In the second installment of a three-part series, 49ers.com will review the highlights in addition to the memorable notes and quotes from the 2011 season for all three phases of the game. Next up is the defensive unit which left its mark on team and league record books while producing three All-Pros and four Pro Bowlers in Vic Fangio’s first season as defensive coordinator.
Overview
The 49ers had a slightly different approach to installing their defensive plans during the 2011 offseason. Vic Fangio, a defensive coach with 20-plus years of coaching experience in the National Football League, made sure his players would be evaluated by his own eyes and not what 2010 game film dictated. Fangio didn’t even dish out defensive playbooks right away. Instead, he placed All-Pro defensive tackle 
Under Fangio’s watch, “it” did change.
The detailed defensive play-caller placed Smith’s all-time postseason record on his playbook’s cover as a means for motivation, and in turn, the defense put together one of its best stretches in franchise history.
“When I came into this season, especially with no offseason, you just go out there and you go one day at a time,” said Fangio on Jan. 19 as his team prepared for the NFC Championship game. “I can say that I’ve never gone into any game that I didn’t think we would win. That’s been my philosophy here and for 25 years, even when the odds may have been stacked against you. And I’m a one-game-at-a-time guy. And I know that’s boring, but that’s the way I go about it.”
Following his lead, the 49ers approached every game as its own one-game season. As a result, the defense finished the season as the best in the game against the run (77.3 yards allowed per game) and second-best in points allowed (14.3 points per contest).
Fangio’s stingy unit produced three All-Pros (linebackers
Such talent coupled with tough-to-recognize defensive schemes enabled the 49ers to give up just 229 points on the year, ranking second in the NFL for fewest points allowed. The 14.3 points allowed per game, ranked third-best in franchise history, too.
What made the 49ers so impressive on defense, besides points allowed and dominant performances against the run (more on that later), Fangio’s unit stifled opposing offenses in all areas.
Not only was it tough to run for big gains or consistently pick throw against the 49ers in 2011, maintaining possession was just as challenging.
With an offense that tied an NFL single-season record with just 10 turnovers, the 49ers defense forced 38 takeaways on the year. In turn, San Francisco’s plus-28 turnover differential stood as the league’s second-highest output since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970.
The team also continued to force turnovers in the postseason. In the NFL’s Divisional Playoff round, the 13-3 San Francisco club forced five takeaways in an impressive playoff win over the New Orleans Saints on Jan. 14.
San Francisco could not force any turnovers in losing to the eventual Super Bowl Champion New York Giants in the NFC Championship game; yet, coach Jim Harbaugh remained unfazed in showering his defense with well-deserved praise.
“I’ve said so often how proud I was of this team,” Harbaugh said a day after his first season coaching the 49ers came to an end. “I thought they played their hearts out. I thought we were a well-coached team. Be very proud of our guys. They stand toe-to-toe and fight every time they go out onto the field. It didn’t have the ending that we wanted. The football gods had a different ending in mind for this ball game. Be forever proud of our players and coaches the way they compete.”
The 49ers did not allow more than 30 points in any regular season game. Despite putting together one of the most memorable defensive seasons in team history, the proud group knows they’ll be in the hunted role in 2012, as opposed to playing the role of hunter.
Harbaugh, however, likes the resolve of his defensive players and fully expects them to earn every win like they did in 2011.
“I’m very proud of the team. I think it was an amazing season. In a lot of ways, beyond description. Incredible,” Harbaugh said. “As far as moving forward, it’s going to require that we do a lot of the similar things that we did when we started this up this past year. Start from scratch. We started with people not even knowing each other. It’s going to take incredible resolve. It’ll be easier in some ways, harder in others but we’ll be entitled to nothing. It’ll be that resolve that we’ll start anew.”
Stat That Counts
Winning the turnover differential in just about every game kept the 49ers in the NFC West driver’s seat for all of 2011. In winning the division crown for the first since 2002, the defense showcased many calling cards, but perhaps none was more evident than the team’s stout rushing defense.
Since the league went to a 16-game schedule, the three rushing touchdowns allowed by the 49ers defense is tops in the NFL. Furthermore, the three rushing scores allowed are tied for the fifth-best mark in NFL history.
But if there’s one number to truly gravitate to, it would most certainly have to be the 14-game stretch the 49ers went at the start of 2011 without allowing a single rushing score.
Not only was it the best period of rush defense in team history, no team in league history every accomplished it either.
Dating back to the Week 17 finale in 2010, the 49ers had gone 15 consecutive games without allowing an individual 100-yard rusher, a stat that ranks tied for first in the NFL since the AFL-NFL merger.
The defense also did not allow a running back to gain over 100 yards in 36 consecutive games dating from Nov. 29, 2009 to Dec. 19, 2011. The 36-game period is tied for the longest streak in franchise history, too.
The 49ers finally allowed a 100-yard rusher and a first rushing score in a Week 16 road win over Pro Bowl running back Marshawn Lynch and the Seattle Seahawks. A week later, the St. Louis Rams added two more rushing scores against San Francisco’s vaunted rush defense.
Fatigue, in Fangio’s mind, didn’t allow those rushing scores.
