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Injuries have hit the San Francisco 49ers harder than most teams this season, and that trend will continue in Week 10’s matchup with the New Orleans Saints. On Wednesday, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan preemptively ruled out running backs Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman as they each recover from injuries.
It’s a big loss, for Mostert in particular: he has only appeared in four games this year but still leads San Francisco in both total rushing yards (303) and yards per game (75.8), averaging an impressive 5.9 yards per carry. With him sidelined, the 49ers must instead turn to backup Jerick McKinnon, who has gained just 261 rushing yards in nine games (three starts). McKinnon has been held to 18 yards or fewer in four of his last five games.
Last season, Mostert talked his share of trash before visiting the Superdome — and Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan felt compelled to tip his hat to Mostert’s 49ers squad afterwards, saying: “You’ve got to be able to stop that run. At the end of the day, they ended up with over a buck-fifty (150 yards rushing) on the ground. Whether that’s Jimmy (Garoppolo) scrambling, whether that’s the 15 running backs that they have in the backfield, it’s something that we knew coming in that we were going to have to stop.”
Mostert was the leading rusher for San Francisco that day, picking up 69 yards on just 10 carries while gaining 40 receiving yards off of 2 catches (scoring a pair of touchdowns to boot). But the 49ers’ depth showed through with backups Coleman and Matt Breida combining for 60 rushing yards. McKinnon will be hoping to follow suit in Shanahan’s cutting-edge offense. Here’s hoping their former teammate Kwon Alexander will be ready to step up and slow them down.
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