Coach Kyle Shanahan got choked-up and emotional in speaking to the 49ers when talking about the death of C.J. Beathard’s brother.
The San Francisco 49ers delivered a thrilling victory over the Los Angeles Rams on a field goal by Robbie Gould as time expired Saturday. After the game, Coach Kyle Shanahan addressed the team in the wake of the tragic, stabbing death of QB C.J. Beathard’s brother, Clayton, in Tennessee.
The coach was emotional and choked up in speaking to the team about the Niners’ family losing someone so close at the age of 22. Clayton Beathard was a quarterback at Long Island University and came from a rich, football family.
“He barely could talk, and he said to me, ‘You guys go make sure you win this game.'”
San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan got choked up after the team’s 34-31 win over the Los Angeles Rams on Saturday night in Week 16.
After quarterback C.J. Beathard’s brother was fatally stabbed outside a bar in Nashville this weekend, the game became about more than football.
Shanahan addressed his team in the locker room after the win, and had nothing but nice things to say to his team — even if he didn’t use the nicest language. (The TV broadcast showed the speech with explicit language, but the 49ers’ digital team managed to clean it up.) Shanahan explained that Beathard asked one thing of his coach: win that game on Saturday.
“Guys I think we’ve done it every way, but you guys keep finding another way to win,” Shanahan said in the locker at Levi’s Stadium after the win. “That was a hell of a job, everybody dude. By no means was it perfect. The heart for everybody here throughout that whole game — the highs and lows we went through for you guys to persevere. Guys, two third-and-16s. Right where we want to have them, right? Guys, this means so much to all of us, everyone who works here. Guys, as cool of a win as there could be. 12 wins for our team. We know we’ve got one more.”
Shanahan then turned his attention to a graver topic as he got choked up.
“Also, I didn’t know what to say to you guys at the beginning of the day, because you guys know what happened last night. Having to go spend an hour with C.J. last night and just being with him during that, you guys know how tough it is for him and his family right now,” Shanahan said. “He was like any one of us would have been: distraught, struggling to talk. He barely could talk, and he said to me, ‘You guys go make sure you win this game.’ And I didn’t want to say that at the beginning because this game doesn’t mean anything compared to his brother. … (Beathard’s) got our backs, just like we have his. It was a special day for you guys, and I’m so glad you guys could do that for him.”
Perhaps the 49ers provided a small win for a young man who is dealing with a tremendous loss.
The 49ers eliminated a division rival, the Rams, from the playoffs while keeping San Francisco in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Their Week 17 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks could determine which NFC team finishes with home-field advantage and a first-round bye.
The Redskins were the only team to ever fire Matt LaFleur, but it landed him where he is today, so he has no hard feelings.
For the second time this season, the Washington Redskins are preparing to face off against a coach they were once able to call their own.
Matt LaFleur is one of the many coaches who is now finding success outside of Washington, this time around as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. In his first year as a head coach, LaFleur has found great success with Aaron Rodgers up north, as he’s started with a 9-3 record and a good chance to make a run in the playoffs.
Green Bay is the fifth team that he’s coached for, and every time he’s left an old team for a new team, he’s done so on his own accord. That is except for Washington, however. The Redskins are the only team that has fired LaFleur so far.
“I never took it personal, I know that’s part of the business,” LaFleur said, via The Athletic.“I once heard somebody say there are two kinds of coaches. There are coaches who have been fired and there are coaches who are going to get fired. That was my approach to it.”
Back in 2013, LaFleur coached a quarterback room in Washington that featured both Robert Griffin III and Kirk Cousins. The team finished 3-13 on the season, and he was shown the door. Now, LaFleur has seemingly found his calling as a head coach in the NFL, and he’s done well in his first year, keeping the trend alive of offensive coaches like Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay leaving Washington and finding great success.
Maybe someday the Redskins will learn to stop letting their best offensive coaches go find a better home.
The New Orleans Saints will host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, and they’ll have to win several key matchups to finish out with a win.
The New Orleans Saints are set to host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. C.T. in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. After the Seattle Seahawks’ victory on Monday Night Football, the Saints now hold the number one seed in the projected NFC playoff picture heading into their clash with the 49ers. A victory here can go a long way towards sealing it.
