The San Francisco 49ers held off the Arizona Cardinals Sunday afternoon and now quickly turn around to prepare for their short week leading up to Thanksgiving against the Baltimore Ravens. Given the short week, injuries suffered yesterday become all the more pertinent. Sunday's game saw both FB Bruce Miller and OT Anthony Davis leave the game at different times.
Bruce Miller is the more pressing injury at this point. He reportedly suffered a concussion after taking a hit from Adrian Wilson while stretching for the end zone. In the second quarter, Wilson came in somewhat high but legit tackle and hit Miller in the head/neck region. Miller was down on a knee for a brief minute but got up and trotted off the field. He did not return to the game.
If the reports of a concussion are true, the short week could make it difficult for him to be active on Thursday. He has to pass a battery of tests issued by both the team and an independent neurological consultant. Hopefully Miller can be back, but I'd prefer he sit out the week to get the cobwebs completely cleared.
If Miller is unable to go on Thursday, it is tough to tell exactly what the 49ers would do. They had deactivated Moran Norris prior to this game and so when Miller went down in the second quarter, they went to third string tight end Justin Peelle at the fullback position. He seemed to do OK, but there seemed to be some breakdowns in pass protection after Miller left. It would not surprise me to see the 49ers go with the veteran Norris on Thursday. I know folks have their issues with him, but it's probably the safe play for the moment.
The other injury of note saw Anthony Davis go down with a right ankle sprain. He had an x-ray and briefly returned to the game, but then sat out the fourth quarter. After the game Davis sent out this tweet:
@AnthonyDavis76
Anthony Davis Im fine.. We were kickin ass so they took me out so i can rest it for Baltimore.. 9-1! That 1 pisses me off.. lol
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We'll find out more over the next couple days, but I'd imagine Davis will be fairly limited in practice this week. Monday is usually a walk-through day, but the team will send out a projected injury report indicating players' status as if they had actually practices. Tuesday and Wednesday will tell us more than the Monday report.
There is one other bit of "injury" news worth noting. Braylon Edwards has been playing recently, but it sounds like he still not quite 100% back from his knee injury. Coach Harbaugh was asked about this yesterday:
You mentioned you were able to get Braylon Edwards some rest today. Is he right physically?
"I don't think he's 100%, but there was improvement this week. Toward the end of the week he was starting to feel pretty darn good. That decision toward the end of the third quarter, was ‘let's keep that progress coming.'"
The 49ers passing offense was geared around Michael Crabtree on Sunday, but received a huge spark from Kyle Williams. It will be interesting to see how the offense schemes for Thursday against the Ravens, particularly coming off yesterday's big game from Kyle Williams. He has shown some solid skills, but the team has not consistently gone to him. I'm curious to see if that changes in the coming weeks.