San Francisco 49ers D/ST Faces Challenge In Lions

San Francisco 49ers D/ST Faces Challenge In Lions

one year ago

The San Francisco 49ers D/ST unit comes into the NFC Championship Game versus the Detroit Lions with home-field advantage and facing a quarterback in Jared Goff who famously struggles outdoors, but expectations should be managed. The Niners have a talented defense capable of generating turnovers (tied for fifth-most in the regular season) and pressures but they have struggled to reach projected sack totals after extending DE Nick Bosa to a record-setting contract and trading for former first-rounder DE Chase Young. They'll be looking for their first sack of the postseason against Detroit's explosive offense. The Lions finished the regular season as the second-ranked passing offense and the fifth-ranked rushing attack. San Francisco did a good job stuffing the run by seasonlong metrics (third-fewest yards allowed) but looked shaky last week when they allowed Green Bay's Aaron Jones to amass 108 yards on the ground. Fantasy managers might not be wrong to go fishing for turnovers in this one while hoping that San Francisco's pass rush can finally start to get home, but the Niners are unlikely to hold Detroit's offense down to a fantasy-helpful point total. Of course, none of the four remaining offenses are pushovers, so the Niners D/ST ranks second just behind Baltimore this week.

Source: ESPN.COM