Both New Orleans and San Francisco have a lot to play for this Sunday. The Saints could solidify their hold on the number one seed in the conference, while the 49ers will look to reclaim their lead in the NFC West and get out of a wild-card spot.
This game will come down to which side can win several key matchups. We’ve broken down a few that could have huge implications on the outcome:
Saints RT Ryan Ramczyk vs. 49ers DE Nick Bosa
Ryan Ramczyk has been an absolutely lockdown tackle for New Orleans this year. His continued success this season has allowed the Saints offense to run efficiently. This year alone, Ramczyk has made the likes of J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney, Dante Fowler, and Shaquil Barrett look pedestrian.
Nick Bosa could pose to be Ramczyk’s toughest foe yet. Bosa is the leading candidate for Defensive Rookie of the Year with his eight sacks, 24 tackles, and one interception. However, his contributions go well beyond just the statline. His ability to constantly put pressure on the quarterback disrupts the offense immensely. Ramczyk will have his work cut out for him on Sunday.
Who was good and who was bad in the 49ers’ loss to the Ravens?
The 49ers lost their second game of the season Sunday in a hard-fought game in wet, sloppy conditions in Baltimore. They played one of their best games of the season against arguably the best team in the NFL. The Ravens have now won eight in a row, but their 20 points were their fewest of the year, and their 288 yards were their second fewest.
Here are the 49ers’ studs and duds from Sunday:
Stud: RB Raheem Mostert
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Mostert was the best part of a 49ers offense that at times struggled to move the ball. He had a career day with 146 yards on 19 carries and a 40-yard touchdown run. It felt like a majority of his runs were chunk plays, and Baltimore’s third-ranked run defense struggled all Sunday with him. Mostert’s performance was huge for the 49ers offense with Tevin Coleman struggling for just six yards on five carries.
45 minutes down, 15 to go in Baltimore in what has been an amazing game of football.
45 minutes down, 15 to go in Baltimore in what has been an amazing game of football. The 49ers scored the lone points in the third quarter on a Robbie Gould field goal that tied the game at 17.
Here’s what stood out in the third quarter:
Marcell Harris with the potential play of the year for the defense
Baltimore started the second half with the ball and it looked like more of the same from the first half. They ran five times for 41 yards. The sixth run of the drive was the biggest as Jackson had a 14-yard gain, but at the end of the play, Marcell Harris was able to rip the ball from Jackson and force the turnover. It looked like Baltimore was going to drive down the field once again, but Harris took the ball and gave momentum back to San Francisco.
After a first half that saw Mostert carry the ball six times for 89 yards, the 49ers offense seems be riding their veteran running back. They opened their first drive of the second half running Mostert five consecutive times for 35 yards. He’s now up to 137 yards on 14 carries and has by far been the most important piece of the offense on Sunday.
Another deep shot on fourth-and-short pays off
Just like in the first quarter, Kyle Shanahan called a deep shot on a fourth-and-short and the move paid off. Garoppolo targeted Emmanuel Sanders and Marlon Humphrey got there a tick too early and was called for pass interference. With the weather, field goals aren’t guaranteed and Shanahan is calling the game like such. The decision led to another four plays and led to a Robbie Gould 32-yard field goal to tie the game at 17. The 49ers are now two-for-two on fourth downs.
A look at the San Francisco 49ers, who play the Ravens in Week 13, from a tendency point of view.
In one of the games of the week, if not the entire 2019 season, the red hot Baltimore Ravens take on the San Francisco 49ers at M&T Bank Stadium in Week 13. The Ravens have won their last six games and sit atop the AFC North at 9-2. The 49ers also lead their division and if the season ended today would have the No. 1 seed in the NFC on the back of their 10-1 record. These teams have met five times in the regular season since 1996. Baltimore has a 3-2 advantage. They also met in the Super Bowl following the 2012 season, with John Harbaugh emerging victorious over his brother Jim who was 49ers head coach at the time.
Let’s take a closer look at San Francisco to give us a better look at what we can expect to see from them on offense and defense.
Offense
Credit: Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan has long been thought of as one of the better offensive coaches in the NFL. His team has certainly lived up to his billing this season as they trail only the Ravens in points scored. They sit at sixth in total yards. The 49ers, in another similarity to the Ravens, have found most of their offensive success on the ground so far this season. Their 1,602 rushing yards are the second-most in the NFL, while they are close to the middle of the pack in terms of passing. The 49ers have 2,603 passing yards this season, which ranks 14th.
