After starting their season off with a win for only the second time under Kyle Shanahan, the San Francisco 49ers will be looking to avenge one of their worst losses of 2020 when they face the Philadelphia Eagles who will be playing their home opener Week 2 at Lincoln Financial Field.
Here are the five burning questions that will be key to the outcome of the game.
1. Will Kyle Shanahan stay committed to the run?
Before the opening game of the season last week, we mentioned how the 49ers offensive line is much better at run blocking than pass blocking. To go along with the offensive line San Francisco has a strong group of running backs that can handle a heavy workload. Grinding the game out on the ground may not always be exciting, but this will give the team its best chance to win.
The other benefit to running the ball effectively is how it can open up the passing game. When there is a threat of the run defensive players are going to struggle to not bite on play action. This in turn creates wide open throwing lanes for the quarterback.
In the 49ers week one victory over Detroit, Shanahan stayed balanced with his play calling throughout the game. Of the 55 plays, the San Francisco head coach called for a run on 25. This is a formula that Kyle Shanahan needs to stick with.
In the loss to Philadelphia last season the 49ers had 70 offensive plays, Shanahan called for a run on only 19 of them.
2. Can the 49ers passing game take advantage of their opportunities?
This question goes hand in hand with the 49ers need to stick with run to open up the passing lanes.
Philadelphia has an aggressive front seven, which often leads to them overplaying the run and opening up the possibility for some big shots down the field. In the game last season Kyle Shanahan tried to use this to the 49ers advantage early on and fullback Kyle Juszczyk was able to get wide open only to have Nick Mullens miss the throw.
San Francisco needs Jimmy Garoppolo or Trey Lance to take advantage of these opportunities when they present themselves. Both were able to do it last week, but in the NFL consistency week to week is key.
3. Can the 49ers defense stop the run?
Outside of injuries, one of the key concerns for the 49ers following week one was their run defense which allowed Detroit to gain 116 yards on 24 carries. The Lions were able to bust the San Francisco defense for runs of 10 or more yards four times on Sunday, accounting for 61 of their total rushing yards.
While the primary focus of blame has been on the defensive line, the issue stems from defenders at all three levels not properly filling their assigned gaps.
If the 49ers defense doesn’t make the proper adjustments this could be a big problem against Philadelphia.
During their week 1 victory over Atlanta, Philadelphia had a lot of success with their zone read running scheme. Eagles running backs Miles Sanders and Kenneth Gainwell combined for 111 yards on 24 carries against Atlanta with 100 of those yards coming before contact. Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts added another 62 yards on seven carries.
If the term zone read sounds familiar, it should. The 49ers defense has been facing this throughout training camp with Trey Lance, and for the most part they were able to do a good job of shutting down the outside runs.
In the loss to Philadelphia last season, Eagles quarterbacks combined for 55 yards on 10 carries. The additional practice for the defense could prove to be the instrumental on Sunday.
4. Will the 49ers defense rally to the football?
While stat line for Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurt last week looked really good, he completed 27 of 35 attempts for 264 yards and three touchdowns, 20 of Hurts’ throws were five yards or less downfield. In fact, Hurts averaged only 3.7 yards passed the line of scrimmage, the lowest total in the NFL for week one.
With so many short throws, the 49ers defense will need to show the ability to run to the ball carrier. This is something that a defense must do every week, but with a team like Philadelphia that relies on the short game it becomes even more important.
The Eagles lack of downfield throwing may help a 49ers secondary that will be without Jason Verrett who was lost for the season after tearing his ACL against Detroit and Emmanuel Moseley who has been out with a knee injury since have his leg rolled up on during the final practice before the Labor Day weekend.
Rookie Deommodore Lenoir looked good in his NFL regular season debut against Detroit, allowing only one reception for three yards. The 49ers have yet to announce who the other cornerback will be on Sunday, Dontae Johnson, Josh Norman, rookie Ambry Thomas and Dre Kirkpatrick are the possible replacements for Verrett.
5. Can the 49ers minimize penalties?
The Philadelphia defense has a very good defensive front, but that group received a lot of help from the Atlanta offense last week. The Falcons committed 12 penalties last Sunday, nine of those came from the offense. The 73 yards lost to those penalties put Atlanta’s offense behind the sticks and allowed the Eagles defense to pin their ears back and get after the quarterback.
San Francisco played a very clean game on offense for the most part, finishing with only two penalties. If the 49ers offense can continue to minimize the penalties on offense it should help with mitigating the Eagles pass rush.
Prediction:
49ers 24 Eagles 16
#6 Will Kyle show us what he’s got on offense. Will KS allow Jimmy to shine again?
For the first time in the Shannie era the team has a player to mimic those athletic zone reading QBs for defensive prep. I’ll be really disappointed of Hurts (and down the road Murray) is able to gash the team like these types of guys have been able to do in seasons past.
Jack, good stat reporting on Hurts minuscule ball travel distance. Do you think that is a structural limitation of his or just something the Eagles were taking last week because it was successful for them? Might they try to change up now there is film on it?
Thank you, Rib.
Hurts really struggled last year with downfield throws. I think they’re trying to play to help him out with easy throws that are an extension of the run game.
Agree on most points. I think the outcome comes down to the 49ers being able to run and to stop the run. The game hinges on defensive tackle play for both teams. I’m really curious to see how the 49ers use Trey Sermon. I’m kind of expecting Sermon and Aiyuk to be big contributors. Should be an interesting game.
Jack, I checked out your Hammer and Nayls YouTube breakdown of the Lions game. Thought that was really good.
Thank you!
Traitor
Nice breakdown.
I expect the 49ers will employ a lot of short passing, catch and run plays in the game plan this week, to help get the ball out of JG’s hands and keep the Eagles pass rush at bay. Could actually look quite similar on offense for both teams. Whichever team does a better job of getting the opponent to third and long should win.
Thank you, Scooter.
There’ll definitely be some screens and short stuff from the 49ers, but I think the run game will help slow down the pass rush and open up the downfield throws.
Good Morning lovers of football and America. It is greatest mistake to compare todays game to previous matchups of the Eagles and 49s. Last year the Eagles beat 49s at Levis with a different quarterback and coaching staff. They are a completely different team on offense. I am most looking forward the great game .
Kyle wants to be the genius each week. I suspect back up TE will be the star against philly.
I don’t trust SF ball security.
Wonder if Kyle will take to the same approach to the Eagles’ D Line that he has often taken with the Rams — try to tire them out with an extra heavy dose of outside zone runs…..