49ers vs. Lions: 5 overreactions from San Francisco’s Week 1 win

The 49ers held onto a nail-biting 41-33 win over the Lions in Week 1, which will ultimately prompt a lot of overreactions after the game.

It should have been a lot easier, especially considering the San Francisco 49ers were leading 41-17 in the fourth quarter over the Detroit Lions and were “cruising” to a Week 1 victory to kick off the 2021 regular season.

The fact the Lions closed it to a one-score game with a frantic fourth-quarter comeback, ultimately falling short en route to the Niners’ 41-33 victory, suggests otherwise.

Week 1 games are always weird, yes. San Francisco is expected to be awfully good, while Detroit is in full-on rebuild mode. Perhaps the first three quarters are more of an indication of what to expect from both squads.

Yet things can change quickly, and it’s also easy to overreact to what happened over the course of the game, too.

Particularly with these five overreaction-type takeaways.

Overreaction No. 5: Brandon Aiyuk won’t be part of 49ers offense

With the Lions having a questionable pass rush and secondary this season, much was expected from the 49ers’ top two wide receivers, Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk.

Samuel delivered, at least outside of his late fourth-quarter fumble, recording nine catches for 189 yards and a touchdown.

Aiyuk, meanwhile, was held off the stat sheet entirely aside from one punt return from 7 yards.

No targets from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo surely frustrated Aiyuk fantasy football owners, yes. Yet the long-term questions could focus on why Aiyuk wasn’t a focal point at all, especially with tertiary wide receiver Trent Sherfield being the one who caught the Niners’ opening touchdown. From quarterback Trey Lance no less.

The overreaction might be Aiyuk won’t play a major role in the Niners offense this season after impressing his rookie year, although head coach Kyle Shanahan will likely continue going with the favorable matchups.

Hopefully pointing towards Aiyuk having bigger games later this season instead of zeroes on the stat line.