5 Lessons the San Francisco 49ers Can Learn from the Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos

Matching Up to the Opposition

Poor preparation, lack of adjustments and even poorer game-planning were staples of the 49ers’ efforts in 2015. So it’s not surprising to see the underwhelming results at the end of the season.

We won’t get into Xs and Os to describe what the 49ers need to do better this year. That’s for head coach Chip Kelly and his staff to decide. But one can draw parallels to what the Broncos did to the Panthers over the course of 60 minutes of play during the Super Bowl.

Denver rose to the occasion against the best regular-season team in the NFL. And the Broncos took away everything the Panthers wanted to do.

To do this, Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak utilized his best weapons and put them into a position for success. Denver did not ask quarterback Peyton Manning to be the hero — he went 13-of-23 for 141 yards and zero touchdowns against one interception. Nor did the Broncos ask too much from their offensive playmakers.

Instead, Kubiak and Co. schemed with their best strength: the defense and, most notably, the pass rush. This group was swarming over the course of the game and sacked quarterback Cam Newton a whopping six times.

That’s called rising up to the occasion.

San Francisco’s defense, the stronger unit of the two, managed to do this a handful of times over the course of 2015. Memories of the defensive efforts in Week 1 against the Minnesota Vikings still ring out.

And so did the 49ers ground game that week — what was still considered a primary strength at the time.

But the Niners lacked any sort of consistency here. What worked one week didn’t work the next.

If San Francisco wants to gain any sort of ground within the NFC West, and the rest of the league for that matter, properly identifying its own strengths and matching them up against opponents will need to be an inherent part of the game plan.

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