49ers DC Steve Wilks seeks redemption, elusive Super Bowl ring

Steve Wilks has been here before, one win away from a championship.

In 2006, Wilks' first year in the NFL, he was a Bears assistant when Chicago kept Peyton Manning in check and still lost the Super Bowl to the Colts. Nine years later, he was with the Panthers when they went 15-1 and made the big game. This time, Wilks' defense sacked Manning five times and held him to 141 passing yards, yet Carolina came up short against the Broncos. 

Now he's back as the 49ers defensive coordinator, again with an elite quarterback standing between him and a title, so the bar for his defense is set as high as possible against the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes in Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday.

Wilks was blunt this week in his criticism of his unit's play in the first half of the NFC Championship Game, falling into a 24-7 deficit against the Lions. The 49ers gave up a 42-yard touchdown on a run by receiver Jameson Williams and a 15-yard score by running back Jahmyr Gibbs, and Wilks was asked about the "effort in pursuit" by his defensive players.

"As a team, it's unacceptable, and we talked about that," he said. "I wish I could tell these guys, 'On Play 4, on Play 27, this is what's going to happen.' You don't know. We have to make sure we play every down as if it's going to be the difference in the ballgame. You could see on those two particular plays, it wasn't to our standard. Those guys understand and know that. Quite honestly, it was embarrassing."

Sunday can be a validation for Wilks, who came to San Francisco this year after being passed over for the head coaching job at Carolina, where he went 6-6 as an interim coach last season, just missing a division title. The Panthers instead chose Frank Reich, whom they fired in the middle of a 2-15 season, the worst record in the NFL this year. 

Wilks interviewed this cycle for head-coaching jobs with the Chargers and Falcons but was passed over again. He posted a quote on Twitter on Jan. 28, hours after San Francisco clinched a spot in the Super Bowl.

"As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being REJECTED from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better," it said.

It hasn't been easy, taking over a defense that ranked No. 1 in the NFL last year under DeMeco Ryans, who left to become the Houston Texans' head coach and made the playoffs in his first year. That set a high standard for success, and the 49ers came close to matching those numbers, ranking third in scoring defense at 17.5 points per game.

There's no need to remind the 49ers of the dangers of facing Mahomes. Four years ago, they met him in the Super Bowl and led 20-10 midway through the fourth quarter, only to see him lead the Chiefs on three touchdown drives in the final seven minutes for a 31-21 championship. Mahomes has been to two Super Bowls since, and the 49ers know well the challenges he presents.

"I think keeping him in the pocket as best as you can is one of the big things," 49ers pass-rusher Nick Bosa said this week. "He loves to improvise and all that stuff. And then full-on effort. Kyle [Shanahan] called it defensive line stamina as the key to the game."

Bosa was one of four 49ers defensive stars named to the Pro Bowl, with defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, linebacker Fred Warner and cornerback Charvarius Ward. And San Francisco's offense has more offensive stars than the Chiefs do, perhaps without the Canton-bound 1-2 punch of Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce.

"It's definitely a challenge," Wilks said of facing Mahomes. "Not only him. You look at Kelce, you're talking about two first-ballot Hall of Famers. ... [Mahomes] is phenomenal, the best I've ever seen, as far as buying time, winning with his feet and getting the ball down the field where it needs to go."

That's all true, but the Chiefs offense took a step back in 2023. After leading the NFL in scoring in 2022 at 29.2 points per game, this year's Chiefs ranked 16th, scoring a full touchdown less per game at 21.8 points. In Mahomes' first five years as a starter, Kansas City averaged at least 28 points per game every year.

Consider the number of times the Chiefs have been held under 20 points in the regular season: From 2018-22, Kansas City scored 19 or fewer points just six times in five seasons, going 3-3 in those games. The 2023 Chiefs were held under 20 points eight times, going 3-5 in those games, and advanced to the Super Bowl with a 17-10 win over the Ravens in the AFC Championship Game. That's the lowest winning score in an AFC title game since the 2000 Ravens scored 16; no NFC Championship Game winner has scored so little since the 2003 Panthers scored 13.

Add that to San Francisco's high-powered offense, and the 49ers are a slight favorite Sunday in Las Vegas, though the defense will have to step up. Tampa Bay's did just that three years ago, holding the Chiefs to nine points in the Bucs' Super Bowl win over Kansas City.

One stat that works in San Francisco's favor is that the 49ers tied for the NFL lead with 22 interceptions in the regular season, and they lead all playoff teams with four takeaways this postseason. Mahomes threw a career-high 14 interceptions in 2023, and he has been vulnerable to throwing them in the Super Bowl. In his career in the regular season, he throws multiple interceptions just once in every eight games; in non-Super Bowl playoff games, he's thrown two just once in 14 games. 

But in Super Bowls, he has thrown two picks in two of his three career games — the win against the 49ers after the 2019 season and the loss to the Bucs after the 2020 season.

Protecting Mahomes is a priority, and the Chiefs gave up an NFL-high 30 holding penalties trying to avoid sacks, still giving up sacks on 4.5% of his dropbacks, the highest rate in his career. San Francisco's defense actually drew a league-low 11 holding penalties from opponents this season, but there's one sign they might be able to get to Mahomes. The most he has ever been sacked in any game in his NFL career came in 2018, when a 3-13 Cardinals team coached by Wilks sacked Mahomes five times.

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The 49ers are a franchise with five Super Bowl championships, but none in the past 29 years, a drought they have a chance to end Sunday. Warner remembers making the big game in just his second season, thinking it would be a regular appearance, but he now knows you can't let those chances pass you by.

"You've got to make the most of it, because you never know if you're going to have another opportunity," he said. "You've really got to sell out for three hours and give it your best.

"The standard has been what it has been for as long as I've been here. We've relied heavily on winning games on defense, holding teams to minimal points, suffocating teams, dictating how the game's going to go based on how we go. That hasn't been the case the last two games, but we have an opportunity to right that." 

Greg Auman is FOX Sports' NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.