49ers Film Review: Key plays from win over Carolina

The 49ers 37-15 victory over the Carolina Panthers on Sunday marked a series of firsts.

For the first time they have won games in back-to-back weeks this season. San Francisco’s offense finally started rolling a bit as well, scoring a season high 30 points.

While the offense found itself a bit, the defense continued to flex its muscle. Despite Nick Bosa being held without a sack, they recorded six quarterback sacks and scored a touchdown.

After reviewing the coach’s film, here are the plays I found key to Sunday’s victory.

1st Quarter, 3rd and 6 at 49ers 29

Jimmy Garoppolo threw only six passes beyond ten yards in the 49ers week four win over Los Angeles.

Against Carolina he came out firing on the first third down of the game and it carried on throughout the contest. Garoppolo would finish with a total of ten pass attempts over ten yards.

With San Francisco having shown the tendency to use 11-personnel on third down, one running back and one tight end, Carolina came into the game wanting to be aggressive and get after the quarterback.

Garoppolo made sure the plan failed.

On the opening third down, Carolina sent a five-man blitz. Garoppolo saw it and lofted a perfectly placed pass to George Kittle down the left sideline.

Garoppolo would do the same thing on another third down later in the quarter, beating a six-man blitz with another deep throw, this one to running back Tevin Coleman for 30-yards.

1st Quarter, 2nd and 9 at midfield

Two plays after Garoppolo’s third down throw to George Kittle it was time for Jeff Wilson Jr. and the 49ers offensive line to shine.

The play call was a counter to the left side.

George Kittle, Jaylon Moore, and Aaron Banks caved in the Panthers defense. Spencer Burford pulled to kick out the defensive end and Kyle Juszczyk led on the linebacker. With the seas parting in front of him, Wilson sprinted untouched until the safety was able to track him down after a gain of 41.

The 49ers offensive line punished Carolina in the run game throughout, posting a season best 5.3 yards per attempt.

1st Quarter, 1st and 10 at Panthers 33

When you think of the 49ers offense and screens it usually means a quick throw to the outside to Deebo Samuel or Brandon Aiyuk.

Kyle Shanahan mixed things up against Carolina.

With the Panthers defensive line charging upfield, Shanahan countered by calling screens for the running backs.

Tevin Coleman scored the first San Francisco touchdown on a screen to the right side.

In the waning moments of the first quarter Shanahan went to the well once again. Jeff Wilson Jr. caught the short pass from Garoppolo and followed the blocks of Daniel Brunskill and Jake Brendel for a gain of 12 yards.

San Francisco finished the drive with a 49-yard field goal from Robbie Gould.

2nd Quarter, 2nd and 20 at Panthers 30

The 49ers defense wasn’t about to let the offense have all the fun.

Clinging to a seven-point lead late in the second quarter cornerback Emmanuel Moseley blew the game wide open.

As Moseley dropped into zone coverage, Panthers quarterback Baker Mayfield overthrew Christian McCaffrey in the left flat. The ball hit Moseley in the chest, and he took it 41-yards the other way for the 49ers second defensive touchdown in as many weeks.

3rd Quarter, 4th and 3 at Panthers 43

After the Panthers opened the second half to make the score 17-9, Kyle Shanahan took another shot and went for it on fourth down.

This decision showed Shanahan’s confidence in both his offense to pick up the necessary yardage, and his defense to be able to pick up the slack if unsuccessful.

The Panthers were able to get a strong push over the left side forcing Jimmy Garoppolo to move to his right.

As the quarterback was on the move, he fired to Deebo Samuel. The pass was on target, but C.J. Henderson got there early, running through Samuel, and getting called for pass interference.

On the next play Garoppolo hit Jauan Jennings for a gain of 32, giving San Francisco first down inside the Panthers five. Garoppolo would hit Samuel in the endzone for a touchdown a few plays later, and the route was on.

This article has 16 Comments

  1. The to Kittle was nice. The one to Coleman was nice. The to Aiyuk was nice too but they didn’t connect. The one to Juice in DEN was nice too.

  2. 49ers had a lot of good plays in that game. The thing that struck me on your highlights was that the 49ers won all those plays but they were contested. Kittle was covered well. Coleman was covered well. Jimmy G just trusted his guys to make plays. I do like the wrinkle with the screen game though. I also like that Deebo only carried the ball twice.
    Moseley was just in the right place at the right time for the pick 6. Baker threw the ball right to him. To me, that was just a matter of one team playing with confidence and the other team looking for leadership. It wasn’t really about Xs and Os.

  3. Jack, do you have any thoughts on special teams? Despite the investments made, they don’t appear to be any better at least not in the Carolina game. The Oline, however, is looking good and improving week to week. All other aspects of the team looked very good. This is definitely a team that can compete for a championship and baring more serious injuries should continue to improve. Jimmy looked very good and made some extremely good throws. That throw to Gray, while missed, showed his arm strength.

    1. I agree with you on special teams. I’m not sure how you improve that. The injuries to starters may be partially to blame. It forces those special teams aces to focus on more responsibilities and in some cases may take them off a unit.

      1. Jack,
        Do you think the 9ers will continue to have Gould kick off? Wishnowski seems to be much better punting without KO responsibility but he used to KO much deeper than Gould and is a far better athlete when it comes to tackling. That simple switch could improve the ST’s quite a bit.

        1. Yes. Gould has been doing a good job with it. I think he’s better than Wishnowsky in that role.

  4. Davante Adams charged with misdemeanor assault. That’s absolutely absurd. Aaron Donald literally tried to kill a Bengals player in the preseason by ripping off helmets and swinging at his head. The NFL said, discipline is up to the Rams because the NFL doesn’t have any authority to discipline actions during a practice. So in response, the Rams named Aaron Donald a team captain. No discipline whatsoever. No law enforcement action for obvious assault with a deadly weapon. Seems like media and fans want to scream about the way the Dolphins handled Tua. The Rams and NFLPA actions with Aaron Donald, who has a history of violent behavior during and after games where he’s tried to choke out multiple players, are the most shameful thing that’s happened in the NFL in a long time. Aaron Donald should not play any snaps this year and the Rams should suffer a hefty fine and lost draft picks as a result of the way they’ve enabled seriously criminal behavior from one of their players.

  5. Looking for some feedback to give all of you the best coverage possible.

    What do you like about the blog that you’d like to see continue?

    Are there any changes you would like to see made?

    1. Jack,
      More give and take with the rest of us. I see any number of questions for you that never get an answer.

    2. These are the things I like:
      Film review
      5 burning questions
      Mailbag
      You Cut out political commentary and the personal attacks

      I think you should do more Mailbag and engage more with your readers on the blog. I’m sure that’s challenging with time constraints but I like reading some of that interaction. I think you might also do a little more to connect readers to your YouTube channel.

      1. Thank you.

        I’d love to get some of the readers together for a roundtable type show.

        I could also do call-in shows and drop the link over here. How about Thursday’s at 5:30 starting next week?

        1. Thats a very interesting idea. Not sure how that might work but it would kind of build the community. I like the Locked on 49er Podcast with Brian Peacock & Eric Crocker. I also like the 49ers Rush podcast with John Chapman. I listen on Spotify after it’s posted so I’ m not sure how it works in a live environment but they do something where they are able to be very interactive with their fans during the podcast. Whatever technology they use for that interaction might work for what you’re talking about. I’m sure you probably already have that covered from your Youtube videos. If you do a roundtable you will need to post some instructions on how it works so old farts like me can participate.

  6. Keep doing what you have been doing.
    As the word gets out that you talk football and the blog is a positive place to be heard, then those of us who stepped away will come back.

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