There’s an excessive amount of satisfaction on a group used to success to concede a misplaced season with 5 video games to play.
That’s about essentially the most you may say in regards to the 49ers following a snow-bound 35-10 loss to the Buffalo Payments Sunday evening, the place a nationwide tv viewers obtained to see first-hand what has turn out to be of a group that performed in 4 convention championship video games and two Tremendous Bowls since 2019 and now sits at 5-7.
Moments after fullback Kyle Jusczcyk misplaced his first fumble since 2018 on the 1-yard line within the third quarter when the 49ers had been threatening to get inside 21-10, NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth supplied what might quickly be the epitaph on the 2024 season.
“That is the 49ers’ season right there,” Collinsworth mentioned.
It was one other failure within the purple zone, an ongoing drawback since Week 1 when the 49ers kicked six subject objectives in opposition to the New York Jets.
There have been three extra turnovers, added to the three in final week’s 38-10 loss in Inexperienced Bay. And no takeaways. There have been two extra missed subject objectives by Jake Moody, though one was a pipe-dream 55-yard try earlier than halftime in horrible situations.
There have been extra accidents, after all, which has been a relentless all through the season. Christian McCaffrey, trying like himself for the primary time all season, ripped off 53 yards on his first seven carries earlier than straining his posterior cruciate ligament on a 19-yard burst after which shutting it down on the following play.
We’ll discover out quickly if we’ve seen the final of McCaffrey for 2024 after simply 4 video games. The 49ers limp dwelling to face the Chicago Bears (4-8) subsequent week at Levi’s Stadium.
Center linebacker Fred Warner, who revealed this week he has performed with an ankle fracture since Week 4, left briefly when each forearms seized up with cramps. He obtained an IV and returned, however forearm cramps?
“It was a freak thing,” Warner mentioned.
That doesn’t even embody gamers that had been left dwelling, resembling edge rusher Nick Bosa, left sort out Trent Williams and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir. Or those that have been lengthy gone on injured reserve, resembling Brandon Aiyuk and Javon Hargrave.
It’s one thing the 49ers might want to decide going ahead. How a lot of the whole 2024 season was a “freak thing” and unhealthy luck and the way a lot was of their very own doing?
“I’m real disappointed. We’ve got a lot more pride than this,” coach Kyle Shanahan mentioned. “We definitely know we have people out, but we can play a lot better than that. Having three turnovers in each of the last two weeks, being unable to stop the run, you can usually guess the outcome.”
The Payments rushed for a season-high 220 yards and averaged 5.8 yards per carry.
What Shanahan isn’t keen to do with even a low-percentage likelihood of a playoff berth is publicly berate his group, rejecting a question in regards to the 49ers’ willingness to combat.
Coach Kyle Shanahan is trying to find solutions because the 49ers fell to 5-7 after a 35-10 street loss to the Buffalo Payments. A.P. Photograph
“I’m not going to say this team is the same as last year’s team and we’re not fighting as hard,” Shanahan mentioned. “We’ve had a bunch of guys out there who have been trying to find their way since the beginning, haven’t quite found it yet. There’s still a lot of season left. We expect to be better. But I’m not going to say our team doesn’t have fight.”
Quarterback Brock Purdy, who was 11-for-18 for 94 yards and wasn’t almost the operator within the snow as counterpart Josh Allen, conceded the situations had been “difficult.” He misplaced one tried move when it merely flew out of his hand earlier than it was going ahead for a misplaced fumble.
“Late in the game, it felt like the snow started to melt a little bit and the ball became more slick,” Purdy mentioned.
Dropping McCaffrey, who appeared to lastly acquire traction in essentially the most unlikely place, was a blow.
“We all saw what he was doing and he was on fire, man,” Purdy mentioned. “Looked great, hitting the holes hard. Bouncing off guys and making some explosive plays. When you lose a guy like Christian, it sucks. It takes away some things how we do them in the offense.”
Ceaselessly upbeat tight finish George Kittle conceded that dropping McCaffrey and Warner (briefly) was troublesome to just accept.
“It’s not a very fun thing, especially since Bosa and Trent are not here either,” Kittle mentioned. “But it’s football. People go down. We’ve had plenty of seasons where people have gone down and you need somebody to step up. That’s what we need . . . we’re in the NFL for a reason and it’s on all of us.”
The onslaught of accidents and errors, Kittle believes, are a part of the deal.
“Football’s tough. Stuff happens,” Kittle mentioned. “You’re going to let it beat you down into oblivion and you’re just going to give you up or you’re going to go down swinging every single day that you have. What’s crazy is we only have so many opportunities left but we’re not technically out of the playoffs. And while it feels dark and gloomy and depressing, we can still win out and I really think we can do that.”
Warner is aware of what’s subsequent — and it’s Chicago, with nothing else that issues.
“We’re as desperate as they come to try and get a win,” Warner mentioned. “I’m down for whatever. I just want to get a win. I could care less about anything else. Whatever they need me to do, whatever they need the team to do, let’s do that and get one win.”
Since Purdy stepped into his job, each he and his teammates have largely met an ordinary that has been misplaced in a giant manner in dropping 73-20 over the previous two weeks in opposition to groups that had been as formidable because the 49ers had been the previous few years.
“The last couple of years our mentality was coming out to games and being the enforcers and the dominators,” Purdy mentioned. “To have two games like this back to back, late in the season, it sucks. We can’t be down in the dumps because we still have an opportunity in front of us.”
Initially Printed: December 1, 2024 at 10:21 PM PST
