That was a heartbreaker. The San Francisco 49ers came to Green Bay to play on Monday Night Football, and though they played well most of the game, they could not seal it and came up short, 33-30.
“We didn’t get it done,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We had a chance to win today. Very disappointed that we didn’t. We had our times on both sides of the ball and struggled a lot in the first half on defense, but I though we managed to get it together there in the second half. We held them there at the end and it gave us the chance to win the game and finish it and we didn’t. Give [Aaron Rodgers] a chance with the ball like that – he’s done it a lot of times.”
In the final eight minutes of the game, the 49ers offense, which played well up until then, had two 3-and-outs, while Rodgers and the Packers were able to score a game-tying TD.
On the 49ers’ next drive, Beathard was intercepted on a pass intended for Marquise Goodwin. It looked like the Niners were going to stop Rodgers when DeForest Buckner sacked the QB on third down, but an illegal contact call on Richard Sherman negated the sack and gave the Packers a first down. And scene. Rodgers marched the Packers down the field and Mason Crosby kicked the game-winning field goal with 0:03 left on the clock.
“It’s part of going against the best quarterback in football; you give him a chance at the end,” Sherman said. “I can’t have that penalty at the end on 4th and 19 and give him a shot…Regardless of how I might feel about it, I have to find a way to win that play without getting a flag…That gave him a shot to win the game and that’s all he needs.”
Beathard had a near-perfect game for three quarters, finishing 16-of-23 for 245 yards, two touchdowns, the aforementioned INT and a rating of 115.3. Goodwin was back, healthy and lights out, finishing the night with five receptions for 126 yards and a TD.
Beyond that, the 49ers ran the ball well until the end with the tandem of the banged-up Matt Breida and Raheem Mostert, who had 61 and 87 yards respectively. Breida had been questionable all week, so it was impressive showing.
“Breida is the man,” Shanahan said. “For him to get out there, he was hurting a lot. Battled all week to try to get his body ready to play. He did a good job.”
After the game, Breida said he was sore but no worse off than before. And that’s a good thing.
“It hurts,” Bearthard said. “It’s tough. I mean, you’re so close. You feel like you should’ve won the game. You just have to get back on the horse and move on to next week.”
Next up for the 1-5 Niners are the undefeated Los Angeles Rams at Levi’s Stadium. That should be fun. Any given Sunday.
Defending Robert Saleh
Both Sherman and Shanahan had praise for the 49ers social media-embattled defensive coordinator Robert Saleh.
Shanahan: “Saleh’s very good at what he does. I have a ton of confidence in him. I have a ton of confidence in our scheme. They just made the plays at the end of the game and we didn’t.”
Sherman: “This is one of the most sound schemes in football. That’s why you see so many people executing it. When you don’t play sound, it can lead to bust. In any scheme, if you don’t play sound, it can lead to big plays. We have to find a way to play disciplined. When we stopped them, when we got three-and-outs, it wasn’t anything special, it wasn’t guys making stuff up, it was just guys doing their assignment.”
Adding a 3rd QB
Earlier today, ESPN’s Jordan Schultz reported that the 49ers are planning to sign QB Tom Savage.
“He’s one of the guys we’re looking into,” Shanahan said after the game. “We’ve got to see how this roster is. We’ve been wanting to add a third one since we lost Jimmy [Garoppolo].”
