What a crazy game!The San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams set new scores at the start of Week 3 – and deliver a fascinating, sometimes chaotic exchange of blows.In the end the Rams have the upper hand with 41:39, although the game seemed to tip over late in the direction of the Niners.
A Hoyer interception at the first play, 80 (!) points, a successful onside kick and a dramatic ending – anyone who expected another boring Thursday Night Game between the Rams and the 49ers was completely mistaken.
Rather, there was an exchange of blows from the very beginning: The Rams constantly bet on Todd Gurley (28 ATT, 113 YDS, 2 TD; 5 REC, 36 YDS, TD) and built up a small cushion in the first half, while San Francisco initially had some open problems.
However, this changed in the second half: Brian Hoyer (23/37,332 YDS, 2 TD, INT) was able to answer the good performance of Jared Goff (22/28,292 YDS, 3 TD) and found his receivers increasingly with long passports.The 49ers came close to the end of the match and took the ball back with a forced kick-off fumble and an onside kick minutes before the end!
So the Niners had the chance to shoot the game late, but after the successful onside kick the offense did not get a first down.However, this is quite controversial: A first-down pass from Hoyer to Taylor in half of the rams was blown back because of supposed offensive pass interference, instead the defense of the guests ended the game.
There were worries about injury on both sides.While the Rams lost Sammy Watkins and Tavon Austin late in the game with suspected concussion, Jaquiski Tartt (brain shake), Kyle Juszczyk (neck) and Brock Coyle (brain shake) were injured in San Francisco.
San Francisco 49ers (0-3) – Los Angeles Rams (2-1)39:41 (7:14,6:10,7:10,19:7) BOXSCORE
Besides the great pass-protection of the rams (see below) you should also keep an eye on the overriding theme – namely how central a well-arranged offense with good play-calling is for a young quarterback.Goff is still experiencing technical problems and is by no means a mature quarterback.The better protection, play-action calls and route concepts that allow him to get quick reads and make it easier, however, should drive Goff’s development forward immensely.Three games are a small sample size, but so far Sean McVay seems to be a slam-dunk commitment for L. A.and being the young off-beat stars.
What a roller coaster ride for the 49ers Special Team!Conquered a dropped punt, got a fumble at the kick-off and successfully performed an onside kick.The missed extra point after the touchdown from Celek at the beginning of the final quarter, however, ended up being expensive.Together with the missed two-point conversion at the end, in which San Francisco wasted an inexcusable timeout, this prevented a mad comeback victory.Aaron Donald put the lid on it with a bag at 4th&20 after the Niners had to swallow a tough pass interference penalty.
Todd Gurley is back! 113 yards and two touchdowns he ran at 28 runs, it was his first 100 rushing yard game since Week 14 in 2015.Gurley’s performance was all the more impressive considering that the run-blocking against the Niners front was once again marbled.Gurley had an average of -0.1 yards per run before a defender was with him within a yard.That also explains why half of his runs only brought in two yards or less, 54 of his yards he ran after contact and forced two Missed Tackles.Gurley already has six touchdowns in total, as many as during the entire pre-season.Building on the Run Game, L. A. was able toa good play-action-pass game, which made Goff’s work much easier.
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A big question was how Goff would manage against pressure – still a big problem for him, as was to be seen against Washington on Sunday.San Francisco’s front thus had an important role to play, alone: the pressure was virtually non-existent.The Niners didn’t produce any pass rush at all and revealed large gaps in the secondary, which was admittedly decimated by injuries, so that Goff was barely even under pressure.San Francisco couldn’t get a bag, so Goff showed several times how to get balls into narrow windows without pressure.