't you don't hit
11:53on them all
11:54like you get some misses don't you you do but when it's the first round misses and trey lance is
12:00an
12:00absolute hat trick it's three first rounds worth of misses no doubt and i'm sorry ricky pearsall is
12:06gonna have to play for that to not be a miss and i know it's unfortunate injury gunshot blah blah
12:11blah
12:11but if he ultimately is unable to get healthy then that goes down as a miss no there's no question
12:15about it i mean jerry's still out for sure and that's the other thing right the the jury sometimes
12:20is out longer than we we want it to be out just this year you now have a a different
12:25opinion of
12:26renardo green for example i think in short order we might have a different opinion about michael
12:33williams uh for example you're listening to 95 7 the game kgmz fm and hd1 san francisco and
12:39odyssey sports station home of the golden state warriors and valkyries always live on the free
12:43odyssey app and coming to you live from the laughing monk studios 888-957-9570 uh if you want to
12:49get in on 49ers defense appreciation hour let's go to uh jonathan in the city hi jonathan thanks for
12:55calling hey uh thanks for taking my phone call you know i'm upset even after game one just seeing
13:02and what do i know i'm just a fan i'm not in a football guy in any sense but even
13:07just after
13:08one game i was like man i love this defense because you know one of the biggest ingredients
13:14in sport and especially in football is the disguise the unpredictability that wide nine
13:21wide nine gap scheme is just too predictable especially when they play that soft
13:26uh prevent defense in the back end when this defense is so much variation they're playing
13:33press man in the you know with the secondary they're blitzing uh multiple fronts and in the
13:39d-line and you can tell the guys are really loving it because they're being put in position
13:44you know to win and to be successful and uh i heard from um i think it was ross with
13:52abonte and guru
13:53that uh raheem might be staying man because i heard that uh if you got fired twice as a hc
14:00it's almost impossible to get that third job oh niners okay jonathan thanks i think the point
14:06jonathan makes at the end there is a really really good one um he's slightly off i think it's the
14:12fourth
14:12job that's hard to get there's been a lot of coaches who've gotten that third crack at it but
14:17i don't think somebody as young as he is right but i don't think you're going to get it quickly
14:21like in other words robert sala was here for one year i'd bet a lot of money that raheem morris
14:26is
14:26not going to get a head coaching job this offseason well you'd have to look at how many openings there
14:30will be and robert sala's job might be one of them and last year i think in the last three
14:35years
14:36i was looking at this i think 24 of the 32 jobs turned over and maybe uh 10 of them
14:41last year
14:42eight to 10 so there will be jobs open and if this continues like this he will be a candidate
14:47but
14:48maybe it's a cautionary tale from what robert sala's gone through to where you maybe want to stay
14:54an extra year because you know being a dc for a good team might be better than being the hc
15:00for a crappy
15:00team depends on which job you take and who's the quarterback and all of that like that's my issue
15:06with what robert sala did i get it you get to be the head guy you get to have your
15:10own operation the
15:11salary is really big um that's hard to turn down uh but robert sala took a job that i don't
15:16think
15:16is going to go very well for him he's he's got um he's got very little to work with i
15:22don't know
15:22if i agree with what you just said that he might be fired after one year that would shock the
15:26hell out
15:26of me i don't think you hire a coach to fire him in one year especially when
15:30um you don't really have a great roster to give to him you have a quarterback in his second year
15:35and not much around him i think if they feel like they're seeing some improvement in some areas
15:41um then then robert will be fine it's interesting i look at it right now some of the gigs that
15:47we sort
15:47of look to and you go well that team stinks well miami's got a brand new guy there were 10
15:52new head coaches this year tennessee's got a brand new guy so these guys are not going anywhere
15:56your boy aaron glenn with the jets that might be an interesting one cleveland's three and two
16:02and they've got a brand new guy so um and you know pittsburgh's got a brand new guy
16:08domiko ryans i would win some more football games if i were you but i think they also really like
