49ers at New Orleans Saints

49ers 26, Saints 23. Walsh's first game as a year-two head coach goes into the win column on a Ray Wersching field goal that closes a road afternoon at the Louisiana Superdome. Earl Cooper carried for two touchdowns and added 10 receptions for 71 yards out of the backfield. Steve DeBerg threw 21-of-29 for 223 yards, one TD, one INT, a 91.6 rating. San Francisco rushed for 154 yards on 31 carries. Record: 1-0.[1][2][3]

On the first Sunday of a new year, in a building that doesn't owe the visiting head coach anything, the 49ers learned they could finish a game. That sentence sounds small until you remember the franchise spent fourteen Sundays last fall finding ways to lose them. The script on this one was unflattering on paper: Saints out-gained the road team 394-350, more yards through the air, a 314-yard passing day from their quarterback, third downs that kept the home crowd warm. None of it mattered, because of two facts that did. Earl Cooper, the rookie running back, ran for two touchdowns and caught everything thrown his way out of the backfield, ten times. And the defense, the side of the ball that was hammered for fourteen weeks last year, made New Orleans settle for less in the fourth quarter than the box score's totals suggest. A road win in a dome before a home win at Candlestick. The score says 1-0. The signal says something more.

Box-score notes. SF total yards 350, NO 394. DeBerg 21-29-223-1-1, rating 91.6. Rush split SF 31-154-2 (4.97 ypc), NO 22-90-2. Turnovers SF 2, NO 0, yet the visitors took the field-position margin in the second half. Top SF rusher Earl Cooper, 17-77-2 with a 9-yard long. Top SF receiver Cooper again, 10-71 out of the backfield. Wersching's leg was the closing instrument. Points differential plus-3 on the year so far.

Personnel and concept notes from the box and the scoring sheet, since play-by-play data is limited for this game. The road team won this on the ground and on the dump-off, not on the vertical passing game. Earl Cooper, the rookie back, took 17 carries for 77 yards and was targeted ten times out of the backfield, catching all ten for 71. That is a screen-and-flare workload, not a pure tailback workload. It is also the clearest fingerprint of the Walsh playbook the franchise has put on tape since the staff change: the back as the safety valve for a quarterback under duress (DeBerg was sacked three times for 27 yards). Paul Hofer added 12 carries for 67 yards and a touchdown, giving the visitors a two-back rotation that produced 154 rushing yards at 4.97 a pop. The defensive read is harder. The Saints moved the ball: 394 total, 314 through the air, 19 first downs to the 49ers' 21. They scored 23. The translation is red-zone resistance and a couple of stops when the game tightened in the fourth quarter. The pass rush registered only one sack against the New Orleans front, so the defense did not win by terrorizing the pocket. They won by tightening inside the twenty. Ray Wersching's field goals were the closing instrument. These wins, when Walsh's teams win them, tend to be decided in margins of three. This one was.