49ers Studs and Duds: Week 7
The 49ers are playing their best football of the season right now, as they’ve found their offensive identity. That identity is to control the time of possession battle by running the football and relying on the short-area passing game. That is exactly what we saw from the team against the Patriots.
For the second consecutive week, the 49ers controlled the football for around 38 minutes. That is good for a 16-minute time-of-possession differential. The team picked up 226 more yards of total offense than the Patriots on their way to out scoring them 33-6.
Defensively, Robert Saleh had his troops ready to go once again, despite missing eight starters on that side of the ball.
Unfortunately for the 49ers, they were not able to walk away from the matchup healthy. Both Jeff Wilson Jr. and Deebo Samuel injured themselves and will miss the next few games.
Injuries aside, the game itself was an extraordinary accomplishment for the team. The loss handed the Patriots their first three-game losing streak since 2002, and their worst start to a season since 2000.
Like last week, there are no dud performers to discuss. Another great team win where no one played poorly enough to be deemed a dud. So let's take a look at some stud performers.
Studs
1) Defensive Coordinator, Robert Saleh
In this game, Saleh was missing eight starters from the Week 1 matchup against the Cardinals: Nick Bosa, Dee Ford, Solomon Thomas, Kwon Alexander, K’Waun Williams, Richard Sherman, Jaquiski Tartt and Jimmie Ward. Despite rolling with a bunch of players who began the season as backups, Saleh’s defense completely smothered the Patriots’ offense.
The greatest accomplishment in this game was that the 49ers defense showed tremendous strides in containing mobile quarterbacks. Cam Newton, the Patriots’ leading rusher, rushed five times for only 19 yards.
It wasn’t only Newton who was contained, it was the Patriots offense as a whole. They only gained 241 yards, while averaging 4.9 yards per play. The team wasn’t able to ever reach the red zone and turned the ball over four times.
Two weeks ago, Saleh lost a lot of momentum in regards to becoming a head coach in 2021. But the past two weeks, he’s gained all of that momentum back. Hopefully for the 49ers, he can have another terrific game plan this week against the Seahawks.
2) Running Back Jeff Wilson
I’ve questioned Wilson’s game on the opposite side of mid-field for a long time. Going into this game, since 2019, he's averaged only two yards per carry when the ball was in 49ers’ territory. Because of this, I said the team should turn to rookie JaMycal Hasty.
Kyle Shanahan opted for Wilson, and the move paid off. Wilson proved me wrong big time. He finished the game with 19 touches, 120 yards from scrimmage, and a career-high three touchdowns. Wilson ran extremely hard, and was constantly delivering blows to Patriots defenders.
Unfortunately, he was not able to finish the game, as he suffered a high-ankle sprain while scoring a touchdown half way through the 3rd quarter. Nonetheless, it was an extremely impressive performance by the former undrafted running back.
3) Fullback Kyle Juszczyk
Juszczyk was involved fairly heavily in the 49ers’ offensive attack. He set career highs in carries (4) and rushing yards (18), while tying a career high with a rushing touchdown. He was also featured in the passing game, catching one of his two targets for 18 yards.
His lone catch came on a herculean diving effort, where he saved a bad pass from Jimmy Garoppolo. Juszczyk also had a major impact as a blocker, as his blocking was a huge reason why the 49ers had such a successful day on the ground. Moving forward, the team should look to keep Juszczyk heavily involved in the offensive game plan.
4) Wide Receiver Brandon Aiyuk
Rookie Brandon Aiyuk enjoyed his most productive game as an NFL receiver, as he posted career highs in targets (seven), receptions (six), yards (115), yards per reception (19.17), and yards after the catch (53). Aiyuk caught a 35-yard pass from Garoppolo, which should’ve been a touchdown if the ball was thrown more accurately. The only hiccup from Aiyuk against the Patriots was that he didn’t bat down a Hail Mary pass thrown by Garoppolo before halftime. Instead the pass was intercepted.
Aiyuk’s performance is very encouraging, because the 49ers will need him to play a bigger role as the season progresses. With Samuel out for the foreseeable future, Aiyuk is unquestionably the team’s No. 1 wide receiver. If Aiyuk can take his game to the next level like Samuel did during the stretch of last season, the 49ers should be in good hands.
5) “All Pro” Linebacker Fred Warner
Warner is not only swan-diving into the conversation of being an All Pro, but he’s also swan-diving into the Defensive Player of the Year (DPoY) conversation. The 49ers have not had one of their defenders win DPoY since Dana Stubblefield in 1997, but they may have one on their hands in Warner.
During the broadcast of the game, Tony Romo commented on Warner saying, “(Warner) does so many things at a high level. That’s the best linebacker in ball right there”.
Warner finished the game with a team-leading seven tackles and picked off his second pass of the year. The leader of the 49ers defense is starting to generate buzz from the national media, which is a great step towards receiving league-wide award honors.
6) Safety Tarvarius Moore
After weeks of pounding the table for Tarvarius Moore to get more playing time, he finally took the field after both Ward and Tartt were sidelined with injuries. Moore took advantage of his opportunity and played extremely well.
He lined up as both a free safety and strong safety and made plays all over the field. He displayed tremendous closing speed, and backed the low 4.3 40-yard dash time he ran at his Southern Mississippi Pro-Day a few years go.
Moore was responsible for two different third down stops, and made several tackles in run support. Even when Ward and Tartt return from injury, Saleh must find a way to get Moore on the field.
The fact that he previously played one snap over the course of the last three games is criminal. As the season progresses, I’d like to see more Moore.
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