San Francisco 49ers: Game breakdown and prediction for Week 8 against Carolina Panthers

The San Francisco 49ers put their undefeated streak on the line against an undefeated quarterback in his own right. It’s a battle of the undefeated that’s set to be a doozy.

The San Francisco 49ers welcome in one of the hottest teams in football this Sunday in the Carolina Panthers.

Carolina has won its last four games after an 0-2 start and is coming into this game off a bye week. This is a game that could bode major trouble for the 49ers, so here are my thoughts on this matchup.

First and foremost, the Panthers are not only winners of four-straight with a quarterback in Kyle Allen who hasn’t lost yet in five professional starts, but they’re also a very well-coached team coming in off a bye week.

Well-coached teams that are following a bye are typically successful that following week.

When we look at the Panthers, they lead the league in sacks with 27 as a team, they’re tied for second in takeaways at 15, they’re tied for third in turnover differential at +6, and they’re a top-five pass defense that’s allowed the fifth-least passing yards this season.

On top of that, they have this guy named Christian McCaffrey who’s making a legitimate case for himself as league MVP with 618 rushing yards and 305 receiving yards on the year with nine touchdowns to his credit.

More from San Francisco 49ers

• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve
• 49ers sign TE Daniel Helm off the Buccaneers practice squad
• 49ers: Jordan Reed could miss up to two months, will be placed on IR

McCaffrey is the catalyst of their offense with 162 touches on the season and is an absolute machine that most likely cannot be stopped. Plus, he’ll be back in the Bay Area for this game (as a Stanford alum), so he’ll probably have a ton of support there.

This is definitely another game McCaffrey can go off and have a packed stat sheet, so the Niners need to be able to overcome that possibility if they want to win this one.

So, all the signs are actually pointing toward the Panthers pulling off the upset here — CMC in the building back in familiar territory, a well-coached defensively sound team coming off a bye, an undefeated starting quarterback, and the league-leading pass rush in sacks to top it all off.

But I’m still going to pick the Niners to win this game as a matter of fact.

Carolina has itself a very good pass rush, but so does San Francisco. And not only that, but the Niners are fourth in rushing yards allowed this year, so as a run defense this unit is stout as well.

More from Golden Gate Sports

• Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
• 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
• Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
• 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
• 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve

If we look at McCaffrey’s game log, we see he struggled in both games on the ground against Tampa Bay, who just so happens to be the number one team in rushing yards allowed.

That tells me when McCaffrey goes against a very good run defense, his numbers on the ground pull back a bit. That slight pullback might just be what the Niners need to get the edge in this game.

I also really like the matchup of Kyle Allen against this Niner secondary. I know, I know, Allen is undefeated in his professional career and has looked superb so far in 2019, but the Niners are allowing the least amount of passing yards this year (801) and they’re tied for the fourth-most takeaways at 13, 7 of which have been interceptions.

We just saw how this 49ers defense and secondary can rattle a seasoned quarterback like Jared Goff. I think we could see similar results against the young quarterback in Allen who’s yet to face adversity.

It’ll be close, but I think the Niners ultimately pull out of this one with a narrow victory 28-27. They need to be able to get the run game going because I’m not sure how much success they’ll have throwing the ball against this Carolina secondary.