Improving 49ers defense ready for Titans' challenge

SANTA CLARA - Jimmy Garoppolo isn’t the only reason the 49ers are beginning to win.

For the past four games, the 49ers defense has been one of the best in the NFL. It ranks fourth in yards allowed per game, fourth in rushing yards allowed per game, tied for sixth in points allowed per game and seventh in passing yards allowed per game since Week 10.

In related news, rookie linebacker Reuben Foster has been healthy the past four games. He missed six of the first eight games this season with ankle and rib injuries.

Is Foster the main reason the 49ers defense has improved, or are other factors involved?

“Obviously, he does help,” 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said Thursday during his weekly press conference. “(Foster) is a special talent. Glad we have him. The injury bug has kind of settled down on defense. So, those guys have been able to stack together practices and weeks and they’re starting to understand and play off each other and communicate. All those different things that are so critical to the success of the defense.

“I also don’t want to diminish what the offense has been able to do over that same timeframe. The energy that’s being fed to the defense and the urgency that (the defense feels) to get the offense the ball. It’s verbalized by those guys. You’re starting to see the team kind of rally around each other.

“Even if the offense is in a lull, the defense is at a point where they just feel if they get it to (the offense) enough they’re going to start moving it up and down the field.

“You kind of saw that in the Houston game. Offense started out a little slow, we started off pretty quick. Then the offense started to pick it up a little bit.

“The overall sentiment was, keep getting (the offense) the ball. They’re getting hot. Then they got hot and we were able to kind of blow it open in the second half.”

Last season under head coach Chip Kelly and defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil, the 49ers had the worst defense in the NFL and the worst defense in franchise history. When Saleh took over the defense this year, he focused on improving the run defense in particular.

“The whole mindset of our scheme is to eliminate something first,” Saleh said. “To try to get teams to be one dimensional. If you can stop the run, you can get after the passer. So the first thing you do in the scheme is to stop the run. Everything is designed to stop the run.

“Since I’ve been blessed to be a part of the scheme however many years ago (in Seattle and Jacksonville), we’ve always had a very successful run defense. The way the scheme is built, the philosophy behind it, the detail at which we go over run fits and gap integrity, I felt very confident that we’d be able to improve in the run game.”

Saleh was right to feel confident. This season, the 49ers defense is allowing opposing offenses to gain just 3.9 yards per carry - seventh lowest in the NFL. Last season, the 49ers defense allowed opponents to gain 4.8 yards per carry - highest in the NFL.

Defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, who’s in his second season with the 49ers, attributes the defensive improvement to Saleh’s scheme.

“Just having one gap responsibility and being able to not really read but just go, attack and be aggressive, it’s a tremendous change,” Buckner said Wednesday at his locker. “Trusting that everybody is going to be in their own gap and do their job. You don’t need to do too much. You don’t need to try to force yourself to make a play. You just make the plays that come to you.”

This Sunday, the 49ers run defense will have plenty of plays to make when it faces the Tennessee Titans. Tennessee’s offense ranks sixth in rushing attempts, fifth in rushing yards and first in rushing touchdowns.

The Titans have two running backs, DeMarco Murray and Derrick Henry, and a quarterback, Marcus Mariota, who has scored five touchdowns on the ground.

“They have a large, probably the biggest run-game playbook I’ve ever seen on tape,” Saleh said. “They come at you many different ways.

“Teams are throwing a lot of different things at us in the run game and we feel really good about the way our guys are recognizing different schemes,” he said.

Opponents “haven’t been able to get us into a position where we’re just not really sure what the fit is or what our responsibility is. We feel very sound with the way the players have been executing the defense. This week is going to be a great challenge.”

NOTES

After missing Sunday’s game and Wednesday’s practice with a shoulder injury, right tackle Trent Brown missed practice again on Thursday. It seems unlikely he will play Sunday against the Titans. If he doesn’t play, backup offensive lineman Zane Beadles will start at right tackle for the second game in a row.

Cornerback Dontae Johnson will have to compete to regain his starting job after the team benched him against the Houston Texans.

“Him and (Greg) Mabin are working through practice,” Saleh said. “They’re both going to play a lot of football. Mabin has been doing a great job. So, if you see him on the field, it’s not an indictment on what Dontae Johnson’s been doing.”