Sir Purr
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
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SANTA CLARA – To measure up on the road against the 6-0 San Francisco 49ers, the lone unbeaten in the NFC, the Panthers knew they needed their best effort of the season.
It was anything but, and when it was all over, the visitors were left with a 51-13 loss.
“We played our worst. They played their best,” safety Tre Boston said. “That’s what you get.”
As the score indicates, a lot went wrong for Carolina against a team that sure looked like the class of the NFC.
But both sides of the ball experienced a similar problem – they were thrown completely off balance.
Let’s start with the defense.
“When they are running the ball effectively you have to deal with everything they have,” head coach Ron Rivera said. “That’s what we got today.”
San Francisco racked up 232 rushing yards – Tevin Coleman had 105 yards on just 11 carries – and it was their success running the ball on early downs that allowed head coach Kyle Shanahan to manipulate the defense.
“It opens up the playbook big-time. It allows them to be creative,” linebacker Luke Kuechly said. “When you have an offense like that that gets big chunks on first down, it lets them run the ball, throw the ball, run screens, take shots. Even if they don’t gain a yard second down, it’s around third-and-4 and that’s a good place to be. It’s important to get a stop on first down to dictate the game instead of having the game dictated to you.”
The 49ers dictated all right, using misdirection over and over to frustrate Carolina.
Tight end Greg Kittle and the San Francisco backs were effective in the screen game, which worked perfectly against the Panthers’ aggressiveness.
“We were very aggressive up front – that’s the nature of our front four. We coach our guys to go,” head coach Ron Rivera said. “They got us early on with a couple screens. It’s something that we have to see and feel better.”