Bills vs. SF 49ers: 3 weaknesses Niners must attack in Week 13
By Peter Panacy
No. 3: SF 49ers must let Bills commit penalties
The SF 49ers don’t have either the depth or overall talent, particularly on offense, to overcome swarms of penalties.
But they certainly can benefit from other teams committing them.
Fortunately for San Francisco, the Bills have been notorious this season in the yellow-flag department, averaging a total of 7.0 penalties per game this season, which is second most behind the Arizona Cardinals’ mark of 7.7.
Yet it’s not just the penalties, rather it’s the nature of them.
Buffalo has seven defensive pass-interference calls, which is in the middle of the pack. But it also has 17 false starts and 11 offensive holding calls. That’s a sizable amount for any offense this far into the season, and the 77 total penalties on the year also equate to second most behind Arizona.
More importantly, those flags have led to 725 penalty yards against.
That’s most in the league.
the Niners can take advantage of this, particularly if they’re able to stay disciplined. To date, San Francisco has 63 penalties for 562 yards, which is much more towards the median.