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49ers Rank 12th in NFL.com's Week 5 Power Rankings

The 49ers called their win over the Patriots this past Sunday a work of art. Was it really, though?

Grant Cohn

Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) runs off the field after the game against the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
Sep 29, 2024; Santa Clara, California, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings (15) runs off the field after the game against the New England Patriots at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images / Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images
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The 49ers called their win over the Patriots this past Sunday a work of art. Was it really, though?

NFL.com's Eric Edholm wasn't impressed. That's why he placed the 49ers 12th in his Week 5 power rankings -- the same spot he placed them last week.

"Soundly beating the Patriots was a step in the right direction, but the injuries and self-inflicted mistakes are too plentiful to sustain," Edholm writes. "Fred Warner made the first big play of the game with his thrilling pick-six, but he left the game with an ankle injury and didn’t return. George Kittle returned from injury, along with Deebo Samuel, but even Kittle left the game for a spell before returning. Kittle scored late in the second quarter to make it 20-0, but the Niners had two touchdowns called back by penalty on the drive. They also coughed up a fumble on a kick return that led to the Patriots’ only TD, and Brock Purdy kept the door open with a fourth-quarter interception in a two-score game. The 49ers played with fire on Sunday and got away with it against a lesser team. Cleaning things up during this next four-game span -- and getting better injury luck -- will be absolutely critical to getting back to where they want to be."

For what it's worth, I agree with everything that Edholm wrote. Beating the Patriots is good, but it shouldn't change anyone's opinion of the 49ers. They still have much to prove.

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Grant Cohn
GRANT COHN

Grant Cohn has covered the San Francisco 49ers daily since 2011. He spent the first nine years of his career with the Santa Rosa Press Democrat where he wrote the Inside the 49ers blog and covered famous coaches and athletes such as Jim Harbaugh, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. In 2012, Inside the 49ers won Sports Blog of the Year from the Peninsula Press Club. In 2020, Cohn joined FanNation and began writing All49ers. In addition, he created a YouTube channel which has become the go-to place on YouTube to consume 49ers content. Cohn's channel typically generates roughly 3.5 million viewers per month, while the 49ers' official YouTube channel generates roughly 1.5 million viewers per month. Cohn live streams almost every day and posts videos hourly during the football season. Cohn is committed to asking the questions that 49ers fans want answered, and providing the most honest and interactive coverage in the country. His loyalty is to the reader and the viewer, not the team or any player or coach. Cohn is a new-age multimedia journalist with an old-school mentality, because his father is Lowell Cohn, the legendary sports columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1979 to 1993. The two have a live podcast every Tuesday. Grant Cohn grew up in Oakland and studied English Literature at UCLA from 2006 to 2010. He currently lives in Oakland with his wife.

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