You can officially stop worrying about the San Francisco 49ers.
The Niners jumped out to a big early lead and cruised to a 31-17 win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday in Nashville. San Francisco showed itself to be the superior team on both sides of the ball, rolling to its fourth consecutive victory.
The Niners head to London next week to play the lowly Jacksonville Jaguars, meaning they'll likely enter their Week 9 bye at 6-2. In other words, pretty much exactly where we thought they'd be.
Here's what else we learned:
- We still don't agree with the Titans' decision to play Jake Locker this week, but the quarterback appeared to come out of the game healthy. He made some nice throws in the second half and didn't seem terribly limited by the hip injury that cost him two games. Now he gets a bye week to continue his recovery.
- Colin Kaepernick looks like a player rounding into form. The shackles were taken off the quarterback in the read option and he responded with 68 yards on the ground, including a pretty 20-yard scoring run, his first rushing touchdown of the year. Something tells us the best of Kaepernick has yet to come this season.
- Titans coach Mike Munchak said last week he was "proud" of how Kenny Britt had handled his decrease in playing time in recent weeks. Britt posted a typical 2013 stat line Sunday (one catch, eight yards) and picked up a personal foul late in the game in which he lost his cool and slammed his helmet to the ground on the sideline. It's a tiresome act.
- The Titans' 3-1 start feels about a million miles away at this point. Tennessee got bullied by a clearly superior team, losing for the third consecutive week. The performance summoned memories of last season, when the Titans found themselves blown out of a game before fans had gotten to their second beer.
- Tramaine Brock is one of our favorite underdog success stories of the season. The undrafted free agent who once received a $500 signing bonus had his third interception in the past four weeks. Brock is now comfortably ahead of Nnamdi Asomugha on the Niners' cornerback depth chart.
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