Week 3: Cardinals @ 49ers

[thesack12]

Apparently Bosa's parents went back to the locker room towards the end of the game. Not expecting good news if that happened

Yeah, I got pretty worried after seeing the thumbs down.

Of course hoping for hyperextension or something, but he'd probably be fortunate if its just an MCL sprain or something like that and he can come back after a short term IR stint.

[Samurai]

Which was more impressive to you on that final drive for the winning FG: Mac Jones making quick, accurate passes to keep moving the chains or Kyle's play calling on that drive to not force Jones to make plays that he isn't capable of?

[Pattersonca65]

Which was more impressive to you on that final drive for the winning FG: Mac Jones making quick, accurate passes to keep moving the chains or Kyle's play calling on that drive to not force Jones to make plays that he isn't capable of?

Both were impressive. Hard for me to choose

[wco81]

There's a tweet claiming that Bosa faked the injury to watch some political event.

[Harry Palmer]

Apparently ‘just’ avoided an ACL tear, but probably injured it just short of tearing.

[Harry Palmer]

Anyone else finding CMC a lot more mortal this year?

[Samurai]

There's a tweet claiming that Bosa faked the injury to watch some political event.

I am surprised that Bosa does not have enough money to purchase a device that records streaming videos or TV shows. Sounds like he needs a better agent who can get him a deal worth more than the federal poverty level.

[Samurai]

Anyone else finding CMC a lot more mortal this year?

Haven't been impressed with the run blocking that CMC has received so far. Seems like he had more holes to run through, particularly running left behind Trent or Juice as a lead blocker, in previous seasons than this season. If he gets better blocking and still isn't as productive, I'd be more comfortable saying that CMC has lost his superhero cape.

[Harry Palmer]

Anyone else finding CMC a lot more mortal this year?

Haven't been impressed with the run blocking that CMC has received so far. Seems like he had more holes to run through, particularly running left behind Trent or Juice as a lead blocker, in previous seasons than this season. If he gets better blocking and still isn't as productive, I'd be more comfortable saying that CMC has lost his superhero cape.

Not even just talking run production. He looks less explosive to me and the first guy is getting him on the ground in the open field a lot more. Could just be rounding back into shape, but right now unless my eyes are deceiving me he looks less special physically. Just as smart and skilled, though.

Edit: in his defence, open field often means receiving, and Jones just isn’t as precise as Purdy in terms of hitting in stride, so some of it may be that.

[Samurai]

Anyone else finding CMC a lot more mortal this year?

Haven't been impressed with the run blocking that CMC has received so far. Seems like he had more holes to run through, particularly running left behind Trent or Juice as a lead blocker, in previous seasons than this season. If he gets better blocking and still isn't as productive, I'd be more comfortable saying that CMC has lost his superhero cape.

Not even just talking run production. He looks less explosive to me and the first guy is getting him on the ground in the open field a lot more. Could just be rounding back into shape, but right now unless my eyes are deceiving me he looks less special physically. Just as smart and skilled, though.

Edit: in his defence, open field often means receiving, and Jones just isn’t as precise as Purdy in terms of hitting in stride, so some of it may be that.

I don't think I've (sadly) had enough opportunities to see CMC running free in the open field so far, whereas he gave me plenty of opportunities to see that in 2023. But in preseason, Shanahan said that CMC looked as explosive then as he did when he first arrived. As evidence, Shanahan pointed out that CMC was clocked at 25 mph on the team's GPS tracker in August 2025, which matched his 2023 time. Hopefully CMC gives us more frequent opportunities to see him running free on 25+ yard bursts so I can see if Shanahan's statement matches my eye test.

[Jikkle]

It's an ugly 3-0 but I'll take it. It's pretty much what we wanted in grinding out some wins early to weather the injury storm in the hopes you'll get full strength later when the schedule gets tougher.

Defense has been a pleasant surprise though as I expected more growing pains than what they are experiencing now. I mean we can point to issues but I do think as fans we tend to lose focus on the fact it's the NFL and teams are going to move the ball and score points. Not every play or drive is going to be a masterclass in defensive football.

What has impressed me is the night and day run defense and the fact the defense has actually been clutch so far this season. I mean teams aren't running at will like they did last season and the defense can actually come up big in 4th quarters and instead of blowing leads or not giving a chance for the offense to get the ball back.

Offensively it's just been meh but that's somewhat expected since Pearsall and CMC are basically the only legit threats out there right now. Things might look a whole lot different at the end of the season when we field an offense with Kittle, Aiyuk, Jennings, Pearsall, and CMC.

Mac Jones is what you want in a backup in a guy that can give you starter quality play but maybe not superstar quality play. He executed both 2 minute drills today extremely well. I don't buy into the notion he's better than Purdy but we can win with him behind center.

Offensive line just blows though and if anything dooms this season it'll be the offensive line again. They have their moments when it looks good but far too many moments when someone is screwing up and ruining the play.

On a side note the call on Puni was bogus. He didn't hold him at all in the end zone and he held him before he got to the end zone so should've been a hold but not a safety.

[clyde21]

There's a tweet claiming that Bosa faked the injury to watch some political event.

there are tweets claiming a lot of stupid ****

[Jikkle]

Anyone else finding CMC a lot more mortal this year?

