Revisiting one of the gutsiest 49ers wins EVER

Revisiting one of the gutsiest 49ers wins EVER

Well, you saw one of the great ones last night and the way that the 49ers divide those odds. I’m going to put it very, very simply, combined with the fact that this wasn’t a one-off. We saw it in week one against the Seattle Seahawks. I thought we saw it even more against the worst team against the Cardinals in week three, but this combined the Seahawks win and the Cardinals win in that they beat a top team in football while they were short-handed. When you look at what San Francisco has done in this 4-1 start in terms of grit, you can say for sure they are Super Bowl contenders. You could say that John Lynch with confidence can buy buy ahead of the trade deadline. He could find a way to improve the pass rush to bolster what this team needs bolstered to give them a real real punchers chance heading into the stretch run of this season. It’s still early. The 49ers are 4-1, but they have showed the type of resilience that escapes most teams in this league. Last year, the 49ers would have gotten blown out in this game. I mean, we saw it last year when the 49ers were this short-handed. They got run out of buildings. This year, they’re beating elite teams even though they’re short-handed. Listen to the conversation or listen to the recounting of the conversation between M. Jones and Kyle Shanahan. Um, I don’t really pay attention like too much to it. I don’t really do like social media that much, but Kyle like came up to me and he was pissed about it. So, he’s like, “Dude, I I can’t believe like they they moved us like underdogs again or whatever more.” And I’m like, “I don’t know what that means really, but like, yeah, let’s go kill him.” You know? So, he was pissed about it. I was like, “Yeah, I’m pissed, too.” So, went out there and we started hot, but we definitely need to be more like consistent throughout the game and give more points for our defense so they don’t have to keep making stops. Oh, obviously Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers noticed the fact that people weren’t given a much of a chance, myself included. I I you know, this 49ers team has defied so many odds as this has gone along. I just listen to to a couple of these things. The the first one that really jumped out at me today, the 49ers are the first team since at least 1940 with no touchdown runs and no interceptions on defense through five games. No touchdown runs and no interceptions on defense through five games, yet they’re four- one. They’re one drop away from 5-0. I mean, I understand to the Rams, I was eating at a taco truck last night here in LA and there was a Rams fan lamenting the loss. Yes, Rams fans actually exist, allegedly, but he was lamenting the loss. He’s like, “Heartbreaker, man. We’re two field goals away from 5-0.” I get that the Rams could be two field goals away from 5-0 because they’ve been playing up, you know, up until this game, this was a no-show, but they’ve been playing some top tier offense and top tier defense. The 49ers, meanwhile, have had their roster decimated. They don’t have a single interception on defense. They don’t have a single rushing touchdown. Yet, they’re one drop away from 5-0. And they beat the same Rams on the road. I mean, this is crazy stuff that we’re seeing. the 49 twice this game came down to the Rams needing a yard. One yard on a day that they picked up 460 yards offensively, but twice it came down to them needing one yard. Both times the 49ers said, “No, you’re not getting it.” Alfred Collins punching the ball out from Kairen Williams and then I mean the whole defense got the Rams on on that play. The NFL’s social media team posted this one. This is from the stop at the end of the game. Do you guys just hear how loud it was there at SoFi? And the press box is behind this glass window and it would just pulsating like you could just feel the the the the glass just shaking. The the place has tremored a couple times. It’s never when the Rams do something good. Like even when they won the NFC Championship game against the 49ers, that place uh didn’t didn’t shake the way that it has when Ambry Thomas uh sealed the week 18 game. uh that same season, 2021, when Debo Samuel threw a touchdown pass to Jawan Jennings that year in that same game when Jimmy Garopolo hit Debo Samuel and then uh Jawan Jennings to tie that game in week 18. That moments like that is when Sofi Stadium has shook. And last night, Alfred Collins with the punch out and the recovery and then the goal line stand, not the goal line stand, the fourth down stand that you saw there. That those are the times that show that that SoFi has shook and I’ve been there for every single 49ers Rams game since the place opened in 2020. It it is a home away from home for the 49ers. And my goodness, that was crazy last night. So, you know, so much of the the talk right now is about M. Jones, as it should be. I mean, what a gutsy gutsy performance. And, you know, I think the 49ers now have firm claim to the top quarterback room in the NFL. And that that’s what it’s all about. You need two to make a legitimate run at things. You absolutely need two of these guys. And the 49ers have to. Brock Pur is currently hurt with the toe injury. the the 49ers hope to to get him back fully healthy as as soon as possible, but to hold down the fort in the time being. The 49ers have someone who put on his best Jimmy Garopolo impersonation last night, and that is a good thing. This is finally going to make people admit. They’re probably going to do mental gymnastics to to get away from this, but this is finally going to get people to admit that Jimmy Garopolo was a damn good quarterback for the 49ers, especially in some of these back up against the wall situations against the Rams. What you saw from M. Jones last night was a low average depth of target. Look, look where all these throws, the the green dots are, they’re they’re all well within the 20 yard mark. He were not pushing the ball deep downfield by design. This exactly to a tea followed the formula that we said the 49ers would need to follow over the course of this game. The the the Rams had the powerful defense. They had a pass rush that could overwhelm the 49ers offensive line and pass obvious situations. The 49ers have not been able to to to open up the run game yet. They averaged only 2.2 2 yards per carry. So the Rams were pinning their ears back yesterday. What does that mean? It means the same thing that the 49ers faced in 2021 when they were out of running backs and they had to use Debo Samuel. It means that they had to get the ball out quickly. So M. Jones was getting the ball out quickly 2.5 seconds from the time of snap to release. Jimmy Garopolo back in 2021 against the Rams and the 49ers faced a similar predicament. 