From a formation point of view, the 49ers are one of the more versatile in the NFL. They line up in 11 personnel (one back, one tight end, three wide receivers) on 40% of their offensive plays, a long way below the league average and more than only two teams. They predominantly pass out of this formation, doing so on 70% of their plays. San Francisco averages 7.6 yards per passing attempt out of the 11 formation, but also average 5.4 yards per rushing attempt.
The 49ers use 12 personnel (one back, two tight ends, two wide receivers) on a quarter of their plays and tend to run out of this formation despite only averaging 3.4 yards per attempt.
The 49ers use 21 personnel (two backs, one tight end, two wide receivers at the second-highest rate in the league, lining up this way on 22% of their plays. They have a pass:run rate of 42%:58% with two backs on the field, averaging 9 yards per pass attempt and 4.9 yards per rush.
In a shotgun league, the 49ers put their quarterback under center at one of the highest rates in the NFL — 59% of their offensive plays are run with Jimmy Garoppolo under center. They run the ball on 69% of their plays when this happens. When Garoppolo has lined up in the gun, it has been a pass on 77% of the plays. In neutral situations (when the 49ers are up or down by seven points or less), the 49ers have a pass:run rate of 54%:46%. But their overall pass to run ratio of 0.83 is the second-lowest in the NFL this season.
The 49ers have one of the NFL’s best defenses. But there’s one obvious vulnerability — and it’s one that Lamar Jackson can easily exploit.
So, we’re past the point where anybody is assuming Lamar Jackson is anything but a pure quarterback, right? Yeah, we thought so. Jackson’s bravura performance against the Rams on Monday Night Football — he completed 15 of 20 passes for 169 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions against Wade Phillips’ helpless defense — put the league on notice (as if the league wasn’t already on notice) that Jackson can beat you just as easily with his passing as he can with his rushing abilities. Through the 2019 season, Jackson has taken great strides as a quarterback, improving his ability to throw with anticipation and accuracy into tight windows, and to work through his progressions to find the ideal target.
“It was impressive,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said after his team’s 45-6 debacle. “When you sit there and watch, and you feel the operation up close and personal — you just see how sharp they are with their execution, what a dynamic playmaker he is, what a great job they do of creating conflict before the snap, changing your fits. And then on third down, they were really impressive. Just his ability to find some completions and make some plays with his legs — there’s a reason why people are talking about him as an MVP. It felt like it tonight.”
(Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports)
This Sunday, another NFC West defense has Jackson to deal with. The 49ers will travel to M&T Bank Stadium to try and shut Jackson down — or, at least, slow him down. On its face, San Francisco’s defense would seem to have a decent chance. The unit led by defensive coordinator Robert Saleh ranks second in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ opponent-adjusted defensive metrics, behind only the Patriots. They rank second against the pass, and 16th against the run. San Francisco’s defensive front and linebacker corps is a quick-moving group in which everyone loves to get to the quarterback — especially rookie edge-rusher Nick Bosa, who has nine sacks, nine quarterback hits, and 36 quarterback hurries on the season, per Pro Football Focus’ metrics. The 49ers are also coming off a 37-8 Sunday night demolition of the Packers in which Aaron Rodgers and his crew couldn’t get out of first gear at all.
However, the same things that make this pass rush so formidable make the same defense vulnerable to the run — especially to specific run concepts. San Francisco ranks 13th in FO’s Defensive Adjusted Line Yards metric, and they’re not good at all against runs in the open field, ranking 25th in yards earned against runs 5-10 yards past the line of scrimmage, and 30th in yards earned beyond that.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked this week of Jackson’s success as a runner this season — he has 124 carries for 874 yards, a league-leading 7.1 yards per carry average, and six touchdowns on the ground — was the result of the NFL not yet catching up with Baltimore’s multi-faceted run game.
Shanahan had a ready answer for that.
“I don’t think it necessarily is catching up,” he said. “Just like I didn’t think the defense ever caught up with the zone-read either. It’s not a trick play. It puts guys in a bind. It makes teams play 11-on-11 football. You’ve got to decide whether you want to play 11-on-11 or if you want to keep things the same and play 10-on-11. Most people, usually the quarterback makes you pay if you play 10-on-11 when you have these type of quarterbacks. You do have to change some stuff up and then what else does that open up and how good are you at that? Eventually, you can take stuff away. Then you’ve got to balance it out and see what holes that opened up because they take it away. I Think it will be that way until the end of time. I mean, no one catches up with this stuff. It’s not a gimmick play, it’s a very sound way to run an offense and they are doing it at a very high level right now.”
