SANTA CLARA — The Niners needed a game like that.
After back-to-back losses—a dud performance and a choke job—San Francisco played a team wholly inferior in the New England Patriots.
The Niners were able to get right, and pull back some (just a bit) of that hype they squandered the last two weeks.
The talent deficiency allowed the 49ers to mess around (quite a lot) but win comfortably anyway. They’re now 2-2 on the season, which seems just.
Here were the studs and duds of Sunday’s sloppy, chunky, altogether forgettable 30-13 win:
STUDS
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Fred Warner • LB
» Is anyone, at any position, playing as well as Fred Warner right now?
Not to my eye.
The Niners’ linebacker is the best run-stopper in the game. He’s also the best coverage linebacker in the sport, as he put into practice with his 45-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first half.
Warner only needed the first half to prove he’s the best defensive player in the game. His ankle injury kept him sidelined in the second half, though it required multiple 49ers staffers to keep him off the field.
If his injury keeps him sidelined longer than one half, the Niners are in big, big trouble.
George Kittle • TE
» Capped off a 10-play, 80-yard drive to cap the second quarter. More importantly, he scored on a drive where the Niners had two other touchdowns taken off the board by penalty (one of them Kittle’s — it was a bad call.)
Kittle’s strong-handed catch over three Patriots defenders in the back left corner of the end zone was the game-breaker. He remains a player the 49ers simply cannot do without, as evidenced by the Niners playing him in the second half, even as he had a rib injury.
Kevin Givens • DT
» Had 2.5 sacks in the first half, after having 5.5 in his career coming into the game. It helps going against one of the worst offensive lines in recent NFL history, but it was a wildly encouraging performance with starting defensive tackle Javon Hargrave going on injured reserve. Givens gets the right of first refusal at Hargrave’s gig, next to Malik Collins (who was immense on Sunday with 1.5 sacks as well.)
Jordan Mason • RB
» Took a while for him to get going, but when the train started rolling down the tracks, it was downright unstoppable. Mason finished with 24 carries for 123 yards and a touchdown. His chunk runs in the second half (25 and 24 yards) ended any outlandish concept of a Patriots comeback.
Nick Bosa • DE
» I don’t care what the stat sheet said after this one. He’s unreal. Everything the Niners did with the pass rush directly resulted from him winning rep after rep after rep.
Sam Okuayinonu • DE
» The man they signed off the street is much, much better than the defensive end they paid $20 million to this past offseason (Floyd). It’s strange how that happens a lot with the Niners.
DUDS
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Issac Guerrendo • RB, KR
» Not only does he look so much slower than his combine testing scores (and practice play) would imply, but he also fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half, setting up the Patriots’ first (and only) touchdown of the game.
He’s a rookie, you want to give him some grace, but I doubt we’ll see him for a while yet.
De’Vondre Campbell • LB
» Even the Patriots could attack and exploit him. If not for the otherworldly play of Fred Warner, this would be much more obvious to casual viewers. But those who are locked on the Niners are locked in on No. 59, because it simply keeps getting worse. But you can bet that opposing offensive coordinators know exactly where they’re attacking week-in, week-out. Other teams will be able to do it even better.
Leonard Floyd • DE
» Another game, another no-show. Floyd is already looking like a bust for the 49ers, but they have so many injuries on the defensive line, they have to play him.
Floyd was credited with three quarterback hits and a forced fumble in this game. The official scorer must have been watching something different. While Floyd was a bit more involved in the second half, he was a non-factor in the contest.
Mitch Wishnowsky • P
» He doesn’t look right. The majority of his punts Sunday had no lift or distance — they’re eminently returnable. Amid all the Niners’ terrible special teams play, this is a ticking time bomb.
Kyle Shanahan in the red zone
» The Niners kicked field goals of 22 and 26 yards Sunday.
That’s embarrassing.
It’s also an indictment of Kyle Shanahan’s play-calling near the end-zone.
The 49ers did score one first-half touchdown deep in Patriots territory, but it came on a jump ball from Brock Purdy to George Kittle.
The game was over before halftime, so it really doesn’t matter what happened in the second half. (As evidenced by Warner not playing.)
This is where the absence of Christian McCaffrey looms largest. Teams love to play man-to-man near the end-zone — there’s less ground to cover and it allows them to blitz more. McCaffrey, a mismatch against any position you put on him, neutralized so much of that.
Without him — and without Deebo Samuel in the backfield — the Niners’ playcalling is bland and anything but incisive.
Just as it was before McCaffrey.