The 49ers stayed undefeated with a 20-7 romp over the Rams in Los Angeles. San Francisco was sensational, especially on defense, in their NFC West opener. It’s getting harder to find things to detract from the 49ers’ 5-0 start.
Here are six takeaways we had from the huge Week 6 win.
49ers are team to beat in NFC West
There are no more questions about it. The 49ers, as of Week 6, are the team to beat in the NFC West. They went into the LA Coliseum and dominated essentially the entire game. The Rams scored on the first series of the game, then didn’t get anything going the rest of the contest. San Francisco’s defense was dominant, and they cobbled together enough offense to pull out the victory. That’s the biggest win of the Kyle Shanahan era, and Robert Saleh’s best game as a defensive coordinator.
Dealing with injuries
San Francisco’s run game wasn’t very good without Joe Staley, Mike McGlinchey and Kyle Juszczyk, but they did just enough behind Jimmy Garoppolo to get a win. It’s clear they can’t put together a playoff run without those three guys, but they can tread water and win a few games until they return. The 49ers head to Washington next week, then come home to face the Panthers the following week. After that they should start getting some of their injured players back. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked for now.
Kicking game is a problem
Robbie Gould missed his sixth kick of the year at the end of the first half. He missed a 55-yarder way short and wide right. He’s now tied his career high for missed kicks in a season. The 49ers have to figure out their kicking game soon if they’re going to win close games in the thick of the playoff hunt. Gould did hit kicks of 25 and 34 yards to help lift the 49ers to a win.
Defense is real
In case there was any doubt left, the 49ers defense is legit. They held the Rams to 7 points, just the third time they’ve scored 7 or fewer in the Sean McVay era. The 49ers held Los Angeles to 10 first downs, 165 total yards and 56 passing yards. They also sacked Goff four times and hit him five times. The Rams were also 0-for-9 on third down, and 0-for-3 on fourth down. It was one of the most dominant showings we’ve seen against a McVay offense. There are still questions about this club, but the defense is Super Bowl caliber.
Points left on the board
San Francisco beat LA by 13 points, but they left a bunch of points on the board. Jimmy Garoppolo threw a bad interception in the end zone, Gould missed a field goal, then Tevin Coleman dropped a sure touchdown in the third quarter that forced the 49ers to settle for a field goal instead of seven points. That’s 14 points they left on the field because of miscues. This should’ve been an even more lopsided final score.
George Kittle is still good
The 49ers needed their tight end to have a big game, and they leaned on him heavily despite a groin injury that made him questionable leading into the game Kittle played and came up with eight catches for 103 yards, and had a huge third-down reception on a third-and-3 on the 49ers’ second series. They eventually found the end zone on that series.
