From out of nowhere. A defense on its last legs. A desperate but ferocious punch.
There was no more fitting image for the San Francisco 49ers’ 26-23 overtime win Thursday than rookie Alfred Collins’ game-saving forced fumble just shy of his own goal line. The surging Los Angeles Rams were down three points with 1:07 remaining, running back Kyren Williams was heading into the end zone for what looked like his third touchdown and the 49ers, valiant but decimated by injuries, were headed for certain defeat.
That’s when Collins fought through two offensive linemen, barrelled down the line of scrimmage and, diving toward Williams, threw a vicious right cross that popped the ball loose.
“It’s a must-have-it play,” the big defensive tackle, who also recovered the fumble, said afterward. “I saw the ball, and I was gonna get it.”
Kyle Shanahan noted that the 49ers, already playing without their top defensive lineman, Nick Bosa, lost two more from that unit earlier in the game.
“It was a huge character win,” he said of a game that had the intensity of a late January affair. “We’ve had tight ones all (season) — all five of ’em. We had a chance to pull one out (Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars), we didn’t. We pulled this one out, and I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”
Collins’ play wasn’t San Francisco’s only short-yardage stand.
Following a 49ers field goal to begin overtime, the Rams drove to San Francisco’s 11-yard line, where they faced fourth-and-1. They’d converted two earlier fourth-down attempts and decided to go for this one, too, instead of the short field goal. After all, the short-handed 49ers had already given up 456 yards, allowed nearly 5 yards per carry and played more than four and a half quarters.
This time, however, they held firm. Nickel cornerback Chase Lucas was the first to meet Williams at the line of scrimmage, first fighting off a block from Rams receiver Puka Nacua — no easy task; Nacua is considered one of the strongest wideouts in the NFL — to do so. That allowed Fred Warner, Collins, Deommodore Lenoir and Marques Sigle to crash the play, too, and make sure Williams went nowhere
“It looked like a brick wall,” Shanahan said of the game-ending play.
Said Rams head coach Sean McVay: “It was a bad call by me.”
It’s worth noting that neither Collins nor Lucas might have been in the game at those critical moments if it weren’t for injuries, the dominant theme of the 49ers’ season so far.
Defensive tackle Kalia Davis broke his hand in the first half, allowing Collins to see a season high in snaps. The 6-foot-6 defensive tackle was the 49ers’ second-round pick in April but missed all of the spring practices with a calf injury and was a conspicuously slow starter when training camp began. Since then, he’s been on a steady ascent, and due to the rash of injuries, figures to play even more in the coming weeks.
“Since training camp, he’s been on an escalator,” left tackle Trent Williams said of Collins. “You can see it with the confidence he plays with. From July to now, it’s night and day. His progression — it’s kind of scary.”
Lucas, meanwhile, was on the field because the team’s regular nickel cornerback, Upton Stout, left with an ankle injury late in the game. Lucas, who stood out in the preseason, is one of the most intense players in the locker room and is particularly close to Lenoir, who also teems with electricity.
Lenoir said the 49ers knew the Rams were going to run it on the fourth-down play in overtime because of the formation they were in. He said he zeroed in on Lucas in the defensive huddle.
“We were talking in the huddle, and I was like, ‘Bro, I need you to shoot that gap,’” he said.
Lucas did as instructed, Lenoir helped finish Kyren Williams off and now the 49ers are alone atop the NFC West at 4-1, having already beaten all three of their division opponents, two on the road.
The victory, coupled with the injuries along the defensive line and a mostly anemic pass rush Thursday, will likely intensify the call for the 49ers to make a trade ahead of the Nov. 4 deadline. In addition to Davis’ injury, defensive tackle/end Yetur Gross-Matos left with a hamstring injury and did not return. Fourth-round rookie defensive tackle CJ West played the game with a broken thumb, first-round rookie defensive end Mykel Williams has been playing with a wrist injury and the team waived second-year player Jordan Jefferson before the game to make room for quarterback Adrian Martinez on the 53-man roster.
Defensive end Bryce Huff sacked quarterback Matthew Stafford in the first quarter, but the 49ers generally couldn’t generate much of a pass rush without blitzing, and when they did, Stafford took advantage. He finished with a season-high 389 yards and three touchdowns, as San Francisco went a record 12th consecutive game without an interception.
For now, however, Shanahan said his team would try to heal up during a rare weekend off.
“I’ve been real proud of the guys every week — even (on Sunday) when we lost,” he said. “I was disappointed in the turnovers we had, the mistakes we had. But I was just real proud of the character we had, how we battled. I’ve really enjoyed these guys since OTAs. We’ve got a real strong group, we’re close.
(Photo of Alfred Collins, 95: Brooke Sutton / Getty Images)
