The past two games haven't exactly been what the San Francisco 49ers envision when it comes to their running game.
The 49ers got used to piling up big numbers running the football in 2019 when they finished second in the NFL at 144.1 yards per game. Those numbers have been down a bit the past two weeks, as the team ran for 93 yards on 35 carries in a 36-9 Week 3 win over the New York Giants followed by a 20 carry/116-yard performance in a 25-20 Week 4 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Knee injuries to running backs Raheem Mostert and Tevin Coleman have something to do with that, but the 49ers still expect much more on the ground than what they've gotten the past two weeks.
"We just have to be better," tight end George Kittle said after the loss to the Eagles. "If we aren't better, that's what it's going to look like."
Thirty-eight of the yards the 49ers got on the ground against the Eagles came on a lateral to wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk, which adds up to a 19-carry/78-yard showing the rest of the way. 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan called that performance "so-so," while stressing a need to get better in the future.
"I expect us to do better. There were a couple opportunities I thought we had where I thought we should have gotten some big runs on," Shanahan said after the game. "We just had one guy off here and there and ended up losing a few yards on them. I expect more out of our run game. It wasn't completely bad but I expected us to do better than we did."
The Eagles also gave the 49ers some problems up front with the play of their defensive line, but that wasn't an excuse Kittle was interested in giving.
"They definitely played us differently than they'd been playing the first three games of the season with their ends," Kittle said. "We've got to make an adjustment to that, and I expect us to be able to make adjustments to that because every team we've played so far has been giving us looks we haven't seen before. I just hold us to a higher standard."
Leading the way on the ground for the 49ers the past two games has been Jerick McKinnon, who has stepped into the starting role with Mostert and Coleman on the sidelines. McKinnon, who ran for 54 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries against the Eagles after rushing for 38 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries against the Giants, says there's still plenty of confidence that the running game will get moving if the team just stays on task.
"The past two games have been kind of tough, but every game's not going to be pretty," McKinnon said. "You're going to have games like that. So just keep grinding it out. Everybody trusts in one another, everybody's on the same page, so just keep grinding it out and eventually it will pop."
Kittle remains confident as well. Extremely confident, in fact. The results he expects just haven't shown up consistently on the field yet this season, which he hopes to remedy in a hurry.
"I think we're the best running team in the world," Kittle said. "We proved that last year and we've got to prove it again this year. We've just got to get back to work and figure out what went wrong and watch the film. I haven't seen it yet, but we have two amazing tackles and I think we have some really damn good tight ends, and we can run the ball, so we've just got to get back to that."