Niners Nation
The New Orleans Saints made it a point to target Renardo Green on the first drive. Green gave up an 11 and a 39-yard pass. He should have scored a touchdown, had the ball not been dropped by Chris Olave. But the 49ers didn’t pay for it after the Saints missed a 40-yard field goal.
The San Francisco 49ers went three-and-out to open the game. On the ensuing drive, Robert Saleh used Ji’Ayir Brown on second down when he ran zone coverage at nickel. Then, on third down, they lined up Upton Stout in the slot using man coverage. He won’t be able to get away with that for long, but it should help on early downs until Stout gets more comfortable running different zone coverages.
San Francisco answered with a 14-play drive that went 80 yards. Pass interference on 3rd & 7 by old friend Isaac Yiadom helped. Ricky Pearsall’s 15-yard reception on 3rd & 14 kept the drive alive. Jones scrambled for 13 yards on 2nd & 14 before an 11-yard play-action pass to Luke Farrell for the game’s first touchdown.
The 49ers would lose fullback Kyle Juszczyk and left guard Ben Bartch after this series.
After the defense forced a punt, the offense had a promising drive that eventually stalled. Eddy Pineiro, who missed his first extra point attempt, nailed a 44-yarder to make it 9-0.
An Upton Stout sack ended the next Saints drive. That was the rookie’s first in his NFL career, and likely won’t be the last. Then, San Francisco couldn’t answer after Jones ran into a sack on the following drive.
It looked as though the defense would get yet another stop when Mykel Williams made a tackle for loss. But Spencer Rattler squeezed in a 20-yard pass to Brandin Cooks with Marques Sigle in coverage. After picking up a couple of first downs, Rattler scrambled for a nine-yard gain in 3rd & 6 after ducking under the tackle of Dee Winters to keep the drive alive. Rattler capped off the drive with a perfect pass to Jawaun Johnson over Sigle for the Saints’ first score of the game, making it 9-7.
Mac Jones would have just over a minute left on the clock from the 23-yard line. On 3rd & 6, Jones elected for the third level route and hit Jauan Jennings for a 29-yard. On 3rd & 6, Kyle Shanahan designed a 1-on-1 scenario for Christian McCaffrey, and he won with ease to make it 16-7.
We were wondering how aggressive Shanahan would be with a backup quarterback, and Jones attempting 23 passes in the first half says it all. Jones took a couple of bad sacks, but he was in complete control. Despite some of his misses to Pearsall, it would be difficult to ask a backup to play better than Jones did, given the circumstances. Jones went 7-for-9 in the two-minute drill for 77 yards before the half.
Jones would take another brutal sack to begin the third quarter....
