Ricardo Allen’s interception off a deflected pass sealed the victory with 1:11 remaining, giving Dan Quinn a victory in his first game as Falcons coach. “It started off a bit shaky, but it was good to get a couple runs”.
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Bruce Ellington got his second-quarter turn first, though, with spectacular results. However, after the gloom and doom of the offseason, it was interesting to see San Francisco resemble the team Jim Harbaugh took to title games and the Super Bowl. He then followed up with a nice reception in the same quarter, putting a defender on skates for a seven-yard gain. He fumbled what should have been a straightforward punt return near the 43-yard line to concede a turnover.
“I didn’t expect it”, he said of the workload.
Players play football and sometimes things happen.
“No sir. No sir”. “But outside of that, I felt pretty good picking up guys in protection”.
“We surrounded him and everybody had the same level of respect and confidence in him, so he went out there with the same level of confidence in himself”.
The nine-year veteran, however, maintained perspective that it’s just one segment of a 16-game season. “So, it’s limited to, “that’s it, that’s what it was, next play”.
In the end, the 49ers won the game the way they used to: With a stout defense, a powerful running game and with a quarterback who made plays when he had to but who didn’t make mistakes.
Earlier this month Hayne was named in the 49ers’ final 53-man roster, prompting rampant speculation on whether he would be named for week one.
The 49ers lost Gore as a free agent to the Indianapolis Colts after last season.
These included reserve kick returner DeAndrew White and fourth-string running back Mike Davis.
His first touch was an unmitigated disaster but Jarryd Hayne described the rest of his National Football League debut for the San Francisco 49ers as “smooth”. The new zone-blocking scheme opened up holes for Hyde, and Kaepernick was sacked only once.
While that may be a slight exaggeration for the 49ers all-time leading rusher, it can not be overstated just how well Hyde played in a game that saw two missed field goals on each team’s first possession and multiple missteps from both sides throughout.
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The punt return was a horror moment for Hayne.
