‘Complementary’ football can’t be taught, but the 49ers want it to save their season

SANTA CLARA — Kyle Shanahan can talk scheme with the best of them, but is at a loss when it comes to a term both he and prominent members of the 49ers insist is key to turning around a 2-3 season.

As the 49ers (2-3) prepare to face the Seattle Seahawks (3-2) Thursday night at Lumen Field, even Shanahan is short on specifics when it comes to instructing a quality which his best teams have had in abundance.

It’s called “complementary football” and it has been in evidence over the last four seasons when the 49ers either reached the NFC Championship Game or the Super Bowl.

What is complementary football? Here’s your artificial intelligence overview as provided by Google:

“Complementary football is a theory in American football that states that a team’s performance in one phase of the game can affect the flow of the game in the following possessions. The theory suggests that the team’s three units must work together as a collective to have the best chance of winning.”

Luminaries such as quarterback Brock Purdy, tight end George Kittle and defensive end Nick Bosa have cited the need for complementary football to get the 49ers back on track.

Shanahan said he talks about it with his team, while at the same time acknowledging it can’t be taught as if were a play or a scheme.

“Complementary football is something I talk about a lot, so that’s probably why you hear it from those guys,” Shanahan said. “But it’s not something you can teach. You teach playing each play the best that you can. And when the offense is doing it and the defense is doing it and the (special) teams are doing it, that’s when you get some very easy victories and it’s usually out of hand in the fourth quarter.”

Or use it to stage a comeback for the ages. Last season’s 34-31 win over the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship Game saw the 49ers railing 24-7 at halftime.

What happened next was a 43-yard field goal by Jake Moody on special teams. A 49ers’ defensive stop on fourth-and-2 at their 28-yard line. Finally a 6-yard touchdown pass from Purdy to Brandon Aiyuk that was set up by a 51-yard strike off the facemask of the Lions’ Kindle Vildor.

Special teams, defense, offense. And suddenly it was 24-17 and the 49ers had all the momentum they needed. Tashaun Gipson forced a fumble by Jahmyr Gibbs, the 49ers converted a short-field drive to make it 24-24 and you know the rest.

Most of the 49ers’ big wins over the last four years have similar sequences, only more of them.

The quality has been nowhere in evidence in two of the 49ers’ most galling losses this season, a 27-24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams and last week’s 24-23 loss to Arizona in which the three units took turns doing the polar opposite.

The 49ers led 21-14 against the Rams, were inside the L.A. 10-yard line early in the fourth quarter, and wound up settling for a 26-yard field goal by Moody and a 24-14 lead instead of 28-14. The Rams drove for a field goal to make it 24-17.

The offense then failed to score, Moody missed a 55-yard field goal, and the Rams drove 70 yards for a touchdown by Kyren Williams to tie the game at 24-24. When the offense was forced to punt, Xavier Smith returned it 38 yards to set up the winning points for the Rams.

Special teams have been an issue on occasion since Shanahan was hired in 2017, and he hasn’t been shy about the kicking game being second banana to offense and defense. He’s on record as saying he’s not looking for special teams to win the game, just not to lose it.

“What I’m trying to say is, you’d like to build a team to where you don’t feel you have to return a kick, a punt or have a fake kick or a fake punt or you don’t have to rely on something like that to get a win,” Shanahan said. “I like to feel that you can do it between the offense and defense.”

The special teams took the brunt of the criticism in the two division losses, but all three areas were culpable.

Leading 23-13 against Arizona with 9:59 left, the 49ers drove all the way to the Arizona 13 and failed to score with Jauan Jennings getting a false start and Purdy taking a 9-yard sack. Without a true place-kicker after Moody was lost to a high ankle sprain the 49ers turned it over on downs on fourth-and-23.

The 49ers offense reached the Arizona 8 before Jordan Mason lost a fumble, then a defensive collapse ensued. The 49ers wilted in the heat defensively, lost by one point, and all three units had a hand in it.

“It’s a team sport. When the defense gets a stop, it’s like, let’s pick it up and put points on the board,” Purdy said. “And vice versa. When we’re rolling, defense gets a stop, special teams do their thing, that’s complementary football. That’s how you win in this league. If the defense is getting stops and the offense is cold, it’s pretty obvious to everybody that it’s going to be tough to get in a rhythm and pull away.

“The last couple of years, when we’ve won pretty well, it’s been about complementary football. The defense gets stops and turnovers, the offense puts points on the board and we pull away. We believe in that and everyone here knows that’s the truth.”