After the first quarter, the 49ers had zero first downs and were out-gained 117-14. They were on the road in a hostile environment. They couldn’t run the ball. They had every reason to freak out a little bit on the sideline. Instead, the team remained calm, kept their composure, drove down the field for a score, and went into the locker room with a 7-3 lead.
After the game, Jimmy Garoppolo was asked about what it was like on the sideline during the early struggles.
“It was calmer than I expected. Guys weren’t freaking out. That’s a tough defense. We knew that going into the game it was going to be a grinder type game. Away game, coming off the week in West Virginia – there was a lot of things going against us. Guys stayed the course. That’s what you want to see with guys. Fred [Warner] said it, we’re a resilient group, and when we’re playing together like that is when we’re playing good.”
The offense had nine first downs in the second quarter, scored a touchdown, and established momentum going into halftime. The calm demeanor speaks to one of the team’s assets that not many people talked about before the season – experience.
With so much of the 2019 Super Bowl squad returning, the 49ers aren’t going to be an easy team to rattle, no matter what happens in the game. Hopefully, that composure rubs off on some of the younger players like Deommodore Lenoir and Elijah Mitchell that have found themselves in prominent roles in the early going.
For more on the win over the Eagles, check out todays’ 49ers in Five podcast. Please leave us a rating and a review as well.