49ers notes: Gore welcomes backfield party, etc.

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SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers rushed for 245 yards on Sunday, getting positive yardage from nine different players.

With so much diversity out of the backfield, starter Frank Gore still carried the ball 21 times, but it was hardly the workload he's grown accustomed to as the 49ers' only featured back of the past.

What does he make of the crowd?

"I don't like it at all," Gore said before laughing. "It's cool. Show different schemes, it probably makes it easier for me, you know?"

Gore is averaging 81.5 rushing yards per game, and he has scores in three of the 49ers' first four contests. Even though his longest run this season went for just 23 yards, Gore is 14th in the NFL averaging 4.94 yards per carry. Kendall Hunter is right behind him, ranked 20th with an average of 4.62 yards per carry.

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It all makes the 49ers third in the NFL in total rushing yards (as well as third from the bottom in passing), but their next opponent is equally impressive on the ground. The Bills are ranked fourth -- right behind the 49ers -- and C.J. Spiller's 8.32 yards-per-carry average has a lot to do with it.

But the 49ers have explosive players of their own.

Kyle Williams was one of those nine contributors, as he took a toss nine yards to set up Colin Kaepernick's rushing touchdown.

Whether or not Gore likes it, the 49ers' dynamic ground game is developing, and there's one reason to suggest it will continue to expand under offensive coordinator Greg Roman.

MAIOCCO: 49ers offensive review -- Running backs

"We've got playmakers," Williams said.

You might not expect it, but 6-foot-3, 318-pound center Jonathan Goodwin knows what to do with the football in the end zone.

Following Kendall Hunter's one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 34-0 win over the Jets, Hunter flipped the ball to Goodwin and without hesitation, Goodwin spiked it like he was the one who crossed the plane.

It might surprise you to learn it's not his first NFL touchdown spike. Back in New Orleans, where he spent the past five seasons, Goodwin was on the receiving end of a post-score handoff from Lance Moore, and you know exactly what he did with it.

And Sunday's spike might not even be his last. Asked if he'll throw it down again, Goodwin replied: "Yeah, if they hand it to me, I'll do something with it."

Maybe one day he'll get to score the touchdown himself.

Frank Gore is a football player, but he entered the boxing ring in July, carrying San Leandro boxer Nonito Donaire's WBO super bantamweight title belt.

Gore attended Donaire's training session on Monday, looking to internalize that fighter's edge.

"It's tough," Gore said of fight sport training. "I just watched him (Monday). He was sparring. I love it. Three minute, thirty second rest, constantly moving -- it's tough. I like it."

Gore trained with Donaire while working with speed coach Remi Korchemny this offseason, and has remained in contact with the Bay Area boxer that is second in CSNBayArea.com's NorCal boxing pound-for-pound rankings.

Construction is the norm at 49ers headquarters -- the new stadium is being resurrected post-haste for the 2014 season -- but one project is in the books.

The 49ers returned home from their road trip through Minnesota, Youngstown, Ohio and New York on Sunday night to a completed weight room structure. Previously, just a tent held their lifting instruments.

"It was really neat and really special," head coach Jim Harbaugh said of coming home to the new facility. "A bunch of players got off the bus and walked through it. That building, I think it'll make us better, make us stronger. It's a good symbol of that. Guys were in there cranking it out (Monday), throwing the iron around."

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