49ers Week Fifteen Temperature Check

Exploring the highs and lows of the 49ers victory against the Titans,

The 49ers returned from their late bye week to welcome the visiting Tennessee Titans to Levi’s Stadium. In a game that saw the 49ers take care of business from the jump, there were a lot of positives, and some negatives, that we saw from a 49ers team that is gearing up for a playoff run. Let’s dive into this week’s temperature check.

Hot:

Brock Purdy

If you had to point to any single player as the reason the 49ers were in control of this game, look no further than Purdy. Throwing for 295 yards and three touchdowns with a 140.3 quarterback rating, Purdy had complete command of the offense on Sunday. He added another 44 yards on the ground, including a team long, for the season, 26-yard carry which saw Brock at his loosest by pump faking and ball faking defenders while he was well past the line of scrimmage.

George Kittle

Is there anything more majestic and rawer than watching Kittle with the ball in the open field running towards defenders? In a word, no. Kittle set the tone on offense with eight catches for 88 yards and a touchdown. On his long of 24 yards, Kittle looked as though he was seeking out defenders for contacts while moving down the field.

Kittle also provided a fantastic quote post-game referencing Purdy’s run, calling him a “Jesus Christ Lizard”. No way that won’t stick, right?

Ricky Pearsall

After the first play on offense, an eight-yard catch by Pearsall, things looked bleak as he was down after what should have been called a hip drop tackle. Fortunately, Pearsall would return to the game in grand fashion grabbing a total of six catches for 96 yards and a long of 38. For anyone questioning Pearsall’s performance over the last few weeks, Sunday’s game was your answer. Unfortunately, Pearsall did re-aggravate his PCL injury which will most likely impact him over the next few weeks.

Special Teams

While there were no explosive plays this week from the return teams, we did see something wildly unfamiliar to the Faithful: opposing teams planning against returns. Tennessee made every effort on Sunday to ensure that Skyy Moore was not going to have a chance to return any kickoffs, and actively kicked away from him, which included an illegal procedure penalty for kicking out of bounds.

The Playoff Chase

By securing the win against the Titans, the 49ers moved to 10-4 on the season, still just one game out of first in the NFC West. More importantly, they are just one win, or Lions loss, away from clinching a postseason berth.

Lukewarm

Defense

The 49ers were able to force a three and out by the Titans on three separate occasions Sunday but also had some sloppy play in the second half which brought the game more into question than it should have been. Allowing a 21-point lead to dwindle to a 10-point lead while giving up a touchdown catch to a defensive tackle should garner plenty of attention in team meetings this week.

Cold

NFC West Title Chances

Only a game back in the division with three weeks to play looks great on paper. The problem? The Rams offense appears to be virtually unstoppable right now. The Seattle Seahawks will provide the best chance to unseat the Rams from the top of the standings this week, but if they are unable to do so, remaining games against the Falcons and Cardinals will not inspire much hope.

Rushing Attack

The 49ers run game over the last few games has been underwhelming at best. Cumulatively, the 49ers had 38 carries for 138 yards while averaging 3.6 yards per carry. When you remove Purdy’s scrambles from the equation, they averaged just over three yards per carry. This will need to be an area of focus moving forward as the offense will need to be balanced going down the stretch to lock up a playoff spot.