49ers vs. Rams Preview 🔮 Is Christian McCaffrey San Fran’s only hope? | NFL Live

49ers vs. Rams Preview 🔮 Is Christian McCaffrey San Fran’s only hope? | NFL Live

Week five begins tonight. A west coast battle between the 49ers and the Rams is just a few hours away. Oh, look at Sofi Stadium. It’s gorgeous. The 49ers dealing with a ton of injuries. We are going to update you on all of that. The Rams could be licking their chops tonight, but it’s the NFL, so you never want to assume anything, right? As we welcome you in here, Lindsay Theory is in LA covering tonight’s game. Of course, she joins us now. Lindsay, as I said, injuries a big issue for San Francisco right now. Let’s start with the quarterback position where Brock Perie is out tonight. Laura Brock Perie is out. M. Jones will get the start again. He has confidence in his ability to step up. He won a couple games for the Niners in weeks two and three. He says he believes in his process when it comes to preparation regardless of whether he knows he’s going to start or come in off the bench. Obviously tonight, very clear he will be the starter. Here’s what’s going to be M. Jones biggest challenge tonight. Among other things, who is he throwing the football to? He’s without several receivers. Jawan Jennings is out. Ricky Piol is out. And let’s not forget Brandon Aayuk has yet to play this season. George KD is on injured reserve. So we could probably going to see a lot of Christian McCaffrey. Demarcus Robinson will start as will Kendrick Bourne. I have to check the depth chart because they are so down far down that chart, Laura, as they try to make do with a lot of backups. And plus M. Jones says in his preparation for the Rams, he believes that they are the best defense right now in the NFL. Yeah, it’s great stuff. We’ll continue to keep you updated on everything around this game as it’s coming your way. Two three and one teams, by the way, despite what the 49ers are dealing with with their injuries. Thanks to Lindsay. All right, Byron Young and the rest of this Rams defense has been impressive in the early going. That’s what the 49ers are dealing with tonight. Currently tied for second in sacks, top five in turnovers and touchdowns allowed. 49ers offense meanwhile has struggled to take care of the ball. Their eight turnovers tied for the most actually in the NFL. Dannowski and Jason McCordney are here. What’s up, guys? What’s going on, Z? How we doing? Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you guys. Happy birthday. Nowhere else I’d rather be spending my birthday. Well, really watching a Rams touchreen. Pretty great. I can’t wait for that. Dan, why is this Rams defense such a problem for teams right now? Yeah. So, one of the things that happened this year with this Rams or last year was that front four became such a viable part of their rush and they were relatively vanilla with a lot of the things they did last year schematically. Then this year, what they’ve started to do is kind of expedite the simulated pressure from their defenses. And I would tell everybody from the offensive perspective, some of the things that they’re doing with those simulated pressures and the lack of information they’re giving quarterbacks with both the rush and the coverage is one of the reasons why that they are creating such dominant matchups and a lot of confusion for quarterbacks. So, I’ll start with the first one. A couple things. When I as a quarterback get to the line of scrimmage, I see this basically a flat line. Naturally, that’s a cover zero indicator or cover four, but I’m not really getting any information from the defense starting point. The second thing is I see a vacancy space-wise in the slot. So, I’m like, okay, well, I’m anticipating a pressure then because somebody has to have some type of responsibility either person or area. And then I go here. Well, that defensive end is standing up. He’s probably going to be a dropper. But then that defensive end is standing up as well. So, that’s not an indicator either. What happens is this. The Rams are going to bring pressure. They’re going to do that simulated pressure where they go here, here, and up the field. And then this guy’s a pressure guy. Now, J-Mack, I get a dropper, right? I get that dropper right there. And from an offensive perspective, I go, “Okay, I got one, two, but they have 1, two, three.” Well, that’s advantage them. I’m outnumbered. Absolutely. And then I go up top and they go, I have one, two, three, but you have 1 2 3 4. I’m in a bad space offensively. Exactly. I mean, for us as a defense right now, I love that you showed this. And it’s just a four-man rush. But when you give us empty, now we have a lot of times have to get into what we call our empty