articles n stuff setting up the SF game

Rich Hammond@Rich_Hammond
We could be looking at our first truly consequential Rams-49ers game since…I dunno, somebody help me out here. @Jim_Everett?

Vincent Bonsignore@VinnyBonsignore
The last time the #Rams and #49ers met at the Coliseum with both teams having winning records was in 1976. Jim Plunkett was the QB of the 49ers and James Harris was the #Rams QB. Sunday is going to be fun.

J.B. Long@JB_Long
Setting up to be a huge showdown at the Coliseum on Sunday.

In fact, will be the first time the @49ers and the @RamsNFL have met with winning records since December 9, 2001.

Rams and 49ers have the 2nd-longest active streak without meeting with winning records. The Ravens and Browns have not met with winning records since Oct. 21. 2001. (Elias)

Rich Eisen@richeisen
The @RamsNFL are gonna have their hands full next week.

Jason La Canfora@JasonLaCanfora
49ers DL is no joke

Brandon Thorn@BrandonThornNFL
Bosa is the best edge rookie I’ve seen (This year)

Tony Dungy@TonyDungy
I am really liking this defense John Lynch has put together for the 49ers. They are fast and aggressive and they have an attitude. As they play together a little more they’re going to be hard to deal with!

Vincent Bonsignore@VinnyBonsignore
#49ers, with their QB healthy, are a handful. It’s gonna be a hell of a battle at the Coliseum on Sunday. First time since #Rams came home that #49ers #Rams feels like a legit big game

Ross Tucker@RossTuckerNFL
If you are a RB, TE, FB, OL, QB, or WR you should want to play for Kyle Shanahan.

basically every offensive player is put in a great position to excel in his offense.

Frank Schwab@YahooSchwab
At 3-0, there was some question about the validity of the 49ers. After Monday night, there shouldn’t be. The 49ers look legit.

Austin Wilson@AUS10SPORTS
Rams have played teams with a combined record of 20-9 including 3 road games.

49ers have played teams with a combined record of 6-14

RamsNewsNow@RamsNewsNow
Rams’ shaky offensive line faces toughest test yet vs. 49ers

Cameron DaSilva@camdasilva
The Rams opened as slight favorites over the 49ers at home in Week 6

.@49ers are striking gold with their run game. @MattBreida, @Teco_Raww, and crew rushed for 275 yds Monday night against the Browns. The O-Line is knocking guys off the ball for Kyle Shanahan's # 1 offense and has them 4-0 for the first time since 1990 #BaldysBreakdowns #GoNiners pic.twitter.com/u31cI7xBvK

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) October 9, 2019

This shouldn't be a shock: Nick Bosa is the NFL's defensive player of the week: https://t.co/Z3xuii2af5

— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) October 9, 2019

LMU93

FootballOutsiders elevates 49ers to #1 overall…(Rams drop form 12th to 17th this week)

FootballOutsiders Week 5 DVOA Ratings

We have a new No. 1 team in the Football Outsiders DVOA ratings this week. The San Francisco 49ers had the best single-game performance of the season so far against Cleveland on Monday night (100.9% DVOA), and that catapults them into the top spot past the New England Patriots even though both the 49ers and Patriots see their actual ratings move up from a week ago.

Last week, I was writing about the Patriots and where their first four games stood among the hottest starts of the DVOA era, since 1986. Now we have to talk about the 49ers and where their first four games stand among the hottest starts of the DVOA era. The answer is: even higher.

Yes, the 2019 49ers now have the sixth-highest DVOA ever measured through four games. The Patriots now rank 13th… but they rank fifth all-time in best total DVOA ever measured through five games. And that list is even more impressive than the list of the best DVOA through four games, with pretty much every team on the list at least making it to the conference championship game. Whether or not the 49ers can make it onto the second list depends on how they play against the Rams this week. Most of the teams that were great through four games dropped a bit after their fifth game.

