SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The 49ers’ formula for beating the Rams in recent years has been this: creativity + Deebo Samuel = victory.
Following a 43-17 home loss to the Dolphins in 2020 — last week’s game against the Broncos was bad; the loss to Miami was much worse — the 49ers got back on track by feeding short passes to Samuel in a win over the Rams.
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How short? All six throws were caught behind the line of scrimmage, which led to some uncommon statistics for Samuel: 66 receiving yards with 96 yards after the catch. His success in bullying and bursting his way through traffic that day was a sign he might be useful as a running back.
The following year, that’s exactly how the 49ers used him, beginning with a Week 10 meeting with the Rams.
They were 3-5 heading into the contest and Kyle Shanahan later admitted he’d reached a point at which he had to decide whether to keep shooting for the playoffs or insert rookie Trey Lance at quarterback and concentrate on next season. The 49ers stayed the course. They suddenly came alive on “Monday Night Football” against the Rams, especially Samuel and the running game. He took five handoffs, including one he turned into an 8-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
The 49ers again reached for the Deebo button in the must-win encounter in Los Angeles in Week 18: eight carries for 45 yards and another rushing touchdown. And he got another seven carries in the NFC Championship Game.
But there was something different about that final meeting. For one, the 49ers lost the game after having won the previous six matchups with the Rams. And Samuel wasn’t much of a factor at running back, finishing with 26 yards and a very un-Deebo-like 3.7-yard average.
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It seemed as if the Rams had learned from their previous two losses and had geared themselves to stop the run in general and Samuel in particular. They kept five men at the line of scrimmage, one at the so-called five-technique (between the tackle and tight end) and one edge player farther wide than that.
It created bad blocking angles for the 49ers and made it harder for them to hit the outside zone runs that are a staple of the offense. The Rams linebackers played downhill and their safety at the time, Eric Weddle, blitzed through run lanes. With so many Rams at the point of attack, the 49ers struggled to find the combination blocks that are the lifeblood of their rushing attack.
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“It made it kind of hard when they had nine, 10 guys in the box,” George Kittle said after the game.
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Last week, the Broncos did a lot of the same things.
That wasn’t a surprise. Their defensive coordinator, Ejiro Evero, spent the last five seasons with the Rams and he runs the same system. Evero and the Broncos were even more successful than Los Angeles had been in the playoffs: Samuel had the worst rushing day of his career. His longest carry: 3 yards.
What’s worrisome for the 49ers is that they’ll see the same alignments today and several more times this season. The godfather of the scheme is former 49ers defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. And although Fangio is taking the year off (with an occasional pop-in to check out 49ers practices), other teams have either hired formed former Fangio assistants to run their defenses or adopted his scheme. Seven teams are running it this season and there are bits and pieces of it scattered across the league.
“I feel like a majority of the NFL now plays this defense,” Kittle said Friday. “We’re going to have to find a way to beat it or they’ll keep doing it to us.”
The 49ers have two big challenges in that regard.
The first is that their inexperienced offensive line still is learning the zone-blocking system Shanahan uses. That young line wasn’t very good against the Broncos and will be even less experienced today with Colton McKivitz (four career starts, one at tackle) substituting for Trent Williams (151 career starts, all at tackle).
Run game coordinator Chris Foerster noted that when even one block is slightly off, it can be the difference between an explosive play and a dud. In Week 1, for instance, Samuel had a run that gained 27 yards. The 49ers called the same play against the Broncos and it gained just 2 yards.
“We were off by just a step on blocking the inside linebacker or (Samuel’s) going to get to the unblocked corner,” Foerster said. “And we all know what happens when Deebo can get in the secondary with not many players to tackle him. But those are all just excuses. We didn’t get it done and the numbers are down because we didn’t execute properly.”
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The other obstacle is that the 49ers’ most creative mind in the run game is now in Miami. In previous years, Mike McDaniel was credited with identifying soft spots in opposing defenses, engineering the desired combination blocks and getting the rushing attack rolling. Now that job has fallen to Foerster, tight ends coach Brian Fleury and Shanahan.
It’s worth noting that the Seahawks are one of the teams that run a variation of Fangio’s defense (their coordinator, Clint Hurtt, worked under Fangio in Chicago) and that San Francisco gouged the Seahawks for 189 rushing yards in Week 2. That included a 13.3-yard average for Samuel.
Kittle said he liked the game plan against the Broncos, too. The problem was that the 49ers were awful on third downs and didn’t get enough chances to utilize their run plays.
“I liked it last week, I like it this week,” he said. “We just need to stay on the field so we can actually call those plays.”
Can the 49ers keep pace with NFL evolution? Do they have the creativity to uncork Samuel against their nemesis? They’ve done it in previous meetings and Kittle thinks they can do it again. He hinted there’s something new in store for the Rams.
“It doesn’t feel like we’re just beating our heads against the wall,” he said. “It does feel like we’re trying different ways to attack a defense that has been giving us fits. We’re excited about the opportunity.”
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(Photo of Deebo Samuel: Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Images)
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