5 crucial takeaways from the 49ers Week 1 win vs. Buccaneers
By James Jones
The San Francisco 49ers started the 2019 season with a win, the first opening game victory of the Kyle Shanahan era. Here we take a look at the top five takeaways from teams first win on the east coast since 2014.
The 2019 iteration of the San Francisco 49ers brought with them a multitude of questions, which were only going to be answered once the regular season finally kicked off.
As such, there were a number of crucial takeaways from their 31-17 Week 1 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Sunday.
Their first game came and went. And with it, some of the more pressing questions facing this team were answered, others received an incomplete and a few more were added to the mix. The offense sputtered for most of the afternoon, while the defense came up big multiple times and appeared to exorcise some 2018 demons.
In the end, the 49ers left Tampa Bay with a victory; something that seemed unfathomable just a few days ago. That win came with some bittersweet circumstances, as the team could be without a key piece of their backfield for multiple weeks, now that running back Tevin Coleman has been diagnosed with a high-ankle sprain.
Sunday’s victory, while impressive for many reasons, did open the door to some questions which weren’t necessarily prevalent before the game began. Was the play of the offense and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo just a case of opening-game jitters and an East Coast trip? Is the defense as good as it showed, or was the Bucs offense just that bad?
A win is a win, however, and we will take a look at the five most pressing takeaways from this opening-day victory.