2.3 second snap to release. Look, just take a look at at some of the efficiency comparisons here. It’s it’s eerie to me because basically what happened here is the 49ers went back and they reenacted what they did against the Rams in 2021 and and they did a little bit of this in 2020 as well. And those were some great Rams defenses with Aaron Donald, but this is last night. M. Jones outplayed Matthew Stafford. Don’t get me started on on the media and Matthew Stafford right now. It is patently ridiculous. The guy is on the losing team. He makes some bad throws that directly contribute to the Rams loss. And people are talking about Matthew Stafford a as if he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame after that game. Like the media gives that guy pass after pass after pass. Meanwhile, I see 49ers quarterbacks win games and take insane criticism that that isn’t fair at all. Matthew Stafford can lose a game and not take any flak. And I I’ll go through some of the plays that that Matthew Stafford uh lost the game on, including the penultimate play where he threw inaccurately to Kairen Williams and set up the the Rams to have to go for that fourth down, which the 49ers stuff. But anyway, EPA per play. Jones more efficient than Pertie over over more snaps by the way. He had 49 drop backs in this game yesterday or no 56 drop backs, but 49 passes for M. Jones. Look at the average depth of target though. So, so Stafford that this was a track meet for the Rams and the 49ers did well to avoid g getting involved in it for for much of this game. They hog the ball. Stafford is just sitting here airing it out. M. Jones kept this short. The average depth of the target six yards. And you saw that in the spray chart that we put up on the screen right here a little bit earlier. M. Jones keeping this within the the generally within the 10 yard marker because that’s how you get the ball out to avoid the Rams pass rush. QBR 74.1 higher than Matthew Stafford’s. All right. So, so look at this. Now, I’m going to rewind. Don’t blink because this is going to change in front of your eyes. I’m going to rewind to 2021 Rams against the 49ers. Look at this. Jimmy Garopolo. Like I I could toggle back and forth. Look, first look at the average depth of target for M. Jones yesterday. Now I’m gonna go to 2021. Look at that. Garopolo 6.6 was throwing short. Garopppolo was a little bit more efficient, but and the higher QBR. I I thought that was just a masterful performance back in 2021. But but the point is that it was the template. Like it’s so cool when you could go back into 49ers history into Shanahan history. And you know, that’s the common link here is Kyle Shanahan. You go back into history and you could see the 49ers taking the same principles and applying them. Now, you know, there’s a lot of really really dumb commentary out there now saying, “Oh, M. Jones, he’s he’s just doing the same thing as as Brock Party. Look at him.” You’re not giving M. Jones credit. You’re not giving Kyle Shanahan credit if you’re just saying that he’s filled in for Brock Party and is doing the same thing. No. Pertie’s been more efficient. Pertie gives the 49ers a higher ceiling. Pertie when he’s healthy is the QB1. But M for M. Jones to come in as QB2 and execute with a skeleton crew. They were down their top three receivers and George KD. So you could say they’re top four receivers, right? To for M. Jones to be able to execute with that arsenal what Jimmy Garopolo was able to do in 2020, 2021, 2022 against the Rams. The coming from the backup quarterback position that that to me that’s absurd. The fact that the 49ers were able to reenact what they did against the Rams in all those turnaround games before from the quarterback position, that is worth lauding all on its own. Brock Purie is a separate conversation. Brock Perie is is the key to take this team to to actual Super Bowl heights. M. Jones was the key for the 49ers to win with what they had last night. Those are two very very different things. And it’s the 49ers are very fortunate to have both of these quarterbacks. You need two in this league and this is demonstrating why you need two in this league. So, I mean that the discussions are going to be asinine. The discussions are are are going to be simplistic. The bottom line is the 49ers have a deep quarterback room. M. Jones was tough as hell last night and they might need him for another one because Brock Pury was back in the Bay Area trying to give that toe as as much recovery time as was possible. So, I mean that that’s what we’re dealing with right now. The the the 49ers are dealing with two really good quarterbacks who are playing two very different styles, and we could delve a little bit more into that in a bit, but boy, was that fun to watch. Going to step aside for a quick break. You know that I do these 49ers updates on field. So, you know that I do these 49ers updates on fields across the entire NFL, including the legendary Kizar Stadium, former home of the 49ers, right in the middle of San Francisco. You know that I do these updates wearing my Cayman TOAS. These aren’t limited to outdoor use. I could also wear them while I’m covering a football game, up in the press box, walking down to the locker room, or heading to the field. Authentic western style, timeless, premium quality. They’re all handcrafted. Was able to buy these in Nashville at one of the great TOA stores a few years ago. They hooked me up with a drink. They also will shine your boots while you’re at the Tacoba store. They really do treat you right. They have a expert staff and they’ll help you find the perfect fit. This will be one of the best shoeware purchases that you’ll ever make. So, check out the link in the description or scan the QR code right here. Tooas. Check them out. We got a new sponsor. Isn’t that fun? Debut the Tokovas commercial on the day after the 49ers epic win over the Rams. If you could rewind and and scan that QR code to go check out those TOAS, I warmed to the game last night. Johnny Holland, the 49ers linebacker’s coach, he loves Texas style boots and he saw them after the game. He’s like, “Oh, those are nice.” Those the Tokova Cayman’s, they they were really nice. So, uh, that was at Kizar Kizar saw its its share of 49ers LA Rams games back in the day. Uh obviously not as technologically advanced as a place like uh Sofi Stadium, but um a classic stadium nonetheless. Anyway, you know, back to to what we saw in this game last night. I I we could talk about the quarterback position all week. I’m sure we talk about it all season. Uh because that there’s so much to break down there. It’s it it’s hilarious though that now we have again in in real time a a side by side essentially of a Garopolo style quarterback in in M. Jones, somebody doesn’t have quite the mobility but can get