The San Francisco 49ers haven't been shy about expressing their view that last season's efforts on the defensive side of the ball fell short of their ultra-high standards.
There were couple of significant issues that were apparent even as the 49ers battled their way to the Super Bowl last season, a significant decline on run defense and a lack of pass-rush support for Nick Bosa off the edge.
San Francisco made several moves to address both those problems in the offseason, and the early returns were extremely impressive as the 49ers brushed aside the New York Jets 32-19 in their Monday Night Football opener.
With defensive tackle Maliek Collins enjoying a standout display against the run in his first regular-season game for San Francisco, a 49er defense that allowed 115.4 rush yards per game over the final five games of the regular season last year suffocated the Jets' ground game, Breece Hall averaging just 3.4 yards per carry for New York.
Collins, acquired in a trade with the Houston Texans, was one of four 49ers who registered two run stops that constituted a failure for the New York offense, per Pro Football Focus. He was joined by Javon Hargrave, Sam Okuayinonu and Bosa, who was understandably delighted by San Francisco's renewed strength against the run.
Bosa told a postgame press conference: "That's just our main focus every year because, if you can make teams one-dimensional, it's huge, and it's always our number one focus every single year, especially with our D-Line scheme and the way we play our linebackers.
"We take a lot of pride in it and last year we weren't as good as we needed to be so we had to improve."
Edge rusher Leonard Floyd had an excellent debut for the Niners after being signed to a two-year, $20 million contract in free agency . He recorded four pressures, per PFF, including a sack of Aaron Rodgers, and said afterward that he believes there is a lot more to come from the front and the defense as a whole.
“We got great potential," Floyd told NBC Sports Bay Area. "We just got to come out and execute. We got to come out and put action to our words. [This is] very much the surface of what we can actually do. Look forward to coming out next week and going harder."
Asked about that assessment, Bosa, who had five pressures, concurred.
"I agree, I think having him [Floyd] on the other side is going to open up a lot of things for all the guys rushing and Maliek [Collins] played an awesome game in the run," Bosa added.
"He's [Collins] a great vet to have and me and him are going to work really together on the left there."
Not since Dee Ford's 2019 season with the 49ers has Bosa had a productive complementary edge rusher playing across from him. The impact of that was felt when Floyd cleaned up a tremendously quick win from Bosa rushing against Tyron Smith to record a second-quarter sack.
It was an enticing glimpse of what may be to come from this 49er pass rush and defensive unit if Bosa and Floyd are consistently able to pin their ears back, however, them having that opportunity will be reliant on San Francisco maintaining a welcome return to solidity against the run. It was a strong start from Collins and Floyd, but the key is continuing it.
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