It goes without saying that the San Francisco 49ers regular season opener was a smashing success for the team. After an offseason filled with coaching changes, arrests and retirements, most figured San Francisco was due for a down year in 2015. And while that may still be the case, it came out and dominated a favored Minnesota Vikings team on Monday night by the score of 20-3. 

Here are five key points from the game. 

1. Back to the Basics on the Ground

San Francisco may not have the personnel to absolutely dominate in the running game as we have seen in past seasons, but it was readily apparent on Monday night that they were dead set on getting this aspect of the game involved big time. San Francisco ran the ball 59 percent of the time against the Vikings. In the process, it tallied 230 yards and a 5.9 average. In fact, 14 of the 49ers 25 first downs came on the ground. 

Muting skeptics that indicated letting Frank Gore go in order to give Carlos Hyde a shot, the second-year running back put up the best performance for a running back in the NFL last week. Hyde rushed the ball a whopping 26 times for 168 yards and two touchdowns. While Hyde himself was super impressive, San Francisco's offensive line dominated the trenches (more on that later). 

The idea here is to refrain from making Colin Kaepernick run an offense that he's not suited to run. Unfortunately, that was a major issue for San Francisco last season. Simply put, the old regime tried to get fancy on offense — something that failed miserably. 

It remains to be seen whether San Francisco's rushing attack will be this dominating moving forward, but it was a darn good start to the season in this aspect. 

2. Complete Domination in the Trenches

This wasn't expected. The right side of San Francisco's line was seen as a major concern heading into the season with Jordan Devey starting at guard and Erik Pears at tackle. And while the 49ers scheme was to roll Kaepernick out a majority of the time to mask this weakness, both players held up well against a darn good Vikings front seven. In fact, these two make-shift starters allowed zero quarterback hits and zero sacks in Week 1. This could be more of an outlier than anything else, but both played pretty well. 

Though, it's the left side of the line with two Pro Bowl caliber players in Joe Staley and Alex Boone that could make his unit perform much better than originally anticipated. Early in the game, San Francisco ran to that side of the field nearly every time — picking up large chunks of yardage on a consistent basis. With a mobile quarterback that knows how to escape pressure, all the 49ers need is slightly above-average offensive line play. They got that and a whole heck of a lot more on Monday. After all, Kaepernick was hit just three times and sacked once. 

Defensively, it was complete and utter domination. Five different 49ers defenders sacked Teddy Bridgewater as the Vikings quarterback was hit a whopping eight times. Some of this had to do with a horrendous performance from Minnesota's offensive line, but that doesn't take away from how well San Francisco's defensive line played. 

Interestingly, it all started with nose tackle Ian Williams, who set the tone against Adrian Peterson and the Vikings rushing attack. Consitently pushing back the line of scrimmage, Williams dominated his counterparts on the other side of the line. In fact, Minnesota was left to throw two men up the middle in run-blocking, which enabled the likes of Quinton Dial and even rookie Arik Armstead close off the outside. Equally as important, Williams' performance gave San Francisco's linebackers free run at the ball carrier. This all led to an understandably rusty Peterson not being able to find many holes to run through in this one. At the end of the night, Peterson gained just 31 yards on 10 attempts. 

We already knew San Francisco had some nice young talent in the defensive front seven. However, not a single member of the regular rotation struggled in the team's season opener. Led by likely team MVP NaVorro Bowman and defensive coordinator Eric Mangini, this area of the defense was outstanding against Minnesota. 

3. Passing Game Remains a Work in Progress

This sounds like a broken record. Most of San Francisco's success in the passing game came on short to intermediate routes with Kaepernick being tasked with rolling away from the pocket. He wasn't asked to find his secondary read a vast majority of the time — something the embattled quarterback has struggled with at times. While Kaepernick looked much better in the pocket and did progress through his reads when the play called for it, he did struggle with accuracy a few times throughout the game. The fifth-year quarterback missed a wide open Vernon Davis down the seam in the first half and almost literally threw the ball into the ground to Anquan Boldin in a goal-to-go situation later in the game. Overall, the 49ers top two receivers, Torrey Smith and Boldin, caught a combined five passes for 47 yards on eight targets. 

It may have been the 49ers' way of masking issues in pass protection, but there wasn't much down the field in this game. Kaepernick's biggest pass completions of the day went to tight ends, both of the 20-yard variety to Vernon Davis and Garrett Celek. 

The one real positive here is that Kaepernick looked much more in command of the game flow. He didn't rush passes, and seemed to consistently put the ball in position for the receiver to make the play. Kaepernick completed 17-of-26 passes, but when factoring in dropped passes, throwaways and a solid play from Xavier Rhodes, he was on target with 20 of 24 passes attempts. Not too shabby. It's now all about getting the ball down the field. 

4. Young 49ers Defenders Have a Ton of Young Talent

We discussed Ian Williams and the defensive line above, but let's look at the second tier of the defense for a second here. Second-year linebacker Aaron Lynch was as advertised Monday night, putting up three quarterback hurries and a sack. He was routinely in the Vikings offensive backfield throughout the game — something that's going to have to continue after the 49ers released Aldon Smith. 

However, it was the secondary that really impressed in this one. Not only did second-year cornerback Kenneth Acker, in his first regular season NFL action, play great football against the pass, he had two solo tackles on Peterson. A player that looks like a difference maker out of the gate, Acker simply looks like a top-end cornerback. His coverage skills on the outside were borderline elite, especially his fluidity in coverage.

Both Eric Reid and Antoine Bethea played well, but it was another safety that took home the hardware for excellent play from that position. Rookie second-round pick Jaquiski Tartt was amazing in the 20 snaps he saw, recording a sack, quarterback hurry and four solo tackles. If he plays anywhere near this level, the 49ers safety group could end up being one of the league's best by the end of the year. 

5. Jim Tomsula's Successful Head Coaching "Debut"

Needless to say, Monday represented an extremely successful debut in Tomsula's role as the 49ers full-time head coach. Both sides of the ball were ready for regular season action — something only a handful of teams can say in Week 1. 

More than anything, it was a changing of the guard in Santa Clara. Evident was the fact that 49ers' players were nowhere near as uptight as last season under Jim Harbaugh. This is one of the things I was hitting hard on during the offseason. And in reality, it was as clear as day on Monday. 

Outside of that, San Francisco's scheme seemed to take a good Vikings coaching staff by surprise. Offensively, the 49ers called a perfect game, continually keeping Minnesota's defense off balance with misdirections, roll outs, and pre-snap changes at the line. Enabling Kaepernick to get comfortable within the confines of his own game was big there. 

Defensively, it was chaos (in a good way). Blitzes coming from every angle kept the Vikings passing game off track the entire game. Mangini's unit also made sure not to sit back in coverage on third down, which led to Minnesota finishing 1-of-9 on third-down conversions. If there was any criticism to levy the way of former 49ers defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, it was his unwillingness to dial up a blitz on a consistent basis. This won't be an issue for San Francisco's defense in 2015.