rid of the ball very very quickly is very tough, right? and and a and a and a Brock Perie style quarterback who can move, who, you know, brings a a new dimension to the 49ers offense with his with his motion capability and the in the back field. The 10-yard burst, we talk about that, his elusiveness and also Pertie obviously is very aggressive when it comes to to pushing that ball downfield. So, it’s like the 49ers have these two complimentary pieces at quarterback and they have enough in common when it comes to to executing Kyle Shanahan’s system to where they can make the system work seamlessly from one to the other. Uh it creates a lot of fascinating discussions. The the ones that I won’t stand for though are the ones that oversimplify things and say that that they’re the same guy because they’re not. I mean, it’s just that unbelievably lazy football analysis is going to come out of all this. But, uh, I think that that those who know what they’re watching, and I think that everybody who’s watching this show, uh, recognizes that, uh, you you you saw some football artistry there when it comes to how Kyle Shanahan was able to overcome what the 49ers lost. taking a schematic page out of prior year’s playbooks. Like really, really cool callbacks for the 49ers in that game against the Rams. Right now, up on the San Francisco Standard, we’ve got this. This is the article from last night. I I focused on the defense on the article last night, and I think I could focus on the defense as we talk about this now. how the 49ers stuffed and stunned the Rams and seized control of the NFC West. Big picture first, the 49ers are 4-1. They have three times the NFC West wins that they did in 2024 in a third of the time. 3x in a third of the time, right? They’ve beat Seattle. They’ve beaten the Arizona Cardinals. Now they’ve beaten the Rams. Last year they only beat the Seahawks at around this time. I think it was October 6th of 2024. They beat the Seahawks. That was the only 49ers NFC West win. So winning in the division is massive, especially when your division is as good as the NFC West is this year. So these games, you could obviously tell that they carry a little bit more juice because I would say a lot more juice because they mean so much more. If you can win five games in your division and the 49ers are already 60% of the way there. If you can go five and one in your division, you are almost guaranteed a good year just based on the way that that that this is set up. So the the 49ers have gone through the gauntlet now on the road, right? They’ve played the two best teams outside of them on the road in Seattle and the Rams and they’ve won. They beat the Rams so severely short-handed that very, very few people, myself included, did not give them much of a chance to win this game. And now they’re going to get the Seahawks and the Rams at home later in the season. The Rams are in November, about a month from now. And Seattle is still about two months from now in week 18. Theoretically, and theoretically, I’m going to knock on wood. I’m going to do whatever I need to because I hate injuries in this game. But theoretically, the 49ers will be healthier when they have rematches with both of these two two teams and they’re going to have that home field advantage. Although one can argue that they already had it against the Rams at SoFi Stadium yesterday. Also, the rookies are growing up in front of our eyes. I mean, Alfred Collins yesterday and and I talk about this obviously in the article. You could see how excited Fred Warner is up there on the San Francisco standard. But Alfred Collins, that was I mean if if that if Kairen Williams didn’t have a helmet on and that punch landed on Kairen Williams face instead of the ball, Kairen Williams would probably be dead right now. Like that’s how powerful of a punch we saw from Alfred Collins in the heat of the moment. Real time things are moving quickly. Kairen Williams is moving over toward that goal line. The the swing from Alfred was I mean I’ve never seen like a wind up at a punch that big and that quick in that moment, especially from somebody who’s got such long limbs. I mean, this guy’s related to Trent Brown, the for former 49ers offensive lineman, who was the most massive player on any field that he set foot on. Alfred Collins, I mean, it runs in the family. Obviously, the size 18 shoes, he’s the most massive player on the field that he set foot on yesterday. for him to be able to react with that quickness at that size and deliver that power with that precision in that moment with what was at stake yesterday. Yeah, he’s coming along. Early in training camp, we were talking about, oh, Alfred Collins, you know, is looking a little slow off the ball. He’s he needs to learn how to move his body, right? Yeah. Size 18 feet, 330 lb frame, a good 66, 67, however tall he is. I think he’s only listed at 6’5. I don’t buy it. I think he’s taller than that. Yeah, he he’s he’s going to have to grow into this frame. He’s going to have to learn how to control it against elite NFL athletes. And he he took some unnecessary heat early on because I think a lot of people don’t understand that the the transition from college to the NFL, especially if you’re dealing with a big body, is not an easy one. His snap count has increased week after week to the point where I think Kalia Davis broke his hand. He’s going to miss probably two games, at least two games. He’s gonna have to He has having surgery today and then uh then they’re going to put a club on it. They’re going to try to get him out there uh sooner rather than later. But you’re probably looking at Kalia Davis missing the Tampa Bay game and the Atlanta game, which are the next two for the 49ers. So, as soon as Alfred got that opportunity yesterday, he started shining for the 49ers. It wasn’t just the punch out from Kairen Williams. It was the fourth down play where timeout was called. The 49ers brought Alfred Collins into the game and with that big body lined him up right over the A gap and said, “You’re not running a quarterback sneak.” And you know what the Rams said? We’re not running a quarterback sneak. The Rams still tried to big boy the 49ers as Fred Warner said. They still tried to run the football. They were all tensed up at the line of scrimmage and that’s how the 49ers knew the run was coming. So they fired the C gap instead of the A gap. was not going to be anything right up the middle because they were avoiding Alfred Collins, but Alfred allowed the rest of the 49ers defenders to flow. Chase Lucas was the first one there blasting people into the backfield with a much smaller frame than Alfred Collins. Maris Seagull, you got to give him a lot of credit, right? Maris had a rough game. I get it. I mean, what did Robert Salah tell us? What’s been one of the primary themes