Kyle Shanahan Flustered at Lack of Holding Calls against Nick Bosa

San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa has been on a tear to start the 2022 season.

That’s no surprise. What is a surprise though is the holding calls, or lack thereof, on offensive linemen against the All-Pro pass rusher.

Here’s an example:

I just want to be held like d-linemen hold Nick Bosa 😢 pic.twitter.com/QtRgPZaWC3

— Carlos (@C_Los49) October 4, 2022

This happened continuously as the Rams’ lack of depth in the trenches allowed Nick Bosa to generate 14 pressures on quarterback Matthew Stafford, the most in a single game since 2014. And that’s not counting the times he was hindered from reaching the pocket due to horrific holds by the visiting team.

Officially, Nick Bosa finished with two sacks Monday night. Unofficially, the organization knows he should have had more.

“Yeah, I couldn’t agree with you more,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday regarding the Bosa no-calls.

This has been a problem in the past for the 49ers, regularly sending film to the league office in New York to help address the issue.

“It’s something I’ve seen a lot with him since he’s been here, going back to his first year in the Super Bowl, so it’s always been tough with that,” Shanahan added. “But yeah, we turn everything in every week and sometimes they agree, sometimes they don’t. But that’s kind of the standard quo with anything has to do with that and you just hope it improves.”

The 25-year-old defensive end has been a beast through four games, sacking the QB six times. He leads the NFL in both sacks and pressures, racking up 30 of the latter.

He ranks first across the league in all major pass-rushing categories, despite being held for the majority of the game any given week.

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