During Sunday’s NFC Championship game win over the Detroit Lions, several San Francisco 49ers defenders showed a clear lack of effort on some plays, particularly in the first half as the Lions jumped out to a 17-point lead. And Niners defensive coordinator Steve Wilks was certainly not happy about it.
During a press conference this week, Steve Wilks was asked about the lack of effort from some players, and he made it clear that such a lack of effort is “unacceptable.”
“I think you really have to ask them individually,” Wilks said. “Collectively as a team, I can tell you as a defense it’s unacceptable, all right? We talked about that. I wish I could tell these guys on play four, on play 27, this is what’s going to happen. You don’t know. So we’ve got to make sure that we play every down as if it’s going to be the difference in the ball game. And you could see on those particular plays, it wasn’t to our standard. Those guys understand and know that and quite honestly it was embarrassing.”
Obviously, San Francisco was able to come back despite the lack of effort. But that might not be the case if they fall down too much against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
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