NFL Week 2 Picks: San Francisco 49ers vs. Carolina Panthers 9/18/16

If these four things go favorably for the Panthers they should end the day with a victory.

Who are those San Francisco 49ers that put up 28 points on offense behind Blaine Gabbert while shutting down and shutting out Todd Gurley and the L.A. Rams in one of the biggest surprises of the opening weekend of play?

If Marlowe is active against the 49ers, the Panthers would have to choose someone to be inactive who wasn’t against the Broncos.

Newton threw two TD passes to Kelvin Benjamin and one each to Greg Olsen and Devin Funchess to pass Jake Delhomme for most TD passes in franchise history with 122.

The Panthers’ subsequent possession moved the ball much more effectively and into Niners territory.

FOZZY BEAR ON THE RUN: Despite losing running back Jonathan Stewart (hamstring) in the first quarter, the Panthers had no problems moving the ball against a defense that was riding high following a 28-0 win over the Rams in the season opener. And on the second snap on offense, Newton had his pass deflected and into the arms of 49ers safety Antoine Bethea.

Gano’s 41-yard field goal with 1 second left in the half pushed the lead to 17-10. WR Quinton Patton pitched in with 5-60 receiving on 5 targets with a long of 35 yards. The lead was suddenly 34-27 with almost eight minutes left to play. For the 49ers to succeed at stopping the Panthers’offense, they will have to generate pressure on Newton. Blaine Gabbert nearly had Vance McDonald deep on the next drive, but McDonald could not come up with it.

“Hyde is a big, physical guy, but laterally he’s also dynamic”, linebacker Luke Kuechly said. It’s similar to what they ran under Vic Fangio from 2011 to 2014. That being said, there are problems that are not going away. Only starting 49er quarterback Blaine Gabbert’s seemingly out of necessity out-of-the-pocket dashes kept the less than capacity crowd alive. On the other end of the field, Carlos Hyde was spun down by defensive lineman Charles Johnson after an inside carry and lost the ball. If you have a cable subscription, and (this is important) you are receiving the broadcast in your area, you’re all set: you can live stream via the Fox Sports Go app, available on iTunes, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, Android, and more. He looked positively awful for most of the second and third quarters before rebounding with a solid fourth, where he engineered two touchdown drives.

The defense made some plays, but had its own share of problems. He’ll fake the handoff, then he’ll throw deep to whichever receiver Jimmie Ward is covering.