San Francisco 49ers: Colin Kaepernick and Big-Play Offense Take Out the Rams

The St. Louis Rams, knowing their season was on the line, pulled out all the stops against the San Francisco 49ers.  They pulled out formations they hadn’t used before and challenged the 49ers deep.  Before they could blink, the 49ers found themselves down 14-0.

Then, with one 80-yard bomb, the momentum shifted, and it was all over from there.

Colin Kaepernick hit a wide-open Brandon Lloyd who ran the distance with just 15 seconds left in the first half to entirely shift the momentum of the game.  The 49ers took the second-half kickoff and drove 80 yards for another touchdown, and they took full control, easing their way to a 31-17 victory.

Scott Kane/Associated Press/Associated Press

It makes some amount of sense that the Rams would be able to jump out to an early lead, considering this was essentially for their season.  At 1-4, their chances for a miracle turnaround are pretty much shot, so they had to pull out all the stops to try to win this one.  It’s a credit to the team and the coaching staff that there were able to execute a radically different game plan to perfection.

Eventually, however, the Rams had to revert to their actual talent level, and the 49ers took over.  Credit the 49ers for not wilting under the storm and letting themselves get steamrolled; they came into their own and began pounding the Rams into submission.

Credit Kaepernick with a lot of this victory; he had his best game of the season.  Kaepernick was 22-of-36 for 343 yards and three touchdowns.  More importantly, with the exception of one duck thrown while he was being pulled down, Kaepernick made good decisions with the football. 

He found the easy plays, such as when the Rams blew a coverage on the Brandon Lloyd touchdown, and he found the difficult ones, hooking up with Anquan Boldin on multiple third downs.

The defense caught up in the second half, too, putting the pressure on Austin Davis.  The Rams' first 14 passing plays in the second half resulted in only two completions for 13 yards and a couple of sacks.  By the time the Rams got their offense in gear again, they found themselves down 10 points, and the game was under control.

Scott Kane/Associated Press

The win guarantees the 49ers will have a winning record going into their bye week in two weeks, regardless of the result next week in Denver.  It keeps pace with the Arizona Cardinals in the division, actually moving the team ahead of the Seattle Seahawks for a week and putting them in a tie with the Green Bay Packers for the sixth and final playoff slot. 

It wasn’t a must-win for the 49ers, but winning put them in a pretty decent position, considering the injuries and suspensions they are dealing with.

They may have a longer injury list when they take on the Denver Broncos on a short turnaround this week.  The 49ers saw Patrick Willis, Jimmie Ward, Mike Iupati and Stevie Johnson leave with injuries during the game.  Willis’ injury, in particular, looks like it might be one to watch carefully over this week, as he was reportedly in a walking boot after the game, according to Matt Barrows of The Sacramento Bee:

It’s one thing to shut down Austin Davis with a banged-up defense.  It’ll be quite another challenge to take down Peyton Manning on Sunday Night Football, as he tries to break Brett Favre’s all-time touchdown mark.  The bye week the week after will help get reinforcements back on the field, but that won’t help this week if Willis, Ward and the rest of the walking wounded can’t go.

That’s a problem to worry about tomorrow, however, after celebrating a win against a divisional rival.  No matter the record, it’s always good to pick up wins on the road in the division, for tiebreakers if nothing else.

The 49ers outscored the Rams 31-3 over the final three quarters, despite the offense sputtering in the red zone once again.  The 49ers did score a touchdown on one of their two red-zone drives, but their second drive featured some classic 49ers mistakes.

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You had Kaepernick’s one really bad decision, a skyhook of a pass that fortunately hit the ground incomplete.  You had a pass to a wide-open Vance McDonald get broken up by a similarly wide-open Vernon Davis on miscommunication between the tight ends.  

Finally, you had Carlos Hyde stuffed twice on plunges from the 2-yard line and a turnover on downs.  The 49ers are still below 50 percent on scoring touchdowns in the red zone, and they still haven’t scored a fourth-quarter offensive touchdown.

As long as they keep the big-play offense going, however, that’s not going to be an issue.  The 49ers had five plays of 20 yards or more, including two touchdowns.  You don’t need to score in the red zone if you bypass the red zone entirely.

In all seriousness, winning next week against Denver will be an uphill battle.  By weathering the storm and taking a game in St. Louis, however, the 49ers have given themselves a cushion until their injured players return in a few weeks.

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