Keys to victory: How 49ers offense can find success vs. Seahawks

3 things the 49ers must do on offense to come away with a win Monday night.

The 49ers offense found a new way to win in Week 9 when Jimmy Garoppolo slung the ball around for 317 yards and four touchdown passes. Week 10 against the Seahawks won’t necessarily follow that same formula.

Here are three keys for the 49ers offense on Monday Night Football:

1. Get back in the run game

The returns of Joe Staley, Mike McGlinchey and Kyle Juszczyk give the 49ers their full stable of blockers for the first time since Week 2. Their rushing attack has spearheaded the offense through most of the first half of the year, and Monday is a chance for it to hit a new level with a fully healthy offensive line and fullback. Ball control will be enormous against MVP-candidate Russell Wilson, so the run game has to be at its best against a relatively soft defense.

2. Don’t dwell on the absences

It sounds like tight end George Kittle isn’t going to be available Monday night. That means tight end Ross Dwelley will start in his place, and likely take on much of the same role as Kittle. While Dwelley isn’t as talented as Kittle, he’s capable enough as a blocker and pass catcher to keep the 49ers from completely overhauling their game plan. They may not be able to lean on Dwelley the way they do on Kittle, but they need to trust him to make plays and not steer out of the scheme that’s gotten them to 8-0.

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3. Pass (catch) the torch

No Kittle means the 49ers will be without their top target in the passing game. Where those targets get redistributed is going to play a huge role in how well San Francisco moves the ball, especially on third downs where Kittle was so reliable. Dwelley will earn some of those looks, but receivers like Deebo Samuel, Dante Pettis and Kendrick Bourne will need to step into playmaking roles to help extend drives.

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Panthers coach Ron Rivera’s inconsistent use of analytics is confusing

Rivera needs to make a choice.

Ron Rivera decided to go for two.

If it had been successful, the Packers’ lead would have been cut to just six points, bringing Carolina that much closer to a thrilling comeback win. Panthers fans would be sharing Riverboat Ron memes and praising the genius and daring of their coach, who understands how the modern game works and isn’t afraid to use analytics to his advantage.

The two-point conversion attempt didn’t work out. So instead, Panthers fans are calling him foolish and worse. The thing is Rivera made the right call – at least if you believe in numbers. That time, anyway.

The result isn’t always going to be there. The process is what matters. The more times you make the correct decision, the more often you will reap the benefits.

That’s what makes Rivera’s inconsistent use of analytics so frustrating.

Rivera set the wrong tone for the game on the very first drive, when he decided to punt on 4th and 3 inside Packers territory. Given the way last week’s win over the Titans went, it was a baffling decision, made all the more confusing by Rivera’s post-game comments when he talked about the decision to go for two, per the Athletic.

“Yes, that was purely analytics, 100 percent. . . If you don’t get it there, you get an opportunity to go for two again. We feel pretty good about the play we had called the first time, and we felt good about having the second one up. It’s most certainly something where we went ahead and followed the analytics of it.”

“Following the analytics of it” is what winning teams do, but in the next breath Rivera changed course and talked about his gut feelings and game flow.

Last week, Rivera’s instincts told him to go for it on two separate fourth downs against the Titans. Or maybe it was the analytics. It’s hard to tell when there’s no clear method of operating. In any case, after that win, several players remarked on how much confidence Rivera’s aggressive decisions gave them.

What were they to think when Rivera punted away inside Green Bay’s territory to begin the game?

For all the talk about Kyle Allen’s poise and grit and leadership ability, not trusting him to get three yards there when the analytics say otherwise and Allen’s opening drive looked strong doesn’t inspire confidence and raises questions about Rivera’s own leadership.

The Panthers have an analytics department, which they announced without much fanfare in June. We must assume that Taylor Rajack and whoever else works in that department get paid real money to do their jobs. David Tepper can afford it, in any case. Since the franchise is paying for it, they might as well put it to use on the field.

