If it wasn’t already official, Thursday night’s 33-21 loss to the Arizona Cardinals confirmed that the San Francisco 49ers are a sad, bad football team. A lot of the blame has been put on quarterback Blaine Gabbert, and a lot of it certainly is on him, but football is a team sport and every member of this team deserves some of the blame.
“I don’t think anybody played well on offense,” said Kelly. “Nobody did.”
Actually, I’d argue that Jeremy Kerley and his 102 yards receiving and one touchdown did, but I get where he’s going.
Tonight was the first time head coach Chip Kelly even sort of suggested a quarterback change. When asked about the possibility, he said that the coaching staff will look at everybody.
“We have a couple days off here in terms of getting ready for Buffalo and then we’ll asses the film and we’ll move from there,” said Kelly. “But, we’re not talking about who’s playing or whatever in a game that’s 10 days from now. So, I understand that you have to ask the question. I understand that, but right now that’s not a conversation right now.”
It also should be noted that Kelly said that Gabbert has outperformed Kaepernick in practice.
“Yeah, Blaine’s done a really nice job in practice,” said Kelly.
In the third quarter, fans at Levi’s Stadium chanted “We Want Kap.” Gabbert says he didn’t hear it, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know why it started.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” said Gabbert. “I let this team and this organization down tonight…I had two crucial turnovers there that led to points for the Cardinals and that was the difference in the game right there. I got to do a better job protecting the football and leading this team to scoring more points and winning games.”
Gabbert was sacked seven times, including one for a safety, and threw two interceptions. Chris Davis fumbled to open the second half. The Cardinals scored 17 points off turnovers. You just can’t win in the NFL with that many turnovers.
On the defensive side of the ball, the 49ers allowed Arizona running back David Johnson to rush for 157 yards on 27 carries and score two touchdowns. That was almost the most unacceptable. Drew Stanton started at quarterback and even with Carson Palmer, the Cardinals’ passing game has taken a big hit in 2016. It should have been a surprise to no one that Johnson was going to be the Cardinals’ offense.
Cornerback Tramaine Brock gave up two touchdowns and that was after safety Antoine Bethea ran into him with a nasty helmet to helmet hit. It’s a miracle neither player was seriously hurt.
All in all, it was not a great night in Santa Clara. The Niners are 1-4. They’ll be back to work on Tuesday to prepare to take on the Buffalo Bills on the road.
With week six on the horizon, there’s a lot of football left to play, and the players aren’t giving up yet.
“I like to compete, so I am going to compete all the way until the game is over,” said running back Carlos Hyde. “I don’t care if we are up by 30 or losing by 30. I am going to keep playing, keep doing my job and try to help my team to win.”
The lack of wins is not all on Gabbert, not even close. However, this is football and the quarterback gets the glory, but he also gets the blame. We may see a change under center sooner rather than later. Time will tell. Go Niners!
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