FINAL: @Teco_Raww scores 4 TDs as the @49ers dominate! #GoNiners #CARvsSF pic.twitter.com/bGH2mGHnet
— NFL (@NFL) October 27, 2019
Let’s start out with some bad news for the San Francisco 49ers: They finally allowed a touchdown to a running back.
Besides that, the 49ers set a new high by dropping 51 whole points on a rested Carolina Panthers squad to get to 7-0. The 49ers fired Jim Harbaugh after the 2014 NFL season, when 8-8 was considered a disappointment. San Francisco failed to finish better than 6-10 in the last four seasons, a span that included two head coaching changes, a new top personnel executive, and six starting quarterbacks.
The current San Francisco QB, Jimmy Garoppolo, is not the driving engine of this burgeoning machine. That’s great! All Garoppolo needs to do is stay in the lineup, and now he’s appeared in a career-high seven games. Congratulations. Garoppolo still hasn’t put together a 300-yard passing game this season, but perhaps that changes with WR Emmanuel Sanders on board after a trade with Denver. Sanders led SF WRs with four receptions on five targets for 25 yards against the Panthers, including a four-yard touchdown to get the scoring started.
The 49ers don’t need to throw, though, if they’re going to get prime production from their RBBC. Against the Panthers, it was the Tevin Coleman show (118 total yards on 13 touches, four total TDs). But it’s not just Coleman this season. Five 49ers have scored multiple TDs this season – four of them are RBs. Coleman had his big day in Week 8. RB Raheem Mostert also scored against the Panthers, and he had a 39-yard TD reception in Week 2. RB Jeff Wilson scored four TDs inside the five-yard line in Weeks 2-3. And RB Matt Breida still leads the team in yards from scrimmage.
The real key to San Francisco’s renaissance has been a defense that allows the fewest yards per game through eight weeks. No team has a better sack percentage. Only one team has allowed fewer rushing TDs. Only one team has allowed a lower passer rating.
Look, Carolina RB Christian McCaffrey is pretty much matchup proof, and he did give San Francisco work en route to accumulating 155 yards on 18 touches. That included a 40-yard TD run where the 49ers barely touched McCaffrey; San Francisco is allowing a substandard 4.4 yards per rush. But non-CMC Panthers were held to 75 yards overall. That includes the 58 yards lost via seven sacks on Carolina QB Kyle Allen, who also threw the first three INTs of this career. 2019 first round rookie DE Nick Bosa caught one of the INTs to go with 3.0 sacks, earning Week 8 Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Defensive Players of the Week (Week 8):
— NFL (@NFL) October 30, 2019
AFC: @Chargers DE @jbbigbear
NFC: @49ers DL @nbsmallerbear
(by @HeadShoulders) pic.twitter.com/n2GlK5vWdZ
I would totally be here for a 49ers-Patriots Super Bowl – an opportunity for the 49ers to tie the Patriots with six Super Bowl wins, the apprenticeship between Tom Brady and Garoppolo, the last two undefeated teams, the two best defenses through October. It’s not going to happen since neither team will even make the Super Bowl. But it’s fun to think about!
TEAMS OF THE WEEK:
NE, PIT, IND, LACPHI, GB, NO, SF
TOP PERFORMERS:
MIN run defense (OLB Anthony Barr)SEA offensive line (QB Russell Wilson)
PHI run offense (RB Jordan Howard)
LAC pass rusher (DE Joey Bosa)
DET pass offense (WR Kenny Golladay)
IND pass defense (DE Ben Banogu)
JAX pass offense (WR Chris Conley)
LA pass defense (CB Nickell Robey)
NO pass offense (WR Michael Thomas)
TEN offensive line (QB Ryan Tannehill)
SF run offense (RB Tevin Coleman)
HOU run offense (RB Carlos Hyde)
NE pass offense (WR Julian Edelman)
GB pass offense (RB Aaron Jones)
PIT run offense (RB James Conner)
Looking ahead to Week 9
Open Dates – Atlanta, Cincinnati, Los Angeles Rams, New Orleans:
This Falcons team is a big Julio Jones play against a sorry secondary away from being winless. At least Jones got his money. The Falcons are the anti-Patriots when it comes to defending the pass, allowing 19 TDs against only two INTs. Recent first round pass rushers OLB Vic Beasley and DE Takkarist McKinley have combined for only 2.0 sacks this season. The Bengals benched QB Andy Dalton on his birthday, are openly feuding with OL Cordy Glenn, and are threatening to mess with WR AJ Green’s money. None of that speaks to how their defense is even worse than Atlanta’s, with ILB Preston Brown still looking for his first TFL of the season. Rams QB Jared Goff is having a subpar season from an efficiency standpoint, but only Michael Thomas and Chris Godwin are averaging more receiving yards per game than Los Angeles Rams WR Cooper Kupp (99.0). Meanwhile, the Rams are the only team to beat the Saints in 2019. New Orleans is having a fantastic season defensively, led by DE Cameron Jordan and his 8.0 sacks.
49ers at Arizona: Fun fact! The Arizona Cardinals won three games last season. They went 2-0 against the 49ers, and 1-13 against everyone else. 1 Last season, the Cardinals benefited from beating up on San Francisco QB C.J. Beathard. This season, Arizona will need to stop the run to give their strong pass rush a chance at pulling the upset, something the Cardinals are not good at doing on a per play basis. 2
Vikings at Kansas City: The Vikings will have to prepare for multiple quarterbacks, as Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes has an outside chance of coming back from a knee injury. The Chiefs haven’t won a game yet this season in which they have failed to score 25 points, while the Vikings won their only game this season in which they allowed more than 21 points. We know the Chiefs aren’t going to run the ball, so it will be interesting to see if the Kansas City linebackers will have any kind of answer for Minnesota RB Dalvin Cook. I reckon they will not!
Packers at Los Angeles Chargers: Speaking of running the ball – the Chargers fired offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt after escaping Chicago with a win after a missed 41-yard field goal by Bears K Eddy Pineiro. The Chargers have failed to break 40 yards rushing as a team in four consecutive games, a streak that started when they got RB Melvin Gordon back from holdout. If they can’t run the ball on Green Bay, a bottom-five run defense allowing 4.8 yards a rush, then we know the Chargers issues are that much bigger than Whisenhunt. On the other side of the ball, the Chargers need Week 8 AFC Defensive Player of the Week DE Joey Bosa to encore at “home” before Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers lights up the middle of the field by targeting RB Aaron Jones.
Patriots at Baltimore: The Ravens had a week off to watch the Patriots embarrass another offense while finding WR Julian Edelman for a pair of scores against the Browns. The only team to gain more than 350 yards of offense against the Patriots this year? The Buffalo Bills, who feature a dynamic rushing threat in QB Josh Allen. Enter Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson, who is better at everything than Allen. Jackson is averaging 82.3 rushing yards per game; only former Denver QB Tim Tebow ran for more than 82 yards while attempting more than 10 passes against a New England defense since 2000. 3 It’s going to be an interesting night in what will be the first Patriots game in Maryland since 2013.
Cowboys at New York Giants: We touched on the NFC Least last week. We saw the Cowboys beat on the Giants to open the season. The Cowboys had a week off to get WR Amari Cooper ready for a New York defense that Cooper roasted for 106 yards and a TD in Week 1. The only difference is now we get to see a different Giants QB turn the ball over multiple times on national television. Enjoy, I guess.