49ers vs. Rams: Key moments and analysis as San Francisco grinds out a critical win

The 49ers aren’t dead yet.

Their 2020 season, which was in peril coming into Sunday night, remains alive as they improved to 3-3 with a gutsy performance against the previously 4-1 Los Angeles Rams with a 24-16 victory on national television.

The offensive line that struggled to keep their quarterbacks clean the last two games, kept a clean sheet against the Rams. San Francisco offense allowed zero sacks on the evening despite L.A. coming into the weekend tied for the lead league with 20 sacks.

Aaron Donald was limited to just two combined tackles and a quarterback hit, but was mostly kept in check by coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense that relied heavily on screens, receiver runs and shovel passes. Jimmy Garoppolo bounced back from one of his worst performances of his career to throw for 268 yards while completing 23-of-33 with three touchdowns. Most importantly, there were no interceptions.

Here’s our running recap and analysis of the action.

First quarter

The 49ers’ offense looked far more like the 2019 version on the first series than any point of the season. Deebo Samuel was used on two jet sweet shovel passes, Brandon Aiyuk started a play in the backfield and picked up the first down on a screen to the left, and George Kittle got to the 6-yard line on an 18-yard misdirection screen.

The drive culminated in Samuel’s first touchdown of the year in which he ran it in after taking his second shovel pass of the possession. His first one went for 35 yards after he appeared to be tackled, but his knee never hit the ground, and he spun off defenders for a 35-yard gain into Rams’ territory.

Garoppolo didn’t throw a pass downfield, but he completed all four of his official attempts for 69 yards and was credited with his fifth touchdown pass of the year on Samuel’s score.

The defense, which had cornerback Emmanuel Moseley back for the first time in three weeks, forced a punt on the Rams’ first series. They got some help when Jared Goff missed a wide open Cooper Kupp for a long completion near the left sideline. Goff completed just 1 of 4 on his first series. Slot cornerback Jamar Taylor had good coverage on Kupp on the Rams’ first play and forced an incompletion.

The 49ers were unable to get anything going on their second series as Garoppolo missed an open Kittle on a second-down pass that would have likely moved the chains leading to a third-and-7 the offense failed to convert with a check down pass to Jerick McKinnon.

Cornerback Jason Verrett, who has been one of San Francisco’s few bright spots, broke up a third-down pass to force a three-and-out as Goff opened just 1-of-6.

A weird thing happened on the 49ers’ next possession. McKinnon was hit in the face by a defender as he went to the ground on a short run that gained a first down, but officials never blew the whistle as McKinnon dropped the ball. A Rams defender picked the ball up and returned it deep into 49ers’ territory.

After a lengthy review process, in which both teams thought they had the ball, officials correctly ruled it was 49ers ball.

The first quarter came to a close with San Francisco out gaining the L.A., 140-21, while getting 8 first downs to 1. San Francisco stayed ahead of the chains, having just two third down attempts over their first 20 plays.

Second quarter

The 49ers opened the second quarter with a gutsy decision to got for it on fourth-and-2 from the Rams’ 44-yard line. L.A. tried blitzing up the middle, a good plan against the 49ers offense in recent games, and Garoppolo made them pay by hitting Kittle over the middle.

He broke one tackle and had an easy path to the end zone for his second touchdown of the season. That made it 14-0.

The Rams got their second first-down of the game when Taylor missed Goff on a blitz, allowing him to scramble for a drive-extending first down on third-and-9.

They got all the way down to the 3-yard line and had a touchdown run negated by a holding penalty on offensive lineman David Edwards that pushed the ball back to the 13. Two plays later, the Rams got on the board with an excellent throw and catch over the middle to Robert Woods. Safety Jaquiski Tartt had good coverage on the play, but the ball just out of his reach.

Defensive end Dion Jordan blocked the extra point to keep it 14-6.

The 49ers put together another methodical drive that got deep into Rams’ territory by way of Raheem Mostert runs and a couple long receptions over the middle to Kendrick Bourne. Trent Taylor, who has been scarcely used this season, had a conversion on a third-and-7. And on a third-and-short, the 49ers drew pass rusher Leonard Floyd into the neutral zone to set up first-and-goal from the 3.

San Francisco made it a 21-6 game inside the 2-minute warning with rookie receiver Brandon Aiyuk’s first receiving touchdown of the season (his previous two scores were deemed rushing touchdowns). Aiyuk settled into a soft spot in the zone on a third-and-goal from the 2 while two defenders appeared to jump outside to cover Kendrick Bourne.

Third quarter

The Rams opened the second half with a seven-play, 48-yard drive that stalled at San Francisco’s 23-yard line when the 49ers’ defense held, forcing a third-down incompletion. L.A. made it a 21-9 game when Samuel Sloman connected on a 42-yard field goal try. San Francisco was unable to get anything going on in its first drive after the break, going three and out.

The 49ers had some bad news early in the third quarter. Mostert was ruled out with an ankle injury following the team’s first possession of the second half after he led the team with 65 yards on 17 carries and 11 yards on two receptions. The offense was humming in the first half and Mostert was playing an important role as he was leading the team in yards from scrimmage.

And the hits kept coming for San Francisco following the loss of Mostert. Strong safety Jaquiski Tartt left the game with a groin injury. The Rams went on to march down the field into scoring range, but Jason Verrett made one of the plays of the season with a fourth-down interception in the back corner of the end zone when he peeled off his man to snag Goff’s pass and kept both feet in bounds.

Fourth quarter

The hits kept coming for San Francisco following the loss of Mostert. Strong safety Jaquiski Tartt left the game with a groin injury. The Rams went on to march down the field into scoring range, but Jason Verrett made one of the plays of the season with a fourth-down interception in the back corner of the end zone when he peeled off his man to snag Goff’s pass and keep both feet in bounds.

The 49ers had to punt when George Kittle dropped a third-down pass while being covered closely by Jalen Ramsey. The following punt was downed inside the 1-yard line by Tavarius Moore, who was lucky to no part of his body crossed the goal line, and the Rams went three-and-out as Moseley had good coverage on a long third-down incompletion, giving the ball back to San Francisco at midfield.

Williams returned to the game after missing a few plays. Kittle made up for his third-down drop on the last series by making a catch a third-down catch, and making a defender miss, to move the chains and help the offense eat some time off the clock moments after Garoppolo missed fullback Kyle Juszczyk for a potentially big gain by badly overthrowing him as he was hit.

The drive resulted in Robbie Gould’s 49-yard field goal that made it a 15-point game with 5:26 remaining, 24-9.

The Rams made it an eight-point game when Goff hucked it deep to Reynolds, who overcame pass interference from Moseley on a jump ball. L.A. had just one timeout and the two-minute warning on its side, and elected to kick it deep rather than try for a low percentage onside kick.

The 49ers capped it with two first downs, one from Hasty, who had 37 big yards on nine carries after Mostert left the game. And another shovel pass to Samuel, who ran threw a handful of defenders to win it.

The 49ers staved off the Rams comeback and won, 24-16, improving to 3-3 and giving them hope for a playoff berth.