San Francisco 49ers free safety Jimmie Williams (1) gets mobbed by teammates after returning an interception in first half action at Levi Stadium against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football Nov 15, 2021 (AP News photo)
by Marko Ukalovic
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—393 days is now just a footnote.
That is how long the San Francisco 49ers went between home wins after an impressive 31-10 victory over their NFC West Division rival Los Angeles on Monday Night Football at Levi’s Stadium. San Francisco is just a half game back out of the seventh and final wild card spot in the NFC behind the Carolina Panthers.
San Francisco ended its eight-game home losing streak at Levi’s and are 2-8 at home over the past two seasons. Los Angeles have lost two games in a row for the first time this season and have looked very bad in both of them.
Los Angeles (7-3), in a Super Bowl or bust mode, added two veterans this week via free agency and via trade. They added defensive end Von Miller in a trade with the Denver Broncos and Odel Beckham Jr. after he was released by the Cleveland Browns last week.
Like the other 47 men who dressed in the road uniforms, neither of them were factors in a game where they had no answers on offense or defense.
San Francisco (4-5) dominated all three facets of the game from start to finish as they jumped out to a 14-0 lead thanks to taking advantage of two Matthew Stafford interceptions on the Rams first two drives.
Jimmy Ward made the first of his two picks at the 49ers seven yard line on a deep throw by Stafford that was clearly overthrown while Ward played center field on the play as they ball went right into his hands.
The 49ers offense had its longest offensive drive of the season on its opening possession. They went 93 yards on 18 plays that last 11:03. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo capped off the drive with an eight yard pass to tight end George Kittle for the game’s opening touchdown.
“I don’t want to say it took their soul away, but it definitely did something,” Garopollo said.
On the next Rams possession, Ward intercepted the ball on a wide receiver screen and ran it back 27 yards to paydirt as LA’s first two possession mirrored their first two in last week’s game against the Tennessee Titans in which they lost 28-16.
Los Angeles responded with a seven play, 75 yard scoring drive completed by a Tyler Higbee 10-yard touchdown from Stafford with 13:16 left in the second quarter.
San Francisco’s offense, that looked like an well oiled machine in the first half, answered right back with another 90 yard plus drive. Garropolo led the Niners offense on a 11 play, 91 yard drive where Deebo Samuel capped it off with an eight-yard rushing touchdown for a 21-7 lead.
“Any time we get to sit there and drink Gatorade, that’s great football,” said Niners linebacker Fred Warner.
The Rams looked like they were going to close the gape to a 11-point game when kicker Matt Gay lined up for a 35 yard field goal attempt with 18 seconds left in the half. Instead they faked the field goal as punter Johnny Hekker threw to Kendall Blanton who was cut down in the open field by 49ers defensive tackle DJ Jones for only a two yard gain as the Niners special teams weren’t fooled on the play.
The second half featured San Francisco’s dominance by their defensive front. They controlled the trenches as the Rams running game was stymied only gaining 52 yards on the ground making the Rams offense one dimensional for the rest of the game.
Nick Bosa and Arden Key each sacked Stafford late in the fourth quarter. Stafford was never comfortable in the pocket as the Niners had constant pressure on the Rams quarterback forcing him into bad throws and ruining Stafford’s timing with his wide receivers.
San Francisco, up 24-7 early in the fourth quarter, put the nail in the coffin on a 4th and 5 gamble at Los Angeles’s 40 yard line. Garropolo threaded the needle on a post route to Samuel who caught the ball between two Rams defenders and out raced the rest of the secondary to the endzone for his second touchdown of the game.
Samuel finished the game catching all five targets for 97 yards and one receiving touchdown. He combined for 133 all purpose yards with his 36 yards on the ground.
Garrpolo rebounded well from last week’s loss going 15 of 19 for 182 yards, two touchdowns and a QB rating of 141.7, his best of the season.
“Honestly it felt like the Super Bowl year (in 2019),” Garoppolo said.
Stafford finished an abysmal night going 26 of 41 for 243 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions while getting sacked twice. Stafford was the victim of having six of his passing attempts dropped by his targets.
Copper Kupp led all wide receivers 11 receptions for 122 yards on 13 targets. Beckham only had two receptions for just 18 yards in his Rams debut.
49ers rookie running back Elijah Mitchell led all running backs with 97 yards on 27 carries. Mitchell’s good night allowed San Francisco to dominate the time of possession battle by an almost two-to-one margin 39:03-20:57 by running the ball 44 of the 64 offensive plays.
“Our whole offense basically stood up and cheered,” said Kittle on the Niners goal to run the ball 40 times during the game.
GAME NOTES: San Francisco finished the game 8-for-14 on third down conversions. Los Angeles was 3-for-10.
Los Angles was without wide receiver Robert Wood, who suffered a tore his ACL in practice this past Friday. Woods was placed on the IR and will miss the rest of the season.
UP NEXT: San Francisco head out on the road to Jacksonville to take on the Jaguars on Sunday 11/21 at 10:00am at TIAA Bank Field.
