49ers: Game breakdown and prediction for Week 2 against the New York Jets

The San Francisco 49ers will look to score their first win of the season in Week 2.

Guys, I’m just not feeling the juice from the San Francisco 49ers team right now. I feel like they got off to a really lackluster start and Jimmy Garoppolo had himself an extremely tough game in Week 1.

I told you guys to keep an eye out for the Arizona Cardinals in the opening game. That team came in like it was on a serious mission to open some eyes.

Now it looks like they could very well wind up going 5-0 to start their 2020 campaign with Washington this week followed by the Lions, Panthers, and Jets.

Very disappointing loss for this Niners team in Week 1. I thought they’d be able to hold on even though I expected Arizona to come out guns blazing.

Garoppolo went 19-for-33 on passing attempts, 1-for-4 in the red zone, and 2-for-11 on third down. The Cards won time of possession by about three minutes, but they managed to run 17 more plays than the Niners.

And perhaps most egregious, the Niners and their vaunted pass rush only managed to get Kyler Murray down twice, a man who was sacked 50 times last year and has an offensive line still in the making.

To top it all off, they now lose Richard Sherman, their best cornerback, and George Kittle, their best player, as they go cross-country for the next two games in East Rutherford.

I’ll tell you what, I still think this 49ers team is one of the best teams in the league, but man are the Jets and Giants catching them at fantastic times.

At full strength, there would be no doubt in my mind the 49ers win these next two games big. But now, even though I’m not crazy enough to actually pull the trigger on either of the New York (New Jersey) teams in their San Francisco matchups, the seed of doubt has been planted at the very least.

Here’s where the good news starts up again for the 49ers- the Jets get themselves a break with Sherman, Kittle, and Deebo Samuel being out and Garoppolo not off to the greatest of starts.

Both the 49ers and Jets are dealing with injuries at the wide receiver position.

However, the Jets themselves have been decimated on the receiving core with both Denzel Mims and now Jamison Crowder (Sam Darnold’s favorite target) going down as well as Le’Veon Bell. Not to mention a Jet offensive line with three starters on the injury report for Week 2.

That bodes very well for a Niners pass rush that is looking to break out. Banged up Jet offensive linemen paired with Sam Darnold being virtually weaponless is what the 49ers need right now.

I think this is going to be a ground-and-pound type of game with the 49ers aiming to control the clock by hitting the run game hard and then trying to go over the top to a big playmaker like Brandon Aiyuk (if he plays) to get the scores.

The Jets secondary didn’t look very good last week allowing 306 passing yards to Josh Allen and a Bills offense that went cold in the second half against them. Aiyuk is the kind of playmaker I could very well see being a problem to deal with in this type of matchup.

So, a lot of the 49ers’ run game with Raheem Mostert. Potentially a big day out of the Niner pass rush. All they need to do is keep Jimmy G together. More run. Less Jimmy. Find Aiyuk for the big play. Grind the clock and wear this weaker Jets team down.

The last time I took a gander at the lines for this game, FanDuel had the spread at -7 in favor of the 49ers. Of course, I’m concerned we’ll have another flat game out of this team, but I’m going to roll with them anyway and say they cover that spread winning 28-17 with an over 41.5 hitting.

The 49ers are 10-3 all-time versus the Jets and have won 6 of 7 games on the road against them. Great history in this matchup. I think they take care of business in Week 2.