It looks like it’s going to be tough.
The 49ers get a chance to avenge an early season loss, they will face the LA Rams who beat them in Week 3 27-24. The Rams are coming off a huge shootout win against the Bills where Matthew Stafford threw for 320 yards with a 76.7 completion percentage. He looked incredible and led them to a 44-42 victory against one of the best teams in the league. With all of that, the Niners are still somehow 3-point favorites. The reality is that the Niners are underdogs in this game against a healthy and rolling Rams team. How will the Rams try to win this game, and how can the Niners stop them?
Running the Football
Kyren Williams has been a huge weapon for the Rams since he was drafted. This season, Williams is 2nd in the league in carries, 5th in yards, and 3rd in touchdowns. His PFF grades aren’t as beautiful as those stats, but they don’t paint the right picture of the player he is. Williams is one of the biggest threats in this offense, and against the 49ers weak run defense, he’s bound to be a huge problem. In Week 3, Williams had 116 All Purpose Yards and 3 Total TDs. He was the catalyst for scoring for that offense. Now that Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp are back, he can take less of the workload and save some energy for important downs.
Kyren Williams’ game has been quality for the whole season, but there is one hole in his game. His yards per carry. This season Williams is below league average at 4 YPC, that’s the key. The Niners need to get to Williams early and finish the tackle. This will be difficult for the Niners who have been struggling at stopping the run and finishing tackles, but this team still has a lot of the same pieces from their Super Bowl run. It’s not like this unit doesn’t have it in them, they do they just need to find it, and this is the most crucial game to find it.
Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp
There are a lot of dynamic receiver duos in the NFL. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, the list goes on and on. But the best duo in the league is Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua. In the past 20 years, only three wide receivers have won the Offensive Player of the Year award, one of those guys is Cooper Kupp. That was only a few years ago in 2021, and Kupp hasn’t lost a step. He and Matthew Stafford have this connection that appears to be similar to other great QB/WR connections. They replicate synergy similar to Brady and Edelman or Rodgers and Adams (on Green Bay). Then you add in one of the best WR draft picks in recent memory in Puka Nacua. A large physical threat that can run any route and can toe-tap almost any sideline ball. They both are huge threats and after the Niners loss to a Kupp and Nacua-less Rams, it can only bring fear into Niners fans hearts knowing that they will be playing.
There seems like one big way the Niners can limit their touches, and it’s likely zone coverage. Kupp and Nacua would likely be able to beat nearly every 49ers corner in man coverage, so zone seems like the only option. Maybe it’s dropping 8 into zone coverage that does it, maybe it’s dropping 7. However they do it, they need to be able to account for the two of them as much as possible. If you give them room to work within man coverage, Stafford will identify it and make the play. He has too talented of an arm to miss those opportunities. The big prayer is that in a short week, Nick Sorensen has established a gameplan to isolate the two of them. If he hasn’t this game might be over quickly.
Matthew Stafford
In my humble opinion, Matthew Stafford might be the heaviest slept-on QB in the league today. Stafford is one of the highest IQ QBs in the league, is the toughest QB, is willing to take a hit for a good throw, and is one of the most accurate QBs today. In case that isn’t enough, he’s coming off of one of his best perfomances of his career. In his game against the Bills, Stafford received a PFF Offensive Grade of 93.5. Yes 93.5. He was incredible, and I can only imagine how he can play against his California rival.
The key to stopping Stafford is a few names. Nick Bosa, Leonard Floyd, and Maliek Collins to name a few. These guys need to be on their peak performance today and must get to Stafford. It shouldn’t be to hard given the fact the Rams are ranked 30th in Pass Blocking according to PFF. The quicker these guys can get to Stafford, the less time he has to throw the ball, and the less time his big WR weapons can get open. This is the most important cog in the system, if they can’t get to the QB, Stafford will make them pay with precision passing. If these guys can’t eat, consider this game over.