Editor’s Note: This Matchup was written by John Daigle, with input from Evan Silva.
Sunday Night Football
San Francisco @ Buffalo
Team Totals: 49ers 19, Bills 25.5
Brock Purdy’s return from his shoulder injury be damned, I fear for every Niners skill player without starting LG Aaron Banks (concussion) and, more importantly, LT Trent Williams (ankle): Dating back to 2023, San Francisco’s averaged an increased 7.5% sack rate and 1.1 yards before contact per attempt (32nd) during the 178 plays without Williams on the field, per Sports Info Solutions. Only Lamar Jackson has registered a top-12 finish against the Bills, and he scored 11.4 fantasy points with his legs. … For all their current struggles, the team’s red-zone woes have not been an issue since Christian McCaffrey returned, surging from 28th in RZ scoring (48.5%) sans CMC to 15th (57.1%) over their last three games. Underwhelming with 13 per-week points (RB25) for 3.4 yards per carry (64th among 69 qualifiers with 50 carries) and 1.9 YAC/attempt (66th) himself, managers need only zoom out to see he’s encouragingly handled 86.7% of the team’s backfield touches, all while earning an elite 17.2% target share — second at his position. Even Kareem Hunt averaged 4.3 YPC against Buffalo’s front seven, ceding 4.8 YPC (fifth) and the eighth-highest rate of 15-yard runs (5.9%) to date.
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