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| 49ers, NFL |
The San Francisco 49ers did not waste any time disposing of an overrated Cleveland Browns squad on Monday night.
It started with Matt Breida going 83 yards for a score on their first play from scrimmage. From there, San Francisco dominated in every possible way, defeating Cleveland by the score of 31-3.
For the first time since 1990, these 49ers have started a season 4-0. They came out of the bye week on absolute fire. The end result was Kyle Shanahan’s squad making a league-wide statement in front of a national audience.
Here are some of the top takeaways from yet another 49ers blowout win.
The Team Has Arrived
Those around the NFL were questioning San Francisco’s place as one of only two undefeated teams in the league, joining the defending champion New England Patriots on that list. For good reason. The 49ers’ had beaten three teams with a combined 3-12 record before embarking on their Week 4 bye.
Taking on one of the most-hyped teams in the NFL on Monday night, the 49ers did not look back. They rattled Baker Mayfield to the tune of three forced turnovers, four sacks and eight quarterback hits.
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The game itself was not even this close. San Francisco racked up 22 first downs compared to nine and out-gained the Browns, 446-180. If it weren’t for three missed field goals and another missed opportunity on a short field, we could have been looking at this team dropping 50.
Sure the Browns didn’t show much fight. That’s going to be an issue for head coach Freddie Kitchens and Co. moving forward. Even then, San Francisco laid the hammer down and didn’t hold up. The NFL has now been put on notice.
Still Major Issues At Wide Receiver
Dante Pettis dropped a surefire touchdown with the game out of control in the fourth quarter. Marquise Goodwin and Deebo Samuel also had drops in a game that saw Jimmy Garoppolo look pretty sharp from the outset. This has been a major issue for the 49ers over the past few seasons, and it could come back to haunt them again this year.
We’re now openly campaigning for general manager John Lynch to do something about this. It’s not that San Francisco misses a true No. 1 receiver. It just does not have that one guy on the outside who can step up for Jimmy Garoppolo and be a consistent receiving threat outside of George Kittle.
With the NFL trade deadline nearing here soon, San Francisco needs to address these issues. Whether it’s Emmanuel Sanders or A.J. Green, Lynch needs to be on the phone with sellers ahead of the deadline. Monday proved that to a T.
Nick Bosa Is A Man Possessed
This rookie No. 2 overall pick had no time for Baker Mayfield’s antics Monday night. Bosa was all over the field in an utterly dominating overall performance. He pressured the second-year quarterback double-digit times, recording five quarterback hits and two sacks. Bosa should have also been credited with another sack late in the second quarter when Mayfield was called for intentional grounding.
It’s quite remarkable how good Bosa has been through the first five games of the season. Taking on a lesser Browns offensive line, the Ohio State product imposed his will in every possible way. He’s going to be an absolute blast to watch moving forward.
Absolutely Dominating Rushing Attack
In his return from an injury he suffered back in Week 1, Tevin Coleman put up 97 yards and a touchdown on 16 attempts. Matt Breida went for 114 yards, including that game-opening score. It was yet another dominating run-blocking performance from San Francisco’s offensive line, sans six-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Staley.
The 49ers have now tallied a whopping 702 rushing yards over the past three games and are averaging nearly 223 yards on the ground this season. Winning the battles in the trenches goes a long way as a season progresses. San Francisco is already the top rushing attack in the NFL. Just wait until this gels even more moving forward.
Concerns In The Secondary Were Overblown
Logically, the idea of seeing youngster Emmanuel Moseley go up against Odell Beckham Jr. Monday night did not seem to be ideal for the 49ers. Ahkello Witherspoon is out to injury after yielding a sub 10.0 passer rating in the first three games. Moseley had seen less than 50 career regular-season snaps heading into Week 5.
None of this mattered. Moseley was downright awesome in his first ever NFL start. He aided in helping Beckham catch all of two passes for 27 yards on six targets. In fact, Cleveland seemed to attack Richard Sherman more on the other side. That resulted in an early interception for the future Hall of Famer.
We’re also going to give often-injured safety Jimmie Ward a ton of credit here. He was a surprise start over Tarvarius Moore in the veteran’s season debut. That had more to do with Ward’s experience playing corner and the fact that San Francisco needed help over the top against Beckham. Ward came to play big time, recording three tackles and two passes defended in the win.
An elite pass rush will mask issues in the secondary. This is well known. However, San Francisco’s pass defense came to play in holding Mayfield to 58 net passing yards on 22 attempts. That’s just crazy stuff.
Other Notes
* As noted above, this is the first time San Francisco has started 4-0 since 1990. Interestingly enough, that 1990 season also saw the 49ers win their fourth game On Oct. 7.
* It’s also worth noting that a then Jim Harbuagh-led 49ers squad became the first team ever to rack up 300-plus rushing yards and 3oo-plus passing yards in the same game seven years ago Monday night in a 45-3 win over the Bills. October 7 seems to be a good day for this franchise.
* Pro Bowl 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk left in the second half of Monday’s game with a leg injury. It did not look good. He immediately clutched for the knee and was carted off the field. After the game, Shanahan noted that he believes the game’s best fullback suffered a knee sprain. Tests later this week will determine how long Juszczyk is out. It could be a major issue moving forward in the run game.
* After a resounding performance, Bosa was not about to let up in talking about Mayfield after their drama-filled college days. He absolutely unloaded on the second-year quarterback.
This is certainly something Mayfield will have to get accustomed to moving forward after all the talking he’s done over the past few years. As it relates to Bosa, his fire is burning bright right now. That has to be of concern for opposing NFC West offenses moving forward.
* Dante Pettis and Deebo Samuel combined to catch 2-of-6 targets for 14 yards in the win. They dropped a total of three passes. This is not what San Francisco had in mind entering the season. After all, Garoppolo was 18-of-23 when targeting other 49ers skill-position players.
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