Rams @ 49ers: Week 10 Report Card
The Bill Comes Due
Forgive the repetitious subtitle, but as was said in the Saturday betting article (which went 5/5 by the way.) Week 10 against the LA Rams was the game where dues were called for the 2025 season. Injuries have stacked up to an insurmountable level. Millions and millions of cap dollars, sitting there in street clothes with the rest of the fan base. It may have been survivable had it not occurred on the back of an all-in window in which the team pushed salary and moved picks for several years.
In comes LA after having fully rebounded from an all-in window of their own. Strolling into Levi’s a Super Bowl to show for it, and a fully reloaded roster. It was the perfect storm for what amounted to a miserable Sunday in Santa Clara. Begrudgingly, here are you Week 10 49ers grades.
Offense
Quarterback: A-
33/39 for 319 yards, three touchdowns, one interception. Mac Jones played great ball on Sunday. He was operating behind better offensive line play, which helped him achieve the 84.6% competition rate. He kept the offense on schedule, made plays out of rhythm, and gave them a fighting chance to win. His scramble and score to Luke Farrell was one of his better 2025 highlights.
I could not go full A here because of the fourth down pick, trailing by 15. The pocket was collapsing and there weren’t really guys open, at some point he had to give them a chance at converting. Mitigating circumstances on his only error of the day will nab him his second A- in a row. All things considered, this was another stellar game from the backup QB.
Offensive Line: B-
Getting an A against the defensive line of the Rams is nearly impossible. They have been dunking on offenses all season. Still, had Jake Brendel not sold this unit down the river, this would have been an A-. They kept Mac clean on Sunday, allowing no sacks, and only seven pressures outside of Brendel (who accounted for four). They had this showing while in passing game scripts for most of the game. The rushing aspect of their Sunday was nothing noteworthy, 3.5 yards per carry. But the ground game was situationally functional. Functional outside of, you guessed it! Eight of Brendel’s assigned run blocks were the ones who made the tackle, several for losses or no gain (via @JL_Chapman). We’ll give this a B-, since Brendel accounts for 20% of this unit’s grade.
Runningbacks: B
Christian McCaffrey’s floor games under Kyle Shanahan are still quite productive. CMC achieved 30 yards on 12 carries, and added 66 yards through the air. Rock solid. Brian Robinson Jr. followed up on his excellent showing against the Giants by adding 45 yards and a touchdown on 5.1 YPC. Hopefully he can continue to lessen the load on McCaffrey’s shoulders moving forward. Basic, benign, kinda bland. This was a B game for the tandem.
Tight Ends and Wide Receivers: C+
This was yet another killer performance from the tight end unit. George Kittle had his best game of 2025, and turned in a career highlight with his acrobatic touchdown in the fourth quarter. Luke Farrell was the recipient of the aforementioned Jones play, dropping into the flat from a pass block entirely out of structure. This grade may feel too low, unfortunately it isn’t. Production was few and far between outside of Jauan Jennings, and Jennings had a massive game swinging fumble and penalty. The fumble felt like an insurmountable momentum shift. I couldn’t get to the B range because of it.
Defense
Rushing Defense: D
Kyren Williams and Blake Corum combined for 27 carries, 129 yards and two touchdowns. My notes are littered with “room up the middle, room up the middle again, again…” The chunk plays ceded were more in the passing game, this was like death by 1,000 cuts. 5 yards, 7, 9, then the occasional 10+. When your line is consistently letting up easy yardage like that on elementary plays, you have no chance against any playoff caliber football team. This performance was close to as bad as it gets in the NFL, without being a complete trainwreck in terms of yardage. D, D for depressed 49ers fans(and writers).
Passing Defense: F
The crafty veteran was slinging it like this was Madden. Matt Stafford went 24/36, 280 yards and four touchdowns, no interceptions. Via @Coach_Yac on X, the 49ers starting CB trio allowed a combined 135 yards and two touchdowns on 14 targets. The safeties added 29 yards and two touchdowns on five targets for good measure. Pitiful linebacker coverage accounted for a huge chunk of those 280 yards as well. Ultimately the lack of NFL caliber defensive line play and centerpiece Fred Warner is putting this coverage unit in an impossible position. But that impossibly difficult situation is being compounded by terrible play from starting secondary members. F, F for frickin’ bad. Or whatever other totally justifiable and appropriate word word one may use in that context.
Special Teams: C+
Opinions will differ on where fault lies when an extra point is blocked, but it is a failing of the unit when it happens. They also allowed Blake Corum to return three kickoffs to the 30 or further. Punting was very solid again, however. Not too much to report here, I felt it was worthy of the upper end of the C range.