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    • Christian Watson ‘just dropped’ the touchdown, more observations after the win
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    Christian Watson ‘just dropped’ the touchdown, more observations after the win

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    GREEN BAY – Below are four bonus observations from the Green Bay Packers’ 38-10 victory over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday:

    Evan Williams gets caught during George Kittle’s touchdown

    Evan Williams was caught trying to make a big play on the 49ers’ only touchdown of the day.

    Late in the second quarter, 49ers tight end George Kittle was left wide open for a three-yard touchdown pass along the back of the end zone after Williams briefly drifted from his post as the safety in the middle of the field.

    Kittle ran a short seam route from the left slot, with receivers Deebo Samuels and Ricky Pearsall running complementary in-and-out routes on the opposite side of the field. As the routes developed, Williams slid a bit to Pearsall on the in route – Javon Bullard was covering Pearsall – leaving the seam open for Kittle, although linebacker Quay Walker probably also could have made a deeper drop instead of staying on the goal line. zone coverage.

    “I was what they call chasing cars,” Williams said, “which is like when the quarterback fouls you and you’re just trying to make a play and you’ve just left my landmark. He’s looking downfield (i.e. Pearsall’s side), I think I might make a play to a slant or something coming out of the field (side), and (quarterback Brandon Allen) comes back to the hash. Technically there should be a hook (defender) but you can’t rely on that, you have to hold if you are the post safety. The seams are technically Cover 3’s weak spot. I just have to be there. That one was rough. Then we got our asses kicked.”

    Williams, who had been a full-time safety for most of the season, split time at safety with Javon Bullard in the starting defense on Sunday. Williams still played most of the game because he is a safety in the nickel defense while Bullard played in the slot. But Bullard started safely in the base 4-3 defense, and the two alternated every few series early in the match before Bullard played most or all of the second half in that spot.

    “They told me that Bull would start at the start of the game and we would rotate from there,” Williams said. “I said, OK, that’s fine. He got the first series or one or two, I might have come in for a couple, and then he took the rest and I came in in nickel. That’s exactly what it was this week.”

    Christian Watson: ‘I just dropped it’

    Christian Watson dropped a certain 49-yard touchdown pass late in the second quarter that could have helped the Packers put the game away sooner than they did.

    It came in the final minute of the half when Watson broke away from behind the 49ers secondary, and Jordan Love delivered a perfect throw that hit Watson on the pass but rebounded off the receiver’s hands.

    “I just dropped it,” Watson said. ‘I didn’t think anything. I didn’t see it, I totally saw it. I just dropped it. The feeling, it just sucks when you’re on a play like that and you can dust the defender and you know it’s a walk-off touchdown, especially a two-minute scenario so you can put some points on the board before halftime to get.’

    The touchdown would have answered the only touchdown of the game for the 49ers and given the Packers a 24-7 lead going into halftime. Instead, the lead was just 17-7 and the 49ers got the kickoff for the second half.

    “It’s a (crappy) feeling,” Watson said, “but it’s still one of those: Mistakes are going to happen in a game, you’re going to have a negative game. You just have to find a way to move on. Especially at that moment, but try to visualize myself in it again, visualize the game again catching the ball and hope it goes my way next time.

    Xavier McKinney gets the key pass breakup

    Xavier McKinney made one of the plays, aside from his interception in the third quarter.

    It came on the first series of the second half, with the 49ers in Packers territory and hoping to cut into the Packers’ 10-point lead. On fourth-and-2 from the Packers’ 39, the 49ers threw to running back Christian McCaffrey, who ran a short out route from the left slot. But McKinney had tight man coverage and broke up the pass, turning the ball over on downs.

    RELATED: Packers defense puts its turnover stamp on 49ers win

    “I knew what was going to happen,” McKinney said. “They did that all game, they just stacked McCaffrey and had him run an option route based on leverage. I was in the power, and I knew that if I was in the power, he would break out. I tried to anticipate it before it happened, and I was able to anticipate it well.”

    Carrington Valentine and Eric Stokes split time in the corner

    With starting cornerback Jaire Alexander (knee) out, the Packers had Carrington Valentine and Eric Stokes split playing time at the cornerback spot opposite Keisean Nixon. The week before in Chicago, when Alexander played just 10 snaps before leaving the game, Valentine played 64 snaps to Stokes’ four.

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