SANTA CLARA – Here is a hot tip if you’re starting a gambling pool and predicting which 49ers defender will snap their interception drought, now spanning an NFL-record 12 consecutive games.
“It’s going to be me,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said, “when they throw a catchable ball.”
Opponents, dating to last season, have gone 381 consecutive passes without one sticking in the 49ers’ slick gloves.
Sunday’s sharpshooter will be Baker Mayfield, who’s had only one pass intercepted out of 172 thrown this season as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-1) prepare to host the 49ers (4-1).
“He’s playing out of this world right now,” Lenoir said. “To throw only one interception all season, he’s playing with the utmost confidence.”
So are Lenoir and the 49ers’ defenders, who may be empty-handed but keep making clutch plays otherwise.
Lenoir combined with rookie safety Marques Sigle on the game-ending fourth-down tackle of Kyren Williams to secure Thursday night’s 26-23 overtime win against the Los Angeles Rams.
Still, Lenoir has no interceptions since signing a lucrative contract extension (five years, $89 million) last Nov. 13. He has allowed 36 catches on 55 targets since then for 294 yards and just one touchdown, which came Thursday night, according to SportRadar.com.
Lenoir, a Los Angeles native, had 35 friends and family at SoFi Stadium. He also had three holding penalties, six tackles and one pass breakup (maybe two) deep in 49ers territory. He considered those penalties very questionable, blaming Rams receivers for their inability to escape his tight coverage at the line.
Penalties have been prevalent instead of picks among the top cornerbacks. Fellow starter Renardo Green had a holding penalty in Week 1, then a pass-interference call each of the next two games. Nickel back Upton Stout has been tagged for two pass-interference penalties plus an illegal contact call.
Stout had a pass-interference penalty nullify what would have been his first interception during the 49ers’ lone loss against Jacksonville in Week 4. That wasn’t the only near-pick.
Linebacker Fred Warner is dismayed over a few slipping from his grasp the last month, and Sigle came close in Thursday’s fourth quarter. A diminished pass rush without Nick Bosa is not helping.
The 49ers’ last interception came from Isaac Yiadom three plays into the third quarter of a Nov. 17 home loss to Geno Smith and the Seattle Seahawks.
Since then, 211 passes have gone by without a pick as the 49ers closed last season with seven losses in eight games, then another 170 pick-free passes this season as they’ve won four of five. The 49ers are the first team since at least 1940 to open its first five games without a defensive interception and no rushing touchdowns, per The Associated Press’ Josh Dubow.
Thursday’s 12th straight game without an interception set the NFL’s modern record, previously set by the 2024 New York Giants’ 11-game drought.
This 49ers secondary does not have a rich history with interceptions.
Lenoir has six in 67 career games (plus two in the playoffs), Green has one in 21 games, and safety Jason Pinnock has just two in 63 career games. If an ankle injury sidelines Stout this Sunday, the nickel back role goes to Chase Lucas, who has no interceptions in 23 career games but made a stellar one in an August preseason win at Las Vegas.
Another potential switch to the lineup: safety Malik Mustapha made his practice debut for the first time since January’s anterior cruciate ligament repair, and the 49ers have three weeks to activate him to the lineup, which could happen as soon as this week.
“I call him our human bullet out there,” Lenoir said of Mustapha. “There’s no fear. Relentless player. I’m happy to have him back and that he’s ready to go.”
At some point, the interceptions will come, right? Well, in 2018, in Robert Saleh’s second year as defensive coordinator, the 49ers totaled only two interceptions all season, none in the first three games and none in the final eight.
It’s time to dip further into 49ers history and recite former coach Jim Harbaugh’s “Olive Jar” analogy.
After his 2013 team generated five turnovers through four games, the 49ers nabbed three interceptions and a fumble recovery in a win over Houston, just as Harbaugh suspected would happen. Here is his explanation after that 2013 win, and it’s one he’s since repeated as the Los Angeles Chargers coach:
“Well, you open up a brand new can of olives, you turn it over, and no olives come out. They’re packed in there so darn tight, but if you can get just one to come out, just pluck one out of there and, whoosh, they want to come out, they’re just flying out of the jar. Hopefully that’s the case for us defensively.
“You just wonder, are you ever going to get a turnover, or interception or fumble and how can we get one. Then you get one and then you get, then they start flying your way. So, hopefully that’s where we’re at.”