Grades from the 49ers Dominant Week 11 Win over the Cardinals
A Road Win in Front of a Home Crowd
This week a report broke that the San Francisco 49ers are the best travelling fan base in the NFL. They lived up to it and then some at State Farm Stadium on Sunday. Jacoby Brissett noted that he had never had to go silent at home in his career: “It blows my mind that an away team could be that loud.” There is no more fitting location for the return of Arizona natives Brock Purdy and Rickey Pearsall to the starting lineup. Their friends, family, and 49ers fans around the world watched as the 49ers offense showed out. Here are your week 11 grades:
Offense
Quarterback: A-
There was quite the back and forth on twitter and the 49ersHub discord surrounding Purdy’s return. Questions about whether or not a few near interceptions should warrant a demotion to the B range this week. I’m inclined to chalk them up to rustiness and cut him some slack after eight weeks on the shelf.
19/26, 200 yards, and three touchdowns is an excellent showing. One of those scores was an absolute dime over George Kittle’s back shoulder. This was not against a bad passing defense by any means either. The run of QB’s they faced before this in Sam Darnold, Jordan Love, Dak Prescott and Daniel Jones all featured either a turn over or two, or sub 200 yard totals in each of them. A great return for the franchise A-nchor.
Offensive Line: A
Granted the soft matchup that is the Arizona Cardinals, this offensive line turned in an all around great game. They surrendered just six pressures, one sack, and blocked their way to five-yards per carry for the 49ers halfbacks. Dominic Puni in particular looked as healthy as he has all year, constantly working his way to the second level with CMC in tow. A-wesome work for the big fellas up front.
Running backs: A
For both Christian McCaffrey and his hall of fame caliber cohort featured in the next grade, there’s no reason to add a bunch of fluff to the takeaways here. 18 touches, 121 yards and three touchdowns. He hit his season long rush as well for 20 yards. Brian Robinson Jr. was less involved than one would think for a blowout, only seeing eight carries for 24 yards. He provided hard running in relief when called upon. A: Another amazing annual Arizona annihilation.
Tight Ends and Wide Receivers: B
As we saw last week with Jake Brendel dragging down the group project that is positional grading, the wide receivers were an albatross to a fantastic George Kittle game on Sunday.
George produced a sterling six receptions for 67 yards, and not one, but two touchdowns. The issue here is that the entirety of the remaining receivers and tight ends on the roster totaled six receptions for 67 yards. That is in large part due to game script of course, and Jauan Jennings was out there blocking his butt off for many of those successful rushes. But the lack of yardage production kept this grade in the 80’s for me. Let’s also B very clear here, Kittle is the best all-around tight end in the NFL.
Defense
Rushing Defense: A
Facing off against the 17th most productive rushing attack in the league, Robert Saleh and co. stonewalled them. 12 carries for the Arizona half backs gained 38 yards. The game got out of hand so quickly they had to abandon the run, but that was in part due to how well they played it in the first half. The poor pass defense is another relevant factor, their (soon to be panned in grading) poor performance funneled production through the air. This wasn’t some season defining turn around or anything, but they played the hand they were dealt and they played it well. Played it all the way to A.
Passing Defense: D
47/57, 452 yards, and a pair of touchdowns and interceptions. That was journeyman Jacoby Brissett’s stat line. 47 completions is the new NFL single game completion record by the way. This once vaunted defense just allowed a career backup to set the all time record for completions. They allowed JAG Michael Wilson to go off like he’s prime Odell Beckham. 15 catches for 185 yards. The two interceptions, and the fact that a ton of this was garbage time production has to weigh in, that’s why this wasn’t an F-. I don’t even have some fun little quip to end this with, that was D-ismal.
Special Teams: B
Skyy Moore had a 98-yard kick return to start the day, the longest for the 49ers return since Ted Ginn Jr went for 102 in 2011. Eddie Pineiro (heal up champ) went 3/3 on his field goals as well. One might think that alone is A quality work. At the risk of being too harsh, blocked or missed extra points can swing games. They are the most rudimentary operation of a special teams unit. Losing two of them has to knock this down a letter grade. The rest of the game was clean beside the one 40-yard punt return given up. All in all, this is a noticeably higher performing outfit than it was in September, and this was a great week to B a 49ers fan!