What We Saw: Week 16

Los Angeles Rams vs San Francisco 49ers

 

This was not the blowout win for the 49ers that everyone thought it would be. It took a Robbie Gould field goal as time expired to give San Francisco the 34-31 win. Other than a late first-half pick-six, Jared Goff and the Rams offense moved the ball pretty well. They put together five scoring drives as well as a missed field goal attempt. Jimmy Garoppolo didn’t look great for most of the night, as he took six sacks, fumbled once, and threw two interceptions. He did hit some chunk plays when he needed too and he connected with Emmanuel Sanders on a 46-yard bomb on the game-winning drive.

 

Los Angeles Rams

 

Quarterback

 

• Jared Goff: 27/46, 323 yards, 2 TDs, 1 Int 0 sacks | 4 carries, 12 yards,

 

Goff played pretty well in this one. He was asked to roll out quite a bit and that kept the pressure off of him for the most part. He didn’t take any sacks in this game compared to four in their first meeting. Goff led the Rams offense to three touchdowns out of their first five drives. He only led them to one more touchdown drive the rest of the game. Unfortunately, you probably didn’t start Goff because of the imposing matchup and missed this fine performance. It just highlights the up and down nature of Goff’s game this year.

 

Running Backs

 

• Todd Gurley: 15 carries, 48 yards, 2 TD | 0 receptions, 2 targets

 

This has been the trend for Gurley lately. He has gotten the majority of the running back work, been inefficient with it, but has scored touchdowns. In five of his last six games he has been under 4.0 yards per carry. He does have six touchdowns over that span. Gurley only had a long run of eight in this one and just didn’t do much with his 15 touches. Lucky for him, he cashed in two of the three Rams red-zone touchdowns. This was the first time in his last six games that he failed to record a catch. Goff’s safety blanket in this one was Tyler Higbee more so than his running back. Gurley hasn’t been the fantasy beast that he was the last couple of years but he has been the RB12 in PPR leagues coming into week 16.

 

Wide Receivers/Tight Ends

 

• Robert Woods: 11 targets, 8 receptions, 117 yards

• Brandin Cooks: 6 targets, 4 reception, 39 yards, 1 TD

• Cooper Kupp: 4 targets, 4 receptions, 31 yards, 1 TD

• Tyler Higbee: 11 targets, 9 receptions, 104 yards

 

WIth Gurley failing to run the ball effectively, Goff was asked to throw the ball a whopping 46 times. Higbee and Woods have been the favorite targets the last few weeks and that continued in this game as they each had 11 targets. Higbee had his fourth straight 100+ yard game, which is quite a feat for a tight end. Higbee is playing like one of the best tight ends in the league recently and getting the opportunity to go with it.  Woods continued his trend of putting up some receptions and yards but he once again failed to score (1 rec TD this season). Cooks now has 14 targets over the last two games and caught his second touchdown of the season tonight in a beautiful adjustment route on a Goff scramble. Kupp has now scored in four straight but those truly elite numbers from earlier in the season are still lacking. He went over 100 yards in five of his first eight games this season. He has no such games since then.

 

San Francisco 49ers

 

Quarterback

 

• Jimmy Garoppolo: 16/27, 248 yards, 1 TD, 2 Int, 6 sacks | 4 carries, 5 yards

 

Garoppolo didn’t look great in this one. He did hit some chunk plays to George Kittle and Deebo Samuel but was largely frazzled in the pocket and was sacked six times and pressured a handful more. To his credit, he stood strong in the pocket and hit Emmanuel Sanders, on a terrible miscoverage by the Rams, for a 46 yards gain to set up the game-winning field goal. His touchdown was a broken play to his right and he hit George Kittle in the front of the end-zone. For the season, Garoppolo is the QB14 coming into week 16. That is a solid number considering the 49ers are one of the run-heaviest teams in the league. 

 

Running Backs

 

• Raheem Mostert: 11 carries, 53 yards, 1 TD | 1 target, 0 receptions

• Tevin Coleman: 5 carries, 33 yards

 

Mostert was the clear lead back in this one with Coleman playing more of a change of pace role. Mostert had a couple of nice chunk runs including a 16-yard scamper for a touchdown in the second quarter. I’m surprised the running backs didn’t get more work in the passing game. Garoppolo was under pressure for a lot of the game and they would have made for easy completions. Mostert now has six total touchdowns in his last five games and has a whopping 5.7 yards per carry on the season. It will be interesting to see how the 49ers handle their crowded backfield going into next season. 

 

Wide Receivers

 

• Deebo Samuel: 6 targets, 4 receptions, 31 yards | 3 carries, 28 yards, 1 TD
• Emmanuel Sanders: 6 targets, 3 receptions, 61 yards
• George Kittle: 8 targets, 5 receptions, 79 yards, 1 TD

 

Sanders dealt with Jalen Ramsey for most of the night. He did have a huge 46 catch on the game-winning drive thanks to a busted coverage by the Rams. It was clear that the 49ers wanted to get Samuel the ball early and often. He now has rushing attempts in four straight games and had a nice 19-yard rushing touchdown on a jet sweep. Kittle looked great blocking and had a couple of chunk plays, including a nice 36 yards catch and run in the fourth quarter. He also made a nice adjustment in double coverage to get to the front of the endzone and catch his touchdown. Kittle has been as advertised when healthy this year.

 

–Kevin Taylor (@ktbeast918)