The 49ers must flip the script without franchise quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo — and it starts on defense.
There’s perhaps no more important player to San Francisco on that side of the ball than promising second-year pro Reuben Foster, who played like one of the NFL’s best young linebackers as a rookie in 2017.
But that wasn’t the case in Kansas City, when Foster’s struggles in his first game back from suspension exacerbated the defense’s inability to slow the Chiefs. Foster, normally the team’s most reliable tackler, missed six in the game, one more than the five tackles he made.