49ers News and Stats: Opponents convert 72.7 percent of 3rd and longs against 49ers defense

We’re almost to Sunday’s football game where we can finally, finally, put this Minnesota Viking debacle behind us. Now the similarly-hobbled Los Angeles Rams are on the schedule and the San Francisco 49ers have a lot of things to clean up, despite missing 60 percent of their offense from 2023.

And that’s their defense. We’ve already gone over how disappointing Nick Sorensen’s second game as 49ers defensive coordinator was. We also should give him credit for his first game which was a breath of fresh air from last year.

But whichever side you lean on, for the rookie DC, there’s one stat neither he, nor his defense want to be assocaited with: 3rd and long conversions. Well, 3rd and 7 or more yards (long is pretty subjective). AP’s Josh Dubow posted this stat that shows how subpar the 49ers defense has been: the 49ers have allowed their opponents to go 8 for 11 on 3rd downs 7 yards or more. That’s 72.7 percent.

Ok, that’s bad. But your question might be just how bad if you didn’t click the link above. Well, the rest of the NFL is as 22 percent.

Your definition of 3rd and long may be different than the next person’s, but we can all agree that while 3rd and 7 isn’t exactly a fourth down of thirty yards, it’s (obviously) less manageable than 3rd and 2.

So again: 22 percent.

Around these parts it’s reminiscent of a certain play we all were familiar with and hoped would never come back. A play I dubbed the Saleh Special. I don’t have a stat on it sitting in front of me, and if compared to the league it’s probably inaccurate, but the cynical fan seemed to notice that when Robert Saleh was defensive coordinator, his defenses had a habit of letting strange 3rd downs convert. We’re talking 3rd downs that probably never should have even gotten close. The issue vanished in 2019 (the Super Bowl season) by about Week 3 (anyone remember that ridiculous Buccaneers 3rd and 17 conversion?). Despite the special being served a much lower volume, it became more of an annoyance than a backbreaker. Though the Saleh Special did come at the absolutely worst time in the Super Bowl.

We’ve discussed how the defensive line has not played to expectations. That Justin Jefferson 97-yard touchdown certainly doesn’t help the defense’s case either. But now we have the Sorensen Special?

The one thing we can all point to is that it’s still Week 2. And, since it’s not 2023, the 49ers are injured, again. The playing field is leveled, again. And there probably isn’t a more fair opponent than the Los Angeles Rams who have their own injury issues.

Hopefully with the Rams being without their top pass catchers in Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp, and possibly without their kicker as well, maybe the 49ers can weather this storm before they get the starters back.

And maybe, with the Rams having their own offensive issues, that 72.7 percent can go down to like, 68 percent?