We’ll find out more about Jimmy Garoppolo’s calf injury today. Jimmy didn’t return to the game as he couldn’t push off from that right calf injury when he attempted to go back into the game.
Suppose Garoppolo was stepped on and felt an injury down to his Achilles….poor guy. It’s Trey Lance time well before San Francisco hoped it’d be. Let’s take a look at the snap counts from Sunday.
Offense – 76 possible snaps
Each time we’ve done this, we celebrated how the offense and quarterback played each series. Unfortunately, that came to an end Sunday when Trent Williams and Garoppolo let the game with separate injuries.
On the one hand, I like the way the offense rotates receivers between Mohamed Sanu, Trent Sherfield, and Jauan Jennings. On the other, Brandon Aiyuk not being on the field as the offense drove late in the game, was a head-scratcher.
Trey Sermon looked and ran the ball much better. He was decisive, which was an issue last week. Once again, Sermon faced plenty of defenders in the box as 36% of his carries came with eight or more Seahawks in the box.
Another good sign for Sermon is that 42% of his carries went for more than expected. That was good for ninth in the NFL this week among runners with more than 15 carries.
I thought the offensive line protected well, but there were a few plays that stuck out like a sore thumb. Laken Tomlinson allowing a free runner up the middle in the first half was killer. Mike McGlinchey had one holding call when it was 28-13 and could’ve easily had a second:
Deebo Samuel is a superstar. Through four games, Samuel leads the NFL in receiving yards (490) and yards after the catch (266). In addition, he’s fifth in the NFL in yards per reception (17.5).
Samuel is responsible for 36% of the 49ers’ air yards. He has exceeded his projected YAC expectation by 4.3 yards, which is comfortably first in the NFL for any receiver with more than 15 receptions.
Defense – 56 possible snap counts
You’re doing a great job if you hold the offense to 56 snaps. Unfortunately, after being put into a couple of bad spots and not getting much rest on a drive here and there, the 49ers’ defense ran out of gas.
Al-Shaair has been everything and then some for the defense. Yes, he surrendered a touchdown. Yes, he was put into a terrible situation having to guard DK Metcalf.
Two third-down penalties on Dee Ford and Dre Kirkpatrick — two players with reputations of being flagged — came at the most inopportune times.
As for Ford, 21% is on the low end this season. You wonder how he’s holding up. Then again, with Seattle up two scores, perhaps the 49ers knew they weren’t going to throw the ball often.
I loved what we saw from Emmanuel Moseley. He proved to be a competitor. It won’t get any easier as Moseley now gets DeAndre Hopkins. A three-game stretch of Davante Adams – Metcalf – Hopkins is as challenging as it gets.
Marcell Harris playing 59% of the snaps feels high. In theory, you want his athleticism and aggression on the field. However, I’m not sure he’s the player teams don’t take advantage of in the running game.
No issues this week about how much the defensive line was on the field. Instead of looking at it like Bosa played 70% of the snaps, look at it like he played 39 snaps. It was nice to see Hurst work his way back into the swing of things. Penalties aside, I thought this unit played well.
Lack of execution and discipline cost the Niners. You can say the same for the errors on special teams. More on that unit later. They were bad enough to deserve a standalone post.