49ers look to shore up run defense with NFL rushing leader Baltimore up next

As satisfying as it was to wrap up the NFC West title a week after clinching a playoff berth, coach Kyle Shanahan and his staff were diving into solutions for a leaky run defense that had previously been a strength.

The Arizona Cardinals rushed for 234 yards, with the 49ers missing two key players in starting defensive tackles Javon Hargrave and Arik Armstead. Those absences hurt, but weren’t the only reason Arizona was able to break loose in the run game.

“I definitely think it hurt,” Shanahan told the local media Monday on a conference call.

Making things more difficult was that Kalia Davis, who was sliding into the role of third defensive tackle behind Javon Kinlaw and Kevin Givens, sustained a high ankle sprain and played only 13 snaps. That meant practice squad promotion T.Y. McGill needed to play 20 snaps.

Yet it was more than just the interior defense, according to Shanahan.

“I thought the biggest thing was the missed tackles, and our tracking angles on a couple of plays, just running to the ball,” Shanahan said. “We over-pursued a couple of things and opened up the cutback, which gave them some big ones . . . we’ve got to clean up those tackles and have to try and get our depth back too.”

However, there are no guarantees that Hargrave and/or Armstead will be available to face the Baltimore Ravens, the top seed in the AFC, on Christmas night. That will work itself out during the week of practice.

The 49ers in years past have talked with free agent defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, but Shanahan stopped short of saying they’d be doing it again to shore up the defensive front.

“I’m not ruling out anything,” Shanahan said. “We have guys on our practice squad we used last week. We also aren’t exactly sure when Hargrave and Armstead are coming back. They do have a chance this week so there’s a lot of variables that are playing together that will be discussed the rest of today, tomorrow and probably continuing throughout the year.”

The last time the 49ers gave up more than 200 yards rushing, Shanahan was seven games into his rookie season as head coach and the only player on the roster who is still around is Armstead, who missed the game back then while on injured reserve.

It was Oct. 22, 2017, and Dallas rushed for 265 yards on 43 carries in a 40-10 win at Levi’s Stadium. From that day, the 49ers played 113 games — including postseason — before the Cardinals punctured the 49ers for 234 yards on 34 carries.

The most yards rushing the 49ers had allowed this season was 160 in a Week 6 loss to Cleveland, which started their three-game losing streak after a 5-0 start. In 10 of the 49ers’ first 13 games, they held opponents under 100 yards rushing.

While delighted to adhere to a standard and win the NFC West title, middle linebacker Fred Warner — who joined the 49ers in 2018 — realized the 49ers fell short of the run defense standard against the Cardinals.

“We’ve got to make sure we come back and go to work this week because we’ve got a team coming in that loves to run the ball and we’ve got to be better,” Warner said.

While Arizona attempted to spread the field and pair power runner James Conner with smaller, quicker players, the Baltimore Ravens lead the NFL with 2,293 yards on the ground and aside from quarterback Lamar Jackson are more ground and pound in nature.

The Ravens are coming off a 23-7 win over Jacksonville and gained 251 yards on 42 carries, with Jackson getting 97 yards on 12 attempts. Baltimore had 204 of those yards in the second half. Power back Gus Edwards had 58 yards on 16 carries and has 663 for the season with 11 touchdowns. Jackson has 741 yards rushing on both designed runs and scrambles. The Ravens did lose explosive rookie Keaton Mitchell (396 yards, 8.4 per attempt) to a season-ending knee injury against the Jaguars.

Missed tackles, an issue that plagued the 49ers during their three-game losing streak, were also a problem against Arizona. The Cardinals had 142 yards on five explosive snaps of the ball, including runs of 49 for a touchdown by Emari Demercado and 44 by Conner.

“I’m always going to point fingers at myself, and I’ve got to be the standard for everybody else and if we do miss a tackle, we’ve got to make sure guys are getting to the football to get him down,” Warner said. “Too many explosive runs. That’s what sticks out the most.”

INJURY UPDATES: While Davis could be out awhile at defensive tackle, cornerback Deommodore Lenoir (rib contusion) and defensive end Clelin Ferrell (ankle) are day-to-day. In addition, wide receiver Jauan Jennings is in concussion protocol, although the Monday game does give him an extra day to recover.

Tight end Ross Dwelley (ankle), linebacker/special teamer Oren Burks (knee) and running back Elijah Mitchell (knee) will be evaluated at practice. Starting right guard Spencer Burford (knee), who gave way to Jon Feliciano against Arizona, is expected to be available for practice.

The hometown kid is ballin. Brock Purdy to @CMC_22 for a 2nd time today!#ProBowlVote #SFvsAZ on CBS pic.twitter.com/R0ZieCsVLj

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) December 17, 2023

MCCAFFREY’S BACKPEDAL: There were some anxious moments for Shanahan when a wide open Christian McCaffrey at first didn’t appear to see a deep pass from Brock Purdy and wound up backpedaling until he caught the ball before falling down.

McCaffrey was so open he was able to get up and continue on to complete a 41-yard touchdown play, and a 28-13 lead with 13:18 left in the third quarter. Purdy got the pass off after rolling to his left to evade pressure up the middle.

“The whole time it was in the air it looked like he was going to stumble or it was going to go over him,” Shanahan said. “When he caught it I knew he was all right because he was alone and it was a cool deal, and I was pumped they were able to pull it off.”

NO MVP TALK: While the 49ers have tap-danced around the MVP conversation with both Purdy and McCaffrey in the mix, Ravens coach John Harbaugh is avoiding it completely regarding Jackson. Asked by reporters if he’d considered that the game could be a Jackson vs. Purdy referendum, Harbaugh said,  “No, I haven’t thought about that at all. I haven’t given that one moment’s thought.”

There was a similar response when Harbaugh was asked if Jackson should be in the MVP conversation.

“Going back to my other answer. It’s like, I don’t really care,” Harbaugh said. “I could care less about any of that, and the beautiful thing is Lamar couldn’t care less either. What we care about is the game.”

NOTABLE

— Players had the day off except for injury rehab Monday and will do film review Tuesday. Practices will be Thursday through Saturday.

— With four touchdown passes against Arizona, Purdy is seven shy of the single-season franchise record of 36 set by Steve Young in 1998, with three games to play. The most Montana had was 31 in 1987, but that was in a 12-game season (three games were played with replacement players during a labor dispute).

Wide receiver Jerry Rice set a club record that year with 23 touchdowns in 12 games. McCaffrey has 20 touchdowns, tied with Miami’s Raheem Mostert for the NFL lead.