49ers grades, analysis from refreshing Week 8 win vs. Bears
By Peter Panacy
49ers Week 8 Grades: Linebackers
Fred Warner remains one of the NFL’s best linebackers, but 2021 has continued to show why he’s having a bit of a down year.
Perhaps it’s a bit of DeMeco Ryans’ scheme, which has frequently put Warner out of position to make impactful plays, although Warner nearly deflected a pass that could have gone for another 49ers interception.
Despite that, Warner still led all Niners defenders with eight combined tackles on the game.
What was truly missed, however, was the presence of depth linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, who had been filling in for the injured starter, Dre Greenlaw (groin), yet had to miss Week 8 because of a concussion suffered the week prior.
This led to Ryans being forced to insert deeper linebackers like Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles and Marcell Harris, which didn’t exactly generate ideal results.
Harris’ pass-coverage skills aren’t great to begin with, and on one of his missed tackles, the Bears were able to pick up a 9-yard chunk gain.
Missed tackles were a key problem for all of San Francisco’s defense throughout the game, and the linebacker corps has to bear the brunt of the blame in that department. Especially when considering Chicago was able to muster a net total of 176 yards on the ground, Justin Fields picking up 103 of them.