The San Francisco 49ers are back in the game!
Four weeks into the new NFL season, northern California's finest sit atop the NFC West division after humbling the Los Angeles Rams to extend their home game-winning streak against the reigning Super Bowl champions, and have returned to the Super Bowl conversation once more. The only problem now? Week 5 looms large.
For all their domination on Monday's nationally televised stage, the 49ers have only looked like true Super Bowl contenders once in four games — okay, maybe twice if you frame Week 2's win over Seattle in the context of losing a starting quarterback and replacing him with a veteran who had barely practiced with the rest of the roster despite being present throughout training camp. Either side of that victory, two defeats — on the road in Chicago and Denver — raised questions over the team's viability; questions that were again suspended following the important divisional conquest to start the week.
READ MORE: New date set for first ever official San Francisco 49ers watch party in Leeds
The issue here is consistency — or, rather, the lack of it — and silly, sloppy errors that leave San Francisco in position to lose games they really should BE WINNING. Yes, there were the monsoon conditions in Week 1 that turned Soldier Field into a giant Slip-'n'-Slide and the football into a bar of soap, but there were also plenty of elementary 49ers errors. Blame those on it being Week 1 if you want, but there can be no such excuse for the 11-10 defeat in Denver, underscored by QB Jimmy Garoppolo unintentionally stepping out of his own endzone to give the Broncos a two-point safety. Ignore the fact that Garoppolo's subsequent pass was picked off and returned for a touchdown that didn't make it to the box score, and the QB's faux pas was the deciding factor in what was already a dire game for both sides and their fans.
By contrast, victory over the Rams was almost clinical, with scores from both offense and defense as the reigning champions again failed to find the form that carried them to the Lombardi in February. Admittedly, the Rams were under-strength in multiple departments, but the Niners were not without their own injury woes. Already missing All-Pro LT Trent Williams, San Francisco then saw his backup, Colton McKivitz, leave the field with a second half knee injury, while DT Arik Armstead sustained another foot injury and failed to go the distance. Williams' absence, however, did not leave Garoppolo exposed — unlike his opposite number, Matthew Stafford, who was sacked seven times in all by a marauding Niners defense.
“I was real impressed with them, man," head coach Kyle Shanahan said of his O-line. "It was a huge challenge as always, going against that team with the personnel they have on the D-line and all the different fronts they do. I thought we made far fewer mistakes than the week before, and that gave Jimmy a lot of time when we needed it.”
While the D locked up Stafford and a receiving corps led by triple crown winner and Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp, San Fran turned to another of its strengths to blow the game open. Already leading on a 32-yard Jeff Wilson touchdown run, the game finally began to go the Niners' way when Deebo Samuel turned a potential Garoppolo interception into a 57-yard scramble to the endzone, before the ever-impressive Talanoa Hufanga salted the win away with the Niners' fourth pick six in their last half-dozen regular season meetings with the Rams. Nick Bosa and Samson Ebukam chimed in with two sacks apiece amongst a total of seven for San Francisco, lifting the former to the top of the season-long, league-wide, standings, while L.A. contributed just three field goals to a 24-9 scoreline that extended the 49ers' regular season win streak that began on the last weekend of 2018 and now numbers seven in a row.
“It wasn’t just any like one area [of defense] that we dominated in, but all areas had their opportunities. There were times that the D-line did it, which I think was obvious to everyone with the amount of sacks and the pressures, but it was cool to watch our guys in man coverage. The linebackers had their moments too, so everyone had their opportunity to help out the other side.”
With Garoppolo using the biggest game of the Niners' season so far to 'get right' after the Denver debacle and the defense supercharging its nasty streak — giving up a league-leading 9.3 points per game and stopping opponents in both the running and passing games — what comes next? Victory suddenly has the Niners' needle pointing up again, with division titles and Super Bowl appearances back in the conversation. Two road games against NFC South opposition — which, on paper at least, look straightforward enough to take San Fran's record to a more healthy 4-2 — are next up for Kyle Shanahan's men, but caution must still prevail.
Like Chicago and Seattle — and, to some extent, Denver too — the next two games are against teams few expect to set the world alight. Carolina and Atlanta find themselves in the same boat after four weeks, but still pose a threat to the new NFC West leaders, especially if the 49ers slip back into their slipshod ways. The Panthers, for all their 1-3 record, are probably stronger up front than Los Angeles. Yes, there are question marks hanging over the quarterback and head coach after a lacklustre start, with owner David Tepper's trigger finger getting increasingly itchy with every week, but, if anything, a backs-to-the-wall mentality only makes Sunday a prospective banana skin for San Francisco.
However, if the likes of Bosa and Samuel and, most importantly perhaps, Garoppolo can continue to play as they did this week, maybe the San Fran fanbase will have good reason for increased optimism.
“I see each game as its own week and we got a short week, which sometimes can be good," Shanahan noted. "We had a lot of fun last night and that was a big win for us, but you have to move on quickly because we’re already behind schedule."
The San Francisco 49ers will host their first official international watch party in Leeds, England on Sunday, October 16th. at 6 PM (BST) for members of the United Kingdom Faithful to watch the team play against the Atlanta Falcons
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
RB Jeff Wilson Jr on seeing the field open up on a touchdown run.
"Oh man! It feels good. It's like being in the promised land!"
MVP OF THE WEEK
49ers pass rush.
Yes, Deebo did it again, but… Facing Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp meant that the Niners D had to bring their A-game and, amongst an imperious all-round effort, the pass rush stood out with seven sacks on the night. Nick Bosa was everywhere, finishing with two sacks, three tackles, five quarterback hits and a massive 14 pressures, but was ably supported by Samson Ebukam (two sacks), Charles Omenihu, Hassan Ridgeway and Deommodore Lenoir (one apiece).
STAT OF THE WEEK
4/5
Four of San Fran's last five pick-sixes have come against the Rams. The other? Against former Rams QB Jared Goff, now in Detroit.
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