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49ers in Five: Fred Warner says the team found their identity

“It’s coming together right at the right time”

Everything you need to know in five minutes

Two weeks ago, the 49ers were a sinking ship. They had just gotten destroyed by the Cardinals’ backups at home and fell two games below .500 on the season to 3-5. However, after their big win over the Jaguars yesterday, San Francisco has plugged the hole in the boat and evened their record at 5-5.

In today’s 49ers in Five podcast, Fred Warner explained exactly how big this game was.

“I think it’s just coming together right at the right time. We’re getting to the back half of the season, and we’re getting hot. That’s just who we are, though. I think that all along, we’ve been trying to find that identity, trying to find ourselves, and it’s starting to show through.”

Clearly, that identity is running the football. The 49ers ran the ball 42 times yesterday for 171 yards, which helped them keep the ball for 38:22. The week before, against the Rams, the 49ers ran the ball 44 times for 156 yards, which helped them keep the ball for 39:03. So that’s 327 yards on 86 plays in two weeks, with a time of possession of 77:25.

That is both absurd and fantastic.

“These past 14 days have, I don’t want to say, changed our team but, it’s definitely...we’re moving in the right direction,” Jimmy Garoppolo said after the game, “We’ve just got to keep going. There’s a lot of football left to be played. Minnesota’s going to be a good challenge for us this week coming up, and we’ve got to get ready for them.”

The Vikings are going to come into that game feeling pretty good after a last-second win against the Packers on Sunday, and they should. That said, if the 49ers continue to possess the ball for 64% of the game as they have over the last two weeks, they going to be pretty damn hard to beat.