NFC West: San Francisco 49ers Destroy The Buffalo Bills 45-3

Oct 7, 2012; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers gold rush cheerleaders perform with pink pom poms in recognition of breast cancer awareness month during the game against the Buffalo Bills at Candlestick Park. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

Aside from an allowed field down in the second quarter, the San Francisco 49ers repeated their recipe for domination from last week against the Buffalo Bills today. The games started off slower than expected, with the scoreboard reading 3-3 until 9:54 left in the second quarter. However, after that point, the game was all San Francisco…

The 49ers continued to spread the ball around to their various running backs, having at least one rush from at least 5 different backs. The running game accounted for an astounding 311 yards on 38 rushes, which is good for 8.2 yards per carry. Even the quarterbacks couldn’t help themselves from trying the ball on the ground, accounting for 88 yards on 7 carries. That isn’t to say the 49er had trouble passing the ball. Alex Smith was 18 of 24 on the night, connecting for 303 yards through the air and 3 touchdowns for a nearly perfect quarterback rating, 156.2. There were three players with over 100 yards either rushing or receiving, six players with a touchdowns, and seven players with at least 4 touches in the games.

The Bills allowed at least four touchdowns in the second half for the second time in as many weeks. Their defense was clearly unable to stop the 49er rushing game, but also had a ton a trouble getting to Alex Smith in the backfield. In total, the Bills defense got zero sacks, zero tackles for a loss, and only three hits on the quarterback. The offense was equally as unimpressive, throwing for only 115 yards and rushing for for a measly 89 yards, picking up only 10 first downs in a game where they didn’t score a single touchdown. Buffalo was 2 for 10 on third down, which was exacerbated by the inability to get anything going on the ground. C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson combined for  a grand total of 53 yards on 16 carries, which is good for a mere 3.3 yards per carry. The ground game has been the key to the Bills limited success in the young season, and that was showcased tonight by a dominating, showdown performance by the San Francisco defense.

The Bills may be able to hang their hat on the fact that they only threw one interception and only allowed a single sack in the game. However, that may be the only bright spot for the team. The should be in for another tough battle next week, heading to the 4-1 Arizona Cardinals coming off a tough loss on the road to the St. Louis Rams on Thursday Night Football. The Cardinals will likely have Darnell Dockett and Adrian Wilson back at full strength after having an extra 3 days rest, and may take their anger from the loss out on Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Buffalo Bills offensive line.

The 49ers move to 2-0 at Candlestick park, and will have to chance to increase the record at home when they host the New York Giants next week. The Giants finished the day by throttling the Cleveland Browns defense, with Victor Cruz catching 3 touchdowns in his first 4 receptions. This should be an interesting matchup between a dominating defense in the 49ers and a dynamic, relentless offense in the New York Giants.