“I think it just goes to show you how hard and rare what we had done the first 14 weeks could be,” Fangio said in a postseason press conference. “In the last two games, we have a punt blocked, which gives them the ball on the three and they take it in. In this past game, we give up a quarterback scramble, which is actually a passing play and he runs it in from 17 or 18 yards out. And we have a pass interference in the end zone, which puts the ball on the one and they run it in. So, it just goes to show you how rare and unusual what we accomplished the first 14 games is. I think that’s all it means.”
Game of the Year
When you win 14 games and give up right around two touchdowns per game, there’s going to be plenty of choices when it comes to picking your best defensive performance. One could point to games like San Francisco’s 48-3 thrashing of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 9 as the unit’s best performance of the season.
You also wouldn’t be a fool in pointing to late-game heroics provided by Smith in a 49ers road win in Philadelphia and a home win over the Giants. The defensive tackle forced a game-saving fumble against the Eagles and later knocked down Super Bowl MVP quarterback Eli Manning’s fourth-down pass in the fourth quarter weeks later. Both plays, among many, helped Smith win the team’s prestigious Bill Walsh, Len Eshmont and Matt Hazeltine awards, given to the team’s MVP, most courageous player and most durable and dedicated player, respectively.
Despite all those moments, it’s hard not to look past the team’s 20-3 victory over the visiting Pittsburgh Steelers on “Monday Night Football.” For many reasons, the contest stands as the group’s best game.
With both sides needing wins to keep pace in their respective conference’s postseason seeding, the 49ers absolutely bottled up the Steelers as they recorded (at the time) their first 11-win season since 2001. It was also the team’s first seven-win home record since ’01.
“I felt like they didn’t know where anybody was coming from because everybody up front can rush,” the No. 7 overall pick said after the 49ers victory. “They had to worry about more than just one guy.”
Aldon Smith sacked Ben Roethlisberger 2.5 times on the night, helping him total the most sacks by a rookie in franchise history. The linebacker led all rookies in sacks in 2011 and finished 1.0 sack short of breaking the league’s all-time rookie sack record.
Against a Pittsburgh team known of its well-rounded offensive attack, the 49ers forced four turnovers and sacked Roethlisberger three times in a nationally televised showcase game.
By that point on, the entire world (if they hadn’t already), recognized Fangio’s defense as one of the toughest groups in the game.
Quote of the Year
Humble, hard-working attitudes are just about everywhere you turn inside a 49ers defensive huddle. It starts with Willis, the five-time Pro Bowl defensive captain. But the unofficial “C,” donned by Justin Smith bears almost as much weight.
The veteran, lead-by-example-lineman, offered the best quote of the season from any defensive player and did it without trying to be clever.
Once he batted down Manning’s fourth down pass to beat the Giants in the regular season, the defensive tackle tried to downplay his role in a heroic play.
“Number 1, I was tired. Number 2, they [coaches] were telling us to get our hands up,” Smith said on Nov. 13 following a 27-20 win. “They were throwing pretty quick on rhythm. I just put my hand there. Luckily, it was where the ball went. It was just blind luck.”
Blind luck? Hardly.
Coach Jim Harbaugh put that comment to rest the following day in his Monday remarks to the Bay Area media.
“Again, Justin Smith, tremendous job, like a closer in baseball, there he was batting that ball down,” began Harbaugh, in a telling response to a reporter’s question about players deserving of a game ball.
“The neat thing about it,” Harbaugh continued, “and these things don’t show up on the stat sheet, they don’t show up as a sack, they don’t show up as an interception, they don’t show up as a tackle for loss, but as Justin is walking out onto the field, he’s walking out with [DT] Ray [McDonald]. He’s telling Ray, ‘Ray, be conscious of the b-gap, stay in your lane, take away the b-gap, get your hands up,’ and the last thing he said was ‘he’s going to throw it in the b-gap.’
“How Justin Smith knows that, just an example of him thinking through the game and communicating that to Ray, and sure enough Eli [Manning] sets up and tries to hit that little short post throwing right through the b-gap and there’s Justin to knock it down.
“I read Justin’s comments that he was tired and that he was just lucky to be standing there and put his hands up, but that wasn’t the case. He was thinking it through and just as he had foreseen, that ball came his way and he was there to knock it down. He’s a great player, consummate team player doing a great job and a great job leading this football team.”
Newcomer of the Year
Aldon Smith’s game-changing sacks and Carlos Rogers’ career-best six interceptions stand out as possible top newcomers to the 49ers offense. But in order to truly understand the well-rounded play from the run and pass defense, strong safety
The sixth-year veteran finished fifth on the team in tackles, racking up 91 stops in the first of a three-year deal he signed with the 49ers prior to training camp. Beyond being a sure tackler, Whitner’s big hits and sound coverage allowed him to be near the ball at all times.
Along with 91 tackles, Whitner posted 10 pass breakups, two interceptions one forced fumble and three fumble recoveries.
“It’s a stepping stone,” said the 49ers safety who also relayed play calls to his fellow defensive backs. “Next year we can come back and prove this wasn’t a fluke. We can duplicate it or even get better in the regular season and go ahead and make it to the Super Bowl next year. We have to have those goals.”
Whitner’s excitement for 2012 also comes from spending more time with the coaching staff, something that wasn’t the case in the 2011 offseason.
“All we can look forward to is the offseason,” Whitner added. “Really understanding where we can get better and coming back and doing it.
“It’s scary knowing we can get a lot better on defense.”