Studs and Duds: Week 4
Painful. That’s the word that comes to mind when reflecting on the 49ers’ devastating 20-25 loss against the Eagles. The game was painful to watch, and the end result certainly generated a feeling of pain.
Considering what’s ahead for the 49ers schedule-wise, they needed to (and still do) rack up as many wins as possible between Weeks 1 and 5. With the Week 5 matchup against the Dolphins coming up, the team being 2-2 is very underwhelming. Especially considering the Niners were in a position to win both games that they lost.
Losing to the Eagles was a giant missed opportunity. Entering this game, the Eagles were winless. They couldn’t beat the two worst teams in football from 2019 - the Washington Football Team and the Bengals. Because of the loss, the upcoming game against Miami seemingly carries as much weight as a playoff game.
The season is not a lost cause, at least not yet, but there is not too much to feel overly optimistic about. Expectations of the 2020 season have shifted from Super Bowl or Bust, to just trying to make the playoffs and see what happens.
The prime time game against the Eagles was ugly, but a few players had stellar performances worth mentioning.
Here are the 49ers’ Week 4 studs and duds:
Studs
1- George Kittle
Kittle looked like the best tight end in football on Sunday night. He caught a career high 15 passes for 183 yards, and scored a touchdown. More impressively, Kittle caught every single one of his targets. 15 targets, 15 receptions.
He looks to have fully recovered from his knee injury, as he was extremely dangerous after the catch. 74 of his 183 receiving yards came after the reception.
Through three games, Kendrick Bourne was the 49ers’ leading receiver with 10 receptions and 164 yards. Yet, George Kittle was able to top both of those numbers in one single outing.
Ideally, the team shouldn’t have to throw Kittle the ball the 15 times, but they did, and he delivered. The 49ers must decrease his workload if they want him to make it through the final 12 games of the regular season, as he is a vital part of the team's success.
2- Arik Armstead
On Sunday night, Armstead looked like a lineman worth $85M. He was consistently generating pressure, but just couldn’t get to Carson Wentz quick enough to rack up his sack total.
Armstead is between an edge rusher and interior lineman, so he’s not as athletic nor quick as your typical edge guy. Because of that, I’ll cut him some slack as to why he couldn’t translate his pressures into sacks. Wentz’s athleticism makes it difficult for any d-lineman to bring him down outside the pocket.
But make no mistake, Armstead was making impact plays for the 49ers’ defense. In the 2nd quarter, he had a tackle for a loss and on the very next play pressured Wentz into a bad pass which concluded the drive.
The 49ers gave Armstead a huge contract to stop the run and apply pressure. That’s exactly what he did. It was easily his best performance of the young campaign.
3- Jerick McKinnon
McKinnon is on the list for the fourth consecutive week. If you were to look at McKinnon’s stats from this game, nothing would necessarily leap out at you. So you must dig deeper.
He finished the game with 54 rushing yards, however, had 57 yards after contact.
Anytime a running back finishes the game with more yards after contact than actual rushing yards, it usually means the offensive line stunk. The 49ers’ offensive line sucked, and McKinnon had to make something out of nothing time and time again.
As a pass catcher, McKinnon caught 7 balls for 43 yards. The best stat of them all, McKinnon became the first 49er since Jerry Rice to score touchdowns in four consecutive games to begin the season.
A healthy McKinnon has been a ginormous addition to this injury plagued team.
4- Jaquiski Tartt
Tartt is playing really good football right now. He is making plays down field and in the back field, and his ability to make plays everywhere was on display against the Eagles.
For example, he had a terrific pass breakup, which was almost an interception, on a play where he had to cover lots of ground to get there. He also had a tackle for a 12 yard loss on an end-around, where he showed tremendous instincts.
Tartt is playing much better than his counterpart, Jimmie Ward.
5- CJ Beathard
Beathard’s stats are inflated. He stepped into the game with five minutes left, and threw for 138 yards. The stats are not why he made this stud list. Beathard is on this list because he inherited a terrible situation and grabbed it by the horns. He was up for a challenge. After Nick Mullens’ interception the game felt like it was over, but Beathard had other ideas.
I was so impressed with how Beathard took control of the offense. Being down 11 points with five minutes to go is not an ideal situation whatsoever, yet C.J. freakin’ Beathard made it a game. The game came down to the final play, and that’s all you can ask for in that sort of situation. For that, I salute him.
We’ll see if Beathard starts on Sunday if Jimmy Garoppolo can’t go.
Duds
1- Nick Mullens
If Nick Mullens were to have had another tremendous game Sunday night, I believe there would’ve been a legit talk about a quarterback controversy. The ball was literally in Mullens’ hands to make Shanahan think long and hard about which quarterback would lead this team for the foreseeable future, and Mullens laid in egg.
He was bad, there is no other way to put it. On the 49ers’ first play of the game, he missed a wide open Bourne. He missed him so bad that if Bourne didn’t deflect the pass, it would’ve been intercepted. The second play of the game, he overthrew a wide open Kyle Juszczyk. Unfortunately for Mullens, it was a sign of things to come.
On the 49ers’ second to last drive of the first half, Mullens threw an interception as he was hit, on a play where the right thing to do was clearly to throw the ball away. However, that was not Mullens’ worst moment of the night. His worst moment was throwing a pass directly to an Eagles defender, which resulted in a touchdown. It put the 49ers down 11 points, and cost the team the game.
Rough.
2- The Offensive Line (Except Ben Garland)
Ben Garland wasn’t bad enough to end up on this list. On the other hand, all other offensive lineman were. As mentioned before, McKinnon had more rushing yards after contact than actual rushing yards. He was getting hit in the back field far too often, and it’s because the o-line struggled to run block. They’ve struggled all year.
Run blocking aside, the line also struggled to pass block. Mullens was sacked four times, while Beathard was sacked once. Garland was the only lineman to have not surrendered a sack. Trent Williams, Laken Tomlinson, Dan Brunskill, and Mike McGlinchey all had a rough night.
Focusing on the tackles- both Trent Williams and Mike McGlinchey were terrible. Williams was arguably worse than McGlinchey, and that’s saying something.
McGlinchey gave up a pressure that resulted in Mullens’ first interception. On the final drive of the game, McGlinchey got beat over and over when the game was on the line.
Williams hurt the 49ers by committing penalties, and giving up sacks.
- 1st Quarter (10:12): 1st and 10 - Williams called for holding - now 1st and 20
- 1st Quarter (9:16): 2nd and 15 - Williams gives up sack - now 3rd and 21
- 4th Quarter (15:00): 1st and 10 - Williams gives up sack - now 2nd and 22
- 4th Quarter (1:40): 1st and 10 - Williams called for false start - now 1st and 15
I’d argue that Williams setting the 49ers’ drives back over and over again was more costly than McGlinchey giving up pressures over and over again. And that is coming from a guy who has been extremely hard on McGlinchey. Extremely hard.
McGlinchey is starting to remind me of Kwame Harris, in the sense that he is great against the run but can’t pass block, and is good for at least two plays per game that make you want to pull your hair out.
3- Jimmie Ward
Ward was like the defensive version of Williams. While Williams kept setting the 49ers’ offense back, Ward kept propelling the opposing offense forward.
Ward let the Eagles keep their drive alive multiple times throughout the game, whether it be giving up a reception or committing a penalty. Ward was called for pass interference on 3rd down, and committed defensive holding on a 2nd and 22.
Ward looked bad trying to cover Eagles receivers all night.
At least his old high school teammate Jaquiski Tartt is playing well though.
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