check. And this right here is a defense that allows them to go four on three up top. And then now here for these guys down the bottom, he knows I have help inside. And I can force that, but I’m going to have to close to this guy because he’s just a spot dropper. He’s not going to collision or run with this guy. The beauty of this is up top. Now you get a chance to have two DBs, a safety right here in a corner up top. They’re looking to see how these three are displaced once the ball snaps. Two of these guys go vertical. That means I have the inside guy, you have the outside guy. And and then for me, like when I see this safety drive this, cuz this ball almost gets picked off, I look at it and go, “Well, let that if that safety’s driving it, I want to launch a post, right?” But you guys have outstanding leverage when it comes to this safety or this corner playing inside leverage and it almost ends up an interception. Then I’ll go to the next one. This this guy’s Jared Verse. This is a defensive player of the year candidate. As a quarterback, I’m sitting there going, “Okay, I have to protect those four or five guys. I’m getting all those people walking around as a defense. I need the ball to get snapped on the road, which is where San Francisco is going to be tonight.” And now all of a sudden, that guy gets pressure running through my center. And then there’s that shell coverage. As an offense, I have nowhere to go with the football. Also having to deal with the huge pressure. And the beauty of this, as you see all of those guys running around behind Daniel Jones as a play clock. This is a third down situation. Those guys are paying attention to the motion, to the tap by the guard, but they’re also looking at that play clock, knowing when they got to get down and get to this blitz. And the beauty of it is now you have a dropper and all we’re doing is playing coverage. Jac, what’s the counter from San Francisco’s offense tonight? Especially considering that, as Lindsay told you off the top, you’re going through the entire death chart, people are injured. They only have two players on their team, McCaffrey and Uscheek, of guys that actually caught passes for them a year ago. So, they’re going to lean a ton on Christian McCaffrey. And that’s what they’ve been doing. Now, it’s about how you deploy him and where you move him around. Right here, he’s almost in a tight end position. Gets mashed up on an outside linebacker. And here it is. Easy pitch and catch to the outside. They’re not just going to keep him in the back field. This I love motion to a slot receiver. Now you get three guys and it’s empty. You expect McCaffrey to run a running back route, but this isn’t that. He runs what we call a seven cut, a deeper out and scores a touchdowns against the New Orleans Saints. This Dan, I don’t know where you call this placement of the running back. Motions out. He’s in a wide receiver stance. He runs a comeback. This is a wide receiver route that he’s able to get one-on-one and beat his guy. And this is a fourth down situation. motions to a bunch on the outside and now you force communication between two DBs and here it is on a fourth and two they pick up a first down this in the fourth quarter of this game. So for McAffrey, how do you move him around Kyle Shanahan because they’re going to be keyed in on him but you still got to find ways to get and real quick easily um I think that the 49ers need to find easier completions for their quarterback early tonight. A lot of last week was Brock Pury too much downfield easier completions tonight. One area to watch was CMC. The Rams have the best goal to go defense this season. McCaffrey has the most goal to go rushing attempts. There’s Christian McCaffrey looking very uh dapper. It’s all on him tonight. Honestly, they’re down so many offensive players. We will see a heavy dose of McAffrey and hoping that he can stay healthy. Of course, Adam Shfter back with us now. And Adam, as I just said, injuries are headlining this game unfortunately on the 49ers side of things. Let’s start with the quarterback position. Well, Lord, Brock Perie ruled out again. This is the third game this season that he’ll miss due to that turf toe injury. He was able to play Sunday against Jacksonville. But when he and Kyle Shanahan spoke that night, Brock said he was uncomfortable during the game. It got worse and obviously with the short week they decided not to play him. And once again, we’ll turn to M. Jones who will make his third start of the season. Won his first two starts. We’ll see if he can come through again tonight. There are other notable NerS injuries as well. Take a look at the roll call of key ners who will not be playing tonight aside from Brock Bernie. No Brandon