49ers Notes: Practice reports, defense admits poor effort, execution

The 49ers were back in action Thursday, practicing in the rain in the midst of a bye week. There were a handful of absences and some notable critiques of the defense's playoff effort.

Practice reports

The practice reports for this week should not be overly concerning for either team, given that they are effectively a bye week. Absences as the game gets closer will be more notable. Here's what the 49ers' practice report looked like Thursday:

Did not practice:
- DT Arik Armstead (knee, foot)
- TE George Kittle (toe)
- T Trent Williams (not injury related – resting player)

Limited:
- LB Oren Burks (shoulder)
- CB Ambry Thomas (ankle)

It should be noted that Kittle did not practice Wednesday, either. Armstead was a full go Wednesday, meaning Thursday could've been a day of planned rest.

Here's what practice looked like for the Chiefs:

Did not practice:
- DE Charles Omenihu (knee - torn ACL)
- G Joe Thuney (pectoral)

Limited:
- DT Chris Jones (quadricep)
- WR Skyy Moore (knee)
- RB Isiah Pacheco (toe, ankle)

Lack of defensive effort

There have been multiple clips of the last two weeks of defensive linemen failing to go full speed in pursuit on rushing touchdowns. Nick Bosa was the culprit against the Packers. Chase Young was against the Lions.

They have begged larger questions about the defense as a whole. The 49ers don't look anywhere near an elite defense.

Kyle Shanahan said the lack of effort isn't in line with the team's identity, but that it wasn't limited to the defensive line.

“No, not at all," Shanahan said. "That's kind of what I was referring to on I think our conference call on Monday. I know it looked bad on the clip that you guys have and stuff. No, it's not our culture. We don't want to have one play like that. I think we had about two to three in that game, which is too much for us. We don't want to ever have one.

"But it wasn't just the D-Line. There were a few backside people who weren't going and they were expecting someone else to make the tackle. Whenever you're expecting someone else to make the tackle bad things happen."

Nick Bosa alluded to that, saying that it's "human nature" to slow down when there's a ball-carrier "40 yards away" and a group of defensive players in the vicinity.

Shanahan expanded, though, saying that it wasn't just those plays. He said while there were those bad examples of lacking effort, but "that game was more about how we played run defense."

Fred Warner was asked exactly why the run defense has slipped.

"It's a collection of things," Warner said. "I think, on any given play, when we're not executing the right way, just either one guy out of a gap, it's not giving great effort as a whole, as a group like we have been in the past. When you're playing violent, you're playing fast, you're playing with great effort, that cleans a lot of that stuff up. So from an execution standpoint, from a standard standpoint, like we just got to make sure we get back to that."

Warner said explicitly that the defense hasn't been anywhere near its standard, and that he wouldn't blame the Chiefs for looking at the film and seeing opportunities to exploit the defense.

If there's any cause for optimism with the defense, it's in the explicit acknowledgment of their failures by their play-calling captain.

"Not good enough. Not good enough at all," Warner said. "And you mentioned it, the standard has been what it has been for as long as I've been here. We've relied heavily on winning games on defense, holding teams to minimal points, suffocating teams, dictating how the game is gonna go based off how we go. And that hasn't been the case the last few games.

"And that's for a bunch of different reasons. But we have an opportunity to right that. They're probably looking at the tape, they're thinking they have a great opportunity ahead, as they should. They should look at that tape and they should think that. But to say that we have you know a great opportunity to correct that and make sure that we give our best performance in the Super Bowl, I think that's exactly what our mindset's at."