Golden Gate Sports
Fansided

49ers: Notes from Week 14 win over the New Orleans Saints

By Sean Basile

49ers (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
49ers (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The San Francisco 49ers pulled off one of the biggest wins of 2019 and have positioned themselves to claim the number one seed in the NFC come playoff time.

The San Francisco 49ers pulled out a huge win on Sunday as they knocked off the New Orleans Saints in a wildly entertaining 48-46 game.

This contest saw a combined 981 yards of total offense, 12 touchdowns, and just four punts between the two sides as the up-shot 49ers outgunned Drew Brees and the Saints in the Superdome.

More from San Francisco 49ers

Things are certainly looking up for the 49ers (as if they couldn’t be looking up any more than they already were) as they passed the test of two super tough road games outside of the division in Baltimore last week and New Orleans this week.

The fact that they came out of that two-game road trip split 1-1 is a major accomplishment because those two teams they faced are Super Bowl contenders.

That being said, I got this game wrong. I was ALMOST going to be right once Drew Brees led the Saints down in that last drive and scored a touchdown to make it 46-45.

It was also looking pretty good that my decision to take the Saints to cover the 3-point spread was going to actually come to fruition if they were able to hit that two-point conversion to potentially make it 48-45 — and then they would have to make a stop on defense, obviously.

But no luck there.

They failed the two-point conversion and Jimmy Garoppolo led the Niners on a short and efficient drive that culminated in a clutch 39-yard pass and catch to George Kittle which set the 49ers up to kick the game-winning field goal.

End of game. Niners boost themselves into possible home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

What a crazy game from a football fan’s perspective. We had 94 points put on the board and nearly 1,000 yards of total offense between two of the best teams in the NFC.

More from Golden Gate Sports

There were insane trick plays like the Emmanuel Sanders reverse pass to Raheem Mostert. We saw two quarterbacks play outstandingly and combine for nine touchdown passes in a back-and-forth shootout.

And then we ultimately saw the mighty Saints go down at home (something they rarely do nowadays). It was a great showing from Garoppolo and proof positive that he’s the right quarterback for the 49ers moving forward.

Moving forward for the Niners, however, it’s worth noting the hamstring injury to Richard Sherman. We saw what happened on that final Saints drive with Sherman limping to the sidelines.

He’s the driving force of their secondary, and without him, it would be a major struggle to keep the ship afloat and limit scoring.

It’s also worth noting that the 49ersl with the number two defense in football, gave up 46 points even with Sherman in the game for the majority of the time.

This was a fun game because of the outlandish scoring, but the 49ers actually looked more impressive in their loss to Seattle where they made a bevy of clutch defensive plays and sacked Russell Wilson five times.

This time around, no sacks for the stacked Niners defensive line (against a much less mobile Drew Brees, mind you), and they got tore up for nearly 50 points and 465 yards of total offense. Not the best defensive showcase for one of the best defenses in football.

However, they proved they can win (yet again) in a multitude of different ways as they crossed “shootout” off their list for this game. We now know they can win in the Dome and can defeat the best teams in the NFC.

Next. 49ers: Robert Saleh will be a hot head coach candidate this offseason. dark

This team is looking really good right now and I’m very interested to see if they can win out here and finish the season 14-2.