of the entire buildup here? that there are going to be growing pains, right? That it’s going to be high highs and low lows because the 49ers are playing so many youngsters on defense and the extremes and the potential for them only increased when Nick Bosa went down because the pass Matthew Stafford got to play seven-on-one football for a lot of this game yesterday, right? So, the the rookies are exposed right now. They are going through some rough rough moments. I mean Maris Seagull in coverage that the the Rams were picking on him. The past two opponents, I would say the past three opponents have all tried to to capitalize on the fact that Maris Seagull’s only 5’11 and they try to put a taller receiver or tight end into his coverage and and and yesterday we saw it with the tight end position and Terrence Ferguson against uh against Seagull, you know, 6’4 6’5. it it’s not a really good matchup, but there was the big pass breakup that he had in the end zone later in the game. You could see that Maris is fighting figuring it out. It’s tough when he’s got to cover somebody, you know, he goes from covering somebody at 6’5 to somebody who’s extremely short but fast and and and 22 Atwell was really quick and you know, Matthew Stafford has the arm talent to obviously expose any any angle deficiencies and and and he did on on a couple of those long completions yesterday, but but Seagull was in there making the official tackle on that fourth down stop. You know, after all the crap that he went through over that game, seeing the Rams rack up 460 plus yards of offense, a lot of those yards came against his coverage, Maris Seagull was ready to man up. When the Rams were trying to big boy the 49ers, Maris Seagull was ready to man up and be one of the the 49ers just throwing his head in there and making that heroic stop. Chase Lucas, Maris Seagull, Alfred Collins on the inside. Fred Warner. You know, Fred had one of the better quotes about this entire situation. Uh he first off, I walk into the locker room and Fred is just yelling about how the Rams were trying to big boy them and they weren’t going to let that happen. That I thought that was cool. I mean, this was one of the more meaningful plays of Fred Warner’s career. But look at this quote right here. I didn’t even know if my intention was to make a play. It was just to blow it up and make it muddy. So talk about team defense. He just wanted to go there and blow up the offensive line so his teammates could swarm in and and deliver. Fred understands the dynamics of what’s happening at the line of scrimmage. And I think that these rookies are are picking that up from him. They understand the dynamics of a football game, especially one where you’re short-handed. Not everything’s going to go your way. It is going to be a mercurial battle. There are going to be ups. There are going to be downs, but you need to show up at the highest leverage moments. You know, we talk about high leverage moments against Arizona Upton and Stout with with the huge pass break up right downfield. What Zay Jones was the receiver that was on third down gave the 49ers the ball back. You talk about high leverage moments against the the Seattle Seahawks. Obviously, Jake Tongis catching the touchdown pass from Brock Perie was a massive one of those. You could talk about high leverage moments last night for sure. Two times the Rams had to get a yard. Two times the 49ers created a turnover because a fourth down stop is essentially a turnover and that was the end of the game at the end of overtime. But Alfred Collins and Maris Seagull and the rookies very very involved in all of those moments. When you deliver at high lever spots and you start to make a habit of it, that becomes your identity. The 49ers in 2024, their identity became not being able to get off the field on third down, not being able to close games, making critical errors on special teams at the worst times. The 49ers did those things enough to where they became baked in to who they were as a football team. Now, the 49ers are doing the opposite in 2025. They’re doing stuff right over and over and over again. Now it’s three of these division wins plus the Saints win which also took them clutching up. They’re doing this stuff at the regularity at the interval level of this is becoming part of who they are. And because of that, John Lynch can look at this trade deadline now. It’s coming up in about a month. And I think that he could have full confidence that that the 49ers locker room has earned extra investment. And as a GM, I think that’s all you need. That’s all you need to start really thinking about ma making the moves that that could be there to be made. I don’t know what moves are going to be there. I can’t guarantee that that that something truly splashy will be there, but I the 49ers have been active on the trade market and essentially every year under Kyle Shannon and John Lynch. And let’s be real, I mean, they were struggling to get to Matthew Stafford yesterday. One of the main reasons that Matthew Stafford threw for all the the yards that he threw for last night was because the 49ers were letting him play sevenon- football. So, so a move I think for the 49ers to to truly cement themselves and and be ready to win playoff games, uh, because that the intensity is only going to ratchet up. They’re going to get guys back at in all corners of the roster theoretically, but the way that they can make sure that they’re in true position to go for this is is to bolster a defensive line that I think is going to need bolstering because, you know, we could look at the injury situation right now. Make sure you check out the article, by the way, up on the standard. It is there for you. Mike will link it in the description. I mean, I’m going to get this open for everybody. So I shade the injuries in pink, right? Look at where the defensive line is right now. Kalia Davis, broken hand. Ye gross MTOS, that’s a big one. Yesterday he was already really nursing the the the knee situation. I don’t know if the hamstring yesterday was related to that, but it very well could have been. Right. So you see is probably going to be on the shelf for a little bit. CJ West is back now, so we could take him off of the injury shade, but uh and and this is one of those things where the 49ers are approaching paper thinness up front because it’s Mike and then who? Because Mike, Bryce, and Sam Okawanu, those are all three very different types of players, right? like the yeettor was versatile and is versatile enough, but he’s probably not going to be available now with the hamstring for at least a little bit. He’s versatile enough to to give the 49ers a little bit of relief at both types of end positions and at tackle, but you don’t have him, you don’t have Bosa. The result that you expect to get was on the