The beauty of the NFL is that you never truly know what you’re going to get week in and week out. Teams like the San Francisco 49ers battle attrition from the second they step onto the field.
The offense was already short-handed heading into Week 2, but lost starters Kyle Juszczyk and Ben Bartch before halftime. That meant the team that relies on 21 personnel would have to scrap that plan and adjust on the fly once again.
We saw the brilliance of Kyle Shanahan and his playmakers capitalizing when their number was called. We also saw some strong performances on the other side of the ball. Here are the winners and losers from the 49ers’ Week 2 win over the New Orleans Saints.
Winners
Christian McCaffrey
We’ll resist the urge to list the 49ers’ best players every week. After all, it’s a top-heavy roster that will go as far as their stars take them. Perhaps nobody will be tasked with carrying the offense more than Christian McCaffrey, who had 20 touches in Week 2 for 111 yards and a touchdown.
McCaffrey mustered 55 yards on the ground, but 39 of those came after contact, and four of his carries went for first downs. McCaffrey’s running ability cannot be quantified in terms of how he manipulates defenders and maximizes yardage. We can’t take a running back making an unblocked cornerback miss, turning a 1-yard gain into seven yards, or making Demario Davis whiff in the backfield en route to a 9-yard gain.
McCaffrey nearly doubled his success rate on the ground in Week 2. His 69.2 percent success rate against the Saints was the highest in a game for McCaffrey in his career.
McCaffrey caught six of his seven targets, including a red zone touchdown and three other first downs. There isn’t a matchup where McCaffrey isn’t trustworthy in the passing game, making him an unfair weapon to have for Kyle Shanahan.
The left side of the offensive line
Should we be worried about Trent Williams? I counted a singular missed block in the running game. Much like last week, there are still times when players look confused about who they’re supposed to block. But Trent Williams looked like…Trent Williams. Nothing to see here.
Jake Brendel was dominant in the running game. He only missed one block. Rookie Connor Colby played 61 snaps, and the 49ers did not miss a beat with the seventh-round rookie playing starter snaps on the fly. Colby had a couple of impressive blocks at the second level, looked athletic, and held his own 1-on-1 in pass protection. The majority of pressure that Mac Jones faced was self-induced. Dominick Puni and Colton McKivitz were also stellar in pass protection outside of one blip for each, but they had enough issues in the running game to prevent this from being a “team” win for the offensive line group.
The defensive line
If you’re winning the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, chances are that you’re winning the game. If the 49ers were in a boxing match against the Saints, you could score their offensive line beating the New Orleans’ defensive line 10-8. However, the Niners landed more haymakers while landing jab after jab to win the trenches battle on this side of the ball 10-7.
Let’s start with the edge group. Bryce Huff and Nick Bosa had six quarterback pressures apiece. Bosa had five “quick pressures,” while Huff had three. They are both winning at absurd rates through two weeks.
Huffs always seem timely, like a game-ending sack this week that caused a fumble and sealed the game for the Niners. Huff is the haymaker of the 49ers’ pass rush boxing lexicon. Huff pressured Spencer Rattler on over 31 percent of his rushes. Performances like Huff’s from non-Bosa edge rushers have been so few and far between during the previous three seasons that it’s impossible not to be hyperbolic about Huff’s start.
Bosa is Mike Tyson’s combination of the right hook followed by the right uppercut. You’re on the ground, wondering when the uppercut happened, still surprised by the power of the right hook. I counted ten different wins for Bosa in Week 2. Ten. Bosa has help around him, and the results are already paying dividends.
Onto the defensive tackle group. Jordan Elliott and Kalia Davis continue to start. For the second game in a row, Davis had a tackle for loss that effectively ended the opposition’s drive. Elliott had the quickest “time to pressure” of any defensive lineman. That duo combined for four stops.
They’ve played well, but it won’t be long until Alfred Collins starts. If the Week 1 to Week 2 is any indication of the learning curve for Mykel Williams and Collins, this is a front-7 that has a chance to best any other unit they’ve had under Kyle Shanahan.
Collins went from playing nine snaps in Week 1 to 24 snaps on Sunday. You’re not taking Davis or Elliott out, you’re putting Collins in. You can’t fake being 6’6″, 332 pounds. Collins won on his first series. He won on back-to-back plays. On his fourth series, the Saints gave up blocking Collins 1-on-1. Mind you, the Saints’ left guard-center-right guard trio were second, first, and second-rounders. They looked outclassed against the Niners’ interior.
