Scouting the enemy: San Francisco 49ers visit Arrowhead for Chiefs home opener
By Kody Latham
Defense
San Francisco’s defense has also gone through a complete retooling since 2014. They currently have one of the better defensive lines in the league with Deforest Buckner, Arik Armstead, Solomon Thomas, and Earl Mitchell leading the charge. Buckner, in particular, has played well so far this season; he has racked up three and a half sacks so far through the first two games. He finished last season with only three sacks total, so to surpass that already through two games shows that something may have finally clicked for him.
The Chiefs offensive line held up well against a tough Pittsburgh defensive line last week, only allowing one sack on the day. They will have to have a repeat performance against San Francisco’s defensive line as well if we want to see Mahomes light up the scoreboard like he did last week.
The 49ers will also be getting back Reuben Foster, one of their best players who has been suspended for the first two games of the season. Foster, who was selected with the 31st pick of the 2017 draft, had an excellent year last season. The only thing that has been able to stop him so far has been the issues that he has had off the field. Now that his suspension is over, you can bet he is ready to take the Field in Arrowhead this Sunday.
San Francisco was also able to acquire Richard Sherman to help shore up the cornerback position. Sherman, coming off of an Achilles tear he suffered last season, has played well for his new team. Having allowed only one catch in his 99 coverage snaps to start the season. To have that much success coming off of a severe injury is impressive. Especially considering he has gone up against Stefon Diggs, Adam Thielen, Golden Tate, Marvin Jones, and Kenny Golladay to start the season.
Sherman’s running mate Ahkello Witherspoon has been up and down to begin the year. After having a lot of positive reports out of camp about him, it seemed that the 49ers were going to have a potent duo at the cornerback position. So far that solid duo has yet to materialize.
The Chiefs offense should be able to come out firing again in Mahomes first game in Arrowhead. While San Francisco isn’t a pushover, they still seem to be a young team trying to figure things out. I wouldn’t expect them to turn things into a shootout similar to last week with Ben Roethlisberger. Instead, I hope the Chiefs try and grind this out more with the run game to allow the defense to not be on the field as much as they have been the past two weeks. Either way Mahomes first game in Arrowhead will be fun to watch!