San Francisco 49ers running back Carlos Hyde had the best rushing performance of his career on Sunday, putting up 193 yards. He added seven more on a touchdown reception, giving him his first 200-yard performance. Hyde rushed for 141 of the yards on seven carries in the first half, but then saw his numbers slip in the second half with 52 yards on ten carries. Still an impressive performance.
ESPN Jets reporter Rich Cimini offered up an interesting stat regarding Hyde’s performance.
Carlos Hyde had 143 of 193 rush yards BEFORE contact -- #Jets out of position. Had 126 yards before contact in 5 previous games combined.
— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) December 12, 2016
Hyde is normally among the league leaders in yards AFTER contact because the 49ers offensive line has been particularly porous in run blocking. On Sunday, we saw the opposite of that. Jets head coach Todd Bowles and defensive lineman Leonard Williams both said New York did not make adjustments in the second half. In reality there were some changes as the game wore on, and it would seem they figured out some way of tackling at least a little bit better!
Carlos Hyde chatted with the media after the game. He credited the blocking in front of him, and his own decisiveness on plays. He did not think much changed in the second half, but did say, “I just think the Jets came out and played harder.” If that is the case, that is further disappointment to add to an already disappointing season. When you are 1-12 and jump out to a 17-3 lead, I would hope you would want to keep the pedal to the medal. If the team just wasn’t playing hard enough, that’s incredibly disappointing.
How were you guys able to get so many yards on the ground?
“Being decisive, trusting what you see, and just hitting. A few runs hit outside and the receivers did a good job of blocking and getting me one-on-one with the safety. Make him miss, and I’m off to a big game.”
What changed in the second half?
“I just think the Jets came out and played harder. Nothing changed with us. We still had some success in our run game. I just think the Jets came out and played a little harder in the second half.”
How did you think the offensive line did?
“I think they did a great job today. I had a career-high today, so hats off to those guys. Without them, I wouldn’t have had that. The receivers did a hell of a job, too.”
On the fourth-and-two play at the end in overtime, is that kind of a bread-and-butter play for you guys?
“That’s a play we’ve been running all game. The Jets just played good defense right there. Not taking anything away from them, they did a good job filling up all the holes. I didn’t have a lane where I could go. I just tried to hit it up in there and tried to get a push, but they did a good job there.”
The offense exploded in the first half but had five straight punts in the second half. What is it going to take for that to carry over in the third and fourth quarters?
“Just keep fighting. In the second half, just come out the way we did in the first half. Play fast. Even though we were up 14 points, we’ve just got to keep going. We’ve got to get a lot more points than that. It’s easy for a team to come back in and, as you’ve seen today, come out and tie the game and go overtime. If we would stay on it and score some points we wouldn’t have been in that position.”
This team was already without San Francisco 49ers T Joe Staley but to lose San Francisco 49ers C Daniel Kilgore, TE Vance McDonald, and WR Torrey Smith in the game, how much did that change things late?
“Those are all starters right there. It hurts, but we’ve got some young guys that will step up. Next man up. These young guys get back in practice next week, work on their technique and get better, and get ready for Sunday.’”
You win and lose as a team. Individually, can you even let yourself think about the day you had running downhill?
“It doesn’t really matter. I’d take the win over the stats any day. I really wanted to win that one. I wanted to win all of them. The stats don’t really matter. I’m just trying to win.’”
San Francisco 49ers head coach Chip Kelly blamed conservative play-calling partly on the loss. Do you guys notice when he says things like that? Do you guys care? Does it bother you?
“No. It’s my job to execute the play, not worry about what coach is calling or whether it’s conservative or not. I have to go out there and execute it. I feel like if we go out there and execute it at the end of the play, it’s a good play.”
With the way things have been going for this team, is there any feeling that creeps in late in a close game like this, like here we go again? Any thoughts start creeping in?
“No, not for me at all. Just go out there and keep playing. We were up and when it went into overtime, I had a good feeling that we were going to at least get some type of points out of it but we didn’t. That’s part of the game. Just keep fighting, we’ll be all right.”