Today was a mess 49ers fans, an absolute mess, as San Francisco was annihilated by the Arizona Cardinals, 47-7. After the game, head coach Jim Tomsula said
“A bad day. It starts and ends with me.”
That may be true but there is plenty of blame to go around.
Let’s start with QB Colin Kaepernick, who had the worst game of his career throwing four interceptions, two of which were pick-6s on the first two drives of the game. He finished 9 for 19 for 67 yards. He did run in the 49ers’ only TD of the game, but that’s a moot point. He was throwing off his back foot and looked extremely uncomfortable in the pocket, which was surprising after two weeks of looking much more comfortable there. Is this concerning? Yes. Is it time to start Blaine Gabbert? Let’s not get crazy just yet. Quarterbacks have bad games, terrible games, and Kap took the blame, saying
“It was 100 percent my fault.”
Now it’s time to see how he recovers, if he recovers. It’s one game, and I am not ready to close the book on Kap. The Kaepernick story is to be continued.
I would also make the argument that it was not 100% his fault. The secondary continued to look terrible. The offensive line continued to help no one, no one on its team at least. There were a number of terrible coaching decisions and I am questioning whether or not there is an actual defensive game plan. Also, I get that two pick-6s to start the game doesn’t instill a ton of confidence in your QB, but at that point, there were about 9 minutes left in the first quarter. There’s a lot of football left to play, and SF didn’t attempt another pass for 14 plays. It was 28-0 at that point, in case you were curious.
The season isn’t going to get any easier for the Niners. They host Green Bay next week at Levi’s Stadium. I suggest they wear their black jerseys and get to work. There’s nowhere to go but up, I hope. Go Niners.