The 49ers played 62 snaps on offense Sunday and a whopping 82 on defense. Those snaps came in poor air quality after practicing in the same smoke-filled air and were against a hard-to-catch quarterback who often went up-tempo on offense.
As
colleague David Lombardi notes, it was the most defensive snaps the 49ers have played in two seasons, including last year’s game against the Seahawks that included a nearly full overtime period.
With that, here are the individual snap counts and analyses for each position group:
Running back: Raheem Mostert 37, Kyle Juszczyk (fullback) 36, Jerick McKinnon 19, Tevin Coleman 6
Mostert had his first-ever NFL start and made the most of it, leading the 49ers in both rushing (55 yards) and receiving (95 yards) and accounting for 150 of the team’s 366 offensive yards.
Cardinals linebacker Isaiah Simmons famously ran a 4.39-second 40-yard dash at this year’s NFL Scouting Combine. It’s a big reason Arizona made him the No. 8 pick in the draft. Mostert not only beat Simmons on a pass route in the first quarter, he was pulling away from the linebacker on his 76-yard touchdown catch-and-run. Per the
NFL’s NextGen stats, Mostert reached 22.73 mph on the play, the fastest rate for any ball carrier in the last two years.
The question is whether Mostert would have started had the air been cleaner.
The poor air quality index meant the 49ers reduced the snaps for Coleman, whose sickle cell trait makes him vulnerable to bad air days. Coleman seemed to take over one of Mostert’s traditional roles, gunner on punt coverage. Coleman played five snaps on special teams. Mostert played no snaps on special teams, an oddity for someone whose toehold in the NFL came because he was a terrific coverage player on special teams.
Juszczyk’s busy game meant that despite having intriguing weapons like McKinnon and tight end Jordan Reed that Kyle Shanahan hasn’t had in previous seasons, the coach mostly stuck with tried-and-true personnel packages. The 49ers were in “21” — two running backs, one tight end — for most of the game.
Jeff Wilson played five snaps of special teams, none on offense. Only kicker Robbie Gould (four snaps), offensive lineman Colton McKivitz (zero snaps) and backup quarterback Nick Mullens (zero snaps) played fewer.
Receiver: Kendrick Bourne 57, Dante Pettis 45, Trent Taylor 21, Richie James 10
Bourne had a typical Bourne-like game with two strong catches over the middle for 34 yards. He would have been the home-team hero if Jimmy Garoppolo had thrown a corner-route pass deeper at game’s end. Pettis was targeted once on a deep pass in the second quarter. He had a step on the cornerback but didn’t extend for the ball with the safety bearing down on him.
According to Pro Football Focus, Pettis ran 30 pass routes, which means that Garoppolo didn’t go his way on 29 of them.
Four of Taylor’s five targets came on third or fourth down. He caught two and, rare for the Garoppolo-Taylor connection, none were for first downs. James suffered a hamstring strain and didn’t play in the second half, leaving the 49ers with only three healthy receivers.
The 49ers have three receivers on the practice squad — Jauan Jennings, River Cracraft and Kevin White — which should help them get through practice. Maybe one of them will get elevated to the active roster for Week 2 against the Jets. Maybe the 49ers will even sign a receiver. Mohamed Sanu remains available.
Tight end: George Kittle 61, Reed 10, Ross Dwelley 7, Charlie Woerner 1
This was a bit surprising. One of the team’s strengths this season is its tight end room. Kittle even joked about running some four-tight-end sets, something that seemed almost plausible as the team’s wide receiver numbers dwindled late in the week.
Instead, there were only brief appearances from tight ends not named Kittle. Perhaps the 49ers are leery — and understandably so — about over-using Reed early due to his injury history and because he didn’t play in 2019. Maybe they don’t feel the rookie, Woerner, is quite ready for extended snaps because of the small number of offseason practices.
Reed and Kittle were on the field together for a half-dozen snaps, but utilizing that duo obviously wasn’t part of the game plan. Instead, the 49ers stuck with what they did last season, which is lean heavily on Kittle and usually pair him with Juszczyk. Kittle played every snap but one.
