49ers’ surprising run was defined by these key moments
SANTA CLARA — There were plenty of questions about the San Francisco 49ers heading into the 2019 season — long before they quickly developed into one of the most well-rounded teams in the NFL.
Could Jimmy Garoppolo play at a high level throughout an entire season? The fiveyear veteran had never done it before as a 16game starter under center.
Would the defense take a big enough step forward to compete? Injuries in 2018 plagued the secondary and the pass rush was lackluster. Then there weren’t any significant investments made into the secondary in the offseason, just the pass rush with Dee Ford and Nick Bosa, who both had checkered injury histories.
Would coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense have enough weapons? That was a fair question at the beginning of the season that was answered, in part, by the October trade for receiver Emmanuel Sanders, whose presence became invaluable on and off the field.
The answers to all those questions became “yes” as the season wore on. There were key benchmark moments throughout the campaign that led to beating the Green Bay Packers in Sunday’s NFC title game for the right to play in Super Bowl LIV against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Youngstown calling — The 49ers won their season opener in Tampa Bay by 14 points while getting a pair of defensive touchdowns from Jameis Winston interceptions. The offense had its least productive day of the season with just 256 yards while Garoppolo was making his first regular season start since tearing his ACL almost exactly a year earlier.
Then the team decided to stay in Youngstown, Ohio, rather than return to the Bay Area and fly back out to the Eastern time zone for the 10 a.m. body clock start. The move paid off, and whatever the team
did during practice on the synthetic soccer field at Youngstown State appeared to get the offense in sync. (Going against the Bengals didn’t hurt, either).
Garoppolo was sharp, completing 17 of 35 for 296 yards (8.45 yards per attempt) with three touchdowns, while the offense hummed to a season-high 571 yards. Cincinnati wound up with the worst record in the NFL netting the top pick in the upcoming NFL Draft, but they were the second straight team to be favored over San Francisco, who began the year 2-0 with wins in the Eastern Time Zone for the first time since Jim Harbaugh was coach in 2014.
The first two weeks turned out to be an important hurdle to clear. After all, the 49ers went all of 2018 without winning a road game. Getting their first two provided an early season confidence boost.
Changing of the guard in the NFC West — The 49ers slogged through their home opener against the Steelers and backup quarterback Mason Rudolph because they turned the ball over five times and needed a late touchdown from Dante Pettis (remember him?) with 1:20 left to win, 24-20. Then came the early-season bye and a Monday night thumping of the Cleveland Browns.
The next week was the biggest test of the early season for undefeated San Francisco. They had to travel to play the defending NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams, who also reigned over the division the previous two seasons.
It ended up being the comingout party for the 49ers’ elite defense. It limited Jared Goff to his only game of the season in which he had fewer than 173 yards. He had just 78, took four sacks, lost a fumble and averaged a horrendous 3.25 yards per attempt. Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh became an online sensation for his celebrations of fourth-down stops, Richard Sherman went on a very Sherman-like postgame rant about how the defense was being overlooked, and Nick Bosa said after the game he believed the 49ers had a championship defense.
It was around that Rams win that San Francisco began to believe it could win the division.
Toughest three-game stretch in history — The 49ers three games against the Green Bay Packers, Baltimore Ravens and New Orleans Saints was, statistically, the toughest threegame stretch any NFL team had seen.
All three opponents had .800 winning percentages, marking the first time that late in the year one team would play three such clubs in consecutive weeks. How did the 49ers handle it? They went 2-1, which included crucial conference victories over Green Bay and New Orleans which paved the way for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The 49ers finished 13-3, the same record as those two teams, which meant the head-to-head tie breakers allowed them a first-round bye and home field advantage throughout, which proved to be massive.
The 49ers blew out the Packers, 37-8, which was similar to the dominant performance in Sunday’s NFC title game. They lost a close game in soggy Baltimore, 20-17, on a field goal as time expired. Then they stayed in Florida, like they did before the Bengals game, rather than head back to the Bay Area to cut down on travel time.
The game against the Saints wound up being the most entertaining of the year. San Francisco won, 48-46, thanks to a seasondefining play from George Kittle, where he carried defenders 20 yards while drawing a facemask to convert a fourth-and-2 to set up Robbie Gould’s game-winning kick.