SANTA CLARA – The 49ers’ six-game win streak over the Rams got here to an finish when it counted most – with a Tremendous Bowl berth on the road final January.
Bygones.
The 49ers should transfer ahead. This season, not final, issues most. It already may very well be on the brink Monday evening after they host the Rams – the reigning Tremendous Bowl champions.
Win, and the 49ers not solely enhance to 2-2 general, however 2-0 in NFC West motion which in the end ought to dictate their playoff path.
Lose, and coach Kyle Shanahan’s group packs a 1-3 report for an ensuing 10-day street journey, the place they’ll face the Carolina Panthers and the Atlanta Falcons, with a 3rd annual layover in between at The Greenbrier in West Virginia.
See, that is about trying forward, to not the regular-season win streak over their SoCal rivals, and to not the 20-17 NFC Championship Sport loss.
That was eight months in the past. Does it really feel like an eternity to Jimmy Garoppolo contemplating his winding street since then?
“It does,” Garoppolo stated, “and then you definately watch the movie and all of it comes proper again to you and also you begin replaying these issues in your head and placing your self in these conditions once more, and it’s like using a motorcycle, you’re proper again to it.”
These are the 5 most important methods to take the lead and maintain it Monday evening:
5. COVER COOPER
The 49ers’ most nice shock this season is their secondary, which is complementing one of many NFL’s fiercest defensive fronts. Cooper Kupp might change that mojo.
Kupp leads the NFL with 28 receptions, a 12 months after profitable the receiving triple crown (145 catches, 1,947 yards, 16 touchdowns). He scored the Rams’ two touchdowns as a part of a nine-catch, 113-yard effort in opposition to the 49ers within the NFC title sport.
“It’s the Cooper Kupp present, like regardless of the way you attempt to slice it up, whether or not the blokes are doubling, no matter it's, the man finds a method,” 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans stated. “The connection and chemistry with him and (Matthew) Stafford is among the finest I’ve seen within the league in a very long time. These guys are all the time in sync and so they’re all the time on the identical web page.”
Overlaying received’t be simply the duty of outdoor cornerbacks Charvarius Ward and Emmanuel Moseley. The 49ers might dispatch L.A.-native Deommodore Lenoir, who supplanted Sam Womack II because the nickel again final week.
“I like it. I really feel like that is the place I belong,” Lenoir stated. “Folks used to inform me, `you can be a nickel, you can be a nickel’ and I’m like, `No, I’m an outdoor nook.’ However now that I’ve slowed it down and truly discovered I can go full throttle and that is the place I belong.”
4. STIFLE STAFFORD
No, we’re not going to deliver up the NFC Championship Sport once more, proper? OK, only for a second: Matthew Stafford might have short-circuited their fourth-quarter rally had his move not been dropped by security Jaquiski Tartt on a possible interception. The 49ers let Stafford off the hook.
Stafford entered this season’s encore with arm bother. Three video games in, he’s finishing 72.5 % of his passes, with simply two interceptions in opposition to 4 landing passes.
He’s been sacked 9 instances this season, so contemplate that an invite for Nick Bosa to pad his team-high whole of 4 sacks. The 49ers’ move rush is enjoyable to look at (until Russell Wilson is slipping previous it for a comeback win, as regular). Whereas Bosa attracts double-team blocks, the 49ers different defensive linemen must get to Stafford.
Sure, the 49ers can stress with a four-man rush, however maybe they ship Fred Warner, Dre Greenlaw or Talanoa Hufanga on blitzes to make issues spicier.
3. PLAY BALL HOG
Keep in mind a 12 months (darn it, the previous resurfaces!) when Kyle Shanahan requested a 40-carry assault in opposition to the Rams at Levi’s Stadium on a Monday evening. The 49ers ran 44 instances for 156 yards in that 31-10 win on Nov. 15. Have they got that in them once more?
“That’s our sport plan this week: get again to our id in working the ball,” McKivitz stated.
They’ll have to beat a five-man defensive entrance that the Rams, and even the Broncos final sport, have used to flummox the 49ers’ rushers.
How would possibly the 49ers combine up their rushers? Jeff Wilson Jr. and Deebo Samuel may very well be spelled extra this sport. Shanahan indicated that Jordan Mason and Marlon Mack would have been rotated in additional final sport if not for brief, second-half drives. Tevon Coleman additionally might get summoned from the apply squad.
The 49ers rank eighth in time of possession (31 minutes, 38 seconds), regardless of producing the NFL’s Twenty fourth-most yards. Of the 49ers’ 5 landing drives, they’ve taken 34 performs, bolstered by 22 runs.
2. HOME-FIELD HEROES
The 49ers have received 5 in a row at residence, their longest streak since Levi’s Stadium opened in 2014. It took that Nov. 15 win over the Rams to launch this streak, and finish one during which the 49ers had not received at Levi’s Stadium for the reason that Rams’ October 2020 go to.
Embrace that home-field benefit whereas it lasts. Followers shall be at full throat a technique or one other for a prime-time viewers. After every week of voicing their disgust concerning the Denver debacle, the 49ers’ Trustworthy will change their tune if the offense involves life, if the protection silences the Rams, and if the particular groups merely do their jobs.
“Dwelling-field advantange has to do with one factor: the opposite group can’t leap off the ball as quick,” Shanahan stated. “… Cadence is a giant deal. When you possibly can’t hear the quarterback, it provides the opposite group a bonus. Our stadium’s been actual loud and it’s been a bonus.”
After this sport, the 49ers solely have one residence sport (Oct. 23 in opposition to Kansas Metropolis) till mid-November. They need to savor the house noise whereas they'll.
1. DONALD VS. JIMMY G
As a lot as 49ers’ followers like to espouse how guard Daniel Brunskill neutralized Aaron Donald in previous conferences, flash again (if you'll) to the NFC Championship Sport, when Donald pushed previous Donald and lassoed Garoppolo, whose last-ditch throw yielded an interception to seal the deal.
Donald stays a flamable menace. Garoppolo is, properly, it relies upon. The 49ers’ quarterback is infamous for rebounding from losses (and interceptions). It is a new 12 months, an odd 12 months. Garoppolo should play vastly higher than he did in Denver, past the embarrassment of retreating by way of the top zone for a security.
To keep off Donald – and maybe blitzes from Bobby Wagner — it's going to take greater than a gutty effort from a guard, in Donald’s first-ever matchups with Spencer Burford or Aaron Banks.
The No. 1 precedence for the 49ers, as daunting as it might be, is to shore up an offensive line lacking left sort out Trent Williams till doubtless November. Colton McKivitz loved a Week 18 win over the Rams as Williams’ substitute, and he’ll must recapture that confidence for this rematch. Middle Jake Brendel shall be taxed like by no means earlier than, and that snap have to be on cue, not like final sport’s second-half fumble. Proper sort out Mike McGlinchey and left guard Aaron Banks are their finest run blockers, so get them shifting, get the rushers breaking free, get the offense shifting, then they'll get out of city to the East Coast in a significantly better place.