Mykel bull-rushed a tight end with one arm five yards into the backfield. Bosa owes Williams a steak for pushing his man into Rattler’s lap on Bosa’s sack. Watching Mykel and Collins not just hold up against double teams, but also winning those matchups and making plays this early in the season, should bring a smile to Robert Saleh’s face.
Losers
Renardo Green
The 49ers were fortunate not to begin the game down 7-0. The Saints made it a point to target Green on their initial drive. He allowed 70 yards on eight targets, but should have given up a touchdown.
You’re going to get beaten in the NFL, especially with how comfortable the Niners are leaving Green on an island in coverage. Still, it was surprising to see how often the Saints targeted Green, who wasn’t competitive on a few of those targets.
Refs
There were a handful of penalties that made no sense. There were other plays, as Alfred Collins can attest, where no penalties were called on obvious holding calls. The 49ers were bailed out themselves on a phantom defensive penalty against Ricky Pearsall.
I understood the penalty on rookie Marques Sigle later on in the drive, but the defense should have never been on the field had it not been for the judge on the far side of the field throwing his flag:
It’s a problem around the league. Refs can’t help but insert themselves into the game. Let the players play.
Mac Jones’ internal clock
Jones is a backup, so he’ll always have limitations that come with being a backup. But he has enough experience to know you can’t hold onto the ball for as long as he did in the pocket on Sunday. Jones was pressured on only 18 percent of his dropbacks. Jones had an average of 2.81 seconds to throw in Week 2. Somehow, he was still sacked three times.
Here’s the time from the ball was snapped to the time Jones was hit on each of his three sacks:
Sack 1: 3.95ish seconds
Sack 2: 4.65ish seconds
Sack 3: 3.75ish seconds
Jones has enough experience in this league to know that this is no longer practice. It didn’t cost the Niners against the Saints. They may not be as lucky against a divisional foe next week.
IDKs
Dominick Puni
All of Puni’s missed blocks came in the first quarter. It was a rough start where he lost differently every time. Pulling in the running game, on a zone play, and in pass protection. On the zone play and on one of the pass protection blown blocks, Puni allowed the defender to cross his face.
After the first quarter, he was fine. It’s the second week in a row where Puni is noticeable. For an offensive lineman, you want them to blend in. For example, the only time Connor Colby stood out was when it was something positive. The same cannot be said for Puni, which has been the case through two weeks.
Jason Pinnock
On Upton Stout’s sack, Pinnock busted a coverage that would have led to an explosive play, at worst. On the next drive, Pinnock missed a tackle. He messed up the “banjo” coverage on the goal line and allowed a slant for a touchdown when he did the one thing you can’t do: Let the receiver beat you to the inside.
You’d expect that from a fifth-round rookie, not a fifth-year pro. Ji’Ayir Brown worked his way into action as a pseudo linebacker this week. I wonder if he’ll start taking snaps away from Pinnock next. If not, if Pinnock, not Sigle, is the safety to get pulled from the starting lineup once Malik Mustapha returns from injury.
Winners
Fred Warner and Dee Winters
Winters led the team with six stops. Warner had four. Next Gen Stats tracks “hustle stops,” which are when you travel at least 20 yards from your position at the snap to the tackle. Warner and Winters had three in this game. They are two of four players in the NFL to have at least four this season.
Those two play with a level of anger that resonates with the rest of the defense. It’s still their coverage that separates this duo from any other in the NFL. On Huff’s sack at the end of the game, Winters and Warner are synchronized the way they pass off underneath routes. It’s a thing of beauty. The Niners are back to a No Fly Zone between the numbers.
Warner and Winters were targeted a combined eight times. They allowed 23 yards in coverage for -4.5 EPA. Warner ran the route for New Orleans’ tight end on a pivotal third down. That led to a pass breakup.
Winters is pushing Warner. That’s what it feels like when you watch this defense. Warner looks better than he ever has, which is saying something.
Jauan Jennings
Jennings only caught five of his ten targets, but he was open on seemingly all of them. Jones left a few throws on the field when looking in Jennings’s direction. He finished the game with 89 yards and a touchdown, but could’ve easily been north of 125 yards. Jennings’ lone blemish of the day was failing to run out of bounds in the two-minute drill. But 51 yards after the catch and putting the 49ers in field position toward the end of the half, paired with a long touchdown later on with a backup quarterback, had to feel good for Jennings.
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