Comparing Saints Defense to SF Defense and our future games with Panthers

I fear that this may be the game that Harbaugh will call Kaepernicks number to run the ball numerous times and our run defense has been inconsistent.

One thing I noticed with run game is that we have a few times allowed a lot of yards to runners on back to back plays for a drive mainly because we are sitting in nickel, but then we adjust by bringing a safety down or a run blitz or something similar. Then after that adjustment, on first down we usually stuff them for no yards or loss, then 2nd down goes about the same or only gets 2-3 yards at best, and then other team is left facing a 3rd and long and that is where our defense has been at its best. They apply pressure, make ball come out quick, and more times than not we got off the field by not allowing a 1st down.

Even in Jets game, one of the worst run defense games, it was missed tackles that led to Ivorys success, not scheme or defensive alignment. In 8 other games, we have averaged 2-3 missed tackles a game, but in Jets game we had 12! Further, it was 3 big runs by Ivory at key points that really hurt us, and those were due to multiple missed tackles. Hopefully they keep practicing sound tackling this week. Conversely, we had only 2 missed tackles against Cowboys.