Ooof! That was a mess 49ers fans, no way around it. The San Francisco 49ers went to Pittsburgh high off their week one win, and they were immediately brought down to earth, as they were routed 43-18 by the Steelers on the road. It wasn’t pretty and it was never really close.
“Hats off to the Steelers…We just didn’t get it done. Bottom line. No excuses.” 49ers Head Coach Jim Tomsula
That’s putting it mildly. Coming into the season, the biggest concerns for San Francisco were its secondary and its offensive line, and it was apparent today that they remain large concerns.
Defensive Disaster
After a stellar performance Monday night, the Niner defense was out of sorts and of its league on Sunday. The secondary looked discombobulated the entire game, and the pass rush looked no better. At one point, 49ers’ ILB Michael Wilhoite was downfield BY HIMSELF covering WR Markus Wheaton, who caught a 48-yard pass. What in the world was he doing down there by himself? I was confused, which is how the Niners’ defense looked throughout the day, confused. And where was Jaquiski Tartt all day? Eric Mangini, the Niners’ Mangenius, has a lot of work to do with his group this week.
It certainly didn’t help that Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger was on fire today, going 21-27 for 369 yards and two TD passes. 244 of those 369 yards came on third down plays, just to re-iterate how much Roethlisberger and Co. dominated the Niner secondary. WR Antonio Brown had a monster day for the Steelers with 9 receptions for 195 yards and a TD, while RB DeAngelo Williams had three rushing TDs. They could do no wrong, and the Niner defense could do no right.
Offensive play
Meanwhile, over on the offensive side of the ball, San Francisco’s offensive line was nothing short of highly offensive. QB Colin Kaepernick can’t be all that thrilled with his pass protection today, as he was sacked five times and spent a lot of time running for his life out there. The line also continued its penchant for penalties, with RT Erik Pears racking up three all by himself. Frankly, Pears had a terrible game all around, missing blocks and basically doing nothing to help his QB or his team. He should work on this.
Kaepernick led all rushers with 51 yards, while the birthday boy Carlos Hyde had 43. Hyde left the game to undergo concussion protocol. Thank the birthday gods he tested negative for one and was cleared to play, but he still sat out the 4th quarter. This was a smart move. I hope the Niners at least got him a cake for the flight home. This birthday kinda sucks.
The Kaepernick of it all
Twitter saw a lot of Kaepernick hate, but I thought he looked really good. He was haunted by a couple of those pesky delay of game penalties he seems to love so much, and a bad handoff to Hyde resulted in a fumble on a potentially promising drive, but on the whole, Kap was poised and a leader on the field. He went 33-46 for 335 yards two TDs, a 2-point conversion, and 0 INTs. He was accurate, he moved well in the pocket, and he never folded. His receivers really didn’t help him with three major dropped passes and a dropped TD, all of which were well thrown and should have been handled. Kap can throw, Kap can run. Kap can’t throw and catch the ball at the same time. This is the NFL. Catch the ball.
And the beat goes on…
So, my fellow Niners faithful, I say this. The Niners got beat but bad on the road against a really good AFC team. This season is not going to be perfect. There will be good weeks and bad weeks, while this team and this coaching staff finds itself and its way. It’s week 2. No need to panic. It’s going to be an up and down season, and the 49ers can learn a lot from and hopefully improve from this game. They actually played much better in the second half and got better as the game went on.
Per Matt Maiocco at CSN Bay Area, NaVorro Bowman said this after the game:
“My thing is, I want to see how we respond. This the NFL. We’ve had losses before, but it’s how you respond (after) taking a loss like this. We’re a young team, so that’ll be the great challenge for us. We have an important game coming up in Arizona. I’d rather it happen now, early in the season rather than later down the road. We have a chance to bounce back from it, so I’m excited.”
Let’s take a cue from Bowman and shake it off Niner fans. We got this – potentially. Go Niners!
