The Panthers were outperformed in almost every facet of the game in San Francisco as the 6-0 49ers made a statement, handing Carolina their worst loss since 2002, 51-13.
The 49ers rushed for 232 yards – the most ever given up in a single game by the Panthers – and hardly ever struggling to make chunk plays as they rolled to over six yards per play, capping their day with a 41-yard dash by Raheem Mostert for a score against a listless Panthers defense to pump their total to the second-most points allowed in Panthers franchise history. The 49ers defense picked off Kyle Allen three times and sacked him seven as the Panthers had no answer for their defensive line, the special teams unit muffed both a punt and a kickoff and Kyle Shanahan consistently schemed pass catchers open as the Panthers fell to 4-3 on the season.
“I’m going to take the blame,” said Ron Rivera. “We got beat by a better football team today. It’s on me, as a head coach, to make sure that we do things the right way. Whatever happened on that football field will be corrected and that’s all we can do.”
“I’m not going to put blame on anybody but myself, it’s that simple.”
Here were the plays that mattered.
Tip Drill
George Kittle’s tip drill, which helped the #49ers open the game with a TD. pic.twitter.com/Ca5rBb8x7W
— ourSF49ers (@OSf49ers) October 27, 2019
It was one of those days.
With the Panthers having a chance to force the 49ers into a quick three-and-out to begin the game, Jimmy Garoppolo’s second pass of the game bounced off a well-covered Emmanuel Sanders’ helmet and directly into the hands of tight end George Kittle, who was surrounded by Luke Kuechly and Shaq Thompson, for a first down.
“I think we’re still a good football team, I just think we missed some opportunities,” said Rivera. “Frickin’ third play of the game, we’re about to get off, the ball ricochets and a guy makes a play. That’s the fortunes of football – the ball didn’t bounce our way today, they made some plays and we didn’t make plays.”
The 49ers would get lucky on that play – but they didn’t need luck the rest of that drive, or the first half for that matter, as they rolled downfield on an 11-play, 75-yard drive to open the scoring and take a lead they would never relinquish. Kyle Shanahan’s nifty playcalling and constant misdirection seemed to confuse the players as the 49ers rolled off chunk play after chunk play – the first drive alone featured a 22-yard run by Tevin Coleman and a 15-yard shovel pass to Matt Breida as the 49ers effortlessly went down the field for the first score of the game.
Extra Yardage
After a Luke Kuechly interception set the Panthers up with good field position that they were able to turn into a field goal, the 49ers picked up where they left off on the first drive, this time using a pass up the seam to tight end George Kittle for 29 yards and a Tre Boston penalty for unnecessary roughness tacked on 15 additional yards. Two plays later, Garoppolo would find Kittle for a nine-yard touchdown that was nullified by an offensive pass interference penalty – but that didn’t matter as Tevin Coleman went right up the middle for a 19-yard score on the next play to put the 49ers up 14-3.
Costly Penalties
After Kyle Allen threw his first interception of his career and the 49ers capitalized with another Tevin Coleman touchdown to go up 21-3, the Panthers again started with good field position after a 35-yard kick return by Reggie Bonnafon and a targeting penalty – on the kicker – placed the Panthers in 49ers territory, desperate for a big play. And when you need a big play, the Panthers turn to their best weapon, Christian McCaffrey, who took a handoff 43 yards inside the San Francisco five – only to see the play nullified by a Trai Turner holding call.
The next play was a D.J. Jones sack, one of six in the first half for the 49ers ferocious pass rush, and the Panthers went from 1st-and-goal to 3rd-and-30 in the blink of an eye. The offensive line struggled to protect Allen all day; the Panthers began the day with an unusual lineup – Daryl Williams got the nod at right tackle while Taylor Moton made the second start of his career at left tackle – but rookie Dennis Daley was in at left tackle and Moton was back on the right side on the Panthers second drive as the first drive ended with the first of three Nick Bosa sacks.
“Ever since I got in this league, I told myself to just be ready to play wherever they put me and do the best I can,” said Moton. “I knew it was going to be a rotation – they didn’t tell me how many snaps on both sides. I just knew I had to be ready to play both sides.”
Another score just after the two-minute warning – Tevin Coleman’s third would come on a 48-yard run up the middle where nary a Panther laid a hand on him – would put the 49ers ahead 27-3 heading into halftime.
Safety Dance
Coming out of halftime and with their offense still struggling – the Panthers had only 76 total yards in the first half – the Panthers turned to their special teams and defense to try and provide a spark. Michael Palardy’s punt bounced out of bounds at the two-yard line and Bruce Irvin ran past left tackle Justin Skrule to sack Garoppolo in the end zone – Irvin would finish with two sacks to bring his season total to 3.5 in only four games.
“I saw a little white guy with a white shirt on so I went and tackled him,” grinned Irvin. “We tried to kickstart something, but I think we dug ourselves too big of a hole to climb out of it.”
On the ensuing drive, Christian McCaffrey would speed 40 yards down the right sideline for the Panthers’ only touchdown of the day to briefly cut the 49ers lead to two scores – the NFL’s leader in yards from scrimmage would finish with 155 total yards – 117 of them on the ground – on only 18 touches.
Bosa Bomb
Nick Bosa made his case not only for Defensive Rookie of the Year today with four tackles – three of them for a loss – three sacks and an interception, but may have thrown his name into Defensive Player of the Year conversation as his eye-popping pick and return of a Kyle Allen attempted screen was one of many highlights of the day for the second overall pick.
“He’s pretty good, man,” said left guard Greg Van Roten. “He’s as advertised. I think we just didn’t play well enough, across the board today.”
Bosa was electric, consistently disrupting the backfield and near Allen on multiple plays – Allen would finish 19-of-37 for 158 yards, no touchdowns and three picks in his first career loss – and with Cam Newton edging ever closer to a return, the Panthers may eye a change at quarterback sooner rather than later.
