SANTA CLARA — Football experts will tell you that the right way to watch the game is not to watch the ball.
Of course, it’s much easier said than done — the ball is consistently centered on our screens.
But if there was ever a game to take their advice, this is it. A matchup happening away from the ball will decide Sunday’s NFC championship game.
Niners’ defensive end Nick Bosa vs. Lions right tackle Penei Sewell is as good as it gets. This is a football dork’s dream matchup.
And while they won’t face each other on every snap, on the occasions they do, the battle deserves your full attention.
We know that Niners’ left tackle Trent Williams is the best at his position in the game. There’s no debate over that — Williams didn’t allow a sack all year.
But there’s no debate about who the second-best tackle in the game is, either.
At 23 years old, Sewell, like Williams, engulfs the players he blocks. Like Williams, he’s stunningly athletic. At 6-foot-5 and 335 pounds, the Lions have used him as a tight end, even putting him in motion on pass routes.
Sewell allowed only one sack all season, and one could argue that he is having the best postseason performance of any player this year.
You, presumably, know Bosa, the defending NFL Defensive Player of the Year, who signed a $170 million contract in September. He was third in the NFL in pressures this season and second in quarterback hits, tallying five hits of Jordan Love last Saturday. He’s really, really good.
Sewell knows:
“He does a lot of things,” Sewell said of Bosa to reporters in Detroit Wednesday. “He’s very strong, very athletic. Also very techinically sound.”
“He… has it all… It’s going to be a big battle.”
Yes, indeed. It’s as fun a matchup as you can have in the NFL.
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Now, Bosa moves up and down the Niners’ defensive line — he will likely aim to attack Lions left tackle Dan Skipper — the weaker of the two tackles — on Sunday. Of course, the Lions will likely counter with additional blockers on that side.
So there will be moments where Bosa is lined up one-on-one with Sewell.
And it’s on those Bosa v. Sewell showdowns that the game will likely hinge.
Lions quarterback Jared Goff is not mobile. He was pressured on 21 percent of his snaps this season but only scrambled seven times, and he was one of the league’s worst passers when under siege, per Pro Football Focus, completing 51 percent of passes and throwing nine interceptions to six touchdowns.
When Goff is pressured, his passer rating is a woeful 62.9. When he is kept clean in the pocket, it’s 116.1 — the second-best mark in the NFL, just behind 49ers’ quarterback Brock Purdy.
(Purdy, for reference, was the 11th best in the NFL under pressure, averaging 8 yards per pressured pass attempt and throwing 11 touchdowns to six interceptions, with a passer rating of 87.8.)
If the Niners fail to pressure Goff, he will carve them up. It’s effectively a guarantee. The Lions’ weapons are only rivaled by the 49ers, and the Niners might be without their top weapon, wide receiver Deebo Samuel, on Sunday.
But consistently get in Goff’s grill, and he’ll throw you the game.
“He’s the same guy,” Bosa said of Goff, a former LA Ram who faced the Niners twice a season. “The key is getting pressure on him. He’s got a really good o-line, so it makes it tough.”
“You cover up his first few reads, hit him a few times. It changes things a little bit.”
It’s all pretty straightforward.
If only getting around Sewell was.
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Alas, that’s the path to the Super Bowl. The Niners’ superstar needs to find a way to take it.
And we get to enjoy it as it happens.
So take your eye off the ball on Sunday and watch two masters of their craft do battle.
It will be football at its highest level, and even in the NFC Championship Game, that’s a rarity worth celebrating.
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