Haven't been impressed with the run blocking that CMC has received so far. Seems like he had more holes to run through, particularly running left behind Trent or Juice as a lead blocker, in previous seasons than this season. If he gets better blocking and still isn't as productive, I'd be more comfortable saying that CMC has lost his superhero cape.

Not even just talking run production. He looks less explosive to me and the first guy is getting him on the ground in the open field a lot more. Could just be rounding back into shape, but right now unless my eyes are deceiving me he looks less special physically. Just as smart and skilled, though.

Edit: in his defence, open field often means receiving, and Jones just isn’t as precise as Purdy in terms of hitting in stride, so some of it may be that.

Need to see a bigger sample size and maybe a smarter person than myself to do a film study on it.

I don't think it's helping that we're lacking the weapons to stretch a defenses attention and defenses can put more energy into stopping CMC. In 23 we made it a lot more difficult on defenses because you had Aiyuk, Kittle, Deebo, and Jennings that could force defenses to divert attention away from CMC. In 25 it's pretty much Pearsall so of course if I'm a DC I'm gameplanning around CMC and making sure they rally to get him down.

[Jikkle]

Wow....defense MVP

I hope Shanahan has learned his lesson to make sure he has a quality guy waiting in the wings to take over. I mean to be fair he had Ryans after Saleh but it fell apart after that when we asked a guy to fit himself to a defense he doesn't typically run and some guy that was previously a ST coordinator and had little qualifications in being the DC.

[CrimsonCrew]

Wow....defense MVP

I hope Shanahan has learned his lesson to make sure he has a quality guy waiting in the wings to take over. I mean to be fair he had Ryans after Saleh but it fell apart after that when we asked a guy to fit himself to a defense he doesn't typically run and some guy that was previously a ST coordinator and had little qualifications in being the DC.

I think that's a big part of why Gus Bradley is in the building.

[CrimsonCrew]

Re: the game, this has got to be one of the ugliest 3-0 starts I've ever seen. We are eking out wins, and a strong argument we didn't deserve it this week. That said, if you had told me going into the season that we would be missing Purdy, Kittle, five of our six top WRs, and lost Bosa early in a game, I would have believed an 0-3 start. Additionally, this team is learning to play tough and do what it takes to win. That's something we simply could not do last year, so it really can't be overstated how important it is for this team to establish that identity early.

My expectation coming into the year was that we would need the offense to carry the young defense early in the season. It's been the opposite, as the D has had to do yeomen's work to close out games. The rookies are not flawless by any means, but they are making plays when it matters. Mykel Williams had another great game, forcing an intentional grounding (sucks that doesn't count as a sack in the stats) and making multiple huge plays against the run. I didn't really notice Collins despite 30+ snaps, which I take as an indication that he played well against the run, at least. Sigel missed a big tackle, but made several more. Stout had ups and downs (I have heard from people more knowledgeable than myself that he was responsible for Harrison getting wide open twice), but he came through with the huge play when we needed it.

Having said that, the Bosa injury is potentially huge. I was pleased with the defense's performance after he left, but the Cards don't have a very good OL and Kyler just isn't a very good QB outside his running ability. I can't see us beating the Rams in two weeks without Bosa. Even the Jags worry me this week, though I'm hoping we can steal another win from them.

And we're getting some reinforcements back in Robinson and hopefully Jennings. A WR corps of those three is leaps and bounds better than starting two players who were cut by teams with bad receiver units, as we did this past week.

[CrimsonCrew]

PFF not super high on the rookies this week. But again, to get these struggles out of the way and still come up with wins is huge. Just have to hope that they keep improving.

Lowest-graded 49ers: Defense
Alfred Collins, DT, 35.7, 31 snaps
Kalia Davis, DT, 48.9, 31 snaps
Upton Stout, CB, 53.9, 32 snaps
CJ West, DT, 53.9, 14 snaps
Marques Sigle, SS, 54.0, 66 snaps

[Pattersonca65]

Here is how the oline play was described against the cardinals

[b]Losers
The offensive line
If a Kyle Shanahan offense only puts up 16 points, one or two things have happened. The quarterback left too many plays on the field, or the five players up front did not do their job. In this instance, it’s the latter.

Last week, the 49ers looked competent along the offensive line. This week’s performance made that look like smoke and mirrors. Then again, the New Orleans Saints lost by 31 in Week 3.

Let’s act as if Dominick Puni wasn’t responsible for a safety. That doesn’t absolve him for four other blown blocks in the game, including one on the play before the safety. It’s been three games in a row where Puni hasn’t looked right. We know that he’s been dealing with a knee injury. We also know he hasn’t been listed on the injury report.

Three blown blocks for Colton McKivitz for good measure, despite the scheme doing everything in its power to protect him. McKivitiz also allowed a quarterback hit on a play where Ricky Pearsall was open for an explosive play down the field, and was the reason Christian McCaffrey did not pick up a first down on one carry.

Jake Brendel missed one block in 1-on-1 situations, but held a defender and missed another block on a similar stunt.

As well as Connor Colby played in his debut last week, he was on the opposite side of the spectrum in Week 3.
Seven, that’s right, seven blown blocks for Colby. He’s a seventh-rounder, and this was quite the step up in class. But Colby went from looking like a potential steal to a player who was lucky not to get benched. He had a sack, a holding call, and was losing in two-minute situations where Jones was playing hot potato.[/b]