Both the 49ers and the Patriots are being driven by their defenses. The Patriots are still the best defense in DVOA history, with a slightly bigger lead on the rest of history than they had a week ago. The Patriots’ defensive rating got a little worse this week as opponent adjustments got stronger, but the ratings for the other great defenses in dropped even more. Meanwhile, the 49ers rank fourth among defenses through four games.

Why San Francisco 49ers defensive end Nick Bosa is the difference this year | Baldy's Breakdowns – NFL Videos https://t.co/uEQatBg4CM

— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) October 10, 2019

9ers can put Rams in huge division hole in L.A.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/49ers-put-rams-huge-division-020101036.html

The only unbeaten team in the NFC faces its toughest test Sunday afternoon when the surprising San Francisco 49ers visit the defending conference champion Los Angeles Rams at L.A.Memorial Coliseum.

One year after earning the No. 2 pick in the draft by virtue of a four-win season, the 49ers (4-0) find themselves sitting atop the NFC West after sweeping a pair at home from Pittsburgh and Cleveland following wins at Tampa Bay and Cincinnati.

The 4-0 start is the franchise’s first since 1990, when they went 14-2 and reached the NFC Championship Game.

The Rams (3-2), meanwhile, have lost two in a row after running stride for stride with the 49ers through three weeks. The first loss was at home to the Bucs, three weeks after the 49ers’ season-opening road win in Tampa.

The pairing features the NFL’s second-ranked defense (the 49ers at 257.5 yards allowed per game) against a Rams offense that has yet to recapture its 2018 magic, yet nonetheless ranks fifth in the league in yards per game at 413.6.

But that Los Angeles offense could be without one of its biggest weapons, as running back Todd Gurley missed practice Wednesday with what the team called a left thigh contusion.

“I think we just want to take it a day at a time,” head coach Sean McVay said of the Rams’ approach with Gurley. “A lot of these conversations entail (how Gurley is) feeling, what kind of progress does he make throughout the course of the week.”

Though he has been healthy for all five games this season, Gurley has seen his workload cut dramatically thus far in 2019 relative to 2018. He has 42 fewer touches, 307 fewer yards and four fewer touchdowns this season compared to his stats through five games last season.

As for the 49ers, while labeling the club “an excellent team with no weaknesses,” McVay took time on his national conference call Wednesday to single out rookie defensive end Nick Bosa. The No. 2 overall pick put on quite a show in the club’s 31-3 shellacking of Cleveland in the Monday night spotlight with two sacks, a forced fumble and fumble recovery.

“(He’s) relentless,” McVay said. “A mature player for a rookie. He’s got a great feel, a great motor, a lot of the same things that you see, really, from their entire group up front. They do an excellent job rotating guys, and they play with an energy, you know, snap to whistle.

“You hear them say, ‘All gas, no brakes,’ and that’s what it looks like when you watch them play.”

After harassing Baker Mayfield into two interceptions, a lost fumble and four sacks on Monday, the 49ers will set their sights on Jared Goff, who has dominated them the last three times he’s seen them.

Goff has as many interceptions as touchdown passes (seven) this season, but since the start of the 2017 season, he’s thrown nine TD passes without an interception against the 49ers, going 55 of 78 for 693 yards.

The Rams have run up 41, 48 and 39 points in those wins.

Interestingly, Goff has never gone head-to-head with the 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo, who missed both meetings last season — 39-10 and 48-32 Rams wins — after blowing out his knee in Week 3.

Garoppolo’s only start against the Rams since joining the 49ers in an in-season trade in 2017 was the regular-season finale that season, when Los Angeles rested starters in preparation for the upcoming playoffs. Garoppolo led the 49ers to a 34-13 road win in that game.

Garoppolo will be without one key member of his supporting cast in the showdown, with fullback Kyle Juszczyk having sprained the MCL in his left knee in Monday’s win. The blocking and pass-catching specialist is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

“‘Juice’ does so much for this offense … the versatility,” Garoppolo told reporters Wednesday of Juszczyk. “He does things that most fullbacks can’t do. He’s catching passes out of the backfield, diving for catches while also cutting a (defensive end) on the backside. It’s little things like that. It’ll be important for us to get that just with other people.”

