5 crucial takeaways from 49ers Week 16 win vs. Rams

No. 3: 49ers Miss Their Defensive Line Depth

Granted, Sean McVay did a good job getting Jared Goff moving out of the pocket, allowing him to move left or right on bootlegs and such throughout the game.

Doing so negated a good chunk of the 49ers pass rush, which didn’t register a single sack on Los Angeles’ quarterback on the night. Despite a good deal of pressure, which often forced Goff to throw early, it’s looked like a night-and-day difference between what the Niners have been able to do this department lately compared to earlier this season.

Over the last three games, San Francisco has a total of just two sacks. In this contest, defensive coordinator Robert Saleh made concerted efforts to put in his backups to rest his starters, likely an attempt to keep his best pass-rushers fresh.

Still, the lack of sack production has hurt.

There are a number of reasons why, of course. But the biggest are due to injuries, which have totally thwarted the 49ers ability to rotate players the way they were able to early this year. Defensive linemen Ronald Blair (ACL) and D.J. Jones (ankle) are both on injured reserve. EDGE Dee Ford has been banged up for much of the year and has missed a lot of time, recently, with a hamstring injury.

Getting players like Ford back, and allowing the remaining healthy players to rest up is going to be important, meaning that first-round playoff bye would be crucial and something the Niners desperately need to have.