San Francisco 49ers: Top 10 plays from the 2018 NFL season

Niner Noise highlights the San Francisco 49ers’ top 10 plays of the 2018 NFL regular season.

The San Francisco 49ers had an action-packed 2018 season filled with big plays and highlights from a variety of young and talented playmakers. While the Niners’ 4-12 record was a far cry from many fans’ preseason expectations, the future is still bright for San Francisco and the 49ers Faithful, particularly with 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan in charge of the team’s offensive unit.

Despite the early season-ending injuries of starting quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and top running back Jerick McKinnon, and with both starting wide receivers Marquise Goodwin and Pierre Garcon battling through injuries for most of 2018, Shanahan still kept the 49ers’ offense explosive throughout the season.

The second year of the Niners’ rebuilding effort was both heartbreaking and painful — and at times, a whole lot of fun. Today, we’re focusing on the good from 2018.

Here are the San Francisco 49ers’ top 10 plays from the 2018 NFL regular season.

We kick off our countdown of Niner highlights from 2018 with third-string running back Raheem Mostert finishing off the Oakland Raiders in the final “Battle of the Bay.”

The Week 13 showdown between the two long-time Bay Area rivals turned into a coming-out party for quarterback Nick Mullens, who was nearly perfect in his historic NFL debut. However, it was Mostert — a career special-teamer who was thrust into a prominent offensive role  — who put the nail in the Raiders’ coffin in the second half of the contest.

A bit of misdirection by Goodwin was all it took for fullback Kyle Juszczyk to seal off the edge for Mostert, who took the pitch from Mullens down the right sideline. Once he got into the Raiders’ secondary, Mostert used his 4.28 speed to blow by Oakland’s defenders, before using rookie right tackle Mike McGlinchey as a lead blocker as he worked his way into the end zone.

The Niners’ running back went untouched — by any of the Raiders’ defenders — on his 52-yard touchdown. The first score of Mostert’s four-year career gave the 49ers a four-touchdown lead, and put an end to the Raiders’ hopes for a comeback in the final Battle of the Bay: