Week 10 Post Game Review: 49ers vs Chargers

By Scooter_McG

The 49ers secured a come from behind victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football on the back of a dominant second half defensive performance, to win the game 22-16. The win takes the 49ers to 5W-4L on the season and keeps the 49ers in the 7th seed wildcard spot in the NFC playoff race. Importantly, the 49ers are now only 0.5 a game back from the division leading Seahawks after their loss to the Buccaneers earlier on Sunday.

It wasn't pretty football by the 49ers. If I was to summarise the game plan for the 49ers I would put it this way: the team played a game on the premise that the only way they could lose to this Chargers team was if they beat themselves. It was a highly conservative game plan designed to minimise the opportunities for errors and limit the number of drives each team had. 

Worryingly, in the first half it looked like the 49ers would indeed beat themselves. The defense opened the game with some defensive lapses to allow a quick strike TD to the Chargers. The 49ers responded with a nice opening drive of their own but had to settle for a FG. Neither team enjoyed much success moving the ball after the respective opening drives, but even so the 49ers gifted the Chargers scoring opportunities by coughing up the ball in their own territory courtesy of an Aiyuk fumble, while the special teams unit allowed pressure on a punt that resulted in a deflection and gave the Chargers another great opportunity to extend the lead. The 49ers were fortunate on that second one to limit it to another FG. The 49ers did have some success moving the ball at the end of the half which led to a TD, and went into the half down just 16-10. 

The 49ers turned things around in the second half though, largely fuelled by an immense defensive performance. The defense locked down the Chargers completely in the second half as the Chargers didn't even get close to adding any more points. The offense also controlled the game well as Elijah Mitchell in particular got rolling, while Jauan Jennings had some important catches and Jimmy G played efficient football to help move the chains. The 49ers added 12 points in the second half, but should have been more if Aiyuk had made a catch in the end zone. He did come up with a big catch though later to the Chargers 2-yard line to allow McCaffrey to power into the end zone and the 49ers take the lead. 

In the end the 49ers ran the ball 41 times in total against 28 pass attempts. They did this despite trailing for much of the game, while up against a Chargers defense aggressively playing the run, and only averaging 3.8 yards per carry. It was the type of commitment to the running game that Shanahan can sometimes struggle with when opponents set their stall to stop it and they get behind. This really highlighted the 49ers belief in their ability to grind out a victory so long as they played sound football. 

There is definitely a lot of improvement left in the 49ers, especially offensively, and they really need to start getting both Deebo and Kittle involved more in the passing game if they are going to be Super Bowl contenders. Deebo's lack of involvement down the field is starting to become a little alarming as it was an element of his game that really took off last season and is a vital component to making him worth the massive investment they made in him this offseason. The contributions he makes to the running game and short passing game are nice, but those should be the complement to getting some explosive plays out of him down the field.

Next up the 49ers face division rivals the Cardinals in Mexico, with the 49ers hoping to maintain their undefeated record against the division in 2022.