49er Golden Nuggets and Flakes is a football analysis article recapping 49er games. Nuggets are signs of progress or good play within the team while flakes are problems that the team needs to work on in order to be more successful.
Golden Nugget: Play calling in the first three quarters. Coming into the Eagles game, the 49ers were struggling with protecting their quarterback. They were second in the NFL in sacks allowed with 22 sacks in the first five games. Martz decided to change it up this week by setting up tight end screens and wide receiver screens to make Eagles blitzes off balance. Combining the screens with a solid running attack, the 49ers had held the time of possession advantage and the lead at the end of three quarters.
Golden Flake: Play calling in the fourth quarter. Up 26-17 with possession of the ball, the 49ers play calling reverted back to Martz’s tendencies of passing the ball. The Eagles, who had been struggling against the run for the past few games, expected the 49ers to wear down their defense with star running back Frank Gore. Gore already had a 100 yards on the ground with an average of 5 yards per carry. Instead Mike Martz did not call a single running play the entire fourth quarter even though the 49ers were up by two scores. The Eagles realized this, so they sat in nickel defense and never blitzed. The 49ers stubbornly refused to run despite this formation and suffered two interceptions from O’Sullivan who had a strong game up until that point.
Golden Nugget
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