Will the 49ers Upset the Chiefs?

The 49ers certainly have their issues, but so do the Chiefs.
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The 49ers already have lost to the Bears, the Broncos and the Falcons this season, so they have no chance this Sunday against the Chiefs, right?

Not so fast.

The 49ers certainly have their issues, but so do the Chiefs. They lost to the Colts, who aren't great, and they beat the Raiders by just one point a couple weeks ago. Las Vegas scored 29 points in that game.

The Chiefs have a thin defense, because they're spending so much cap space on quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Kansas City has a good defensive line and a good run defense, but it can't cover anyone. Through six games this season, the Chiefs have given up a passer rating of 107.5 -- highest in the NFL. They can't match up with Deebo Samuel, Brandon Aiyuk or George Kittle. Also, don't be surprised if the 49ers give Christian McCaffrey a few plays in the red zone and he scores a touchdown. So Jimmy Garoppolo should have a good game and the offense should score more than 20 points for a change. 

Normally, the 49ers would win if the offense scores 20 points, but their defense isn't what it was a few weeks ago. Nick Bosa and Jimmie Ward will return from injury on Sunday, but Emmanuel Moseley is out for the season and Charvarius Ward probably will miss the game with a groin injury -- he injured it last week in Atlanta. He also injured it in training camp and missed two weeks. The 49ers should be cautious with him.

That means the 49ers starting cornerbacks will be Deommodore Lenoir, who's giving up a passer rating of 99.8 this season, and probably Jimmie Ward, who hasn't played corner since 2017. Not ideal against arguably the best quarterback in the NFL.

Look for the 49ers to lose a close, high-scoring game.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION: 49ers 27, Chiefs 30.


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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.