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Lions defensive coordinator Gunther Cunningham called last week’s performance against the Rams the best job of tackling his defense has done since he arrived in Detroit in 2009.

It’s hard to argue after the Lions corralled Rams running back Steven Jackson to just 53 yards last week, with his longest run being nine yards.

49ers running back Frank Gore had a little more success on the ground Sunday night, but it wasn’t because of missed tackles, according to Schwartz.

“They were bad angles,” he said. “ Bad angles on those plays. (Vernon Davis), he’s a good player. He can make you miss, he can run after the catch. We have a lot of guys that can do that, but, like I said, that’s not typical for us.

“We’ve got to do a better job of playing team defense. When the first guys misses, get him on the ground. Last week we did that, this week we didn’t.”

Against a team like the 49ers, allowing second chances with missed tackles and cutback lanes because of bad angles is a recipe for disaster, and it was Sunday.

SUUUUUHHHH
Defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh found his way to the quarterback for a second straight week, recording 1.5 sacks against quarterback Alex Smith and the 49ers.

That makes 2.5 sacks on the season in two games for Suh, who seems to be back to his disruptive ways this season after a substantially down year statistically last season.

The half sack on Smith came while Suh was playing defensive end in the Lions “grey” package. The package, which features four defensive linemen in the game at one time, has Suh and Nick Fairley moving over to defensive end from their defensive tackle spots while Sammie Hill and Corey Williams stay at tackle.

“They use a lot of extra offensive linemen; big Leonard Davis and (a) defensive tackle at fullback and an extra offensive tackle and different things like that and we were just sort of fighting fire with fire there. We obviously didn’t do a good enough job,” Schwartz said.

TRENCH BATTLE
There were two matchups the Lions distinctly loss upfront in last year’s game against the 49ers: Lions guard Rob Sims vs. 49ers defensive tackle Justin Smith and tackle Jeff Backus vs. outside linebacker Aldon Smith.

Sims said after the game that it was one of the better games he’s played in given the competition. Sims said Justin Smith is one of those players he’ll brag to his kids about having played. Sims held him to zero sacks in the game.

Aldon Smith, who led all rookies with 14 sacks last year, had some success against Backus for a second consecutive season. Last year, Aldon Smith had 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble.

This time around he baited Backus into a holding penalty and also had a sack. There were a couple times he was able to shed a Backus block and make a play in the run game, too.

INACTIVE
As expected, cornerback Chris Houston did not play Sunday for the Lions with that sprained ankle. Houston practiced in limited fashion this week but was listed as doubtful for Sunday’s game on Friday’s injury report.

Jacob Lacey (RCB) and Drayton Florence (LCB) started at the two cornerback spots for Houston and Bill Bentley, who was already ruled out Friday with a concussion.

Along with Houston and Bentley, safety Louis Delmas, linebacker Travis Lewis, offensive tackles Jason Fox and Corey Hilliard and quarterback Kellen Moore were the Lions inactives.

Receiver Ryan Broyles was on the 46-man active roster for the first time, but did not play a down. He was inactive last week vs. the Rams.
Defensive tackle Corey Williams, who missed practice all week with a knee injury, started and played the full game.