Reviewing the Big 49ers Upset over the Rams on Thursday Night
A shocking week 5 victory injected optimism back into 49ers fans
The San Francisco 49ers really love stressing out their fans every single week. After suffering a close loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last week, the short-handed 49ers traveled to Los Angeles to take on the Rams on a short week. Both teams were tied at 3-1 for the lead of the NFC West division. The 49ers entered the game without Brock Purdy, Ricky Pearsall, Jauan Jennings, George Kittle, and Nick Bosa, as well as others. This game had Rams written all over it, but Kyle Shanahan and Robert Saleh had other plans.
Quarterback Mac Jones was surgical in the first half with Shanahan making some great and creative play-calling to get the 49ers up to shocking 17-7 before halftime. Unfortunately, quarterback Matthew Stafford figured out where to attack the 49ers’ defense which were the safeties, especially Marques Sigle, as they drove down the field and found running back Kyren Williams for an easy walk-in touchdown to give them the seven points before the first half.
The second half felt like a completely different game. After a missed kick on the opening possession for the Rams, the 49ers were driving down the field until Jones got injured on the play with the referees missing a roughing-the-passer call that would’ve set up a new set of downs. Unfortunately, they had to settle for a 20-yard FG to increase their lead to 20-7.
The Rams would go on to score touchdowns on their next two offensive possessions while the 49ers defense was completely gassed. The 49ers offensive play-calling came to a stalemate, providing the Rams with momentum. Midway through the fourth quarter, Jones seemed to have found some rhythm before having to settle for a 59-yard FG for kicker Eddy Pineiro, which was his career long. The Rams were driving down the field yet again until Williams fumbled the ball at the 1-yard line because of a punch by defensive tackle Alfred Collins.
Conservative play-calling got in the way of the 49ers as they ran the ball three times to force the Rams to use all three timeouts when a single first down would’ve won them the game at that point. That forced the 49ers to punt and the Rams were able to once again drive down the field and kick a FG to force the game into overtime.
The Rams kicker Joshua Karty, usually good at kick offs, this time failed to kick the ball into the landing zone which gave the 49ers great field position to start at their own 40-yard line. With some good decision-making, Jones was able to get the 49ers into FG range before taking a sack on 2nd-and-3 and then throwing an incomplete pass to force a FG attempt, which was barely completed by Pineiro from 41-yards out with the ball hitting the uprights, but still went in.
The Rams only had one more opportunity to either tie the game up or go for the win as they were yet again marching down the field. The 49ers held the Rams offense to 4th down at the 49ers 11-yard line. The Rams decided to go for it and run the ball, but didn’t get the yard they needed which led to a 49ers victory to increase their win total to 4-1, and now 3-0 in the division.