Frank Gore, Carlos Hyde's Instant Fantasy Reaction After Week 10

After weeks of misery, it's good to be a San Francisco 49ers running back again. Frank Gore and Carlos Hyde each scored first-quarter touchdowns in Sunday's 27-24 win over the New Orleans Saints, ending a month-long period of dormancy.   

Gore got the game's first score, a four-yard scamper on the 49ers' first drive. He finished with 81 yards on 23 carries. 

Player	Carries	Yards	YPC	TD	Receptions	Yards	Targets
Frank Gore	23	81	3.5	1	1	2	1
Carlos Hyde	4	36	9.0	1	0	0	0

Hyde's first carry accounted for the game's second touchdown, as he dashed in from nine yards out to give San Francisco an early 14-point lead. While he played a minimal role in regulation, Hyde was a workhorse on the 49ers' lone overtime drive. He had 36 yards on four carries.

The touchdowns were the first scored by a 49ers running back since Week 3. San Francisco came into Sunday with only three rushing touchdowns on the season, tied with a pile of teams for the second-worst number in football.

Gore had only 107 yards over the 49ers' three previous games and was becoming a disappointment due to a reduced workload. The veteran back had gone over the 20-carry mark only once in the first half of the season.

Hyde, meanwhile, had been all but excised from the rotation. After getting double-digit carries in Weeks 4 through 6, Hyde had five carries total in the 49ers' last two games. It appears that Jim Harbaugh is more comfortable using Gore as his lead back as the season goes along—an interesting development given that some expected the opposite to happen.

Hyde, despite the touchdown, has been rendered essentially irrelevant from a fantasy perspective. Gore is an every-week start on the basis of his workload and historical production, but his strong start to Sunday's game is more of an outlier than it may seem. It was Gore's second touchdown of 2014, his first since Week 2.

We're talking about a low, low-end RB2 here or flex play in an ideal scenario. At least until the 49ers start getting consistent production from their offensive line.

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