November 25, 2025 • 9 mins
49ers Defeat Panthers: Monday Night Football Analysis
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the deep dive. So today we are
getting into the forty nine Ers Panthers game. Final score
twenty to nine, and on paper, that looks pretty straightforward.
San Francisco moves to eight four Carolina slips the sixty six.
But I mean the score really doesn't tell the story
here at all, does it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Not even close? It was well, it was a strategic paradox.
Like you said, the winning team seemed to be trying
its best to give the game away and.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The losing team just refused to take it exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So that's our mission for this deep dive. We're going
to break down how San Francisco pulled off a win
that I think most people would agree was not their
cleanest operation. And maybe the more interesting question is why
Carolina's offense just completely failed to capitalize on what was
a spectacular defensive effort.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, so let's start with the Niners and how they
actually won this thing because it wasn't flashy, it wasn't
about explosive play.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
No, it was methodical. The word that keeps coming up
in the analysis is boa constrictor. They just slowly squeezed
the life out of the camp.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And you can really see that in the stats, can't you.
It's not just a feeling, it's right there in the numbers.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
It is. I mean, look at their scoring drives. Of
the four drives that put points on the board, three
of them, three of them needed ten or more plays.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Ten plus plays. So they're just grinding it out.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
They're grinding and they're consuming the clock. This is the
killer part. Each of those long drives eat up more
than six minutes of game time.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Wow, in a close game, taking six seven minutes to
get a field goal. That's just demoralizing for the other side.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's devastating. And it all hinges on one thing. Third downs.
They converted over fifty percent of their third down attempts.
That's how you sustain those drives and just wear out
a defense.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So who was the engine for all this, Because, I mean,
that kind of methodical attack has to have a centerpiece.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It does, and it was all Christian McCaffrey. This is,
you know, a classic Kyle Shanahan game plan, but McCaffrey
was the one making it work.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The workload was just immense, twenty two carries.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And seven catches. On top of that, he ended up
with well over one hundred and twenty five yards from scrimmage.
He was the entire offense on some of those drives.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So this boa constructor identity is really a safety net,
isn't it. It's something they fall back on.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's their safety net. Especially with Brock Purdy. You have
to remember this is only his second start back from
that injury, So you don't want to put it all
on his arm, right, You lean on your identity, you
lean on your star running back, and you just control
the game. And that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Okay, But that brings us to party because this is
where the whole story gets complicated. The game plan was
one thing, but his execution was something else.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Entirely, it was a total Jekl and Hyde situation. I mean,
you think back to Week eleven against Arizona, that forty
one to twenty two win. Yeah, he looked fantastic, so sharp,
so sharp, and then that just it completely disappeared against.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Carolina, especially in that first half.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, the first half was a disaster. He threw three interceptions, Yeah,
on three straight possessions, three straight You just you almost
never see that from a team that ends up winning
the game. It's supposed to be a death sent for
your momentum.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So what was the diagnosis? What went wrong on those throws?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
The consensus seems to be his timing was just off.
He was either late with the ball or he was
putting what analysts call too much air under it.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Right, so just hangs up there, giving the defender time
to make a play exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It floats, and that gives the corner or the safety
that extra half second to read it, break on it,
and get there before the receiver even has a chance.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And that's what happened with jac Horn on that third interception, right.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
He just read it perfectly, he did. And if you
look at the next gen stats you could see this
wasn't just a couple of random mistakes. It was a pattern.
That night.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Oh this is fascinating.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
All three of his interceptions came on deep passes, throws
of twenty plus air yards all three. All three. And
get this, no quarterback has thrown that many interceptions on
deep balls in a single game sense, Nick Mullens, way
back in week sixteen of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That is a brutal statistic. It shows these weren't just
bad reads, they were high risk, poorly executed throws right.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So the offense is actively, it seems, trying to give
the game away.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So how I mean, how in the world do they
win the defense?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
This is the other side of the coin. San Francisco's
defense put on an absolute clinic.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And they do it while being completely banged up. That's
the part that's so incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It is. The context here is just it's so important.
They're a leader linebacker, Fred Warner, he's watching the game
from a suite. He's out for the rest of the season.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And when you lose your defensive quarterback, your signal caller,
you expect a huge drop off. But that didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It didn't happen at all. Other guys just stepped up.
