Puni eager for 49ers’ crowd advantage in road game vs. Rams originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SANTA CLARA — After a tough Week 2 loss in a hostile environment, rookie Dominick Puni is excited to experience the 49ers Faithful take over SoFi Stadium when San Francisco faces the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon.
“Yeah, I’ve heard it’s pretty fun being over there,” Puni told NBC Sports Bay Area on Thursday. “That’s awesome. It’s a huge advantage for us to have an away game and not have it be how it was in Minnesota. It’s huge.”
Puni and the offensive line are looking to put together a cleaner game Sunday with less pressure on quarterback Brock Purdy who was pressured on 17 offensive plays — including being sacked six times. Puni appears unflappable on the field, but the offensive lineman knows there’s work to be done.
“Just keep trusting the process,” Puni said. “I think the small details just added up in the game. Everything we know we can do, we got to bring it on Sunday. Start off faster and I think that will help throughout the game. It definitely felt like a slow start, for sure.”
Offensive line coach Chris Foerster did not make any excuses for his players going against Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ scheme. The veteran coach understands his players needs to perform better as a unit.
“Some of it was a product of the Vikings that are a really good defensive front,” Foerster said Thursday. “They do an excellent job of prepping how to rush a quarterback and to get after you. And some of it was us. Some of it was the crowd noise, no excuses.
“We’ve got to do a better job. We’ve handled noise better. We’ve handled rush fronts like these guys better. We’ve been sharper. But we weren’t sharp overall in the passing game. It starts and ends with the offensive line. We’ve got to do a better job, a hundred percent.”
Foerster gave his group a lot of homework heading into Week 3, which Puni enjoys. The right guard took it upon himself to study everything about coach Kyle Shanahan’s scheme and Foerster’s philosophies after rookie minicamp. It has paid off, as Puni is a rare rookie lineman that has earned a starting 49ers role.
“We watched the whole game as an offensive line,” Puni said. “We talked about every individual play and what we need to get better at and what we did well. The things we did well, we need to carry over to this week, and things we didn’t do well, we need to do better this week. It was a lot.”
As far as what Puni expects of himself on Sunday, the end point is simple.
“Get a win,” Puni said. “That’s my only goal for Week 3.”
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