Defensive line coach Ben Bloom (10.13.23)
When you look at this game, do you have the Trent (Williams), Myles (Garrett) matchup circled? And just how good is Trent? And is this the stiffest challenge that Myles will face this year?
“Trent’s a talented player. He’s played in the league for a long time, and he has all the accolades, the Pro Bowls, the All-Pros, high draft pick. Sure, he’s one of the better tackles anyone plays week to week. So, yeah, it’s impressive what he’s doing. Competitive, athletic. He’s got the veteran savvy also, so it’s always a big challenge. We look forward to it.”
Does that mean that you might want to get Myles away from him a little bit more than you normally would move him around? I know you’ve been moving him around a lot, but even more so this week.
“No, I mean, I’m confident Myles can have success first, whoever he rushes against. You know, this one’s not any different. We’re just going out. We’re trying to be our best.”
How did they handle (Micah) Parsons last week, you know Trent (Williams) and then the entire offensive line? And do you think they’ll approach Myles in a similar way?
“Yeah, I mean, I think we’re fortunate to have some good pass rushers playing San Francisco over the last couple of weeks, right? They played in Pittsburgh early. They have a couple of good edge rushers, obviously. Micah at Dallas is another one. So, yeah, you got to take a look to see how they deal with the premier edge rushers, so to speak. And like any other team in the league, they use the running backs and tight ends at times to help the tackles, and then at other times, they don’t because if you want to throw the ball to the running backs or the tight ends, you can’t have them block immediately. So, they’ve shown at times using the tight ends and running backs to help in protection. Other times they haven’t. They value getting the ball out quickly, so I’m sure it’ll be a mix. They know who we are and what we’re capable of doing. I’m sure they’ll have a plan to protect like everybody does. They’ve done it versus other teams, and opponents that we’ve played have done it versus us, so we’ll be ready for everything because we know they have the capability to do things like that.”
Sort of a mirror image. You mentioned the defense, especially up front for both of these teams, they’re sort of a tie-in. Are there a lot of similarities? I know you’re focused on their offense, but just in general, philosophically.
“Yeah, there is definitely carryover. I mean, there’s no secret their D line coach, Kris Kocurek, he’s one of the top D line coaches in the league, people would say, and I definitely think he is. I’ve spent time studying his film and how he coaches them, and they have a really good D line for a reason. They’ve done a good job drafting there and signing free agents. That’s documented. That’s obvious. And they have a good coach leading the group and they have experienced players. There are other attack fronts in the league. San Francisco was one of them and the Jets have that going and Indy to a certain extent and even Houston, so they’re not the only one. But just with Coach Kocurek. He was with Coach (Jim) Washburn and Coach (Jim) Schwartz in Detroit years ago. You know, he’s experienced coaching it and even guys like Mo (Maurice) Hurst here. Mo played for him in San Francisco at one point. Now he’s here in a similar system. So, yeah, there’s carryover there. It’s exciting to be able to go against a team like that and it’s good for our younger players, guys like Siaki (Ika) and Tommy (Togiai), IT (Isaiah Thomas), Isaiah McGuire and Sam (Kamara), when they get to give the look this week, they get to go emulate what their defensive line’s doing. That carryover is valuable for us, too. And for me, I liked watching it this week in practice because those guys were working and they were excited. Yeah, it’ll be fun to watch. You’re going to see two real competitive D lines that love playing attack brand of football and want to be the reason that we win the game.”
How important is (George) Kittle to what they do in the run game? Is he one of the best blocking tight ends that you’ve kind of come across?
“Yeah, I mean, he’s fast and he’s got heralded receiving stats and highlight plays and touchdowns over his career and that’s maybe what most people recognize him for. But he’s a really good blocker. I mean, he’s long, he’s a big strong guy, he’s flexible, he’s tough. When he does help out as a pass blocker, he can be effective there and then as a run blocker in their wide zone scheme, sealing the backside or blocking the edge players on the front side and then blocking down or working up on the second level in the gap scheme. He does all those things really well. He is a complete tight end. There’s not a ton of those in the league all the time in this day and age. But you got to give credit where credit’s due. He’s a complete player.”
Yesterday when Jim (Schwartz) talked to us, he talked about Z (Za’Darius Smith) and he doesn’t have that sack yet, but just some of the ways outside of what shows up on a stat sheet, how he impacts the game and the pressures he gets and stuff like that. How valuable has he been so far through the first four in that regard?
“This valuable. We have a thing at home when my wife talks to our kids, do Mommy and Daddy love you this much? Do Mommy and Daddy love you this much? No, Mommy and Daddy love you this much? So this much. You guys know it, right? The analytics part of football and evaluating effectiveness as a pass rusher. It’s not just about the sacks. You can make it about the sacks if you want, but I think we know, now the way that people study film and have access to film and the popularity of the game, you have a lot of educated people evaluating win percentage or pressure percentage and Z’s excelling in those areas, like, really excelling, and it’s really valued this much. Yeah, that sack thing, that’ll take care of itself. We’ve been able to affect the quarterback in certain games and helped our team win. And when you watch the film, he’s a huge part of why that happens. So this much, does that answer the question?”
Passes is a place where you guys might be able to make some hay with Brock Purdy? And if so, is that a reason to maybe roll Alex Wright in there a little bit?
“I mean, Alex is playing well, so we want to roll Alex in and get him involved to begin with. We happen to have Myles (Garrett) and Z (Za’Darius Smith) and Ogbo (Okoronkwo) too, so they need to play as well. So sometimes just the numbers game may limit his snaps on a week-to-week basis. And he knows that, and that’s communicated. It’s not a reflection of how he’s playing. He’s working his butt off. He’s getting better. He’s improving. We value his power. We value his length. I do think he has the ability to collapse the pocket. He has some really good pressures this year doing that. And certainly, when you do that and you’re long and you’re tall and you can bat the ball. So, yeah, that’s one way he could affect the game this week.”
The linebacker talked about all that eye candy and the motion that the 49ers use. With the front, the way you guys attack, do you have to pay special attention to that, or is that more of the guys behind your front?
“Sorry, can you repeat that?”
The eye candy, the motion that the Niners do pre-snap. Do your lineman have to pay super attention to that? Or is it still attack and let everybody else figure it out?
“No, I mean, the eye candy thing is real. We know that’s a tactic that offenses use to try to distract you. That’s something that we need to work on, we need to get better on. When you have attack-style ends that play the way we do in our system, that’s one way offenses will try to combat. So, we just put an emphasis on our focus and on our eyes and where we need to go and what the important blocks are for us too.”
Za’Darius’s (Smith) ability to create pressure and Ogbo’s (Okornkwo) speed. How much of their individual skill sets have brought out the most in other guys and been able to have guys like Myles (Garrett) maybe do some new things that he wasn’t doing before?
“Yeah, that’s a really good question. Z is a versatile rusher, and even Ogbo has versatility and can do things in different spots. So, when you have guys that have played in the league like Z and Ogbo that are flexible to do different things and have that experience and are open-minded to do that. And then you have a guy like Myles that certainly have the ability to line up in different spots. You need the universal flexibility to make it work. You just can’t move one guy and then put a round peg in a square hole. So, yeah, their versatility is important and does make that whole thing work.”
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