PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Kyle Shanahan started coaching football officially in 2003, but he’s been about football since his first breath. The son of long-time NFL coach Mike Shanahan, the 43-year-old Kyle has taken that system and led the 49ers to three NFC Championship games in the last four years.
“Kyle is a guru,” said Steelers linebacker Kwon Alexander, a former Niners player. “He knows how to put people in situations, knowing matchups. That’s what he’s legendary at, he’s a legendary coach who knows what he’s doing.”
“A lot of misdirection,” said Steelers OLB TJ Watt of the San Francisco offense. “A lot of stuff that doesn’t look similar to what you saw. You will see 19 (Deebo Samuel) and 23 (Christian McCaffrey) in-and-out of the backfield. They do a lot of really good things and they have a lot of really athletic guys they like to get the ball to and 13 (Brock Purdy) is a really athletic quarterback, too.”
“They do a lot of different things,” said linebacker Alex HIghsmith. “They like to dress it up a lot with different motions and formations. They try to get you moving. It’s definitely going to be a challenge.”
“It’s been a lot of screen, misdirection, drag and over routes,” said corner Patrick Peterson. “Once the pass catchers get the ball in their hands. That’s when they are making hay after. Tackling is going to be one of the most important things in the game. They have the number one running back, number two tight end, number one receiver at yards after catch. Tackling is going to be at a premium.”
“That is their goal, to get guys in space,” Alexander said, a former 49er. “I’ve been with those guys. They are hard workers. That is their main saying, their goal is to get up field, get YAC yards. That’s why they are number one for that. Be prepared to hit & make them not move afterwards.”
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“Tackling is a premium, dog,” said linebacker Cole Holcomb. “If we are playing stuff top down, it has to be a swarm mentality. I feel like the whole game it’s going to be 11 guys to the ball, that first guy there has to wrap him up.”
“We are not trying to have one guy make a tackle.”
“It will be a heck of a test for all of our defensive guys,” Austin said. “We're going to have to tackle, control the line of scrimmage up front if we want to have a chance. We're going to have to tackle well and fit our gaps at linebacker, and outside the secondary guys are going to have to tackle because they're going to make you tackle and show up in the run game. So, all those things we have to do well in that regard. If we want to have a chance to stop them, we all have to show up.”
“Good tackling, guys running to the ball and being on your P’s and Q’s,” said defensive captain Cam Heyward. “We got to be in the right spots to make tackles, we can’t have guys wide open because they have so much YAC. It’s an 11-man job, it’s not one guy. We have to make sure we minimize that part of the game.”
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“You have to do your job,” Alexander said. “They have plenty of ballers you have to worry about. We know in certain situations and certain matchups they want to put them in. You got to be able to lock it down and have confidence.”
“We got to have our eyes in the right place,” Highsmith said. “He sees the term ‘you see a lot, you see a little. You see a little, you see a lot’. I think it’s going to take a lot of discipline this week. Whenever we get those open grass moments we have to be able to make those tackles because those guys are good at extending plays.”
“We know they are going to catch some balls,” Austin said. “We have to rally to it. We have to make sure in your in terms of when we come, we're wrap tackling guys. We're not trying to butt people down, we're not just trying to cut them down. We have to wrap tackle. We have to have multiple guys get there to the ball to keep them and keep the yards after catch to a minimum.”
“Going down to fundamentals, what we’ve been doing since OTAs, then minicamp and training camp, tackling and fundamentals,” said safety Keanu Neal. “We’ve been doing that all year, so that is really what it boils down to.”
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“They are awesome. The have a lot of guys with a lot of talent. It’s a challenge for us.”
Niners had over 6,400 total offensive yards with 52 touchdowns last season. George Kittle is a little banged up, but all others are healthy. It is always a challenge against a Shanahan coached team, whether Kyle or his father. Heyward said stats won’t matter to them, it’s about having one more point at the end.
“The main thing we care about is getting a W,” Heyward said.