Bring back the heat-o-meter. After that...”game,” is Saleh’s seat getting hotter?
Before we begin our regularly scheduled evaluation of Robert Saleh, it’s fair to point out the San Francisco 49ers were not winning that game against the Seattle Seahawks. This isn’t a, “if they did this, then they’d win,” this is a, “if they had a better roster they might win.” Across the board, the 49ers are beat up, young, and still learning. This is not a fault of the coaches, they are rebuilding and this takes time. The injuries the team has suffered would cripple anybody, but the 49ers have it much worse since they don’t have the depth behind them to keep it going.
That makes Robert Saleh’s scheme that much more difficult. Even if you take away the two turnovers, the 49ers still aren’t winning that game. But boy did they look bad. They won time of possession, but Nick Mullens’ 400 yards passing and Dante Pettis’ meet and greet were about the only things to really take from it. Jeff Wilson wasn’t bad either, but the 49ers couldn’t do much with any of that until the game was out of reach. It’s also important that while the 49ers weren’t winning—they sure as heck were trying. That alone is a testament to the coaching in what is a lost season.
Saleh’s defense wasn’t a horrible showing on the surface. 185 yards passing, 168 yards rushing given up for a total of 353 yards. That’s not bad at all. Not good, but it’s not Jim O’Neil numbers. Unfortunately, stats lie, tape doesn’t. Which means if you saw this defense whiffing on tackles and letting teams run free, you’d know the yardage doesn’t matter. It also helps when the Seahawks special teams are able to get to midfield or their offense can gather yards via penalties.
I’ve said before, there aren’t many defensive coaches that could get out of these situations when they start in locations netting the Seahawks wonderful field position, Saleh or otherwise. But there were catches the defense shouldn’t have allowed, runs that should have been sniffed out earlier, blocks that should have been shed. Again, the 49ers are outclassed in talent at the moment with an injured reserve list longer than most fantasy novels. There isn’t much the defense could do, but what they did do looked questionable in execution.
There are some bright spots. Ronald Blair III and DeForest Buckner were able to get some sacks, but when you realize it’s the Seattle offensive line that offers on average three sacks a game, it’s kind of hard to get excited about being par for the course.
So...with all that said. It’s time to bring back the heat-o-meter (if you can’t see the poll, click here):
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