You had the edge rushers Nick Bosa and he had
a grossmatos.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
The rookie Michael Williams looked good too.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
He did, and Kevin Gibbons on the inside, and then
the linebacker who had to fill those huge shoes, Tatum Bethune.
They were all phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And the numbers they put up, I mean, they speak
for themselves. Holding the Panthers to just two hundred and
thirty total yards and.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The really big one one for seven on third down
one for seven, they just slam the door shut every
single time Carolina had a chance to build momentum.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So all credit to their defensive coordinator, Robert Sala, because
really a defense shouldn't be able to survive that many
injuries and still play at such an elite level.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Absolutely, he maximized what he had left. And at the
end of the day, their performance is why pertyes three interceptions.
Just they didn't matter. The defense bailed out the offense,
plain and simple.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Okay, So let's flip this around and look at the Panthers, because,
as you said, their defense give them every possible chance
to win this game.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Every chance. I mean, if you're a Carolina fan, you're
watching your defense get three interceptions in the first half alone,
you have to be thinking, Okay, here we go, We're
about to take control of.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
This game, and then nothing. I mean, this is the
stat that just breaks my brain. Out of those three turnovers,
they got a grand total of three points.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Three points.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Let's just say that again, three turnovers forced by your
defense and your offense converts that into a single field goal.
It's almost impossible to be that inefficient.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It gets even worse when you look at where they
got the ball. One of those picks gave Carolina to
the ball at the forty nine or sixteen yard line.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
That's practically a guaranteed touchdown, or at least it should be.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It should be. And what happens on that drive, Bryce
Young throws an interception in the end zone. So you
don't just fail to score, you give the ball right back.
It's a double failure.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Just unforgivable. And that leads to maybe the most confusing
part of this whole game. Carolina's offensive game plan. The
imbalance was just bizarre.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Bizarre is the right word. Look late in the third quarter,
the score is only ten to three. This is a
one possession game. It's anybody's ballgame.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Right, A perfect time to establish the run, control the
clock yourself, you'd think.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So, but they just abandoned it. They have Rico Dawdle,
a guy who has had multiple one hundred and thirty
plus yard rushing.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Games this season, and he finishes the night with six carries.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Six He was averaging over six yards of carry. He
was being effective, and they just stop giving him the ball.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Hubbard only had three attempts, so nine carries for your
top two running backs in a close game. I just
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Nobody gets it. The only possible rationale is that they
saw a weakness in the forty nine ers pass rush
and thought they could exploit it by leaning on Bryce Young.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
But that feels so shortsighted. You can't just abandon a
core part of your offense like that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
No, And the analysis from the sources is pretty harsh
on this. The conclusion is that this offense will never
hit its ceiling by putting everything on.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Its quarterback, especially not a young quarter Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
They have to find balance, and on a night when
your defense is playing lights out giving you short fields,
that was the night to lean on the run game
and grind out a win. They just refuse to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So if we boil it all down, the forty nine
Ers found a way to win ugly. They stuck to
that Boa constrictor identity and their defense was heroic.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And the Panthers lost because of well mental errors and
a really stubborn, inexplicable offensive strategy wasted an incredible defensive performance.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
And before we wrap this up, there's one last fascinating
fact from NFL research about the engine of that Niners offense.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Christian McCaffrey, Oh yeah, this is a good one.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
With his performance in this game, he became only the
third running back in the history of the NFL to
have fifty or more receiving yards in at least fifty
career games.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That is just elite elite company. The other two are
Larry Centers who had fifty five and the Hall of
Famer Marshall Falk, who had exactly fifty.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It just shows you how rare his skill set is
and why he's so valuable to what they do. That
dual threadability is the key.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Is he's their safety velvet every sense of the word.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So that leaves us with a really interesting question moving forward,
especially as we get into December and these games start
to mean so much more. The Niners won this game
with strategy and defense, even though their quarterback was shaky.
So looking ahead to the playoffs, what approach are they
going to need to rely on more? Is it the methodical,
clock eating boa constrictor running game or is it the
(08:58):
explosive passing attack that they're also capable of. That's the
big question something for you to think about as we
head toward January. We'll see you on the next deep
dive
Welcome back to the deep dive. So today we are
getting into the forty nine Ers Panthers game. Final score
twenty to nine, and on paper, that looks pretty straightforward.
