DeForest Buckner: 49ers defense must focus on containing Chiefs’ speed in Super Bowl
San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle DeForest Buckner visited “The Rich Eisen Show” on Tuesday, and was asked about facing Patrick Mahomes and his ability to stretch a play.
The Titans learned the hard way in a 35-24 loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game that Mahomes can escape pressure and even break a long run, such as his 27-yard run touchdown scramble that still has fans buzzing.
“The guy’s a superstar,” Buckner said. “He has a cannon for an arm, really accurate, obviously can throw anywhere on the field. His ability to extend plays is on a whole other level. As a group, we’ve got to do a really good job of containing him in the pocket, and really getting after him early and also rallying to all the screens and the quick game that they do.
“We just need to be on our Ps and our Qs and also just contain the speed they have at receiver, obviously they have a lot of weapons on the outside and at running back. We just have to do a really good overall job of containing their speed.”
San Francisco finished the regular season second in total defense (281.8 yards per game) and first in passing defense (169.2 yards per game).
Eisen followed up by asking more specifically about Mahomes’ running ability. Buckner, who had 7 1/2 sacks and 33 solo tackles, said he thinks Mahomes will take note of the 49ers’ speed on defense.
“Hopefully as he watches film ... leading up to the game, he can see we’re a very fast defense and we like to swarm,” Forest said. “Watching the film he would take a financial decision in running out of bounds or sliding.”
Eisen got a good laugh about the “financial decision” line.
Here is their chat:
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 2:54 PM.
