San Francisco 49ers defeat Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 1: Let’s Talk About It

The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road in a blase 31-17 performance that still leaves us with a lot of questions about this young team.

It wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world, but Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers got the job done for their first win of the season.

Against a bad Buccaneers team, yes. But Jameis Winston and that offense could’ve been a handful had they been able to get rolling.

Fortunately for the 49ers, Winston reverted back to the Winston of old and threw three interceptions — two of which were returned for touchdowns — and the road team was able to grind out a 31-17 win that wasn’t that much of a blowout for the majority of the game.

As I suspected, Richard Sherman completely shut down Mike Evans for just 28 yards on two catches, which set back the Bucs’ offense and made them revert to the run game more with Ronald Jones and Peyton Barber.

Pass rush-wise, Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, and Dee Ford all recorded a sack and took full-advantage against one of the worst offensive lines in the game. DeForest Buckner was also a menace in the run defense department.

But here’s what I gathered from this game that may not be so encouraging for 49ers fans.

Offensively, there was a lot of holes in this 49ers execution. Jimmy Garoppolo only threw for 166 yards and a touchdown against a pretty vulnerable Buccaneers defense.

They lost the total yards battle 295-256. They lost the third-down battle 45%-38%. They won the penalty battle 11-8. The offensive line didn’t look that great, especially on the interior.

The run game didn’t really get going and Tevin Coleman went down for what looks like at least a month. And the inexperience of the receiving core showed with (from what I counted) at least four dropped passes.

It wasn’t an overbearing performance by the 49ers, but it got the job done against a bad Bucs team. There’s still a lot of work to be done and a ton of rapport to be mended between Garoppolo and his young receivers.

He has George Kittle as his most reliable target who can easily go off for 1,300 yards this year receiving, but who else is going to step up?

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Somebody else has to emerge as the number one receiver who Jimmy can rely on as a pivot from Kittle. Maybe that’s Dante Pettis, but he only got one target in this game.

Maybe that’s Marquise Goodwin, but he’s not really a “volume” type guy who can rack up targets; he’s more of an all-or-nothing deep threat. Maybe it’s Deebo Samuel who caught all three of his targets in this game.

But someone else other than George Kittle needs to start making plays if this 49ers team wants to go to the playoffs.

Defensively, I think these guys are severely underrated and could wind up being a top-10 unit when it’s all said and done; maybe even top-five in turnovers forced.

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The pass rush is solid with a high ceiling, Fred Warner is a beast at middle linebacker, and the secondary is loaded with Richard Sherman leading the way (we saw the way he shut Evans down).

But where this team is going to either hit or miss is with their offense. Kyle Shanahan is a brilliant offensive mind, but the execution has to improve if they want to break into the 10-win column and contend for a playoff spot.

They have the Cincinnati Bengals on the road next week, which looked like a cakewalk for them before the season.

But after what I saw from Andy Dalton and that team in Seattle, it’s definitely a game the 49ers could lose. More on that game later.