San Francisco moves to eight four Carolina slips the sixty six.
But I mean the score really doesn't tell the story
here at all, does it.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Not even close? It was well, it was a strategic paradox.
Like you said, the winning team seemed to be trying
its best to give the game away and.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
The losing team just refused to take it exactly.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
So that's our mission for this deep dive. We're going
to break down how San Francisco pulled off a win
that I think most people would agree was not their
cleanest operation. And maybe the more interesting question is why
Carolina's offense just completely failed to capitalize on what was
a spectacular defensive effort.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Okay, so let's start with the Niners and how they
actually won this thing because it wasn't flashy, it wasn't
about explosive play.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
No, it was methodical. The word that keeps coming up
in the analysis is boa constrictor. They just slowly squeezed
the life out of the camp.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And you can really see that in the stats, can't you.
It's not just a feeling, it's right there in the numbers.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
It is. I mean, look at their scoring drives. Of
the four drives that put points on the board, three
of them, three of them needed ten or more plays.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Ten plus plays. So they're just grinding it out.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
They're grinding and they're consuming the clock. This is the
killer part. Each of those long drives eat up more
than six minutes of game time.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Wow, in a close game, taking six seven minutes to
get a field goal. That's just demoralizing for the other side.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It's devastating. And it all hinges on one thing. Third downs.
They converted over fifty percent of their third down attempts.
That's how you sustain those drives and just wear out
a defense.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
So who was the engine for all this, Because, I mean,
that kind of methodical attack has to have a centerpiece.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
It does, and it was all Christian McCaffrey. This is,
you know, a classic Kyle Shanahan game plan, but McCaffrey
was the one making it work.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
The workload was just immense, twenty two carries.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
And seven catches. On top of that, he ended up
with well over one hundred and twenty five yards from scrimmage.
He was the entire offense on some of those drives.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
So this boa constructor identity is really a safety net,
isn't it. It's something they fall back on.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's their safety net. Especially with Brock Purdy. You have
to remember this is only his second start back from
that injury, So you don't want to put it all
on his arm, right, You lean on your identity, you
lean on your star running back, and you just control
the game. And that's exactly what they did.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Okay, But that brings us to party because this is
where the whole story gets complicated. The game plan was
one thing, but his execution was something else.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Entirely, it was a total Jekl and Hyde situation. I mean,
you think back to Week eleven against Arizona, that forty
one to twenty two win. Yeah, he looked fantastic, so sharp,
so sharp, and then that just it completely disappeared against.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Carolina, especially in that first half.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Yeah, the first half was a disaster. He threw three interceptions, Yeah,
on three straight possessions, three straight You just you almost
never see that from a team that ends up winning
the game. It's supposed to be a death sent for
your momentum.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So what was the diagnosis? What went wrong on those throws?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
The consensus seems to be his timing was just off.
He was either late with the ball or he was
putting what analysts call too much air under it.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Right, so just hangs up there, giving the defender time
to make a play exactly.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
It floats, and that gives the corner or the safety
that extra half second to read it, break on it,
and get there before the receiver even has a chance.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And that's what happened with jac Horn on that third interception, right.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
He just read it perfectly, he did. And if you
look at the next gen stats you could see this
wasn't just a couple of random mistakes. It was a pattern.
That night.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Oh this is fascinating.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
All three of his interceptions came on deep passes, throws
of twenty plus air yards all three. All three. And
get this, no quarterback has thrown that many interceptions on
deep balls in a single game sense, Nick Mullens, way
back in week sixteen of twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
That is a brutal statistic. It shows these weren't just
bad reads, they were high risk, poorly executed throws right.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
So the offense is actively, it seems, trying to give
the game away.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
So how I mean, how in the world do they
win the defense?
Speaker 2 (04:10):
This is the other side of the coin. San Francisco's
defense put on an absolute clinic.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
And they do it while being completely banged up. That's
the part that's so incredible.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It is. The context here is just it's so important.
They're a leader linebacker, Fred Warner, he's watching the game
from a suite. He's out for the rest of the season.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
And when you lose your defensive quarterback, your signal caller,
you expect a huge drop off. But that didn't happen.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
It didn't happen at all. Other guys just stepped up.