So, the 49ers are aware of the problem. Even if they are able to limit him as a quarterback with their coverages, they will have to be on alert against his running abilities — and this is a specific vulnerability of Saleh’s defense. Designed quarterback runs, especially to the outside, have absolutely gashed the 49ers. In Week 11 against the Arizona Cardinals and rookie quarterback Kyler Murray this season, Murray attempted seven designed runs, six of which were to the outside. On those plays, Murray averaged 9.3 yards per play and had a 22-yard touchdown run.
The 49ers’ inability to contain Murray was obvious, and disconcerting with Jackson on the docket. The touchdown run is a graphic example.
There was also this 21-yard run, which mirrors some of Baltimore’s misdirection concepts. Teams are using San Francisco’s speed and aggressiveness against it in the run game, and it’s working.
It also worked for Seattle’s Russell Wilson the week before on this 18-yard scramble.
“We brought a five-man pressure and they blocked us up with seven and it created a lane for Russell to run through that C-gap,” Saleh said a few days later, when asked if the Wilson play represented a gap integrity issue. “The coverage we were playing on the back end caught us a little bit deeper than we wanted, and it gave him an exit lane.
“I wasn’t expecting the tight end to stay in. It was a good call by them.”
It’s a common problem, though Saleh said last week that it isn’t an overarching concern, and that Jackson brings different things to the run game.
Jimmy Garoppolo has to fix his interception problem, but he could be worse off.
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Watching Jimmy Garoppolo play quarterback is an emotional roller coaster filled with seemingly endless peaks and valleys that fluctuate throughout the game. However, while Garoppolo is throwing interceptions at the fifth-highest rate in the league (3.2 percent of his throws), his lows are generally followed by pretty substantial highs.
Josh Dubow of the Associated Press tweeted a remarkable stat about Garoppolo’s production on drives following an interception. While the 49ers’ quarterback is susceptible to making multiple mistakes per game, he never does it back-to-back.
His numbers immediately following an interception are tremendous:
Jimmy Garoppolo on the 10 drives for #49ers following his INTs this season is 32 for 35 for 288 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INTs and a 120 passer rating
Three incompletions in 10 series following an interception is a remarkable number. The low yardage and touchdown totals indicate Garoppolo is a little more conservative with the ball in the set of downs after a pick, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Head coach Kyle Shanahan addressed Garoppolo’s sometimes reckless play during his Wednesday press conference.
“I think that’s part of football, you get used to that stuff,” Shanahan said. “What’s more frustrating to me is when a guy can’t make any plays and a guy can’t throw it at all and you just sit there and you’re beating your head against the wall for three-and-a-half hours. So, it’s nice when they do make a lot of plays and do some good stuff, but some bad plays do come with that. I understand that, I think Jimmy will get better in that area. I think he does continue to get in that area and I think we also could make it easier on him based on the type of game we call, how good we do around him, but that’s part of football. It’s very rare that you just come out and throw a ton of touchdowns and not picks, but I do like that Jimmy doesn’t seem to be affected by it, that he doesn’t go into a shell. He still gives us a chance to win. The more that he can keep playing the way he is without doing those turnovers, the harder he’ll be to stop.”
It’s important to remember with Garoppolo that he’s still just 20 starts into his NFL career. A bad throw here and there comes with the territory of being an NFL signal caller. He’s not near his ceiling in terms of development as a passer, so there should be some optimism that his turnover issues will subside at some point.
For now, San Francisco will have to take the good with the bad. Garoppolo racked up a career-high 424 yards, and tied his career-best with four touchdown passes in the 49ers’ 36-26 win over the Cardinals last week. He also tossed two bad interceptions – one of which nearly ended the game.
What matters when the clock hits 0:00 though is that Garoppolo threw a game-winning touchdown pass with 31 seconds left after his defense got him the ball back. It’s the good with the bad, and Garoppolo continues to thrive immediately following a mistake. It’s not perfect, but it’s a better spot to be in than having a quarterback who compounds his mistakes.
