5 crucial takeaways from 49ers Week 16 win vs. Rams

No. 4: Fred Warner Is Playing at a Pro Bowl Level

All one has to do is look at the final score to determine just how crucial any one of the game-changing plays were to San Francisco’s efforts.

None, perhaps, were as key as linebacker Fred Warner‘s pick-six interception touchdown in the waning seconds of the second quarter:

Warner, a 2020 Pro Bowl alternate, surely looks like the decision makers were wrong in snubbing him. Merely on this play alone, Warner read Rams quarterback Jared Goff’s pass to the flat perfectly, getting in the way and returning in a game-changing manner.

“I just did my job,” Warner told reporters after the game. “We were in man coverage, and the back kind of, he checked in the protection and then ran a flat route. I hugged up on him and I think Jared probably would want to have that one back. But he just tossed it up, and I took it. I took it home.”

Took it home, indeed.

Plays like this are becoming commonplace for Warner, who ranks fourth among all players with an astounding 87 solo tackles this season. San Francisco will need this kind of production to continue its push into the postseason.