The San Francisco 49ers made several errors that cost them in their Week 1 matchup with the Minnesota Vikings. Every time the 49ers started to get some momentum, they would make a mistake that would cost them all of the progress they had made. One of the biggest mistakes out was Alfred Morris’ untimely fumble on the goal line.
After the game, Morris was disappointed in his fumble, and offered an explanation. He said that Vikings nose tackle Linval Joseph didn’t do anything different that caused the turnover but rather Morris fell like it was more humid than he had thought. He described his forearms as sweaty, and that coupled with reaching for the goal line for a score was part of what caused the issue.
Kyle Shanahan stated that Morris’ fumble was not the reason for his reduced snaps after it happened. He confirmed that Morris played some after the turnover and also left the game healthy.
“Yeah, he’s healthy. He was fine. We were planning on rotating those guys all game, and I know he did play after that. That definitely didn’t affect it; it had nothing to do with the fumble.”
The snap count between the backs did end up pretty even, with Morris ending the day with 34 snaps and Matt Breida closing it out with 30. Neither back had a stand out performance. Breida led the two 46 yards on 11 carries — an average of 4.2 per carry. Morris had 12 carries for 38 yards giving him a 3.2 yard average. Morris did have the longest run from scrimmage which was 14 yards. Breida’s longest was 11.