San Francisco 49ers: Game breakdown and prediction for Week 2 against Cincinnati Bengals
By Sean Basile
Not a cakewalk, but very winnable for the upstart San Francisco 49ers this week in Cincinnati. Here are my thoughts on the game and how I think it’ll play out.
The San Francisco 49ers come into Week 2 after an opening win in Tampa Bay. Now they see another “down” team in the Cincinnati Bengals in what could very well be their second win of the year if everything goes according to plan.
The Bengals are a team in transition with a new head coach in Zac Taylor and leftover pieces from the Marvin Lewis era that could very well not be in Cincinnati in a couple of years.
On paper, we see a 49ers team with Jimmy Garoppolo at the quarterback position, one of the best tight ends in football in George Kittle, a revamped and rising defense led by Richard Sherman and DeForest Buckner, and an offensively-gifted head coach in Kyle Shanahan who’s primed to finally make a playoff push with this team.
The Bengals, on the other hand, have………a pretty good pass rush and two pretty good skill players in Joe Mixon and Tyler Boyd.
Coming into the season, I would’ve told you this 49ers team is just head-and-shoulders above this transitioning Bengals team and that they (the 49ers) would be able to handle their business in Cincinnati rather handily.
I still think the 49ers win this game, but last week was a bit eye-opening; enough for me to really think about who’s going to come out on top in this game. The Bengals are at home and they almost beat the Seahawks in Seattle last week.
On the back of a career day for Andy Dalton with the quarterback passing for 418 yards and two touchdowns, the Bengals came up just short losing 21-20 after crushing the total yard comparison 429-232 and first down comparison 22-12.
On many other days, the Bengals would’ve beaten Seattle. Now they come into their first home game with some confidence that they can compete and put up points against good teams.
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The 49ers, on the other hand, barely got by the Buccaneers. 31-17 wasn’t indicative of the flow of the game because if not for a couple of crucial pick-sixes the Niners had fall into their laps, they could’ve very well lost that game.
The offense lost the total yardage battle 295-256 and Garoppolo only threw for 166 yards. If we’re going off of what we saw last week, Cincinnati should win this game.
But since this is the NFL and every week will be different from the other, I still have the 49ers winning this game because I believe they’re the better team.
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31-28 is what I have as the score of this game with the Niners coming out on top. I don’t think they’ll break out of their offensive shell just yet.
Their offensive line still has some issues on the interior and the unreliability of the young receiving core could still rear its ugly head and hold this offense back. Where I think the 49ers offense will thrive will be in the run game.
Tevin Coleman is out, so now the ball is back in Matt Breida‘s hands after (what I would call) a very good 2018-19 season out of the running back.
Solid in the run game. Reliable in the short-pass game. Presents more versatility than a guy like Coleman at the position. Now he’ll be getting the crop share of the touches. Watch for this game to be a bit of a breakout for Breida.
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Defensively, I love the matchup of Sherman on Boyd to shut down the rising wide receiver. This secondary did a great job last week, albeit against a bad Jameis Winston. But just remember as an offense, the Bengals are out A.J. Green and possibly Joe Mixon.
That leaves Tyler Boyd as the big man on campus and a prime opportunity for the 49ers defense to eliminate him from the game flow and make the complimentary guys like John Ross or the tight ends put up the numbers.
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Close game, but I think the 49ers can steal it and move to 2-0.