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49ers Defense

Healthy Ford will make a difference

Story yesterday that San Francisco pass rusher Dee Ford underwent offseason knee surgery. He missed 5 games the second half of last season and wasn't fully healthy in some of the ones he played in. There's a noticeable difference.

A year ago, when Ford was healthy, San Francisco had 30 sacks in the first eight games -- 3rd-most in the league. In the second half of the season, with Ford sidelined or playing hurt, San Francisco had just 18 sacks; only 10 teams had fewer. That decline of 12 sacks over the final eight games was worse than all but three teams.

TEAM SACKS 2019
DefenseG1-8G9-16TotDiff
Atlanta72128+14
Cincinnati92231+13
Baltimore142337+9
NY Jets132235+9
Tampa Bay192847+9
Washington192746+8
Denver172340+6
Buffalo202444+4
LA Chargers182230+4
LA Rams232750+4
New Orleans242751+3
Minnesota232548+2
Oakland151732+2
Seattle131528+2
Green Bay202141+1
Indianapolis202141+1
Philadelphia212243+1
Detroit1414280
Miami121123-1
Tennessee222143-1
Houston171431-3
Arizona221840-4
Pittsburgh292554-4
Dallas221739-5
Kansas City252045-5
NY Giants221436-8
Jacksonville291847-11
Cleveland251338-12
San Francisco301848-12
Chicago23932-14
Carolina341953-15
New England311647-15

Ford wasn't the only element to that decline. San Francisco played a tougher schedule down the stretch with some elite quarterbacks (Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers, Matt Ryan) that it's tough to get much off. But he was missed.

If Ford can stay healthy, the odds of San Francisco putting up numbers closer to their first half performance will be a lot better.

--Andy Richardson

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