16:15him
16:15he's in good standing um nobody in the afc west is going anywhere except for harbaugh um you know
16:25let's take a look at at things that are happening in the nfc east because that's that's wobbly the
16:30mighty quinn quinn what's happening in dallas would they dare in philadelphia if he keeps literally
16:39looking like he's automatically losing them the game every week i don't know um if you start with
16:46longest tenured coaches and you move toward the freshies because i think you're right about the 10
16:50uh guys who just got hired they're gonna largely keep their gigs i would imagine all of them will
16:55unless something goes really really really sideways but andy reed longest tenured he's fine
17:00chan and mcveigh they're fine matt lafleur and green bay hired in 2019 so maybe yeah and then
17:07they've won two in a row since that discussion started they have but still if you wind if you
17:12wind up nine and eight or eight nine in a kind not a winnable nfc north but you know i
17:18don't think
17:19anyone's gonna win 14 in that division it's good division zach taylor in cincinnati i don't know if
17:24cincinnati is so dysfunctional that they're gonna let them just continue to be underwhelming i'd have
17:29my eyes on tampa bay if i were gonna do that little jimmy shapiro bet on like the you know
17:35yeah next
17:36coach to be let go well there's two guys long who have longer tenure than him and i think both
17:41are
17:41interesting candidates nick sirianni as you mentioned and uh we're gonna be biting some
17:45kneecaps and campbell yeah but you know they're like they have a winning record there's three and two
17:52but um yeah i think they like him but yeah those like anyway i don't i would be surprised if
18:01raheem morris is one and done with san francisco 49ers i would be surprised if we had 10 openings
18:06like we did last year that too so to that point to the jonathan's point if there's only five openings
18:12and maybe it is you know if it's detroit and you're a defensive-minded guy and they've got no defense
18:19if
18:19it's indianapolis and you know you're thinking about their quarterback situation and you don't love
18:24it i don't know usually you don't land in a place that is turnkey because if it's a good team
18:30you
18:30probably are going to keep your coach usually i mean buffalo's got a new coach he walked into oh
18:36here you did that's josh he's quarterback he was already there right he was the offensive coordinator
18:42yeah yeah it wasn't wasn't the head coach so um but i hear you um and and and agree on
18:49all fronts
18:49but um just think for a minute from the niners perspective uh how we might salivate over the idea
18:56of continuity especially at this time with what we just called out there are so many young players
19:02on this defense and the defensive backs especially are really succeeding under raheem and if the 49ers
19:09could string two three four years together with raheem who's getting the most out of those guys
19:15and let them continue to grow together i mean it's not crazy to think with the age of the great
19:23players on the niners offense it's not crazy to think that two three years from now this team
19:29could be a defense first team even though they've got a great quarterback but you know if christian's
19:35gone and trent is gone and george is gone and juice is gone i know they've got some you know
19:41receivers dribbling hopefully pierce all they're excited about and and growing with but there's
19:46going to be a lot of turnover on that offensive end um but the defense right now could if raheem
19:52stays
19:52could really get some continuity going and i to me this is the underbelly of excitement right now
19:59we get so distracted and and and obsessed with the 49er offense um the fact that this defense
20:08is playing the way it is right now that that to me is why and that balance that's why the
20:1449ers
20:15right now look like the best team in football it's balance and you can look at the other niner teams
20:21that have been very good you lose the super bowl in 19 third year robert sala to your point about
20:27continuity that was his third of four years you were fourth in the league in yards on offense and second
20:33in the league in yards against on defense and then in 2023 you go to the super bowl you were
20:40second in
20:41yards eight defensively you were third in points on both sides of the ball complementary football third
20:47in offense third in defense it's exactly what you're talking about and you had four years for sala two
20:53years for domiko and then it was just one year one year one year one year and so it'd be
20:56nice to have
20:57raheem for a few