Again, penalties were not an issue. The 49ers coaching staff has this team disciplined very well, and that’s an encouraging sign. They also walked away from the game rather healthy. Kevin Curtis had the worst injury with what appears to be a MCL sprain. He’ll undergo a MRI shortly to determine the extent of the damage. Other than that Sean Moran injured his thumb, and Jose Cotez hurt a finger.

I think that Mariucci did a much better job of giving the fist string players some time to play in this game. He didn’t overdo it, but was cutting it close to risking too much injury. Still Mariucci seemed to be holding back a little to try and keep his starters healthy. One can’t really blame him for that.

Announcers for KGO radio stated that they had spoken to Mariucci about Owens, and Mariucci stated that he wants to try and get Owens the ball at least once on every game’s opening series. It seems logical that Mariucci would want this, and it should make Owens happy that his coach wants to get him the ball. Isn’t life great when there is no controversy?

Defensively, I liked seeing the team playing in a cover two defense. Jim Mora clearly has the defense prepared, though the first drive was less than impressive. The cover two is a very complicated defense, and the 49ers seemed to be running it quite smoothly. The Chiefs run a similar offensive system to the Rams, and so I wouldn’t be surprised to see lots of cover two against the Rams also. Mora brought the blitz a little more often, and had a little more pressure coming from the front four, but a real pass rush is still needed.

One thing the 49ers should make note of is how the Chiefs used passes to the tight end and running backs to move the ball against the cover-two defense on the first series. It may come in handy sometime during the season.