NFL
Key 49ers Takeaways
Saturday saw the San Francisco 49ers go down to the Indianapolis Colts 17-23, providing some key 49ers takeaways to look back over.
On the whole, the Niners didn’t play terribly for a preseason game. After all, the preseason is there to be utilized to sort out player positions and combinations for the upcoming season. Coach Kyle Shanahan and other staff can then go back over the film and determine the chief 49ers takeaways for improvement.
The main issues for the 49ers stemmed from failing to execute when it counted. Culminating with penalties and drop balls galore.
Jimmy Garoppolo
Garoppolo played okay but not spectacular. He completed only 9 of 19 passes for a total of 135 yards. Jimmy kept the sticks moving; however the 49ers were unable to convert in the red zone three times during his stint at QB. Robbie Gould did his thing and notched up some field goals.
He did connect with Pierre Garçon for two great throws, resulting in big gains of 15 and 47 yards. It later came out during Shanahan’s press conference that Garçon’s 47-yard catch was initially intended for Marquise Goodwin:
“We went to Pierre number one, and the Tampa 2 MIKE took him away. Then, Jimmy made a good read and went to go to Quise on the back side and just waited a hair second before he through it. But, Pierre never stopped running. He ran right through the ball, and it was a great interception he made. I think everyone was fine with it probably except Marquise.”
However, Jimmy’s average completion rate and failure in the red zone was not entirely his fault. Some throws were inaccurate or merely overthrown, with one near interception. 49ers players dropped other easy catches at crucial moments. TE Cole Hikutini dropped one TD pass in the end zone. TE Garrett Celek had two drop balls, both of which should have been easy catches.
Embed from Getty ImagesDefense Stops Colts Run Game
The 49ers defense played well overall, shutting down the Colts run game. The running backs only achieved small gains and shut down quickly and effectively. The Colts only managed a total of 80 rushing yards with a large portion of those yards coming from QB Andrew Luck. DE Jeremiah Attaochu had one sack for the game. Solomon Thomas, Fred Warner and Richard Sherman all impressed.
Penalties, Penalties, Penalties
Shanahan, like most coaches, hates penalties. The offense and defense chalked up a massive ten penalties for 98 yards. Penalties were a combination of holding, false starts and of course the new Use of Helmet rule. It makes it difficult to win games when you’re giving away that many free yards. The Niners will need to improve their game discipline to reduce the penalty count.
Alfred Morris
The biggest of all the 49ers takeaways came from newly acquired RB Alfred Morris. He was the standout player from the game for the 49ers. Morris carried the ball 17 times for a total of 84 rushing yards. He completed a 17-yard run on his first touch of the ball. However, a penalty against the Niners nullified the play.
Morris continued to impress with a combination of both short and long gains, finding the gaps created by the offensive line. He definitely showed why Shanahan has put his faith into him and it would be a surprise if Morris did not make the 53-man roster. He will likely gain the team’s third RB position behind McKinnon and Breida. Shanahan had this to say about Morris’s performance:
“Yeah, I was really pleased with how Alf ran the ball. We could start seeing it during the week in practice. He was running the ball good in practice, and our line was blocking well in practice, and I was very excited how it carried over into the game. We went in having an idea that I would have been surprised if we didn’t run the ball well and I was really happy with that group as a whole.
It was nice to give Alf some lanes. Those are the ones that he looks the best to everyone else on, but I was most impressed with some of the short-yardage runs where I felt like we had an unblocked guy on a couple of those third and ones, we got him in the backfield, and he was still able to get a yard for us and keep us out there so we could continue trying to score.”
