When San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel gathered in a lateral from wide receiver Mike Evans and ran 80 yards for a touchdown on his team’s third play of the game, it should have been an omen of what was to come Sunday afternoon in Santa Clara.
While the Cardinals had just one play for more than 20 yards, the 49ers had six, and three went for touchdowns. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett completed 38 passes for 280 yards, an average of 7.4 per catch, the lowest in the NFL in Week 3. Of all other teams, only seven had an average per completion under 10 and the second-lowest was Titans quarterback Cam Ward at 7.9.
Brock Purdy had a mere 15 completions, but they went for 297 yards, a 19.8-yard average. Even without the 82-yard Evans-Samuel score,
the average was 15.4.
Overall, the 49ers averaged 8.9 yards on 50 plays compared to the Cardinals' 4.5-yard average on 81 plays.
As Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur noted, “When you play this offense, you better be on your Ps and Qs at the highest level. It’s not an effort thing by any means, but we have to clean some stuff up. We have got to get to the quarterback a little bit better. And when we did, he’s pretty dang talented in terms of escaping. You have to be very disciplined with your rush lanes. You have to be able to tackle. There’s a lot of things like that.”
While critics enjoy putting defensive coordinator Nick Rallis in the crosshairs, for the most part it’s players making or not making plays that makes the difference in games.
As Purdy said when asked about the Cardinals game plan, "I thought they did a good job. They do a lot of different looks and fronts and different things with their secondary and with coverages. They did some things where they schemed us up and sort of broke some of their tendencies and things like that and gave us a bunch of different kind of looks.
“I thought they did a good job of dropping back in the zone and making us be smart. They're a great defense, a great play-caller and scheme. I have a lot of respect for them."
Let’s break down the breakdowns on defense.
Time of possession
Sometimes it’s important; other times, not so much.
The 49ers had the ball for only 21:16 in the game, but they were supremely productive. Their longest scoring possession and in the game was 5:16 (10 plays, 93 yards for a touchdown).
Three lasted 1:20 or less: 23 seconds on an end-of-half field goal, 52 seconds that ended on the Samuel score and 1:20 on their final touchdown drive of seven plays, 65 yards. The other two TD possessions were seven plays, 56 yards, 3:53 and eight plays, 65 yards, 4:24.
As a comparison, the Cardinals had four possessions longer than 5:16: 12 plays, 42 yards, 5:42 (punt); 14 plays, 68 yards, 5:51 (TD); 14 plays, 69 yards, 8:05 (TD); 14 plays, 69 yards, 8:09 (field goal).
The big plays
- 93-yard drive: Pass plays 12, 13, 23 (TD) and 26.
- Field-goal drive: One play of 34 yards that put the 49ers in position for a 57-yard kick.
- 56-yard drive: Pass plays of 11, 12, and 18.
- First 65-yard drive: Pass plays of 10 (TD), 11 (2) and runs of 9 (two) and 10.
- Second 65-yard drive: Pass plays of 11 and 20 (TD) and runs of 12 and 35.
The latter two were in the fourth quarter and totaled 138 yards on 10 plays.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan singled out a Christian McCaffrey 12-yard run on second-and-10 from the 49ers 46-yard line to the Cardinals 42 with the score 29-27.
“I thought it was such a huge run,” Shanahan said. “We ran an inside zone. I couldn't see exactly what happened, but I thought he got stuffed for like four yards, so it's a huge third-and-six, I'm thinking. But he kept his feet and we kept pushing the pile, which felt like almost the biggest play of the day.”
Rarely used wide receiver Jordan Watkins had two huge catches for 60 yards. One was for 26 on third-and-12 from the 49ers 34 that led to the 49ers second touchdown and 14-0 lead. He was wide open for the 34-yarder that resulted in the 57-yard field goal by Eddy Pineiro with eight seconds remaining that gave the 49ers a 17-6 halftime lead.
Of course, Pineiro also missed two extra points, which prompted Shanahan to say, “I thought that 57-yard field goal he made at the end of the second quarter was one of the biggest kicks I've seen. Especially for us to open it in the third quarter and have a chance to lap them, which we did. I was going to probably give him a game ball or something, but he ruined that with the two extra points missed.”
Where’s Josh?
Sweat’s name is nowhere to be found in the stats, but he had a crucial roughing the passer penalty on a fourth-quarter third-and-6 incomplete pass from the Cardinals' 11-yard line that gave the 49ers a first down. One play later (after a 49ers illegal formation penalty), they scored a touchdown from the 10-yard line.
Sweat said, "That's definitely on me. I slipped up. I cost us."
The Cardinals had no sacks and only three quarterback hits on Purdy. Of course, he hasn’t been sacked yet this season. He was sacked 11 times in nine games last season.
Purdy spread praise all around when asked about the offensive line, which lost left tackle Trent Williams to a stinger in the third quarter.
“It's everybody, Purdy said. “The play-calling, the boys up front, the receivers being on top of making sure they're running the right routes and getting the ball out on time and stuff on our end at quarterback. So, it's a unit thing. It takes everybody. So, obviously it starts with the boys up front.
“They're playing their butt off right now. Like I've said before, they've all played with each other for a while. They understand all their different rules and passing things off and they're playing really hard right now. So, proud of those guys.”
Back-to-back penalties on special teams
It began on Pineiro’s 57-yard field goal on the final snap of the first half when Cardinals defensive lineman Darius Robinson was flagged for unnecessary roughness after the play. That led to the 15 yards being accounted for on the opening kickoff of the second half.
Kicking off from the 20, Chad Ryland got it to the 19 where the coverage team did a good job holding Samuel to a 10-yard return. However, Simi Fehoko grabbed Samuel’s facemask and the 15-yard walk-off moved the ball to the 44. Seven plays later the 49ers led 23-6 after a McCaffrey 1-yard touchdown run.
There were also head-scratching back-to-back end-zone kickoffs after the Cardinals two fourth-quarter touchdowns, allowing the 49ers to begin each possession at the 35-yard line. They scored touchdowns on each.
Notable is that Ryland’s four previous in-play kickoffs resulted in returns to the 32, 27, 29 (prior to the facemask penalty) and 23.
Why?
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: 49ers 36, Cardinals 30: 4 observations on defense, special teams
