When the carolina Panthers beat the 49ers six weeks ago, they sacked Colin Kaepernick six times, and held the 49ers to 151 total yards. It was a dominant effort for the Panthers defensive line.
The 49ers were hell bent on repeating that performance, and they used the accolades that the Panthers defensive line had receiving as motivation.
Alex Boone told the Charlotte Observer that the 49ers offensive line was tired of hearing about the Panthers vaunted pass rush.
“That game we weren’t ready for it,” 49ers guard Alex Boone said of the Panthers’ pass rush, via Rick Bonnell of theCharlotte Observer. “We were kind of sick of hearing about it.”
The 49ers decided rather than talk about their issues from the last ballgame, they would simply watch more film. The 49ers held all world defensive end Greg Hardy to no sacks on the day.
“I studied every single game he played this season, every single pass rush he had, to figure out what kind of counter-moves he had,” left tackle Joe Staley said of Hardy. “It wasn’t like I pitched a shutout – he got around me and got some hits on our quarterback. But overall I felt like we did a good job on him. . . .
“I wanted to get my hands on him quick to see how he would counter because I felt like I had a bead on him. There were a couple of times he tricked me, but this was about coming with a game plan.”
