The San Francisco 49ers evaded a fourth-quarter surge from the Detroit Lions to win Week 2 by a 30-27 final score. Without running back Matt Breida, however, the Niners lose this contest as we break down in our good, bad and ugly recap.
“A win is a win but it feels like a loss,” are the words San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman told The Athletic’s Matt Barrows following his team’s 30-27 Week 2 win at home over the Detroit Lions.
The Niners nearly blew a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, giving up consecutive touchdown drives to quarterback Matt Stafford and the Lions offense in the waning minutes.
San Francisco’s efforts nearly turned to disaster, as quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo tossed what would have been a devastating interception and return with the 49ers up by three in the fourth quarter. But a defensive holding call against the Lions’ Quandre Diggs negated the Garoppolo turnover.
A major bullet dodged.
Garoppolo’s line was 18-of-26 for 206 yards and two touchdowns for a passer rating of 118.4. But that’s where the stats can be deceiving. The 49ers franchise quarterback was also sacked six times, although three of those were almost squarely on his shoulders for holding onto the ball for far too long and not reacting to Detroit’s pass-rushers.
Yet those sacks are going to against San Francisco’s offensive line — yet another area in which stats can make the team’s efforts hard to gauge without context.
In a way, the Niners’ victory at home over Detroit felt more like a “we got lucky” contest rather than a positive step in the right direction for head coach Kyle Shanahan and Co. That said, Shanahan’s 2017 49ers were losing these kinds of games by three points, or less, instead of winning them.
So maybe that’s the progress that needs to be marked.
Before we get to why Garoppolo’s Week 2 performance was worse than it looks, let’s break down what went well for San Francisco in our weekly good, bad and ugly breakdown.