49ers news: 5 winners and 2 losers after the Niners dominance over the Jets

As someone who can only watch this sport in “coach mode,” the curmudgeon runs strong in me. There’s always something to correct. Nothing is ever perfect, even when the score looks out of reach for the opponent; every play matters.

The San Francisco 49ers were in complete control of the team many had power ranked No. 1 in the NFL. And even when the Niners were trailing 7-3, their control of the game was palpable.

You could sense the dam was on the verge of breaking. While it never entirely did, the offense bulldozed its way into the Jets’ territory on every possession after the first. At the same time, the defense stymied Aaron Rodgers, Breece Hall, and Garrett Wilson all night.

Let’s delve into the winners and losers from Monday Night Football, exploring the strategic decisions and their impact on the game.

Winners

Jordan Mason

I asked Kyle Shanahan during the preseason how much he trusted Mason. Kyle said, “I have a ton of trust” in the undrafted free agent who had never had a full workload. We’d find out if that were coachspeak or whether Shanahan was comfortable giving the ball to Mason.

Mason caught his one target for a first down on a third down where the 49ers needed to stay on the field. So we had a high volume and a target on the money down. That should silence any doubt about the coaching staff’s trust in Mason.

Mason had eight carries inside the tackles and averaged 6.4 yards per rush on those carries. He averaged 3.9 yards after contact and had the third highest rushing EPA in Week 1 among all running backs when rushing inside the tackles.

Mason ran for 147 yards on the night when the Jets stacked the box 50 percent of the time, and it had to be music to Shanahan’s ears. Mason had 30 yards rushing over expectation, which was fourth in the NFL.

The most impressive stat about Mason’s night was the eight carries he had of at least 15 miles per hour. The only player with more during Week 1 was some guy named Lamar Jackson.

Adam Schefter hinted that Christian McCaffrey won’t be in action next week against the Minnesota Vikings. McCaffrey’scalf injury has lingered for more than a month. After Mason’s performance and looking at the schedule, I’m not sure that CMC should play before the Niners face the Dallas Cowboys.

The Niners’ run defense

Last season, the 49ers were dreadful against the run. It was one of the few worries we had coming into Monday Night. It was the first game without Arik Armstead and Dre Greenlaw, and the thought was Breece Hall would be more effective going from Zach Wilson to Aaron Rodgers.

He was not.

Hall rushed for 54 yards on 16 carries, and one of those rushes went for 16 yards. So the 49ers held Hall, a prolific runner, to 2.5 yards per carry on 15 attempts.

The 68 yards the Niners allowed were the second-fewest in Week 1. The number that stands out is -0.17. That’s the yards before contact they allowed, which was tops in the NFL.

The 49ers only loaded the box on ten percent of its snaps. They were stopping the run without extra defenders and did so without relying on a bunch of tackles for loss. That tells me that Monday night’s performance is sustainable moving forward.

The offensive line

No Hassan Reddick in the lineup helped, but Quinnen Williams is one of the NFL’s best players, and Robert Saleh knows the 49ers offense inside and out. You would think the Jets would have a few tricks to get over on the 49ers up front.

It was dicey at first. On the first dropback of the game, Williams whupped Colton McKivitz and bull-rushed him into Brock Purdy. Jake Brendel was in Purdy’s lap on another dropback early in the game.

The blocking settled in after that. Purdy was only pressured on 25 percent of his dropbacks after those two early pressures. And even when you count those, Purdy was among the least pressured quarterbacks in Week 1.

To better contextualize Purdy’s pressure numbers, the 49ers offense was third in Week 1 in “Time to pressure against” at 3.2 seconds, which is an outstanding number and nearly a full second higher than league average. This statistic indicates that the offensive line provided Purdy with ample time to make decisions in the pocket, significantly reducing the pressure on him. Purdy had time to shoot another Applebee’s commercial in the pocket.

You don’t run for 150+ yards on your own. The line paved the way for Mason and Deebo Samuel, giving them 1.49 yards before contact. Again, that number is skewed because the Jets had 8+ defenders in the box on half the snaps. A ’light box’ refers to a defensive formation with fewer defenders near the line of scrimmage, making it easier for the offense to run the ball. But that makes the team rushing success rate of 44 percent more eye-popping. For reference, the Niners had almost similar success to the Chicago Bears on the ground despite the Bears facing a light box 45 percent more of the time.

