Sunday night’s lesson: The 49ers aren’t going down easy as the schedule gets hard

The shame the San Francisco 49ers felt after getting blown out at home by the Miami Dolphins must have cut deep.

Which would explain why head coach Kyle Shanahan’s team played so well in Sunday night’s victory against the Rams, 24-16. The game could be a turning point for the defending NFC champions. Shanahan’s team has been battered by injuries and inconsistent play throughout the first five weeks, including last week’s blowout loss to Miami.

“When you get embarrassed like that, you can find out a lot about your team,” Shanahan said in his Zoom news conference Sunday night.

The lesson from the win over Los Angeles: the 49ers are not going down easy. There’s still plenty of fight left, even without Nick Bosa, Richard Sherman, Dee Ford and others while Jimmy Garoppolo battles a high ankle sprain and the schedule gets more difficult.

San Francisco is now back to .500 at 3-3 and avoided what could have been a disastrous 2-4 start to the season had the the 49ers not been sharp against the Rams, who entered the weekend 4-1 and won their last three games by an average of more than 15 points.

“I was very impressed with the character of our team and just how the players carried themselves and the way they came out to practice on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and really the way they responded to all of us (getting) embarrassed,” Shanahan said. “They tried to get better this week and not worry about anything else.”

49ers offense controls the line, defense plugs holes

It was apparent from the jump the 49ers were a different outfit than a week earlier when they hit halftime down, 30-6, to Miami.

At the break Sunday night, they were up, 21-6, while the offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage and the defense plugged its leak in the secondary by getting cornerback Emmanuel Moseley back in the fold. The 49ers outgained Los Angeles in the first two quarters, 291-102, and dominated time of possession, 21:22 to 8:38.

The areas San Francisco struggled with previously – finding consistency in the running game, protecting the quarterback and preventing big plays from the opponents’ offense – all were strengths Sunday night. For the first time all season, the 49ers looked like the team that participated in the recent Super Bowl.

“Last time we were up here, we were obviously not happy with our performance,” tight end George Kittle said. “And so the only thing to go is go back to work and that’s what we did this week. You could feel it the whole week, guys were locked in, we were focused.”

The 49ers opened the game with an emphatic 76-yard drive that took just 3:21 off the clock. Shanahan was back to his creative play calling, dialing up receiver runs, screens and quick passes to neutralize the Rams’ potent pass rush before it could get going.

The second play of the game saw Deebo Samuel take a shovel pass and break free for 35 yards after it appeared he was down. Rookie Brandon Aiyuk got the ball in his hands on a swing pass for 10 yards and a first down. Kittle was given the ball on a well-designed screen that put San Francisco in scoring range. And then Samuel beat the Rams defense to the right pylon with another shovel pass run for his first touchdown of the year on what’s becoming his signature play.

The drive got the entire offense going – and because it was quick-hitting and multidirectional, it prevented the Rams from pinning their ears back to get after Garoppolo, which had been a big problem for 49ers quarterbacks the last two games.

“When you can go run the ball, it gives your O-line confidence, it gives your tight ends confidence, your fullback confidence, running backs confidence,” Kittle said. “So when you can put good plays together and all 11 guys are blocking and all 11 guys are doing their job, it just gives your whole offense confidence. And so when you got to go make a play in the pass game, guys are ready to go and it just takes the pressure off the guys and takes the weight off their shoulders.”

Garoppolo looks strong in win

Garoppolo finished with 268 yards and three touchdowns while completing 23 of 33 (70 percent) of his passes. According to the Associated Press, the 49ers gained 223 of their 268 yards after the catch. Their 9.7-yard average after the catch was the second-highest of any game this season. That’s in part because Shanahan wanted to avoid the standard drop-back passes that made the offense susceptible to sacks and Garoppolo’s interceptions.

Garoppolo appeared healthier and more confident on his injured ankle. His teammates noticed a different sense of focus from Garoppolo after he was benched in the second half of the Miami loss following two bad picks and a career-low 15.7 passer rating.

“This week in practice, you could just see the urgency, especially in him,” Aiyuk said. “He just got back to being Jimmy. And we felt it throughout the week and we felt it early on, coming into the stadium today, and throughout the whole game today.”

Jared Goff, meanwhile, had a forgettable night, with just 198 yards on 19-of-38 completions with two touchdowns and an interception.

Shanahan’s play calling helped San Francisco’s offensive line rebound from its recent struggles. The group that yielded 10 sacks combined in the last two losses held the Rams to a clean sheet. L.A. came into the weekend tied for the NFL lead with 20 sacks through five games, including a league-high 4.5 for Aaron Donald. But they had no sacks Sunday night and hit Garoppolo just three times.

Donald’s stat line Sunday night: two combined tackles and a quarterback hit.

“I thought the O-Line had a hell of a game,” Shanahan said. “... You try to avoid him as much as possible and I think we were able to do that for the most part today. Rarely does that happen, but I thought our guys were up for the challenge. They knew what was ahead of them and they came out and did as good as they could in that area.”

49ers offense finds early success

The 49ers scored touchdowns on three of their first four drives. They went up 14-0 when Garoppolo found Kittle on a fourth-and-2 early in the second quarter. At the 44-yard line, the Rams did what the Eagles and Dolphins did successfully the last two games, send pressure up the middle with a heavy blitz.

Yet Garoppolo’s blockers held on long enough so Garoppolo could find Kittle on a slant route against cornerback Darius Williams. Kittle broke the tackle and had an easy run to the end zone. Kittle finished with seven catches for 109 yards giving him 10 career 100-yard games, the most by a tight end in team history.

“They had an extra rusher, so the ball had to come out quick,” Garoppolo said. “George, he snapped it off and that’s kind of one of those timing plays where we just have to be on the same page and we’ve done it so many times in practice that it really worked out.”

Aiyuk scored his first receiving touchdown of his career and the third of his impressive rookie season. Samuel had 66 yards on six catches, and according to Next Gen Stats, all six of his targets were behind the line of scrimmage, including his shovel pass touchdown.

Meanwhile, running back Raheem Mostert was having an excellent game and was an engine of the offense during the blowout first half. He had 76 tough yards from scrimmage as he was forcing missed tackles and running through defenders in a way he hadn’t been known for previously. It was the type of effort that inspired his teammates, but Mostert paid the price.

He twisted his ankle during the second quarter and was ruled out for the game after getting one touch on the first series of the third quarter. Mostert will get tests on the ankle on Monday to figure out the severity. He stood on the sidelines and offered advice to his teammates after being ruled out.

Mostert’s absence led to San Francisco leaning heavily on undrafted rookie JaMycal Hasty, who was the No. 3 running back because Jeff Wilson Jr. was out with a calf injury. Hasty was given nine second-half carries and finished with 37 yards and had two first downs that helped salt the game away.

“Hasty was up for the challenge,” Shanahan said. “Got some fresh legs in there and I thought he gave us some juice a little bit.”

The 49ers next week will travel to play the New England Patriots, who fell to 2-3 Sunday with a disappointing loss to the Denver Broncos. Coach Bill Belichick’s club struggled offensively after their facility had been closed multiple times over the last two weeks because of a COVID-19 outbreak. It was also quarterback Cam Newton’s first action since he tested positive early this month.

It will be Garoppolo’s first time playing his former team.

“It will be cool,” Garoppolo said. “You know, getting back to the old stomping grounds. See some familiar faces, but we’ll enjoy this one tonight.”

“This win,” Garoppolo continued, “will definitely give us a little momentum. But next week is going to be another dog fight.”

This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 7:09 AM.