Offensive line: Trent Williams 62, Laken Tomlinson 62, Hroniss Grasu 62, Daniel Brunskill 62, Mike McGlinchey 62
Williams might not say he played a perfect game. The Cardinals, however, probably would disagree. No one felt the new offensive lineman’s presence more than linebacker Jordan Hicks. Late in the first quarter, Williams pulled out of his left tackle spot, hit Hicks at the 15-yard line and blasted him backward and onto his back to the 12-yard line. It was a 9-foot pancake.
Williams might have allowed one pressure in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, his opponent, including Chandler Jones, didn’t come near Garoppolo. It was a strong return for Williams.
As for the others, Grasu seemed solid in his first-ever start for the 49ers. Maybe he’s not as quick-footed as Weston Richburg or Ben Garland on the zone runs, but there were no glaring issues at center, certainly not with the snaps. Brunskill lost a one-on-one battle early that ended with Garoppolo getting sacked. But it seemed that Garoppolo couldn’t find an open receiver and had to hold onto the ball longer than usual on the play. Like Grasu, Brunskill was solid and certainly not problematic.
Defensive line: Nick Bosa 57, Arik Armstead 52, Dee Ford 46, Solomon Thomas 40, D.J. Jones 39, Javon Kinlaw 39, Kerry Hyder 33, Kevin Givens 22
After rewatching the game, the two defensive-line standouts were Bosa, who had no sacks on Kyler Murray but who was disruptive throughout, and Hyder, who was the only defensive lineman able to bring Murray down for a sack
An encouraging sign for the 49ers: Ford played 56 percent of the defensive snaps after playing just 22 percent of the total in 2019. His presence should improve the 49ers’ pass rush, although on Sunday both he and Armstead were largely invisible, which is notable given the number of snaps they played. It could be that Arizona’s offense, and Murray in particular, negates what Ford and the 49ers defensive line does best, which is aggressively attack quarterbacks with an upfield pass rush.
Kinlaw, the 14th pick in the draft, did not start. Thomas did. That was likely because the 49ers began the game in nickel defense. Kinlaw barely made the stat sheet. He was credited with an assist on a tackle. Still, he handled himself well in his debut, beating guard J.R. Sweezy on one play to force a quick throw (an incompletion) by Murray. On another, he whipped around center Mason Cole to help tackle Kenyan Drake after a short gain.
Yes, Kinlaw ended up on the ground on a couple of plays. But overall, it was a promising start for the rookie. Thomas, meanwhile, finished with no tackles and no quarterback pressures.
Linebacker: Fred Warner 82, Kwon Alexander 80, Dre Greenlaw 35
Both starters, Warner and Alexander, had missed tackles but otherwise had no other glaring errors. Greenlaw’s tipped pass led to the 49ers’ only takeaway, although he also was flagged for a rather touchy late-hit call on Murray.
On two occasions, safety Tarvarius Moore entered the game to give the 49ers six defensive backs. On those plays, Alexander went to the sideline.
Defensive back: Jimmie Ward 82, Jaquiski Tartt 82, Emmanuel Moseley 82, Richard Sherman 78, K’Waun Williams 47, Ahkello Witherspoon 4, Moore 2
The 49ers are playing “field” and “boundary” with their cornerbacks this season. Sherman covers the “field” side, which is the wide side of the field based on which set of hash marks the ball is on. Moseley is on the boundary side, which is slightly more narrow.
Because the 49ers were intent on keeping this under wraps during training camp, no one has explained the rationale behind the change. But generally, offenses put their “X” receiver — usually the best receiver — on the boundary side, while defenses put their smaller, quicker cornerback on that side. That’s what happened Sunday.
Seven of DeAndre Hopkins’ 14 catches came when he was matched against Moseley. Two catches came against Sherman. The other five came either against K’Waun Williams, when the 49ers were in a zone defense or, on Hopkins’ longest reception, when no one was covering him at all.
Moore and Coleman generally served as the gunners on punt coverage, although Witherspoon was a gunner on one of Mitch Wishnowsky’s punts. Moore played a team-high 24 snaps on special teams. Cornerback Dontae Johnson was elevated from the practice squad to play special teams, including being the fullback on punts. He allowed the Cardinals to break through to block Wishnowsky’s first attempt, although he ended up having to block two players, linebackers Ezekiel Turner and Dennis Gardeck, on the play.
Four of Wishnowsky’s five kickoffs were touchbacks. The one the Cardinals decided to return from the end zone was brought back 42 yards.