field last night. The 49ers defense was gassed for a lot of this game. the for I mean the whole ball hoging thing the the strategy last night was keep the defense off the field and you know that’s why I so vehemently disagreed with Kyle Shanahan not trying to end the game at the end of regulation because it exposed the defense again. The 49ers the the Rams ran the ball 15 times yesterday. Okay. Not a single one of those runs was a gain of less than two yards until the very last one. Like the Rams had averaged five yards a carry on the game. Fourth and one seemed like a given that they would convert just given the fact that 15 runs before that had picked up at least one yard. But they ran into the brick wall that the 49ers built that last time. So, what my point is that it took the defense digging so deep at these high leverage moments to get this done. That if you’re projecting forward for the 49ers, you can’t count on I mean, they’ve shocked us multiple times already. I get it. But as far as sustainability into the future goes, you can’t count on these one in 16 plays. You know, that that was what the the the final run defense stop was. These or the Alfred Collins play that was like a one in a 100 play if that. you know, okay, it could have been even longer odds, but you can’t count on that happening on a down in down out basis moving forward. That’s why you have to find reinforcements for a defensive line and a team that that is definitely belleaguered up front, but still, wow, they’re sucking money away into the bank with these wins. 3 and 0 in the division, 4- one for San Francisco. Now, on the overall record, we saw the M. Jones passing chart. We have uh looked at the comparisons between this and and the 2021 season. I’m going to get that article up uh from the San Francisco Standard back on the screen. There you guys go. I got more I’ve got a lot more and I’ll probably be able to answer some questions today as well. The for speaking of the 49ers defense and short yardage. So, they gave up the five yards per carry yesterday, right? So, and they were tired and they weren’t they weren’t allowing they weren’t limiting the Rams in in any of these short yardage situations until the last one. Entering this game, the 49ers did rank number one in percentage of runs stuffed for one yard or less, number two in EPA per rush allowed on short yardage situations with less than two yards to go, number three in success rate allowed in those situations, and number three in first down rate allowed. So, even though the 49ers do not rank great overall as a run defense, when the money is on the table, they are stuffing opponents, and they did last night. And I guess that was my main point when I said that they couldn’t stop the Rams on 15 runs for for less than two yards, but on the last one, they did. So, there’s something about this defense that I think it’s a a very intrinsic trait. I think it’s something that that that is hard to just coach or or find. You just have to find the right blend of guys, the right mentality. There’s something about this defense that just is able to muscle up, gut up at the right time, and get the job done. It’s a it’s a clutch. It’s a it’s it really is a clutch kind of thing because the the splits for the 49ers in these short yardage running situations do not match the splits of the rest of their run defense. And you’d rather be good in the situations that the 49ers are good in because you saw last night. Like if you could build a steel curtain right there at the at the goal line or at at a fourth down conversion line at the very biggest moments, the statistics of the rest of the game aren’t going to matter because the Rams will have run into a brick wall when it mattered most. Unbelievable. Let’s take a look at some questions now. I’m ready for some good ones. Frank says the difference is that Robert Salah is him. I mean, Salah has made very very impressive second half adjustments down the stretch adjustments in every single game this year. Even the loss against Jacksonville. I mean, the 49ers were reeling in that game against Jacksonville, right? Absolutely reeling and they they found a way to give themselves a chance with with all the defensive stops they made in the second half. Yesterday was a little bit different. I mean, the the the Rams were starting to really wear It was Thursday night, too. They were starting to wear the 49ers out. We knew that that the Rams on paper were were stronger than the 49ers offense against defense. But Salah, it was like a very targeted thing. He’s like, “If we can win certain downs, we can win the game.” First half, he had a Jason Pinnock Dwinters blitz that allowed Bryce Huff to to spring free. Bryce Huff beat the the left tackle on the play and Bryce Huff got a sack. It’s a second down play early on early early Rams drive. You know, you could say that wasn’t as high leverage as anything in the fourth quarter. Technically, maybe not, but I think in effect, I needed to get out to the lead in the game. They needed to control the early game flow so they could build up the play count so they could wear the Rams down a and so they could have a cushion too because they knew that the Rams were going to go on a run at some point. So the 49ers needed to shock and awe the Rams into an early lead. Same thing that they did in 2021 2022. They absolutely did that with this this early blitz, a six-man blitz to J. Jason Pinnick was a really good blitzer for the New York Giants that they’re using him like that out of the safety position and D. Winters got after the quarterback very effectively at TCU. They’ve been using him as a blitzer a lot this year. That early blitz from Robert Salah helped build the cushion that the 49ers would rely on later in the football game. Then let’s not forget about the the blocked extra point from Jordan Elliot later in the game. Let’s not forget about Eddie Pinero from 59 yards out. I mean, you could say that the difference is Robert Salah that he’s one of the differences. 