Billy Buffalo
Well-known member
- Mar 16, 2019
- 1,699
- 0
USA TODAY Sports
The 49ers lost by 10 points to the Bills on Monday night. But San Francisco still had some positives, specifically in their running game.
“I thought our run game versus Buffalo was one of the best it’s been since we’ve been here,” coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters on Friday. “That’s why you’ve got to look at it, you’ve got to watch it. You take away those goal line runs that we had, all runs inside the three-yard line, and then we had a negative, I think, nine-yard run when we down blocked and we tossed it to Tevin [Coleman] when the D-End got up the field that left us with 13 carries for seven yards a carry or 6.8.
“Our analytics guys give us all the stuff. They told me it was our most efficient analytics running game since we’ve been here. So, that was one of the more frustrating things. I thought we blocked as well as we’ve done and I thought we were running the ball very well. They controlled the ball very good and we didn’t convert a couple third downs. That’s why I think 14 of our runs were, I think in the first 20-something plays of the game. So I was very happy with our run. Hope we block the same way we did then and I hope the game works out to where we can get more called.”
That’s good news for a 49ers team that is down but not out yet. At 5-7, there’s still a chance they’ll run the table and finish 9-7. That could be enough to get in the postseason field, based on how things shake out for the other teams circling the seventh seed.
For the run game to have relevance, however, the defense needs to do a better job of slowing down the opposing offense. That’s where the 49ers failed on Monday night, putting the team in a hole from which it could never quite emerge.