49ers vs. Cardinals: Snap counts from Week 1

The San Francisco 49ers got off to a hot start on Sunday, but after the blocked punt and the failed fourth-down conversion on the one-yard line, the team looked a bit scattered and never recovered. Let’s take a look at the snap counts as well as six key stats from the game.

Offensive snap counts- 62 total

The good news here is that the five offensive linemen that started the game finished the game. George Kittle only missed one play, the one where it appeared to be a hyperextended knee. Matt Barrows said he rewatched the game and Kittle sat out two plays. Kittle was adamant after the game that he was fine. He even raised his voice a bit, which he never does, to get his point across.

Pettis played a lot but made a minimal impact. On his one target down the field, it seemed like he could have put forth more of an effort to catch that pass. I’m not saying he should have caught the ball or that he would have, but Pettis seemed content, which feels like the best way to describe him.

To me, it seemed like Trent Taylor didn’t have enough “juice” to get open consistently. That’ll be something to monitor moving forward. He was open on fourth down and a third-down earlier in the game, but Jimmy G missed him. As for Bourne, I thought he had the best route of the game on the throw, where Garoppolo left it short in the end zone. Bourne is a receiver that Garoppolo must be willing to throw open/in traffic, as he did on the 17-yarder for a first down.

I wonder how much the air quality had to do with Coleman’s usage. I liked what McKinnon brought to the table. For a player who hadn’t played live football in a couple of years, Jet made sharp cuts and caught the ball well in traffic. As for Mostert, Shanahan is going to have to start running him inside as much as he does outside. Arizona did everything they could to take away the stretch running game of the 49ers, and it worked.

I’ll save judgment for how the offensive line played once I rewatch. My initial feeling was that they were OK.

Defensive snap counts- 82 total

I didn’t notice when Sherman came off the field. I also didn’t see when Moore went on the field. After the Cardinals were starting to move the ball during the third quarter, I thought the 49ers would adjust to their speed and go to a “dime” defense and get more athleticism onto the field. That didn’t happen.

As much as we’ve talked about the snap counts for the defense and the air quality, the defensive line didn’t play an abnormal amount of snaps. Bosa playing 70% of the snaps is a perfect number for Week 1, and he led the defensive line in snaps.

Williams only playing 57% of the snaps feels low. Too often, the 49ers defense were caught in their base defense while the Cardinals were spread out. I’m not sure why, as we knew Arizona would play a lot of 11 and 10 personnel.

I’m not going to overreact to the busted coverages and missed tackles. They both were a problem, but we’re not going to see a player like Kyler Murray too often that stresses the defense the way Murray can.