4 things 49ers did wrong vs. Packers in Week 3
By Peter Panacy
No. 3: 49ers called too much Cover 1 on defense
Looking back on the game, it was frustrating seeing just how frequently defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans was calling for a single-high safety in a Cover 1 formation over the entirety of the game.
With a questionable crop of cornerbacks, which included losing veteran Josh Norman to a chest injury, Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams made easy work of the one-on-one man-coverage matchups they faced together, connecting 12 times for 132 yards and a touchdown.
Free safety Jimmie Ward does so much well for Ryans’ defense. There’s no discounting that. But he can’t patrol both sides of the field while trying to cover up the mistakes of a less-than-proven cornerback crop, leading to many of those one-on-one completions Rodgers had against cornerbacks like Deommodore Lenoir and Dontae Johnson.
Adams was one of the players San Francisco knew would be a prime threat, and Adams delivered. And Ryans failed to adjust, rarely aligning an extra safety like Ward or even Jaquiski Tartt to shade over to Adams’ side.
Instead, Ryans’ approach of simply letting whichever cornerback was aligned opposite Adams to try matching up against him effectively despite the earlier results being less than desirable proved to be a massive mistake.