Rivera needs to make a choice.

Either the analytics trump his gut feelings and the “situation” or they don’t. This mix and mash he’s got going on is only going to lead to confusion and more of those infamous missed opportunities.

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Giants brace for change following humiliating loss to Jets

Following a humiliating loss to the New York Jets on Sunday, the New York Giants are bracing for change entering the bye week.

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The New York Giants knew that a Week 10 game against the New York Jets was considered a must-win by many, so after coming up short in a 34-27 loss, they recognize that change could be on the horizon.

“I just worry about what I can control. We all know this league is a business and winning is everything in this league. When you don’t win, everything starts to look different. I’m worried about going out there each and every week and putting the best football I can on tape, do whatever I can to help my team win,” safety Jabrill Peppers told reporters.

Although he’s remained relatively confident in his job status leading up to Sunday, head coach Pat Shurmur sounded completely defeated after the Jets loss and appeared to accept the reality that his employment was no longer a sure thing.

“My concern is putting a team on the field that’s going to win a football game — that’s my concern. It’s always a one-week concern getting ready to play the next opponent and put a winning performance on the field. That’s my concern,” Shurmur said after the game.

Shurmur acknowledged that there would likely be some bye week evaluations with team ownership, but made it clear the media would hear absolutely none of those details.

“Well, obviously, anything that I speak about behind the scenes would be behind the scenes stuff. I wouldn’t share any of that with you, especially at this point,” Shurmur said.

Like Shurmur, superstar running back Saquon Barkley also looked and sounded defeated following the loss, uncharacteristically providing misdirected answers or quick one-liners.

“Only the thing I can focus on is coming in and being the player for my team. Just focused on this bye week, it’s a week where it gives everyone a chance to get healthier, not only myself but the whole team. We get to reflect on our season so far and try to be a better team than we were in the first half,” Barkley said.

It’s clear the Giants expect some change, but how might that manifest itself? Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch are unlikely to fire Shurmur, and Shurmur has already stated that Mike Shula and James Bettcher are safe, so what now?

We’ll all find out together over the next 7-10 days.

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Ohio State wrestling impresses again with domination of Stanford

The Ohio State Buckeyes wrestling team dominated the Stanford Cardinal in the team’s first dual matches of the season.

Ohio State wrestling opened its brand new Covelli Center with a dominant win over unranked Stanford.

The final score of the dual match, 29-6 in favor of the Buckeyes, doesn’t show how close this match actually was. Ohio State lost only one of the nine weight classes, when Ethan Smith (165 lbs) was pinned by Shane Griffith. Of Ohio State’s wins in the other nine eight classes, none came via Fall (a pin) and only two were Major Decisions (wins by 8-14 points). The other seven wins were all by less then eight points, including two matches that required Sudden Victory.

Sammy Sasso, who absolutely ran roughshod over all of his competition at the Michigan State Open, found himself in the first tight battle of his collegiate career. He fought his way to a tight 3-1 win against No. 19 Requir van der Merwe.

Luke Pletcher, the newly-minted No. 1 at 141 lbs, needed some incredible moments in Sudden Victory just to eke out the win.

I’m certainly not complaining about a blowout win. But if coach Tom Ryan wants to show his team that it still has a lot it can improve on, most of these matches showed some definite room to grow. And it was great to see wins from Quinn Kinner 133 lbs and Zach Steiner at 184 lbs.

Ohio Intercollegiate Open

Several Buckeyes also competed at the Ohio Intercollegiate Open this weekend, instead of in the dual against Stanford. There was no official team competition, so every Buckeye at the OIO was representing themselves.

Three Buckeyes won their Gold Division brackets, including an impressive performance from freshman Carson Kharchla at 165 lbs. The competition level at the OIO wasn’t near the level that Ohio State will see in Big Ten play, but it was good to see such a strong performance. Rocky Jordan won the bracket at 174 lbs, while Gavin Hoffman did the same at 184. It’s hard to read too much into Hoffman’s victory, as two of his four wins came via injuries to opponents (one before the match, one mid-match). Still, 184 lbs is definitely the current weak spot in Ohio State’s lineup, and it will be great if the Buckeyes can get some confidence and victories in that weight class as the season progresses.