49ers had difference makers everywhere. I haven’t even talked about Kendrick Bourne on this show yet. 10 for 42 overcoming the drops from last week. Overcoming a drop from the first half today. Big one on third down. Kendrick I mean that was the game of Kendrick’s life. His previous high was 100 receiving yards in a game. 142. Best that Kendrick Bourne has ever played. And it came on the heels of that miserable game Sunday against Jacksonville. That game was a confluence of the grit the rookie defense has. Yeah. And the veterans. I mean, Fred is the leader, right? I’m in that locker room and Fred, the ring leader, fired up, still in his pads like an hour after the game, talking to everybody. Like all the rookies want to listen to Fred. Nick Bosa is going to be back soon. I’m sure he’s down in this LA area right now after uh the the surgery he underwent. So, he’s doing his his initial rehab. He’ll be back in the building. He’ll be helping mentor guys. He’s one of the veteran pillars. I think Deer Lenor, he made a couple plays yesterday. Some of the coverage in tense moments where the game could have ended on a touchdown. Lenor on Devonte Adams, good plays. I He’s very important. I think actually Jason Pinnock low key, he he’s a sturdy vet voice for the 49ers in that defensive backfield as well. Don’t discount what Jason Pinnock has been able to to bring this team. The Rams kicker Joshua Cardi was terrible. The irony. Yes, you you are correct. The Rams actually came into that game with a lower ranked special teams unit than the 49ers. And I thought that we actually did see that play out. Do I have any stats about how effective San Francisco is at creating pressure when rushing six more defenders? I can get those for you. I I don’t have them off the top of my head. I think it’s a really really good question. I think that, you know, was they blitzed ineffectively last night, too. Let’s be 100% honest. the Kairen Williams touchdown, the first score for the Rams, that came off of a blitz. Like, they just burned a blitz. You You only have a certain amount of bullets when it comes to blitzing a veteran quarterback, right? You have to pick and choose your spots. I think that Robert Solah has generally done a really good job of that this year, but he he’s also been beaten on the blitz, and you’re going to get beaten on the blitz. So, it it’s not always going to be roses. And that’s why it’s so nice to have a Nick Bosa. And that’s why the 49ers are probably going to have to make a move for a pass rusher because you’ve got to get pressure with four. 49ers aren’t getting enough pressure with four. Warren Sharp uh pointed out this is one of the lowest rates again in uh over the season. Let’s go to Warren Sharp’s Twitter here. He’s he’s got a good little treasure trove of of stats. He does a good job with some of the analytic stuff. I thought that I had bookmarked a tweet, but I couldn’t find it. Stafford was pressured on just 21% of his drops backs last night. Second lowest pressure rate since the start of 2024. So, and and the 49ers didn’t get a lot of pressure last night on or on Sunday night or Sunday against Trevor Lawrence. And that was more of a quick release game plan for Trevor. Stafford was was was pushing the ball further down field, but but he had time to do it. And and the 49ers had a blitz that to neutralize some of that, but but then he burned the blitz and Stafford threw for for nearly 400 yards. Like it there was productivity there. Now, I will say and and this does upset me because and I mentioned this at the top of the show, everybody seems to to glorify Matthew Stafford. Well, sorry that this is a little dark, but it’s going to get the point across. We’ll get this bigger up on the screen. This is the penultimate play. The first down line to gain is at the 10. You could see the yellow there. That is Matthew Stafford’s throw to Kairen Williams, the running back. As you could tell, it’s not a long throw. If this throw hits Kairen Williams in the chest, hits him in stride, he picks up that first down, he might even score. Probably not on the touchdown, but but he’s definitely picking up the first down. And the Rams aren’t facing fourth and one. So, you know, everybody ooze and a over Stafford throwing deep to Tutu Atwell, but he missed on a number of shorter throws yesterday, like this one where he brought Kairen Williams down onto his knees into a slide a yard and a half short of the first down. So, Matthew Stafford’s poor throw on third down directly set up the Rams getting stuffed on fourth down and you could fairly say contributed to them in a big way losing this football game. I mean, it’s that’s the tape. It’s right in front of you. Those are the throws that Mack made last night. I mean the short game is this is the problem the 49ers had with Tre Lance is he wasn’t executing the short game. Mack I mean he executed the hell out of the short game. This was again this was Garopoloesque the best of Jimmy who happened to be on the sideline last night for the Rams is is what Mack was able to channel last night with a skeleton crew offensively around him. And then I mean we could talk about Kyle Shanahan and the fact that he was able to to create something out of nothing for the 49ers. They obviously didn’t have the separation capability that they’ll have when they have guys like Ricky Pieraw and Jawan Jennings and ultimately Brandon Iayuk on the field. They obviously didn’t have the run game at 2.2 yards per carry. I mean, Shanahan said it looked like a brick wall when he was talking about the fourth down stop, but he said that it looked like the brick walls that we were running into as an offense. They they they weren’t able to to to move it against this Rams front. So, they had to find different ways to loosen up the Rams defense. And the primary way was the way that we said that they were going to have to employ, and that was pitch and catch football, the short game, good timing from M. Jones. Good spacing from Kyle Shanahan. Whatever separation the the receiving targets could get. I mean, it wasn’t just Kendrick Bourne 10 for 142. It was Jake Tongis made a lot of big catches. Kyle Yuschek is involved. Christian McCaffrey forced 11 or no 12 missed tackles. It was the most of his career. So, I hope that I can stop hearing about how Christian McCaffrey has slowed down because he is still playing the very, very best football of his career. Question return prognosis for Persol, Jennings, Watkins, BCH, Davis, and Mustafa. Well, Bar IR in week two, so he’s got to miss, I think, still the the Bucks game, but then he can come back for the Falcons game. That’s a really big one. I think Pearson Jennings might be back as soon as as next week when the 49ers play Tampa Bay. Kalia Davis broke his hand. He’s going to be out for at least two games. and Malik Mustafa’s practice window should open as soon as the 49ers finish the uh game against the Bucks. They said after week six. So, reinforcements should be coming and we’ll we’ll see if the 49ers got through this game without any further injuries beyond Kalia Davis, Uguros, Matoss, and and ankle for Upton and Stout. catching the ball the whole game except for one drop was a huge difference from last week. Yes, credit to Kendrick Bourne for the bounce back. Who’s out when Mustafa is back? If it were today, I would think Maris Seagull is bumped out because Jason Pinnick is your veteran safety. There’s a higher floor there. So, I would think that Mustafa will take Seagull spot. But, you know, that’s the thing. You always you could try to project this kind of stuff and I don’t know if it’s if it’s particularly wise