Niners can’t stop anything, and that includes losing
They seem unable to stop anything—primarily their losing streak.
The defense that was the heart and soul of the San Francisco 49ers is now clueless and unable to tackle. The season that had people repeating the precious words, “Super Bowl,” suddenly has them mumbling to themselves with phrases that other adults shouldn’t hear. Much less children.
The worst thing for the Niners and their fans, the so-called “Faithful,” may not be the how many, three straight defeats, after the 31-17 debacle against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium. But the how.
They were run over, run past and run through by a team that began the game last in the NFL in offense and third from last in rushing. The Bengals finished with 400 net yards, 134 on the ground.
The comments from 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and his players were the typical ones you'd expect after a team that is supposed to win, according to the oddsmakers, fails to win: "We've got to play better."
Oh yes, you do. But how does that occur? Sure, some of the answers—or was it all of them?—contained the word “execution.”
That brings to mind the immortal quote from the late John McKay when he was coaching the expansion (and awful Tampa Bay Bucs). Asked after one game what he thought of their execution, McKay remarked, “I’m in favor of it.”
Nothing that severe (or comical) from the Niners postgame, but Shanahan and his crew would be in favor of stepping back to early October when they overwhelmed the Dallas Cowboys, who you may have noticed on Sunday routed the Los Angeles Rams (Lambs?) 43-20.
The NFL is full of surprises, indeed. The Broncos even defeated the Chiefs. But the issue is consistency, to play well—at least to your strength—as often as possible, to be feared by the opponent.
Nobody fears the 49ers anymore, except maybe the men in charge of the franchise.
There was so much worry about Brock Purdy coming out of concussion protocol and getting onto the field and into the huddle. He made it. He threw a couple of interceptions and lost a fumble, three turnovers in all.
Far from the magic he appeared to possess for the opening games, yet not being able to get yards wasn’t what doomed the 49ers. It was their inability to keep Cincinnati from getting theirs.
So much has been written or spoken of Purdy being the last man picked in the draft of 2022. The first man picked in the 2020 draft was Joe Burrow, the Bengals quarterback, and he completed 18 straight passes at one stretch on Sunday.
How much was attributable to Burrow and how much to the 49ers’ ineffective pass defense is a matter to be contemplated. What had to sting was the Fox TV announcer borrowing the line about Joe Montana and calling Burrow “Joe Cool” especially because Montana was in attendance.
Oh yeah, Christian McCaffrey tied the NFL record by scoring a touchdown (actually two touchdowns) in 17 consecutive games. That pleased Shanahan.
Very little else did.
“We missed a lot of tackles in the first half. “ the coach said. “The bottom line is we have to get better in every aspect.
In other words, they have to execute.