In the previous two weeks the Lions were hell bent on running over the defense and Washington followed suit seeing the stubbornness of the Cards to play nickel as the base defense.
9er's game post presser with Kyle he said they stuck to passing based on what the defense was doing. What did Rallis do?
Three DE/DTs plus Gardeck, Collins, Wilson and White as the front seven...only 4 DBs. Coaching 101 that the young coaches should have adjusted to well before this game.
K1 seems to get the ire when things go sideways, but a look at the Niner game shows players can be helped with good coaching. A side point: The Cowboys are playing all kinds of new players and have a veteran DC who stabilizes them. Someone posted about hiring an older adviser...maybe that is still needed.
The Cards had the same players or less due to injury and dictated the offense to not run as much. They also got QB pressure although it was ugly as hell...but when they rarely get the opportunity to break free from the OL without enough big men rushing they had some rust. There was a simplifying as well and the players played faster as per less being on their heels.
Wilson and White both need on the field even when they play Nickel. The Niners still had 153 yards rushing, but that is an improvement over 200+.
With the big OLs you have to have more body mass to defend...even the pressure with missing the sacks was making Purdy run around instead of sitting back throwing darts.
Rabbit needs more snaps as well. It was nice seeing the RB get stuffed once in a while...it doesn't have to be dominating, just competitive and the extra LB throwing his mass around actually helped.