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The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs square off this Friday in Week 2 of the 2013 NFL preseason. Although the 49ers showed some good things last Thursday against the Broncos, there are still plenty of areas where the team needs to show improvement in the coming weeks.
One area of strength for the 49ers last week was the team's defense. The 49ers held the Broncos to 220 total yards of offense, including only 103 passing yards. The first team defense got in Peyton Manning's face, and the reserves did a solid job against Brock Osweiler and Zac Dysert.
That being said, one area where the 49ers struggled a bit was against the run. Running back C.J. Anderson put together a strong showing against the 49ers reserves, averaging 4.6 yards per carry. The 49ers starters did solid enough work, but the reserves struggled. Corey Lemonier had a strong showing in pass rush, but struggled at times to set the edge. While he will likely focus on rush the passer in 2013, he will need to improve against the run to develop into more than just a situational player.
With that in mind, is Jamaal Charles the biggest threat to the 49ers this coming Friday? Or is another aspect of the Chiefs offense worth considering? Charles injured his foot in practice today, but it sounds like x-rays were negative, and the Chiefs are describing it as a foot strain. If he doesn't play, what else would be a tough challenge for the 49ers defense on Friday?
Our good friends at Arrowhead Pride are going to drop this into their layout so we can get some Chiefs fans over here discussing the game. Given how closely they follow their Chiefs, they'll be able to give us some insight about the rest of the offense.
We'll be doing posts like this through Thursday, alternating between a post at NN and a post at Arrowhead Pride. Tomorrow's post will be at AP, so make sure to register now, so your account will be active tomorrow.