Kurtenbach: 12 confused men — 49ers defensive coordinator’s error speaks volumes
I’ve been looking for a sign.
For weeks — for this entire season — I’ve withheld judgment on first-year 49ers’ defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen.
Is he good at his new job? Is he bad? I’ve seen hints of both, so I’ve been waiting for a eureka moment to make such a determination.
It came Sunday in Green Bay.
It’s one thing to put 12 men on the field once — that’s understandable.
One could even argue that the refs fleeced the Niners on that flag: They didn’t allow San Fransisco enough time to swap players after the Packers made a substitution. The penalty wiped an interception off the board. It was a brutal break.
But for your defense to follow up that flag with another 12-men penalty on the next play — despite a delay of more than a minute between plays — is simply inexcusable.
I’m not going full KNBR and calling for anyone’s job, but if Sorensen is shown the exit at the end of the season, the 24-man moment on Sunday will be at the top of the debrief.
“That’s unacceptable… across the board,” linebacker Fred Warner said after the game. “It’s all of us not being on the same page.”
Fred’s being nice. That mistake is on the coordinator. His defense wasn’t coordinated.
Sorensen is on the field. His willingness to stand on the sidelines was seemingly his top qualification when he landed the job. So what does it say about him that, despite being mere feet away from a massive, embarrassing problem, he was equally good at counting to 12 as my 2-year-old?
Stack that with the fact that he’s done nothing to distinguish himself as a playcaller, and it hardly inspires confidence that he’s the right man for this all-important gig — a job to which Niners head coach Kyle Shanahan wants to provide complete autonomy.
Now, in back-to-back seasons, Shanahan has to babysit his defensive coordinator. My guess is that this season ends the same way as the last one, albeit without a Super Bowl (or even playoff) berth.
Because I’ve covered a lot of bad football in my day, and I cannot recall ever seeing back-to-back 12-men penalties at any level of the game. Not even in the Sun Belt Conference.
The failure—accentuated by the fact that Green Bay was on the Niners’ 10-yard line—even caused Fox play-by-play man Kevin Burkhardt to exclaim, “No! No way!”
(Burkhardt’s partner, the AI voice assistant come to life, Tom Brady, counted and declared “That’s too many.” This kind of incredible insight is why he, as an announcer, has the second-biggest contract in the NFL, behind Patrick Mahomes.)
I’ve wanted to show deference to Sorensen. He took over a gig with high expectations and dwindling talent — that’s a tough spot.
With this team’s issues on the defensive line and at linebacker, I’m not sure he could have produced a top-10 defense this season. (The Niners are No. 14 in EPA-per-play and No. 23 against the run.)
And it’s not as if he would be allowed to mix up schemes. Shanahan mandated that the inadequate Wide Nine front and zone-heavy coverage stay in place despite all evidence pointing to a pivot away.
In essence, Sorensen was hired because of his lack of ideas—he was an insider who would do things the “49ers way.”
How’s that working out?
No, Sorensen would be the day-to-day operator, and former Chargers coach Brandon Staley, an assistant with publicly undefined responsibilities, would handle anything conceptual. (Let me know when those big ideas show up.)
So, an already tough job was made even more complex on Sunday, with Nick Bosa sidelined and Fred Warner still hobbled. To put it simply, the Niners were undermanned against a Packers offense with young, explosive talent all over the field. Green Bay dominated on the ground, on third downs and with pass protection.
But that doesn’t excuse being overmanned.
The 49ers have problems on the defensive end. Some of them can be solved with coaching.
But Sunday was a sign.
If Sorensen cannot handle the simple things like the number of players on the field following a break in the action, how can anyone reasonably expect him to fix this defense’s problems?