SF 49ers receive high grades from impressive Week 6 win vs. LA Rams

SF 49ers Special Teams, Coaching Grades

Kyle Shanahan’s game management for Jimmy Garoppolo was crucial, especially in the first half. Getting the Niners out to a large lead early was good, too, and some of the creativity on display helped show why the SF 49ers are still dangerous to the rest of the NFC West.

But Shanahan couldn’t have come up with some of the plays on special teams, which were equally as crucial.

San Francisco needed some sparks to happen in the third phase of the game, and it got them.

In the first half, EDGE Dion Jordan blocked a Rams extra-point attempt to keep Los Angeles at six points. The Rams trying to make it a one-score game was arguably influenced by that, considering their late touchdown made it an eight-point game and would have put more pressure on Goff to perform under pressure.

Meanwhile, kicker Robbie Gould hit his lone field-goal try to ensure that eight-point lead after L.A.’s final score.

Unlike Week 5, where both Shanahan and defensive coordinator Robert Saleh seemed completely out of sorts on all phases, the SF 49ers managed to engineer an effective game plan over the majority of all four quarters.

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Getting out to a solid lead was part of that equation, as Shanahan’s offense was up to a 21-6 lead by halftime. And when the offense went stale in the second half, Saleh’s makeshift defense did its job to frustrate whatever Los Angeles was trying to do to get back in the game.

True, the Rams also got in their own way multiple times, notably with Goff missing receivers, dropped passes and clear disconnect within the pass game.

But the good point was seeing San Francisco keep up the defensive momentum here.

Some of the SF 49ers’ own offensive woes in the second half fall on Shanahan’s shoulders, particularly struggling to adjust when Raheem Mostert went down with an injury. Seven penalties for 63 yards also won’t work too well against other top-tier teams when they’re firing on all cylinders either, although Shanahan and Co. were able to overcome their own yellow-flag mistakes well enough.

Most importantly, however, Shanahan managed to get his team back in shape after a disappointing loss and pulled off one of the most important wins of the season thus far.