You had the edge rushers Nick Bosa and he had
a grossmatos.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
The rookie Michael Williams looked good too.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
He did, and Kevin Gibbons on the inside, and then
the linebacker who had to fill those huge shoes, Tatum Bethune.
They were all phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
And the numbers they put up, I mean, they speak
for themselves. Holding the Panthers to just two hundred and
thirty total yards and.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
The really big one one for seven on third down
one for seven, they just slam the door shut every
single time Carolina had a chance to build momentum.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
So all credit to their defensive coordinator, Robert Sala, because
really a defense shouldn't be able to survive that many
injuries and still play at such an elite level.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Absolutely, he maximized what he had left. And at the
end of the day, their performance is why pertyes three interceptions.
Just they didn't matter. The defense bailed out the offense,
plain and simple.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Okay, So let's flip this around and look at the Panthers, because,
as you said, their defense give them every possible chance
to win this game.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Every chance. I mean, if you're a Carolina fan, you're
watching your defense get three interceptions in the first half alone,
you have to be thinking, Okay, here we go, We're
about to take control of.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
This game, and then nothing. I mean, this is the
stat that just breaks my brain. Out of those three turnovers,
they got a grand total of three points.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Three points.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Let's just say that again, three turnovers forced by your
defense and your offense converts that into a single field goal.
It's almost impossible to be that inefficient.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
It gets even worse when you look at where they
got the ball. One of those picks gave Carolina to
the ball at the forty nine or sixteen yard line.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
That's practically a guaranteed touchdown, or at least it should be.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It should be. And what happens on that drive, Bryce
Young throws an interception in the end zone. So you
don't just fail to score, you give the ball right back.
It's a double failure.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Just unforgivable. And that leads to maybe the most confusing
part of this whole game. Carolina's offensive game plan. The
imbalance was just bizarre.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Bizarre is the right word. Look late in the third quarter,
the score is only ten to three. This is a
one possession game. It's anybody's ballgame.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Right, A perfect time to establish the run, control the
clock yourself, you'd think.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
So, but they just abandoned it. They have Rico Dawdle,
a guy who has had multiple one hundred and thirty
plus yard rushing.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Games this season, and he finishes the night with six carries.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Six He was averaging over six yards of carry. He
was being effective, and they just stop giving him the ball.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Hubbard only had three attempts, so nine carries for your
top two running backs in a close game. I just
I don't get it.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Nobody gets it. The only possible rationale is that they
saw a weakness in the forty nine ers pass rush
and thought they could exploit it by leaning on Bryce Young.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
But that feels so shortsighted. You can't just abandon a
core part of your offense like that.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
No, And the analysis from the sources is pretty harsh
on this. The conclusion is that this offense will never
hit its ceiling by putting everything on.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Its quarterback, especially not a young quarter Exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
They have to find balance, and on a night when
your defense is playing lights out giving you short fields,
that was the night to lean on the run game
and grind out a win. They just refuse to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
So if we boil it all down, the forty nine
Ers found a way to win ugly. They stuck to
that Boa constrictor identity and their defense was heroic.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
And the Panthers lost because of well mental errors and
a really stubborn, inexplicable offensive strategy wasted an incredible defensive performance.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
And before we wrap this up, there's one last fascinating
fact from NFL research about the engine of that Niners offense.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Christian McCaffrey, Oh yeah, this is a good one.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
With his performance in this game, he became only the
third running back in the history of the NFL to
have fifty or more receiving yards in at least fifty
career games.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
That is just elite elite company. The other two are
Larry Centers who had fifty five and the Hall of
Famer Marshall Falk, who had exactly fifty.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
It just shows you how rare his skill set is
and why he's so valuable to what they do. That
dual threadability is the key.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Is he's their safety velvet every sense of the word.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So that leaves us with a really interesting question moving forward,
especially as we get into December and these games start
to mean so much more. The Niners won this game
with strategy and defense, even though their quarterback was shaky.
So looking ahead to the playoffs, what approach are they
going to need to rely on more? Is it the methodical,
clock eating boa constrictor running game or is it the
(08:58):
explosive passing attack that they're also capable of. That's the
big question something for you to think about as we
head toward January. We'll see you on the next deep
dive
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