SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -The San Francisco 49ers are on a takeaway spree unlike any the team has seen in the past two decades.
After recording three interceptions and recovering three fumbles to spark last week’s 20-6 victory over the Detroit Lions, the San Francisco defense has 15 takeaways in its past three games.
That’s the most recorded by the team over a three-game stretch since 1987, and it led to two victories that have left the 49ers (7-8) with an opportunity to end a string of six consecutive losing seasons when they travel to St. Louis for their season finale Sunday.
“It’s like a feeding frenzy,” defensive coordinator Greg Manusky said Thursday. “Guys are expecting it and looking for it. (Takeaways) have been a focal point for us since Day 1, and now it’s finally rolling and come to a head.”
Over the past seven weeks, the San Francisco defense has forced 23 turnovers. That’s four more than any other NFL team has produced over the same span.
g production from all areas of their defense, and the takeaway surge has gotten a recent boost from the emergence of outside linebacker Ahmad Brooks.
Brooks didn’t play at all during his first season in San Francisco last year and was inactive for the first two games this year. But he has complemented starting outside linebackers Manny Lawson and Parys Haralson well over the past two months and now leads the team with six sacks and four forced fumbles.
The forced fumbles are a record for a San Francisco linebacker, a standard Brooks shares with Lawson, who also has forced four fumbles this season to go with his 5.5 sacks.
Lawson, one of the team’s two first-round draft picks in 2006, finally is coming into his own as a playmaker in his fourth season.
“We just really have a lot of guys on this team that are hungry to make plays,” Lawson said. “We want to eat. Using that terminology, we want to make plays that are going to enable us to win interceptions, fumbles, sacks and turnovers. So every Sunday, we’re hungry, we have to put food on our table.”
The Detroit victory was the third time this season the 49ers have forced five or more turnovers in a game. San Francisco is the only team in the league with five or more in three games this season.
er differential.
The takeaways have helped give short fields to an offense that has struggled all season. The 49ers rank just 29th in the NFL in total offense, but San Francisco has outscored its opponents by a combined 27 points this year because its defense ranks sixth in the league in fewest points allowed.
“What you’re seeing now is a direct reflection of what we’ve been doing all year,” linebacker Takeo Spikes said. “You’ve got to try to set up your offense. This is just the standard type of play that we want to bring to the table as a defensive unit.”
Spikes has teamed with fellow inside linebacker Patrick Willis in the middle of San Francisco’s 3-4 defensive set to wreak havoc on opponents throughout the season. Each player has four sacks and has consistently made plays in pass coverage.
Willis, who this week was named to the Pro Bowl for the third consecutive season, leads the NFL in tackles for the second time in three years and also has produced three interceptions and three forced fumbles.
Several other San Francisco defenders have been getting into the takeaway act. The 49ers lead the NFL with 21 forced fumbles, with starting free safety Dashon Goldson collecting three of those to go along with his team-leading four interceptions. Cornerback Dre Bly has two interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumbles recovered.
“Turnovers are a big part of playing defense,” Manusky said. “I think the guys have finally figured it out, and when we get in games that’s what we’re looking to do.”
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