Niners Nation
If you had to describe the San Francisco 49ers to someone, you’d point to Week 1. The ebbs and flows and highs and lows during the 60-minute game against the Seattle Seahawks were on full display. Ultimately, the Niners benefitted from Seattle kicking a field goal on 4th & 1. But good teams make their opponents pay for poor choices, and Brock Purdy and the offense did so on the final drive.
Let’s discuss the best and most questionable performances from Week 1, and everything in between.
Going back and forth internally about who stood out the most, regardless of which side of the ball, the linebacker duo took away the middle of the field in both facets. In football, you are either the hammer or the nail. Too often in 2024, the Niners were on the receiving end of the thump. Against the Seahawks, Warner and Winters continuously laid the hammer.
Winters had six tackles, four of which were for stops, meaning they constituted a loss for the offense, and was a demon as a blitzer. Winters’ job was to cause chaos during his seven pass rushes, and he succeeded. He also made an open field tackle in pass coverage and minimized the damage after the catch. Winters looked closer to a clone of his counterpart than a third-year player. Next Gen Stats tracks “hustle stops,” which is when a player covers at least 20 yards during the play. Winters had a pair of those. His speed made a world of difference.
I’d say Winters played his “A” game, and it still fell short of Warner, who is the Messiah of linebackers. Warner had one hustle stop, but five stops overall. Watching him navigate through traffic and stop the running back in his tracks will forever be cinematic.
Warner allowed one of the lowest passer ratings of the week at 39.6. He sniffs out route concepts and baited Sam Darnold on numerous occasions. However, it’s what Warner does outside of the box score that makes him our top winner. He’s getting the rookie defensive lineman lined up correctly pre-snap. You can see Warner telling them to move over a gap, or communicating with Upton Stout and Marques Sigle before the ball is hiked. The Niners are counting on several players making their first appearance on the field. They can do that because of Warner.
Brock Purdy has the utmost confidence in Ricky Pearsall. Case in point, Purdy’s second interception:
Pearsall gave Purdy every reason to be confident in him at every turn, leading up to that moment, and even after the fact.
While Pearsall struggled to separate from top-five pick Devon Witherspoon, he had everybody else attempting to cover him in hell. Pearsall ran away from 4.26 Tariq Woolen multiple times, creating separation each time. He should have had a touchdown on an end zone target had the ball not been floated toward him. I have never seen...
