San Francisco 49ers: Complete grades for Week 2 victory over Cincinnati Bengals
By Justin Fried
2. Defense
But even though the 49ers offensive explosion will be the primary talking point coming out of Sunday’s game, their defense arguably deserves just as much love. They just didn’t have the same flashy, turnover-heavy performance that they did last week.
After securing four turnovers in the team’s season opener, the 49ers managed just one on a Kwon Alexander interception towards the end of the second quarter. That said, it wasn’t any less of a dominant display.
Cincinnati managed just 316 yards of offense and it would have been less had it not been for John Ross‘ garbage-time 66-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter.
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On top of that, their rushing game was nearly non-existant with the team totaling a whopping 25 yards on the ground. The Bengals’ leading rusher, Joe Mixon, ran for just 17 yards on 11 carries.
Sure there were some mishaps with slot corner K’Waun Williams and the likes of Nick Bosa and Dee Ford were relatively quiet — with the latter exiting with a knee injury midway through the game.
But again, players like Alexander, Ahkello Witherspoon, and the rest of the pass rush stepped up as the 49ers defense once again looked dominant against a subpar offense.
It will be interesting to see them go up against better units, but a matchup with a potential Ben Roethlisberger-less Pittsburgh Steelers next week could yield similar results
Final Grade: A