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Predicting the Final Score of the 49ers' Season Opener vs. the Jets

I expect a grim, low-scoring game.

Grant Cohn

Feb 2, 2020; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh (left) and head coach Kyle Shanahan (right) shake hands prior to the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
Feb 2, 2020; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh (left) and head coach Kyle Shanahan (right) shake hands prior to the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
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I expect a grim, low-scoring game.

Aaron Rodgers hasn't played football in two years plus he's 40 with a surgically-repaired Achilles. And a few of the 49ers stars missed most or all of the offseason. I'm talking Trent Williams, Brandon Aiyuk and Christian McCaffrey, who has a strained Achilles. So both offenses could be rusty.

The Jets have an elite defense led by head coach Robert Saleh, who was the 49ers defensive coordinator when they went to the Super Bowl in 2020. So he knows Kyle Shanahan as well as anyone. Plus Saleh has the brains and the personnel to copy how the Ravens, Browns and Chiefs shut down the 49ers offense last season. Look for Saleh to call lots of press man-to-man coverage with lots of disguised blitzes to challenge the 49ers' offensive line and protection schemes.

Advantage: Jets.

The 49ers also have an elite defense led by defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen and assistant head coach Brandon Staley, two coaches who seem to know what they're doing. They'll face New York Jets offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett who does not necessarily know what he's doing. He certainly is one of the worst offensive play callers in the league. The 49ers easily should outcoach him.

Advantage: 49ers.

If the Jets had someone good or merely competent calling their offensive plays, they just might win. But instead, they have Hackett. Expect to see Aaron Rodgers rolling his eyes and shooting Hackett the death stare by the second quarter.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION: 49ers 23, Jets 17.

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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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