San Francisco 49ers: Keys to beating the Chiefs in week three matchup
By Kevin Saito
Take Advantage Of A Porous Defense
If there is a chink in Kansas City’s armor, it’s their defense. And it’s a mighty big one that you can drive the proverbial Mack truck through. And it’s vital that quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and the offense seize on the opportunities they will get.
San Francisco 49ers
Through two games, the Chiefs have the league’s worst defense. Kansas City’s defense ranks thirty-second out of thirty-two teams. They’ve also got the league’s twenty-ninth ranked scoring defense. Which means that the opportunities for San Francisco to move the ball and put up points will be there. It’s on them to execute.
Through two games, the Chiefs have surrendered and eye-popping 860 passing yards – that’s 430 yards a game through the air, if you’re scoring at home. They’ve also been torched for six passing touchdowns.
It’s tougher to run on Kansas City – they have the league’s sixth-ranked run defense, giving up just 78 yards per game on the ground – though, that could be a by-product of teams having to try to pass themselves back into a game. That’s an idea bolstered by the fact that the Chiefs are giving up a healthy average of 4.5 yards per rush.
Though San Francisco’s best option is to throw it early, and throw it often, they can’t afford to be that one-dimensional, of course. They need to force Kansas City to respect the ground game, which will open things up for Garoppolo and the passing offense.
Getting Marquise Goodwin back this week is good news for the 49ers passing attack. But, Garoppolo is going to need to spread it out, and keep Kansas City’s defense on its heels by utilizing all of his pass catching options.
HC Kyle Shanahan is going to have plenty of opportunities to exploit a defense that gives up yards and points by the bushel. It’s up to him and this offense to capitalize.