The 49ers lead the all-time series 68-67-3, plus a 30-3 home win in the NFC Championship Game in January 1990.

Rams defense readies for 49ers run game

https://www.therams.com/news/rams-defense-readies-for-49ers-run-game

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – For the second consecutive week, the Rams’ defense will face another strong rushing attack.

This week, though, it will be the 49ers bringing the NFL’s No. 1 rushing offense to the Coliseum.

“Their running game is really going to test you,” Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips said. “We’ve got to play better defense (this week).

Heading into Week 5, Los Angeles’ defense – which was limiting opponents to the ninth-fewest rushing yards per game at 91.8 – was preparing to to face a Seattle offense that averaged 111.5, good for 16th-most in the league. The Seahawks finished with 167 last Thursday, most allowed so far this season in a performance not up to the Rams’ usual high standards.

The 49ers, meanwhile, are averaging a league-high 200 rushing yards per game through the first five weeks of the season and coming off a 275-yard performance against the Browns on Monday Night Football. Their total rushing yards alone exceeded Cleveland’s 180 total yards of offense.

“They make a lot of plays,” Rams DT Aaron Donald said. “They’re the best running team in the National Football League right now, so we’ve got our hands full with that. We’ve got to be disciplined, gap-sound and get after it.”

The role of San Francisco’s offensive line and historical success also factor heavily into present production.

Since Kyle Shanahan took over as head coach in 2017, scouting service Pro Football Focus has graded San Francisco’s offensive line as a top-six run blocking unit each of the last three seasons with 2019 included. They were sixth in 2017, improved to fourth in 2018 and currently rank third this year.

Perhaps coincidentally, the 49ers have gone from 21st to 13th to 1st in rushing and have yet to average fewer than 104 yards per game in a season.

Phillips sees a third key factor: health.

“They’ve always wanted to run the ball and they’ve had some success, but they’ve some had some people banged up,” Phillips said. “So that’s hurt them some, but now they’re at full strength.”

What makes the 49ers’ production remarkable is that they’ve done it without their starting LT Joe Staley, who is still recovering from a fractured fibula in mid-September that is expected to sideline him for eight weeks. However, it will likely be even more challenging to sustain now with starting RT Mike McGlinchey and starting FB Kyle Juszczyk out 4-6 weeks due to knee injuries.

Still, Donald said the duo’s replacements are professionals. Ultimately, the key to stopping San Francisco running game is making sure their running backs don’t get going early.

“You stick with the gameplan, you study your film, you trust what you’ve been studying all week and what you know, and you go out there and execute,” Donald said.

How good are the #49ers through the first five weeks of the season? @PFF_Sam gives you the rundown.

See if he thinks those grades are for real, or just a hot streak and check out the full podcast here. https://t.co/FW0VcDfntM pic.twitter.com/GJFacVGsT0

— PFF SF 49ers (@PFF_49ers) October 11, 2019

Rams' 3 biggest causes for concern against the 49ers in Week 6 https://t.co/NBYMSzbgd8

— Rams Wire (@TheRamsWire) October 12, 2019

betMGM line: Rams by 3
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/10/12/niners-rams-live-stream-how-watch-tv-channel/3934091002/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatodaycomnfl-topstories

The 49ers pass rush showed it’s a force that can alter games, after defensive end Nick Bosa sacked Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield twice and San Francisco sacked Mayfield four times overall. The matchup to watch, though, is the Niners rushing attack versus the Rams rushing defense. San Francisco leads the NFL with 200 rushing yards per game, while L.A. is in the middle of the pack, ranking 15th in rushing yards allowed with 106.8 a game.

Defensively, the Rams’ pass rush has underwhelmed this season after defensive tackle Aaron Donald and company dominated in 2018. Donald has just one sack through five games, and it may be tough for him to add another. Garoppolo ranks second in the NFL in time to throw, getting rid of the ball in an average of 2.45 seconds after the snap.