Dominick Puni was as advertised. Trent Williams was beaten twice in 65 snaps. And even when Aaron Banks left, Spencer Burford looked comfortable:

Losers

Red zone scoring

Scoring 32 points against the Jets is an accomplishment. But if we’re thinking big picture and what could handicap the 49ers down the line, it’s capitalizing on every opportunity they have to maximize their output on the scoreboard.

Before the start of the season, I spoke to a person I hold in high regard when it comes to evaluating teams. He said this 49ers team is the best he’s seen in the past seven years, and he has them power-rated higher than anybody during that span. And not just by a little bit, by seven points. A full touchdown!

So, when you think in terms of what this team is capable of and who they can become, you want to see them convert a touchdown drive when they have 1st & 10 on the Jets 32.

On 3rd & 5 from New York’s 29-yard line, there isn’t a single reason in the world for you to run a trick play that involves throwing the ball to your quarterback—especially when you just picked up 14 yards on the previous third down.

The drive before the first half was brilliant. The offense kept the ball for the final 5:14 of the second quarter and milked the clock while getting three points out of it. There were no complaints there, and we’ve seen Rodgers score in a blink. That was as good of clock management from Shanahan that you’ll see.

The shaky drive from Brock in the third quarter ended with a 53-yard attempt by Moody.

A 4th & 1 attempt caused some fans to question Shanahan, but his left tackle needed an I.V. If you’re making decisions based on the flow of the game, there was little reason to be concerned about a field goal there. New York hadn’t shown a pulse on offense and needed two touchdowns and two conversions to tie the game with nine minutes to play. Sure enough, they turned it over on downs the next drive and Pulled Rodgers.

The final field goal came when the 49ers tried to run the clock out, and a 3rd & 2 attempt ended with Purdy being sacked.

On the surface, the 49ers failed miserably when they had scoring chances, but talking through it makes it easy to think that these are all correctable moving forward.

Third down defense

The Jets were six of ten on third down. Allen Lazard dropped an easy first down to begin the game, which took the air out of the Jets balloon.

There was a 3rd & 8 where Deommodore Lenoir was in perfect position, but it was a better throw and catch for a 16-yard completion. That’s a play you can live with.

Wilson running wide open over the middle and George Odum being two steps too slow on 3rd & 7 is not something you can live with. Rinse, wash, repeat. On the next third down, just flip sides, and Wilson converts again.

The defensive line pressured Rodgers on the subsequent two third-down attempts to force incompletions. Is that what this defense will rely on? Getting pressure with four? It didn’t seem like Nick Sorensen had a lot of blitzes in his debut.

Rodgers found Lazard for a long touchdown on the next third-down attempt. Ji’Ayir Brown was late to get down the middle of the field.

The other conversions came during garbage time, but the biggest stop happened in the fourth quarter. Hall tried to run up the middle, but Brown and practice squad call up Sam Okuayinonu made the stop. That led to an Isaac Yiadom deflection on fourth down and a turnover on downs.

So, again, it doesn’t look great on the stat sheet when you allow a team to convert 60 percent of their third downs, but the Niners could stand to tighten things up coverage-wise over the middle.

Winners

The role players

Mason qualifies as a role player, but Kyle Juszczyk was incredible in the running game and had the long 34-yard reception. Jauan Jennings caught all five of his targets for 64 yards. Jennings is a nightmare matchup and a walking first down. Eric Saubert also had a couple of meaningful blocks.

Leonard Floyd might not qualify as a role player given his history, but he had four pressures and was 11th in pressure rate among all defensive linemen. More importantly, Floyd caused two turnovers in four of those pressures. He’s making an impact when he gets there.

Isaac Yiadom allowed a long catch but had the fourth down deflection and allowed 29 yards on four targets. That’ll play.

Maliek Collins had two run stops, allowing him to rush the passer. And De’Vondre Campbell was not torched in the passing game like Green Bay Packers fans would have you believe.

Special teams

Mitch Wishnowsky had one punt for 58 yards. One punt is the story here, but 58 yards is not too shabby. Jacob Cowing fielded the ball cleanly on both punt return attempts.

Jake Moody was 8-for-8 and was good with room to spare from 53 yards out. The 49ers gave the Jets three chances to return kicks, and there were no egregious missed tackles. That was the night’s biggest win after the coverage units looked sloppy during the preseason. Ideally, Moody kicks it out of the end zone every time, but Xavier Gipson is a dangerous return man, and his longest was 28 yards, while the Niners held him to 22 on another attempt.