Sean Payton doesn’t excuse Falcons loss with lopsided officiating

New Orleans Saints HC Sean Payton didn’t blame officiating in his team’s 26-9 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, pointing to their own mistakes.

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Few viewers expected the New Orleans Saints to get trounced by the Atlanta Falcons — coming out of the bye week, inside the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, in a year where the Saints have been nearly undefeated and the Falcons have gone nearly winless. But that’s not what happened, when Atlanta’s defense swarmed Drew Brees and the Saints offense, leaving town with a 26-9 win on their shoulders.

Some fans would point to the game’s officiating as a culprit in the upset. Whenever the Saints defense seemed to win on a crucial down, it seemed like someone was flagged for an illegal use of hands penalty; giving up five yards and an automatic first down. Saints defenders were penalized for that on four different occasions on Sunday, twice on third downs which would have forced an Atlanta punt. In total, New Orleans drew a dozen penalty flags and ceded 90 yards. The Falcons were flagged seven times, giving up 48 yards. That’s about as lopsided as it gets in the NFL.

But Saints coach Sean Payton doesn’t buy that as an easy explanation for his team’s loss. He rebuffed that notion during his postgame press conference, saying, “No, I thought the officiating was pretty good in this game. That had nothing to do with this game.”

Rather, Payton wants his team to look at their own mistakes and miscues. Excessive penalties are often a sign of poor execution and botched on-field decisions, and he looked back on the game as a big learning opportunity for just about everyone.

“Yes, absolutely, there’s a lot of corrections (to be made),” Payton continued, hammering his point home. “A lot of corrections. Look, it’s a good group here and they understand that tomorrow will be tough to watch it. It’ll go down. But shame on us if we can’t get those corrections made. That won’t be a problem. It’s much easier to come in and watch tape after you win, but that’s one of the things about this game that creates a little bit of toughness and grit.”

This Saints team has enjoyed plenty of success in recent years, having been built around a largely-intact core of players going back to the 2017 season opener; they’ve won 33 of their last 45 games together, and know what must be done to rebound from a poor outing like this one.

Still, knowing what to do and putting it into practice are two different things. And the Saints have a critical four-game stretch ahead of them, featuring three more NFC South divisional games (peaking with a prime-time rematch in Atlanta on Thanksgiving) and then a home game in the Superdome against the San Francisco 49ers. If Payton and the Saints can right the ship and handle their business, they could be in position to lock up the division title and maybe a top-two playoff seed by the end of it. But that’s easier said than done in a league where any team can win on any given Sunday.

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“Given that this is our 10th game, we …

“Given that this is our 10th game, we felt like we had an obligation to come and speak to you guys,” Mills said. “Obviously, Scott and I are not happy with where we are right now. We think the team’s not performing to the level that we anticipated or we expected to perform at and that’s something that we think we have to collectively do a better job of delivering the product on the floor that we said we would do at the start of this season.

David Fizdale, of course, was resilient …

David Fizdale, of course, was resilient and unflinching in his ownership of the mess to date. “I take the brunt of this responsibility because I’m the head coach,” he said. “I make these decisions of what’s going on on the court, what players play, who plays together, what plays we call, the defense system — that’s on me. As much as I appreciate them, I own it. That’s just who I am.”

LaMelo Ball staying in Australia?

Illawarra Hawks insist rumours LaMelo Ball could quit the club mid-season appear off beam after he reinforced his NBA No.1 draft pick claims with his finest NBL performance. The 18-year-old did plenty to excite the NBA scouts as he lit up the court with 24 points -15 from three-pointers – eight assists and six rebounds as he steered the Hawks to a much-needed 101-91 win over Cairns Taipans on Saturday night.