Aayou, no Jawan Jennings, no Ricky Pearl, no George KD, no Nick Bosa. So, that is obviously a huge disappointment for the Niners and something they’ll have to overcome and they’ll have to do it against the Rams head coach Shawn McY who shines in the Thursday Night Spotlight since he became a head coach for the Los Angeles Rams. He is 8 and one in short weeks on Thursday Night Football. He doesn’t lose in this spot usually and it goes against his Monday night record when he’s five and six. weird that when he’s had more time to prepare, the Rams haven’t fared as well. But on short weeks, Shawn McVey and the Rams have been lethal. So, you have that combination with the Niners injuries that creates some huge obstacles tonight for San Francisco. It’s an incredible stat. I’m sure there’s some people paying attention to that for obvious reasons. It’s one though that you just can’t necessarily figure out, but I love it. All right, Matthew Stafford and the Rams use of play action could decide tonight’s game. Stafford has been lights out on play action this season. top two in completions, yards, and touchdowns. 49ers defense has been the exact opposite. Four touchdowns allowed, tied for the most in the NFL. Jmack, why has the playaction game been so effective? They do such a good job of marrying up the runs that they do with the playaction passes. And I think on top of that, Puka Nakua, he reminds me, I played against Hines Ward in Pittsburgh and you talk about physicality, willingness to block, the amount of times that Puka comes in motion and he has to block the most dangerous guy outside and he does it with so much aggression that now two plays later when they bring him in motion and he goes through between the guard and the tackle, between the tackle and the tight end and it’s a pass play, ends up wide open. So, I think the combination of concepts, but also the guys, Whittington as well, those are the guys that at the point of attack, they’re blocking their butts off, and that makes it so much easier to play action pass. Yeah, I think the mental horsepower it takes to play that position by Puka. Not only the physical demand, but just knowing everything, the double motions, the way that they tempo it. I’d also say the way that they use him and like they’ll find a run tonight. I guarantee they will find a run tonight that hits early on in this game that they will get to four, five, six more times. And Matthew Stafford is going to be ready to go in this one. Of course, we’re going to see him in just moments arriving. There he is. He’s got to get the bag going. Oh, he almost they almost uh left. Jimmy G still in the show with the shades on. Okay, so that’s on one side. How about Mac Jones on the other side? Okay, M. Jones like a evil villain outfit. That’s what he’s trying to play tonight. Or maybe he’s just wearing 49ers red. I don’t know. Looks like he’s wearing our Wow. You like that, Dan? I can see you rocking tone, baby. I am so far from that. Okay. Well, here’s our game picks. Uh, this is what we look like. I I will say this is not necessarily alluding to who these two guys are picking. Yeah, I look cute though. Comment. What? I’m scared for you to say it. Don’t fireman hat I had on. I could get usage out of that hat. I know. You could Oh, no. We’re sounding the gong. It’s become Oh, my ears. Yeah. Yeah. It’s I do have big ears. You can you can say that because you two have big ears. Like I I don’t mind that insult for you. It’s true. I have like my ears. All right. We’re all picking You do have perfect ears. We’re all picking the the Rams here. I don’t know, guys. I I can’t convince myself to pick the 49ers and then maybe they’ll end up finding some way to Happy birthday. You’re You’re the goat. You’re great. Great teammate and great friend. Thanks, Dan. Oh my god, you guys. Oh, look at this. There we go. Okay, you guys are so sweet. Oh my goodness. Oh wow. That’s Yeah, there’s always bacon. It’s also Reese’s birthday today, which means it’s really Reese’s birthday. Oh, so yeah. Nobody Oh, six. If we would have birthday, nobody cares about Laura’s birthday. I forgot shared her birthday. Yeah. Best day of my life. Go celebrate tonight. We will. She’s the best present I could ever get him. Well done. Look at her with the bacon. Oh, it’s on that side. See you. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

NFL Live’s Laura Rutledge is joined by Lindsay Thiry, Jason McCourty, Dan Orlovsky and Adam Schefter to preview Thursday night’s game between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams.

0:00 Mac Jones to start for SF
2:24 Touchscreen
5:43 CMC’s outlook
7:28 Schefter joins
9:08 Matthew Stafford
10:55 Game Picks

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