By Robert MarviShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberIn spite of the injury bug that has hit them hard for the second year in a row, the San Francisco 49ers keep winning games with regularity. On Monday, they defeated a Carolina Panthers team that had come in with five wins in its previous seven games by a final score of 20-9.
While that victory wasn't exactly pretty, San Francisco's defense, which has often been solid this year, came up big. Carolina quarterback Bryce Young only completed 18 of 29 pass attempts for 169 yards and threw two interceptions, and his team mustered only 230 total yards of offense while failing to convert on all but one of its seven third downs.
The 49ers now have an 8-4 record and are 1.5 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Rams, who are an NFC-best 9-2. As well as the Rams have been looking, the Niners technically have a shot at finishing first in the NFC West.
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But ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith feels that, should the Niners reach the playoffs, they will not go far there.
"There are too many good teams in the NFC to think that this version of the San Francisco 49ers could come out of the NFC," Smith said.
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Smith cited the many injury problems the Niners have had as a major reason they cannot reach the Super Bowl. Defensive end Nick Bosa, a five-time Pro Bowler and former Defensive Player of the Year, and middle linebacker Fred Warner, a four-time Pro Bowler, are out for the season with a torn ACL and ankle injury, respectively. Wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk is still recovering from a torn ACL and MCL he suffered last season, and he's all but gone from the team, as it voided the guaranteed money in his contract for next season.
But Smith has concerns about their healthy players, starting with quarterback Brock Purdy.
"Brock … he has not been impressive," Smith stated. "The three interceptions that he threw all were for 20 yards or more, lot of air under the ball, no zip. You know what? You know you don't see him with a rifle of an arm. So we got to take that into consideration.”
...Purdy threw three interceptions in the first half of Monday's game. While he has had long stretches of excellent football ever since taking over under center in 2022, he has been mistake-prone at times, and many national pundits feel he's overrated and simply a fortunate product of coach Kyle Shanahan's offensive system.
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While star running back Christian McCaffrey is playing outstanding football and is on pace to post 1,000 rushing and receiving yards for the second time in his career, he leads the NFL in rushing attempts and total offensive touches. Smith is concerned that the 2023 Offensive Player of the Year is being overworked.
"Christian McCaffrey can only do but so much — that's an injury waiting to happen … durability is a question mark," Smith noted. "The more you have to depend on him, the more trouble that you're in."
McCaffrey has been injury-prone over the years. Last season, he appeared in only four games due to an Achilles injury and a PCL ailment, and he's on track to set a career-high in rushing attempts.
In 2019, he became the third player in NFL history to have 1,000 rushing and receiving yards in the same season and took 287 carries. He played in just 10 games over the following two campaigns because of several different injuries.
For more on the 49ers and general NFL news, head over to Newsweek Sports.
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