San Francisco 49ers: Defense, Frank Gore Overcome Team's Mistake to Get to 2-2

Forget the Philadelphia Eagles—the only team that could stop the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday were the San Francisco 49ers.

The 26-21 final score overflattered the performance of the Eagles offense, and made the 49ers’ defensive performance seem less dominant than it actually was.  All three Philadelphia touchdowns came from big failures by San Francisco’s offense and special teams, as well as a fair chunk of luck:

• A blocked punt, set up when Colin Kaepernick took a sack on a blown pass protection.  That meant Andy Lee had to stand with his heels on the end line, and the Eagles were able to force players back into Lee’s approach to the ball. Philadelphia recovered the blocked punt for a touchdown.
• An interception return by Malcom Jenkins.  The interception was due to a poor read by Colin Kaepernick, but the return itself featured an eye-opening display of missed tackles and terrific open-field running.
• A Darren Sproles punt return that exploded down the sideline, in the most impressive play the Eagles had all afternoon.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

Lost in the all the worry about what the 49ers were doing on offense was what the 49ers were doing on defense.  While the special teams and offense were doing their best to keep Philadelphia in the game, the defense put up one of its most impressive performances of the season to keep San Francisco around.

Before the Eagles’ last two drives, the 49ers defense held them to only 105 yards of offense.  Even when Philadelphia drove the length of the field on their last real shot to take the lead, the 49ers stiffened and flattened the Eagles, keeping them out of the end zone despite four attempts from inside the Niners 10-yard line.

The 49ers’ defensive dominance gave the 49ers offense time to wake up from its early-game malaise and do something they hadn’t done at all in the 2014 season: show up for the second half.

Going back to Frank Gore, who had his first 100-yard game since last December, and using his running to set up the passing game, the 49ers went back to the formula that led them to such success last season.  They scored 16 unanswered points to clinch the win.

We keep expecting Frank Gore to crumble into dust, and he keeps proving us wrong.  The 31-year-old back is averaging 4.46 yards per carry so far this season; that would be a top-20 all-time season for someone of that age, and the best since Correll Buckhalter in 2009, who had only 120 carries that season.  Gore’s on pace for 224 carries this season and looks as dominant as ever.

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

It’s refreshing to see the 49ers going back to using their running game so much after giving Gore just six rushing attempts against Arizona.  The 49ers have a bunch of shiny new toys in their passing game, and Colin Kaepernick is capable of making plays that no other quarterback in the league can make, but this is a team whose very foundation is the running game and good defense, and getting back to that identity when the chips are down is a great way to get off of a losing streak.  The 49ers don’t need to run the ball three-quarters of the time or anything, but leaving weapons like Gore and Carlos Hyde out of the game plan hurts the team.

There are still plenty of questions the 49ers need to answer, but it’s a lot easier to address those after a win then it would have been had the team fallen to 1-3.  The offensive line is still makeshift, at best, and a disaster at worse—Kaepernick was sacked four times and often found himself running for his life on other plays.  The penalty bug was back, with the 49ers being penalized 10 times for 70 yards.  Injuries struck again, with the 49ers at one point being down to their last five healthy offensive linemen.

But while all those question marks were going on, the 49ers defense came up huge.  It cannot be stressed enough what a remarkable game this was for the injury-plagued unit.  Philadelphia came into the game averaging 419 yards of total offense; they managed only 213 yards in this game. 

Of special note is the much-maligned secondary, keyed by corner Perrish Cox and safety Antoine Bethea.  Cox recorded four passes defensed and intercepted another, while Bethea made seven huge tackles and came down with an interception of his own.

The two combined on perhaps the biggest defensive play of the game, when Bethea stripped Philadelphia tight end Zach Ertz of the ball deep in Eagles territory early in the third quarter with the Eagles leading 21-13. Cox plucked the fumble out of mid air while up against the sideline, and the turnover set up a Niners TD that brought San Francisco to within a point. 

Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press

With the Kansas City Chiefs coming into town on a short week next week, the 49ers look set up to get back above .500 next week.  A loss against Philadelphia would have sent the 49ers spiraling for a tie in last place in the NFC.

Instead, they are back in the thick of things a quarter of the way through the season.  As long as they can continue to tread water until the returns of NaVorro Bowman and Aldon Smith, the 49ers should be fine this season.

As for team morale, which was called into question earlier Sunday by NFL.com’s Ian Rappaport, a win like this is bound to help right the ship.

Jim Harbaugh, after the game, indicated that it should help at least one person in the locker room, saying “it’s going to be good for morale, I would suspect. Good for my morale.”

This was only the second time in NFL history that a team gave up three return touchdowns and still managed to win, after the 2007 Dallas Cowboys managed the feat.  This, then, was a truly historic win—and hopefully for 49er fans, something their team can build on as the season continues.

Bryan Knowles is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the San Francisco 49ers.  Follow him @BryKno on twitter.