There are ugly performances, and then there was the San Francisco 49ers (3-1) showing in Sunday’s 26-21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-1).
Four turnovers, special teams blunders (yup, that’s still a thing), defensive lapses, and, of course, more injuries.
“It was tough to overcome those four turnovers,” said 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan. “Then you give up a punt return for a touchdown. Then we didn’t get any [turnovers]. Still had a chance to win, had the ball with two-and-a-half minutes left, down five, I believe around the 50-yard line, but then had another turnover.”
San Francisco 49ers QB Brock Purdy returned under center for the first time since suffering a turf toe injury in Week 1. It was not quite the celebration the crowd at Levi’s Stadium was hoping for.
“It starts with me throwing better balls and being smart with the ball,” Purdy said. “So, I think it really starts there. I’ve just got to be better. But outside of that, as an offense, it’s something that we harp on every single day and our team knows it. Offense needs to protect the ball; defense needs to go take it. That’s our thing. And so today the offense, we didn’t succeed in that area. So, it hurts. It’s the NFL man, if you give the ball away like that, teams are going to capitalize on it and the Jaguars did.”
The warning signs started early, with San Francisco continuing its inefficiency in the red zone, settling for a first quarter field goal. The 49ers next drive looked promising until TE Luke Farrell fumbled and Jaguars safety Andrew Wingard recovered at the San Francisco 48. Jacksonville had the ball all of a nanosecond when RB Trevor Etienne ran for a 48-yard touchdown.
“We took too long to get going,” said linebacker Fred Warner. “That first half was not good enough. There were too many explosive runs and too much leaky yardage. I think in the second half it was better, but still not up to our standard. Guys need to know where they’re fitting, getting on and off blocks, making tackles, wrapping up and driving for five. So obviously, we’ll be looking to be better at that this week, going into next week.”
Purdy threw his first of two interceptions on the next drive, and the Jaguars turned that into seven points. You can see how things are unraveling, right?
San Francisco showed signs of life on a third quarter touchdown pass from Purdy to RB Christian McCaffrey. The 49ers converted on a two-point conversion to WR Jauan Jennings, but he he had to come out of the game with a rib injury. He did return.
Adding literal insult to injury, when Jennings first came out, he was unable to go into the blue medical tent, as WR Ricky Pearsall was in there with a knee injury. Pearsall came out, Jennings went in, and then they switched again. The severity of Pearsall’s injury is unknown, but it’s not the same knee on which he was dealing with an injury this past week.
With 2:40 left in the third quarter, Parker Washington took Thomas Morstead’s 51-yard punt all the way back an 87-yard TD. A new special teams coordinator, a personnel makeover, and the 49ers special teams continues its multi-year tradition of being a mess.
Late in the fourth quarter, with San Francisco down 26-21, former 49ers DL Arik Armstead sacked Purdy, he fumbled and that was that. Purdy was visibly upset after that.
“Just the whole thing, for us to turn the ball over like that throughout the game and then have a chance to win the game at the end,” Purdy said. “Our defense just played their butt off and gave us a chance. Then we get the ball rolling and then we had an op to possibly take a shot and go deep and then obviously the ball goes on the ground. I was mad over everything, the opportunity we had right there to get back in the game, what we had done all day, for myself, with the ball. So, I was just frustrated in the moment for sure.”
Jacksonville didn’t exactly shine either, committing 12 penalties for 90 yards, missing a field goal and failing on a two-point conversion. But the 49ers committed four turnovers, and the Jaguars committed none. That’s the ballgame.
Through four games, the San Francisco defense has yet to cause an interception, the 49ers do not have a rushing touchdown, and they have been inefficient in the red zone – a trend that is carrying over from seasons past. They were 1-for-3 on Sunday and are tied for fifth-worst in the league in red zone efficiency.
All season, the 49ers have struggled to truly establish the run. McCaffrey had 17 carries for 49 yards but had six receptions for 92 yards and a touchdown. He is second in the league in receptions behind Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua. This is notable, because, yes, McCaffrey is a versatile player who is a weapon in the passing game, but he is a running back.
The lack of an explosive run game could be the result of a number of things – George Kittle, and his run blocking prowess, being on IR, shuffling at wide receiver – but it’s something the 49ers need to figure out sooner rather than later.
“We’re getting extremely heavy two-shell defenses, and I would’ve thought we would’ve done better today, because you get heavy two-shell defenses, you can’t get a big explosive run, usually it comes down to third down,” Shanahan said. “That’s what we struggled at the week before, but I thought we did real well on third down today which should have kept us out there and kept us going. That’s what was so frustrating with the turnovers that we had.”
McCaffrey doesn’t think the 49ers run game they’re used to is far off.
“I think overall, we’re close,” McCaffrey said. “I think we have to gel a little bit better together, but we are close. This is a tight, tight league and the room for error is very slim, so all the mistakes are correctable and there’s little things here and there to improve. Once we start rolling, we can start to get it going again. I’m excited for that.”
Without Nick Bosa, who, after having surgery earlier in the week to repair a torn ACL, is out for the season, the 49ers pass rush had zero sacks and zero quarterback hits. Lawrence was pressured on only four of his 31 drop backs on Sunday.
“I know we didn’t get any sacks, but I thought their main thing was they ran the ball,” Shanahan said. “They got some explosives in the run game, especially, so I think it’s tough to generate pass rush when they’re dependent on the run like that. It looked like they had way too many quick throws that I thought we needed to be more competitive on. The quarterback got the ball out of his hands fast. When you do that, there’s not many opportunities for sacks.”
Things aren’t going to get easier, as the 49ers travel to Los Angeles in a few short days to face the Rams (3-1) on Thursday Night Football.
“I think just move on,” McCaffrey said. “…[W]e lost today. We didn’t play good enough. We made a bunch of mistakes and still had a chance to win. With an early game coming up, you just correct the mistakes. A lot of the mistakes are super uncharacteristic. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and just move on because it’s a quick turnaround. It was a bad game all around. We’re excited to move on from it.”