Aaron Rodgers and the Packers made it look easy Monday night with the game on the line. In the fourth quarter, with the score tied, Rodgers took his team on a 10-play, 81-yard drive that ate up the clock and earned Green Bay the 33-30 victory on a Mason Crosby field goal.
On the possession before, Rodgers engineered a touchdown drive to tie the game at 30-30. On both drives, the 49ers’ defense was deftly sliced, again and again.
So, in the aftermath of the loss that dropped the 49ers to 1-5, some in the media and many 49ers fans were pointing the finger of blame at defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and questioning whether his scheme and play calling are up to the task.
Yet head coach Kyle Shanahan and veteran All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman said after the game it wasn’t Saleh’s fault.
“Saleh’s very good at what he does,” Shanahan told Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle. “I have a ton of confidence in him. I have a ton of confidence in our scheme.”
Several times during the game, Rodgers found receivers who were wide open in the 49ers secondary. Sherman said that wasn’t Saleh’s fault. In every case, a player had blown an assignment.
“At the end of the day, if you call the perfect call and they don’t run the play the way you called it, what else can you do?” asked Sherman. “You call the play, the guy has man (coverage), and you don’t take the man. And it’s going to lead to a big play. Aaron would find him if he was covered. To not cover him is frustrating.”
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Sherman added that when he and his teammates do the things they’re supposed to, the defense works. The scheme run by Saleh is similar to the one run in Seattle and Jacksonville, where it’s been highly successful. Sherman said it’s “one of the most sound schemes in football.”
“In any scheme if you don’t play sound, it can lead to big plays,” Sherman told Branch. “We have to find a way to just play disciplined. When we stopped them, when we got three-and-outs, it wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t guys making stuff up. It was just guys doing their assignment. Nothing special.”
Sherman, too, was guilty of a costly mistake. On the Packers’ final drive, he was called for an illegal contact penalty on a third-and-15 situation, when DeForest Buckner had sacked Rodgers. Without the penalty, the game likely would have gone to overtime. Instead, the Packers got a second chance and marched to the winning field goal.
The 49ers will play host to the undefeated Rams this Sunday. Kickoff is set for 1:25 p.m.
