The Deets: 49ers Week 2 overreactions — how will the Niners fare without Bosa, Garoppolo?
The Deets is a weekday morning dose of commentary — delivered at 7 a.m. — from sports columnist Dieter Kurtenbach that wraps up everything important in the world of sports and looks forward to another crazy day ahead.
They won, but at what cost?
The 49ers’ Week 2 victory over the Jets was a melancholy affair, as fans had to see the team’s top defensive player go down with an injury, the starting quarterback follow him, and also, they had to watch the Jets.
And despite being 1-1, the overreactions flowed all day Sunday.
Let’s rebuff some hot takes:
Overreaction: The 49ers’ season is over
I don’t want to chastise anyone making this point right now. It’s hard to see a future where the 49ers are contenders. But even though the team is down four of their five best players and their quarterback is sidelined for who knows how long, the 49ers are not yet cooked.
I prefer not to write anyone off in the NFL until October. Call me old fashioned. I patricianly am not keen to make grand season-long proclamations this early when teams had no preseason and an ineffective training camp at best.
I won’t lie to you: things don’t look good. But in this war of attrition, other teams will find the same kind of bad luck the 49ers have received through the first two weeks, squads that are looking good will soon find ineptitude, and vice versa. Just as the bad is not solidified quite yet, neither are the good things. This league is far too volatile to treat every game like a permanent referendum.
San Francisco will need to keep its head above water for the next few games — or at least until Garoppolo is back in the fold — and then we can assess. The Niners won’t be the juggernaut they were last year, but they have not been eliminated from the playoffs quite yet.
Overreaction: The Niners will be fine with Nick Mullens
There are some who have suggested both in the past and present that Mullens is a better quarterback option than Garoppolo. You probably know them.
Those people embarrassed themselves.
The Niners will be able to manage with Mullens next week. But if Garoppolo misses more time than that, things could get hairy, fast. Especially if San Francisco doesn’t win Sunday.
Mullens is a perfectly adequate backup quarterback. He provides playbook competency and absolutely zero upside for the 49ers. He will go as far as Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers’ playmakers will take him.
Given the state of the roster and Shanahan’s not-exactly-stellar start to the season, It’s hard to be optimistic about the prospects.
And Mullens simply does not have the arm strength to punish cheating defenses on his own. He threw multiple flutter balls Sunday, and his interception —while not entirely his fault — was one that Giants coaches will highlight in film sessions all week.
A full week of preparation should help moving forward — it should be noted that the 49ers are four-point favorites against the Giants next week, and that’s factoring in Mullens at quarterback. But my estimation is that’s a three, maybe four-point drop off from a Garoppolo-led team.
And not every team is as bad as the Giants.
The Eagles and Dolphins — yes, the Dolphins — will provide the Niners real challenges in the weeks to come. Challenges where it would behoove the Niners to have their top quarterback at the helm.
The game to circle on the calendar is the team’s second NFC West contest of the year — Oct. 18 against the impressive Rams. (We’ll see if that compliment sticks.)
Overreaction: The MetLife Field turf injured the 49ers
I’m not in New Jersey, so I do have to take the 49ers’ collective word for it, but color me skeptical that the turf at the stadium — which was apparently new for this season — was the sole culprit behind the 49ers’ very own massacre at the Meadowlands.
A factor? Fair.
But the turf can’t be the sole reason the Niners picked up so many injuries. That just sounds like the Niners looking for an easy excuse for bad luck.
The Steelers and Giants played on the field last Monday without incident or complaint. The Jets had injuries in Week 2, but to my knowledge, they didn’t complain about the turf at their home field. (The Niners, as you probably recall, had no problem complaining about the shoddy field when they first moved into Levi’s Stadium.)
The turf was deemed too sticky, but it was also too slippery. Tight end Jordan Reed told NBC Sports that he didn’t notice a problem until someone mentioned it.
With everyone covering the team so far away, there’s no choice but to follow with the official company line, but color me skeptical.
Conspiracy theories are created so that the world conforms to those who don’t — or can’t — engage with reality.
The Niners caught a terrible break with injuries. There’s no doubt about that. But couldn’t some of these injuries be a byproduct of a shortened, fake training camp and no preseason? Guys were dropping like flies all around the NFL today, and there was only one game in New Jersey.
Nevertheless, the NFL will investigate the field in the coming days. But the 49ers are going to be back on that turf for Week 3, whether they like it or not.
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