The San Francisco 49ers picked up their 4th win of the season on Saturday night when they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 20-13 at Monster Park. Was this a good showing by the 49ers? Or were they just playing a depleted Bengals team who have pretty much given up on their season? I think it was a little bit of both as you can tell how the game went on.
What really suprised me during this game was that Shaun Hill wasn’t all that bad to be honest. Hill threw for 197 yards and one touchdown. He also ran for a touchdown in the first half which gave the 49ers a 6-0 lead.
Frank Gore came out playing and actually had a pretty good game as well. On 29 carries Gore ran for 138 yards. While Gore didn’t find paydirt, he did eat up a lot of clock and help the niners move down the field. Anytime you can keep the ball away from Carson Palmer and Chad Johnson, you have a good shot at beating the Bengals. The Bengals only had the ball for 24 minites compared to the 49ers 35 minutes.
The 49ers defense shut down the rushing attack of the Benglas and made the Bengals offense one-dimensional. Anytime you can allow your corners and saftey’s to key in on Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and not worry about the run, good things are going to happen on the defensive side of the ball.
The 49ers next game will be played on Sunday when they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Monster Park. The Bucs have secured a home playoff game already, so I wonder if they will look to rest some of the starters, atleast in the second half.
