Niners return home perfect after blowout win over Bengals.
It has been seven years and three coaching regimes since we’ve seen the 49ers offense play like it did in Sunday’s 41-17 beatdown of the Cincinnati Bengals.
The numbers were jawdropping: 572 total yards, an immense 8.4 yards per play and five touchdowns. The Niners showed the NFL just how good their offense can be this season — and it’s certainly playoff-worthy.
And while the players deserve a ton of credit, the game-ball for that revelatory performance needs to go to 49ers head coach and offensive coordinator Kyle Shana
han.
On a day where the quarterback is accurate and the offensive line is dominating the line of scrimmage, it’s unquestionably evident: there’s no better playcaller in the NFL.
Shanahan called something close to a perfect game on Sunday. It was a virtuoso performance, executed against an already questionable defense that was rendered hapless by a balanced, multiple, and dynamic 49ers attack.
Sunday’s performance was the kind Shanahan was able to put on the field in his prior stops — the kind of gameplan that turned Matt Schaub, of all quarterbacks, into a Pro Bowler.
It was also the kind of performance we had only seen hints of in Shanahan’s first two years in the Bay, thanks to lacking talent and copious injuries; the kind of performance so many wanted to see in Week 1, but looked so far away after that game against Tampa Bay.
But it showed up early Sunday — the 49ers’ first touchdown of the game was a shining example of Shahanan’s brilliance.
And then it didn’t fade as the game progressed.
That first touchdown of the day came on a play-action pass — like so many of Shanahan’s calls (nearly a third of Jimmy Garoppolo’s dropbacks last season involved play-action,
the highest rate in the league). The fake to the running back suckered in the Cincinnati linebackers, who were stuck in no-man’s lanBut running through that black- and white-clad pile of humanity, just behind the of scrimmage was Marquise Goodwin.
The Bengals never saw the 5-foot10 receiver, and by the time Jimmy Garoppolo threw the ball to the track star turned wide receiver, there wasn’t a Cincinnati defender within 13 yards, per NFL’s Next Gen Stats. Goodwin didn’t need his prodigious speed to find paydirt — he could have moonwalked into the end zone — all because of a brilliant play call, well-executed.
The Niners might lack a bonafide No. 1 wide receiver, and Garoppolo’s not the kind of quarterback who is going to challenge defenses downfield, but when the Niners’ offensive line is controlling the line of scrimmage, the run game is viable (as it certainly was on Sunday), and Garoppolo is accurate in the short and intermediate passing games, the Niners’ limitations really don’t matter — Shanahan’s offense and playcalling is good enough to make up more than the difference and make the Niners one of the most prolific attacks in the NFL.
The big numbers might not show that — not before Sunday at least — but a deep dive into football’s new world of analytics would have told you that the Niners’ breakout Sunday was long in the making.
No one would confuse San Francisco’s receiver corps with an elite
one, but they put up elite numbers last year. Last season, five 49ers receivers had an average separation of more than 2.8 yards on their targets — Dante Pettis and George Kittle averaged 3.4 and 3.3 yards of separation per target.
It’s not normal for offenses to play with this much space — especially when C.J. Beathard and Nick Mullens are taking the majority of snaps.
And while there are a bunch of other great playcallers in the NFL right now, no one is helping his players more than Shanahan.
That’s why Niners fans need to be patient with him, even if the momentum from this 2-0 start doesn’t carry the team forward.
Sunday was Shanahan’s 12th win in 34 games as a head coach. Despite his overall record, we still don’t know if he’s a good or bad head coach. On top of that, we can certainly question his personnel decisions, which have been questionable at best to date.
But in a league where great play callers can hand-pick head coaching jobs, Shanahan’s skills are an elite commodity — one the Niners would be foolish to let go.
Because while the Niners’ defense has been strong so far this season, and everyone likes George Kittle — Shanahan’s offensive mind is the 49ers’ top asset, too.
As an offensive coordinator, give Shanahan a little and he’ll get you a lot.
That’s the formula for success in 2019 for the Niners, and on Sunday, it was on display for all to see.