to because guys are going to get hurt. I mean, just the way that it is. You know, it it to to me it’s actually extremely foolish to to to assume that everything is going to stay stat static for the 49ers injury-wise because it’s been the opposite of that for however long football’s existed, especially for this team which has gone through so much uh injury-wise. All right. Th this right here, Christian McCaffry is playing great, but not Christian McCaffry is playing great as a running back. Are you seriously citing his yards per carry without mentioning that the 49ers are having trouble blocking these plays without George KD? Like it’s not not not just Christian McAffrey running like it’s a team sport. The fact that Christian is doing what he’s doing in the receiving game and is as nimble and fast and powerful as he is with the ball in his hands in the receiving game shows you that it’s not his fault that he’s not averaging a lot in the run game. Like let’s try to put two and two together here. You know it’s everybody always tries to isolate this as a one-man thing in any part of football. They try to isolate it on the quarterback. They’re trying to isolate this on Christian McCaffrey. It’s like he needs support from the blocking crew and and George KD being out is is really really dampening things for the 49ers right now. It’s I think that’s very very obvious once they start to get some personnel back there’s going to be more running room because they’re going to be able to keep defenses further off balance. As Mark says, he thinks the KD’s the player the 49ers need back the most. Kind of hard to juke when you’re wrapped up a yard behind the line of scrimmage. Yeah, he doesn’t have any room to get going. McCaffrey in many ways, yes, is is carrying the offense kind of like Eddie Pierro carrying that field goal unit. 59 yards. Now Eddie, maybe we’ll I’ll I’ll have some news here for you on the show. Let’s Let’s look it up. Has he passed Justin Tucker yet on all time field goal percentage list? I don’t think so, but I’m going to look. Oh boy. It’s close. It’s close. You guys want to see? You guys want to see? All right. Here’s Tucker. Here’s Pinterero. After last night, Eddie Pinero is at 89.051%. Justin Tucker is not playing at the moment. Justin Tucker is at 89.103%. So, I mean, if you round up from 89.05% to 80 89.1%, he they’re tied. But Tucker’s got a slight slight lead. Pinero is 11 of 11 on field goals ever since joining the 49ers. If he keeps on making them, he will pass Justin Tucker for number two on the alltime list. He can’t miss. That’s the problem. And you know what I really love about Eddie? A lot of kickers would be like way superstitious about this kind of stuff. Eddie literally like asks me in the locker room where he’s at on the list. He wants to know. It’s like, yes, he doesn’t believe in jinxing himself or doesn’t believe in any. He just wants to go out there and make the kick. He wants to Oh, yeah. Hell yeah. He wants to pass Justin Tucker. Maybe even one day if Cameron Dicker misses a few kicks, he he’ll have a chance for the the top spot all time. It’s tough though because Dicker’s at 94.2%. But yeah, since when have you heard of a kicker who who literally is is is seeking out like publicly the numbers? Like here I am covering the team. He wants to know the numbers because he wants to be at the top of the list. Like normally it doesn’t happen. Normally the kickers are kind of, you know, they’re more recluse status. They’re not going to be out and about. But Eddie Pinro is here talking crap to the other team because they’re division rival. Well, that’s what he did when he beat the Cardinals. He was out on the field for a really long time yesterday. Kyle Shanahan was joking about that. Took him a while to come back into the locker room. The 49ers. Kyle said maybe he was talking some more crap yesterday to the Rams. He’s nailing 59 yard field goals, which are purportedly out of his range. I guess not. I guess that was in Eddie’s range yesterday. Four of four. Hadn’t missed a field goal yet for the 49ers. Ironically, he missed his first extra point in that Saints game. People were like, “Oh, here we go again.” But, uh, he’s been nails. Absolute nails since that moment. This kind of shows that you’re never going to make everybody happy. I like your show, but you weren’t positive, David. A lot of times people say I’m too positive. So, which is it? Am I too positive? Am I not positive enough? Usually when you get feedback on both sides, it means that you’re right where you want to be in the middle, but just kind of funny. Yeah, that 59 yard that might have been good for I think it was cleared by a lot. Plenty to spare. And then the overtime one, it nicked the upright. Oh, that was scary. That was scary. I mean, this game I I watched the replay this morning and I, you know, noticed so much on that replay just when it comes to the margins in the NFL. The the Rams, they don’t have great receiving backs coming out of the back field. They’re just not Stafford doesn’t throw well to receiving backs either. You saw with the Kairen Williams play where he was short of the first down, but Kairen dropped a couple. Blake Cororm uh dropped the pass. Corm dropped the pitch in this game. Should really appreciate even if Christian McCaffrey is not gaining a lot of yards as far as just the pure ground game goes, should appreciate the fact that Christian McCaffrey generally is not making the the types of mistakes that the Rams running backs were making yesterday. And that ended up being a a difference in this game. Somebody asked about Ben Bartch a little bit earlier. I think that’s a player the 49ers can really really use back. You know, there was a lot of talk about Connor Colby potentially Wally Pipping Ben Bar. That’s definitely not happening right now. I think Colobby will be a fine player for the 49ers down the road, but we just didn’t expect him to be thrust into this this soon. And there have been a lot of pass protection issues. I think that the 49ers, too, they’re they’re geared for a certain type of run game. The the one that they’re not geared toward is get a yard, get two yards at the goal line. I I think Jake Brendle is a more athletic center. He’s a little bit lighter. It seemed that he that he was struggling to to not get blown back on, you know, that one goal line stand from the Rams. Should have been roughing the passer, but 49ers just couldn’t get that that yard. They had to kick the field goal after Mack went down in the crumpled heap. I mean, this game was so hard fought. So hard fought. And now the 49ers can look forward to to Tampa Bay with a little extra rest. You know, Tampa Bay’s got to play Seattle this weekend, and they’re beaten up. Tampa Bay is, so we’re going to get to see Seattle and then the 49ers, like two common NFC