San Francisco 49ers' Top Performers of October

Aside from a pitiful showing against the New York Giants, the San Francisco 49ers put on some pretty impressive displays of both offensive and defensive play in the month of October.

The success of the team last month can be attributed to a variety of factors: the league's most efficient rushing attack, an improved secondary playing behind one of the best front seven in the league, and smart, efficient, if not underwhelming, performances from the quarterback position.

Let's look at the top performers on the 49ers this month and how they have contributed to the team's success thus far.

No. 1: Frank Gore

What more can be said about the heart and soul of the 49ers? A forgotten man in their two losses and the straw that stirred the drink in each of their wins in October, Frank Gore is the barometer of the 49ers. As he goes, so goes the team. 

It is no coincidence that Gore's fewest carries (eight) came in the team's one loss last month. Gore averaged 18.7 touches for 124.7 yards in the team's three wins in October. In two losses Gore has averaged 64 total yards on 12.5 total touches. 

Those numbers aren't a result of Gore getting shut down by the opposition. They are the result of abandonment of the run game, an inexcusable occurrence for a team built around smash-mouth football.

The bottom line is that when Gore gets 15-plus touches the Niners usually win. How many times have we seen him rip off a 20, 30, 60 yard run late in the game against a tiring defense? Only about 10 times a year or so, by my estimate. If Gore isn't getting things going on the ground early in a game, his history suggests that he will eventually win the war of attrition in the trenches if he is given the chance to do so. 

No. 2: Dashon Goldson

The above photo is a perfect encapsulation of what Dashon Goldson does for the 49ers from the free safety position. He lays people out, pure and simple. Goldson still has some issues in coverage from time to time, but his ability to play downhill to the football has made him one of the most feared tacklers at his position in the NFL, if not the most feared player at free safety.

Football players are like everyone else in life. If you keep punching someone in the face, eventually that face will turn into hamburger meat and the person attached to it will not ever come back for more. The brutal memories associated with having to pass an incisor after an aggressor knocked it down one's throat will make that person think twice about ever opening their mouth in public again.

The same mentality applies to football. Get your bell rung enough and you start pulling up a little short on balls over the middle, you start looking for the sidelines instead of the first-down marker, your brain gets foggy and now you can't remember what route you were supposed to run on 3rd-and-8, and on and on and on. 

Dashon Goldson's ability to lay out anyone on the field and set the tone, physically, reminds me of Sharon Stone in Casino. Ol' Sam Rothstein tried to turn a hustling, thieving prostitute into his wife. Well, when she kept bashing his idyllic idea of domesticity to pieces, he eventually abandoned her. It was a battle of wills and Sam gave up in the end, resigned to accept that his marriage was a total failure. He learned something about himself, namely that he can't change the unchangeable.

Well, repeatedly trying to go over the middle against Goldson while hoping that you aren't going to get popped in the mouth is like hoping that Ginger will change her ways. It ain't going to happen, and eventually receivers lose their stomach for it, just like Rothstein lost his stomach for Ginger.

No. 3: The Offensive Line

This is a big, physical, nasty unit. In Hobbes' State of Nature, these guys would be the ones taking everything you own and daring you to do something about it. The idea of the social contract exists to protect us all from people like Anthony Davis and Alex Boone. Short, nasty, brutish: That is what life lined up against this unit can be like.

Pass protection may look like an issue at times, given Smith has been sacked 24 times this season. But that statistic is misleading at best; Smith has an infuriating tendency to hold on to the ball too long and take sacks due to his below-average field vision. Most of the sacks this season can be at least partially blamed on Smith.

The rushing attack is another story entirely, and it's a story sold with "Parental Guidance" warnings plastered all over the cover. This is the most physically-dominant run-blocking unit in the league. They line up, punch the guy opposite them in the mouth, bury their face in the dirt and line up to do it all over again.

As good as Frank Gore is, the fact that the top three leading rushers on the 49ers are averaging 4.8 yards per carry (Smith), 5.0 yards per carry (Kendall Hunter) and 5.5 yards per carry (Gore), respectively, is an indication that pretty much any running back with healthy legs and halfway decent vision could run for a high average behind this unit.