5. 180+ yards rushing allowed. Ouch. Given that the #1 priority on defense had to be stopping the SF run, this is a clear fail. SF won that battle.
The run defense wasn't very good last night, but the overall stats are a bit misleading.
SF: 39 rushes, 180 yds, 4.6 average
But one of those rushes was the fake punt, where Goldson ran for 31 yards. Take that away and here's what you get:
38 rushes, 149 yds, 3.9 average
And that 31 yarder, sure, the Pats gave it up, but that was a special teams failure, not a run defense failure.
The 49ers were averaging 162 yards per game and 5.2 yards per carry heading into last night's game. And the Pats' run defense allowed 149 yards and 3.9 yards per carry last night.
The previous week they held Houston to just 100 yds rushing and 3.7 yards per carry, when against everyone else Houston has averaged 143 yds rushing and 4.2 yards per carry.
So against two of the very best rushing offenses in the league the past two weeks, the Patriots have held them under their season's average in both yardage and yards per carry.