49ers position grades, analysis from Week 16 win vs. Rams

Special teams/coaching grades

It was a great day at the office for the 49ers, as the special teams was the one unit that didn’t struggle much against the Rams.

Richie James only returned one kick but made it could with a big 81-yard return, Mitch Wishnowsky pinned the Rams inside the 20 with four out of five punts, and Robbie Gould hit the walk-off game winner for the second time in as many games and was perfect in field goals and extra points.

Not a bad night at the office.

Like most of the grades, this is a result of good plays and bad plays that seemed to happen fairly evenly.

Kyle Shanahan got the run game working before having to abandon it, but wasn’t able to account for the poor offensive line. He was able to diagram plays to get the final drive out of some holes, however, and scoring 27 points on your divisional rivals on a night where the offense was stagnated for half the game is respectable.

Robert Saleh had issues early trying to beat the play action and screens of the Rams, but was a little better after the second half. It wasn’t a great game, but the fact is he may have to be dealing with one game.

At the end of the day it was enough to get the 49ers to 12-3, and a winner takes the conference showdown with the Seattle Seahawks in Week 17.