SF 49ers: Top 5 takeaways from Week 7 demolishing of Patriots
By Peter Panacy
The SF 49ers throttled the Patriots in embarrassing fashion, winning 33-6 and telling us some key takeaways about the Niners moving forward.
So much for New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick outcoaching SF 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, right?
Shanahan got the best of Belichick and the Pats and then some in Week 7, engineering a well-executed rout of the longtime AFC East powerhouse 33-6 at Gillette Stadium and putting the Niners right back into the thick of the playoff discussion while all but ending New England’s hopes of returning to postseason glory anytime soon.
San Francisco pulled this off, outgaining the Patriots 467 yards to 241 while forcing four turnovers and putting New England’s starting quarterback, Cam Newton, on the bench to enter the fourth quarter.
And to think, Shanahan engineered this awfully shorthanded, both on offense and defense, yet got some notable contributions from a number of his key players.
One of those was running back Jeff Wilson, whose career-best game headlined the SF 49ers’ efforts and kicks off Niner Noise’s list of top Week 7 takeaways.
Takeaway No. 5: Jeff Wilson, JaMycal Hasty need bigger roles in SF 49ers offense
Injuries played the key roles in Shanahan giving Wilson the starting job in Week 7, namely after the Niners were missing their top two runners, Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman, who are still shelved on short-term injured reserve with knee injuries.
Sadly, Wilson is likely heading there, too, after suffering a high-ankle sprain on his third touchdown run of the day.
Speaking of three touchdowns, Wilson put forth an exceptional 112-yard effort with those scores and averaged 6.6 yards per carry while Shanahan elected to give fellow running back Jerick McKinnon a bit of a breather in Week 7. Once Wilson went down, undrafted rookie JaMycal Hasty was the primary beneficiary and also managed 57 yards on nine attempts, averaging 6.3 yards per rush.
It’s pretty clear both Wilson and Hasty are excellent commodities on the cheap at Shanahan’s disposal, and the head coach would be wise to feature both of them more in the second half of the season.
Particularly over Coleman, who is averaging a mere 1.7 yards per attempt.