‘The Athletic’ Breaks Down Jefferson’s TD from…

The Jacksonville Jaguars won the coin toss.

They deferred. Everybody in the NFL defers. Even a two-win team with the seventh-worst scoring defense in the league.

The 49ers fielded the kickoff and ran play after play after play after …

Twenty-three snaps later, the 49ers led 3-0. Jacksonville’s offense had yet to step on the field.

The final tally was 13 minutes, 5 seconds — the NFL’s longest drive, time-wise, since Nov. 27, 1997, when the then-Tennessee Oilers had one that lasted 13:27 against Dallas.

Craig wrote that “the surging Vikings will get a look at the equally surging 49ers” this weekend.

With an interesting mixture of runners, [Head Coach] Kyle Shanahan’s physical, ball-control attack has helped the up-and-down 49ers win three of their past four games, including Sunday’s 30-10 rout at Jacksonville.

Time of possession isn’t one of football’s more vital statistics. The Packers, for example, needed only nine seconds to go 75 yards in one play to tie the Vikings in the closing minutes of Sunday’s loss at U.S. Bank Stadium.

But time of possession isn’t totally devoid of all importance. The top five teams in average time of possession — Baltimore (33:46), Tennessee (32:02), Arizona (32:00), Green Bay (31:49) and Cleveland (31:48) – have winning records. The bottom seven — Seattle (24:42), Jacksonville (26:48), Houston (28:00), Atlanta (28:27), the Jets (28:37), Detroit (28:42) and Philadelphia (28:45) — have losing records.