By admin 
Not much has gone wrong for the San Francisco 49ers during their first two weeks of the season. They head into Week 3 against the Arizona Cardinals at 2-0 with the NFL’s best point differential at plus-42.
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But they have one clear area of weakness that has sent the front office scrambling to find solutions: the interior of their defensive line.
The unit has been unproductive defending the run and bitten hard by the injury bug. On Wednesday, the team placed second-year pro C.J. West on injured reserve with a chipped bone in his knee, coming roughly two weeks after fellow defensive tackle Alfred Collins was lost for the year with a torn patellar tendon.
Additionally, undrafted rookie James Thompson Jr. went down with a high ankle sprain during Sunday’s win over the Miami Dolphins.
“Anytime you have five D-tackles make a team and you’re down to two of them after two games, that’s always a concern for anybody,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesday. “We were able to sign one new guy, and then we’ve got three guys on practice squad that will be competing to see who’s up. We’ve got guys there in this building, so we’ve got to see how those guys step it up.”
The team in a corresponding move Wednesday signed defensive tackle Naquan Jones off the Minnesota Vikings’ practice squad and brought back Bay Area native Viliami Fehoko Jr. to the 49ers practice squad after he was with the team late in the preseason.
It’s likely other practice squad members Kevin Givens, Sebastian Valdez and McKinnley Jackson will be considered for elevation against Arizona.
The 49ers run defense has been problematic in their first halves of both their wins so far. They allowed 5.6 yards per carry to Rams’ running backs, while the Dolphins had 20 carries for 84 yards in the first half of Week 2, which limited San Francisco’s offense to getting just two possessions.
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Fortunately for Shanahan’s team, the 49ers offense scored six touchdowns combined in the second half of those games, negating L.A. and Miami’s ability to run the ball. San Francisco has outscored opponents 42-7 after halftime in the first two weeks.
The Cardinals haven’t run the ball well so far under first-time head coach Mike LaFluer, the younger brother to Packers head coach Matt LeFleur and a former 49ers passing game coordinator under Shanahan from 2017 to 2020. But they have a talented running back room that includes the No. 3 overall pick in the NFL draft Jeremiah Love and notable free agent addition Tyler Algier.
Love has been dealing with an ankle injury dating back to the preseason, leaving Algier to play 61.5% of the plays to Love’s 41.5%. The Cardinals rank 11th in the NFL averaging 121.5 yards per game over two weeks.
The 49ers under new coordinator Raheem Morris have been playing a different style of defense than in previous years, relying more on five-man fronts, which has changed the responsibilities of defensive their defensive tackles. Transitioning to the new scheme, along with the injuries to Collins and West, has made things difficult along the interior.
“I think with the run game right now, you gotta remember it’s a new system,” star linebacker Fred Warner said. “New things, new techniques, schemes that are being put into place. It’s a new group, guys kind of meshing together trying to figure out where does everybody fit.”
Shanahan said West had been dealing with his injury dating back to training camp, which might explain why West had the worst run defense grade of the 120 players in Pro Football Focus’ grading through two weeks.
The 49ers will continue to rely on free-agent addition Osa Odighizuwa and rookie fourth-round pick Gracen Halton. Both have been productive pass rushers early on, and Halton has shown he can defend the run perhaps better than expected after being known for his work getting after quarterbacks at Oklahoma. Halton had five tackles and a tackle for loss Sunday against the Dolphins.
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“I thought Gracen flashed a lot,” Shanahan said.