West teams play against the Buccaneers. We’ll see how healthy the Bucks are, but we do know the 49ers are more rest coming into this Tampa Bay game than than the Bucks do, who are going to be tested by Seattle. It’s going to be a grinded out game against the Seattle Seahawks for for Tampa. So, the 49ers have a big scheduling advantage coming into this next game. Colobby needs more seasoning. There’s no substitute for experience, especially at offensive line, especially up front. The game is in Tampa. Yes. What a battle we got to see between Trent Williams and Jared. Yeah. And Trent Williams had really slowed down. I Trent is battling his ass off and he’s having to play some left guard too because because there are issues with Colby at left guard. I really wish people would would would consider the the bigger picture when they’re trying to make these sweeping judgments on Trent Williams. I mean he the 49ers were an absolute dog fight. That is a bear of a front that the that the Rams bring to the table and the 49ers were were able to save them off enough to to execute the game plan that we talked about. This is it. It was the Jimmy Garopolo game plan from 2021 2020 against the Rams. They’ve gotten wins. Short throws, accurate throws, avoid sacks, avoid interceptions, keep the line moving. That was the 49ers only path to victory. They had to take the air out of this game yesterday and take the air out of the game. They did enough of it that they blinked a couple times, but then the defense forced the the Rams to blink a couple times and they won that turnover battle, right? If you count the fourth down stop as a turnover, they’re plus three in in turnover differential. So, um, greasy win. That’s that’s what we said the 49ers would have to strive for. That is what they got against the Rams. Mack undefeated this year. You were correct about that. You do need two quarterbacks to compete. 49ers have those two QBs. Best room in the league. It’s either Stafford and Garopolo in LA or it’s Mac and and Brock Perie in San Francisco. And I cannot emphasize enough how much I agree with this take. Kyle dialed in a perfect game plan for Max Strengths. Kyle was in his bag last night. Now, there were a couple times that he blinked and I was critical. I thought it was fair and and I’m being fair to Kyle right now because we have to acknowledge how damn good he was. He out coached McVey, that’s for sure. He set M. Jones up and the offense even so short-handed he set them up for for true success. and he, you know, he recognized that the 49ers needed to keep balance even though that run game obviously was was having a hard time against the the Rams run defense, but but he he didn’t go overboard with the push for balance. He he he didn’t run into too many brick walls. We’ve seen that happen before for Kyle Shanahan. We’ve seen him get too pass happy before. We’ve seen some extremes yesterday. the I mean it was a lot of throws for M. Jones, don’t get me wrong, 49 throws, but the the he was able to scheme a pass game that was essentially an extension of the run game and it was able to mitigate the Rams pass rush enough to to to set the 49ers up for true success. I mean, there you go. 33 of 49, 342 yards for M. Jones, and the 49ers put up 26 points, beat the Rams 26-23. Kyle, you know, I thought that he should have gone for the kill shot there in overtime. He was afraid of a holding penalty in the end zone of a safety. I think that you could run a safer pass play that that doesn’t really risk holding and and those kind of negative outcomes as much as Kyle said said that it would. Um, and I think the Rams might not have even been been bracing for it. And I think it could have ended the game right there. That’s what I would recommend to Kyle Shanahan. But um you know, he wasn’t perfect, right? He wasn’t perfect, but but he was damn good. And Kyle Shanahan deserves all the flowers that that should be coming his way here over the course of Oh, look. We got the We got the 49ers victory speech. We’re going to play this from the locker room to finish the show. Here we go. If I could download it. Got to save it to down. Here we go. All the way to the D. Who stopped that dude on the goal line? Albert. Hey, Alfred got the strip, right? Dline, man. Alfred, you making that strip? Albert, come over here. Hey, bro. I know y’all boys against the wall, bro. Hey, we going to fight. Yeah. Eddie four for four hit a 59 y every time, bro. That’s why football is the greatest team sport. You guys have my back. I appreciate it, man. IGYB. Yes, sir. Here we go. Family on three. 1 2 3. IG YB. I got your back. Shared to the 49ers by Steve Young. I think Roger Craig imparted that message on him way way way back in the day. And Max said it the best. This is why football is a great game. It’s it’s a team sport. Team sport. We can’t just parse this through an individual lens. Oh, Christian McCaffrey is not running for enough yards per carry. Everybody is part of collective success and failure. And so far this year, the 49ers have succeeded so many more times than they failed at the high lever spots. Spots where they lost last year, they are winning this year because of mentality, because of talent, because that mix that the the jelling of of of what they brought together, the youth infusion of the defense. they’ve gotten that extra little bit of energy, that extra magic that teams, you know, some franchises have never had the right combination of it, right? That’s why they never won a Super Bowl. You need that collection of ingredients to reach the promised land in this league. You also need more health. Right now, the 49ers aren’t healthy enough to win a Super Bowl. if if they had to go on a playoff run right now, it probably would would end uh sooner than than people would like it to end. But that doesn’t mean that they can’t get healthier as this year rolls on and get into a better position to actually deliver uh a a quality playoff run. And and the hard part is finding the ingredients of grit and resilience that the 49ers have already shown and definitely did show last night. Go check out the San Francisco Standard article. This is written from the locker room itself. You can rewind if you want your Tacoba’s boots as well. Thank you to them. They’re the sponsor of this show. Again, if you want to see the the standard and the article, it is up right here. Link is in the description. I’m going to pin it at the top of the comments section. Everybody, thanks for watching. Uh there’s going to be much more for you. I’m still in LA. I’ll have much more for you over the course of today.

READ here: https://sfstandard.com/2025/10/02/alfred-collins-49ers-rams-marques-sigle/

Relive a 49ers MONSTER WIN: Mac Jones, Robert Saleh, Alfred Collins FLEX on Rams

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