49ers shine over Eagles, Nacua goes off for the Rams | Yahoo Fantasy Football Show
Yahoo Sports' Matt Harmon analyzes the 49ers' victory over the Eagles in Week 13 and provides insight into the emergence of Puka Nacua as the Rams' top wide receiver.
Video Transcript
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MATT HARMON: Here's what I care and don't care about coming out of week 13 Sunday slate. I absolutely care about the fully-operational San Francisco 49ers' battle station. I mean, this offense was on full display-- everything you want to see out of this unit.
So many players were in smash spots coming into this match-up with the Philadelphia Eagles, and basically everybody delivered-- Brandon Aiyuk with a touchdown reception, George Kittle, 68 yards, Christian McCaffrey did his thing, three catches for 40 yards, and of course, another ho-hum 90 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
And Deebo Samuel-- I mean, man. Deebo Samuel was a total and complete mismatch with the Philadelphia Eagles linebackers in space. And that showed up with the tune of three touchdowns-- two through the air, one on the ground.
When this offense is playing like this, basically it can be an everybody gets in the pool, everybody hits home in fantasy football. But more importantly, how is anybody going to stop this offense? How is anybody going to beat this team when Brock Purdy is playing at that level and everybody can shine?
You want to play man coverage? Brandon Aiyuk you can smash you. You want to go zone coverage? Good luck getting Deebo Samuel on the ground when he's running in space. There's just so many different ways the 49ers can hurt you. They are unlike, really, any other team in the NFL.
The thing I don't care about, I don't care about the old pecking order in the LA Rams wide-receiver room. Because it has been made abundantly clear the number one wide receiver on this team is not the 2021 Triple Crown winner Cooper Kupp, who's had a fantastic career-- it's rookie Puka Nacua. This is the guy who went for over 100 yards, caught a touchdown, had a long catch and run to start this game.
He was on and off the field with some injuries-- that is a concern. But man, it is just so clear that the guy they're trying to target against man coverage, the guy that they're trying to hit on these big plays-- down the sideline, over the middle, whatever it is-- it's Puka Nacua. Cooper Kupp is not getting those design targets like we've seen in the past.
And it makes sense, because Puka is that good right now. Cooper Kupp found his way into the end zone very late in the Rams' win against the Browns. Don't let that fool you. It's pretty clear that right now the number one target for this LA Rams passing game, it's the fifth round rookie.