The 49ers on Sunday night knocked off the Rams to climb back into the playoff race.
They earned the victory to snap a two-game losing skid by turning into a team that somewhat resembled the 2019 squad that went to the Super Bowl. San Francisco was creative on offense. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo was efficient, and the defense looked again like one of the five best units in the NFL.
Their snap counts from Sunday night provide a look at what the 49ers may look like moving forward.
On offense, it appears they’ve found the three receivers they’ll lean on down the stretch now that that unit is healthy.
– Brandon Aiyuk, Deebo Samuel and Kendrick Bourne all outsnapped the other receivers by a wide margin. That resembles the Samuel, Bourne, Emmanuel Sanders trio from last season. Samuel is all the way back from his pre-season foot injury and played 60 snaps.
– There was more two TE stuff from the 49ers on Sunday. Ross Dwelley and Charlie Woerner had just three combined snaps vs. the Dolphins. Dwelley had 21 snaps Sunday night.
– JaMycal Hasty’s 15 offensive snaps are the most of his career. He did a nice job closing.
– A couple injuries on the offensive line led to two snaps for Justin Skule, and seven for Hroniss Grasu. Grasu finished the game at center with Ben Garland dealing with a calf injury. Skule came in for two snaps when Trent Williams left the game to be evaluated for head/neck injury.
On the other side of the ball, the 49ers needed their defensive leaders to step up, and they did with most of their top players staying on the field for the entire game.
– Five 49ers played 100 percent of the defensive snaps, including cornerback Jason Verrett, who’s now played 231 snaps after playing just 67 the previous three seasons combined.
– There was a chance Jamar Taylor got picked on so bad the 49ers made a change at nickel. The Rams tried to pick on him though and he did a nice job for the most part and played three-quarters of the snaps.
– San Francisco is thin at defensive end, which is why Arik Armstead and Kerry Hyder were both so far ahead of the other DEs in playing time. Expect that trend to continue until DL Ronald Blair comes off the Physically Unable to Perform list.
– 32 snaps were the fewest for Jaquiski Tartt since Week 13 of the 2018 season. He’s dealing with a groin injury and exited early. His replacement, Marcell Harris racked up a season-high 28 snaps.