49ers Studs and Duds: The Niners embarrass themselves in blowout loss to Inexperienced Bay

Three hours of distress.

That’s all you possibly can name the Niners’ loss to the Packers on Sunday.

Any glimmer of hope was short-lived or rapidly sabotaged. Any constructive play was quickly undercut.

The Niners’ opponents, the Inexperienced Bay Packers, didn’t even play properly. They messed round like they had been dealing with the JV group in a scrimmage.

They weren’t flawed:

STUDS 💪

George Kittle • TE

» The 49ers’ finest participant this season didn’t let damage or a backup quarterback cease him from making a huge impact on the sport. The long run Corridor of Famer had six catches for 82 yards and a landing.

That rating was his fifteenth catch within the pink zone this season — tops within the NFL — and eighth red-zone landing of the marketing campaign. That additionally leads the NFL.

Brandon (Not Josh) Allen • QB

» He’s a backup quarterback. I’ll decide him on a curve.

Allen didn’t lose the 49ers the sport on Sunday. Frankly, you’d be hard-pressed to ask him to do greater than he did.

His interception wasn’t on him. His misplaced fumble was, but it surely’s not as if he booted the ball with out anybody round.

I noticed him rip passes up the center and command the offense like somebody who truly performs.

Once more, I don’t anticipate him to win any video games because the 49ers’ beginning quarterback, however a minimum of the backup quarterback wasn’t the rationale the Niners misplaced on Sunday.

Deommodore Lenoir • DB

» Lenoir was excellent in protection and powerful towards the run Sunday. With Fred Warner taking part in like a pedestrian nowadays, is Lenoir the brand new chief of this protection?

Pat O’Donnell • P

» The Niners punter had a wonderful recreation. A legacy recreation, maybe. (I’m in search of something right here, of us.)

Duds 📉

Deebo Samuel • W(ashed) R

» The Niners had possibilities to make this recreation extra fascinating than it had any proper to be.

And who is aware of what would have occurred had Deebo Samuel caught a ball that hit him in each palms on a third-and-8 from the Inexperienced Bay 45-yard line. A catch would have moved the chains and put the Niners — down 17-7 at that time — ready to make the competition a one-possession recreation.

As an alternative, Samuel whiffed, the nice Xavier McKinney intercepted the go, and the Packers scored a landing 4 performs later, following a troublesome pass-interference name on Renardo Inexperienced.

The Niners wanted a lot extra from a group captain — a celebrity.

It’s clear he’s not that anymore.

Samuel had 4 targets. He solely caught one among them — a double-reverse flea flicker display.

Sure, it takes layered trickery or a kick return to get Samuel an enormous achieve nowadays. It’s powerful to look at one-time greats fade, and it’s even more durable after they’re fading this quick.

The rookies

» The Niners have been overly reliant on their rookies to play like veterans — such is the desperation introduced on by damage and poor play.

Sunday, the Packers confirmed why that’s sometimes a foul thought.

Renardo Inexperienced — who has been unbelievable this season — was labored over repeatedly by Packers’ receivers. The Niners lifted him from the sport within the fourth quarter.

Dom Puni — who had been a revelation this season — had three penalties within the first half alone.

The one means Ricky Pearsall discovered the ball was to catch it on punt returns.

Issac Guerendo solely noticed motion on kick returns. Within the second quarter, he fumbled the ball.

It’s a superb factor that security Malik Muspaha had a superb recreation; in any other case, the Niners’ rookies could be 0-for-5 in Inexperienced Bay.

The offensive line

» I perceive that circumstances are powerful with Williams out, however the 49ers’ offensive line supplied the Niners no benefit on Sunday, towards a defensive position that isn’t a world-beater.

In actual fact, I assumed Jaylon Moore, changing Williams, was a vibrant spot.

The inside of the road was something however that.

Puni had his worst recreation as a professional.

Jake Brendel was labored over repeatedly. (What’s new?)

Aaron Banks was pushed round on this recreation, too. (We’ve stated that earlier than.)

The Niners’ offensive line had 4 penalties and a pressured fumble towards them on this recreation.

Niners particular groups

» Was the holding name on tight finish Eric Saubert some nonsense? You guess. It negated a large return from Samuel that would have put some momentum within the Niners’ nook.

However in fact the refs had been trying to name a maintain on the play — it’s the Niners’ particular groups.

The Niners dedicated a holding penalty on three straight returns Sunday.

It was all the time a ridiculous ask for Niners’ particular groups to not lose the sport, however this was one of many worst performances of the season, even with out a flash play.

Niners’ defensive self-discipline

The Niners had 10 missed tackles within the first quarter — essentially the most in 1 / 4 within the NFL this season.

They’d 5 within the second and third quarter, respectively.

Does what occurred within the fourth quarter even matter? The Niners had already missed 20 tackles within the recreation, and the competition was already over.

Unhealthy penalties — together with back-to-back 12-men-on-the-field calls within the pink zone (completely unacceptable stuff) — added to the blowout loss.

Nevertheless it was the easy stuff that did the Niners in, too. The Packers saved bringing slot receiver Jayden Reed into the backfield with an orbit-motion look, and the window-dressing disorganized the Niners’ protection to the purpose the place Inexperienced Bay operating again Josh Jacobs wasn’t being touched within the backfield, a lot much less on the line of scrimmage. The Niners by no means discovered a solution for it — the Packers mercifully stopped attempting the cool stuff after they had been up two, three, 4 scores.

The Niners had been roundly outplayed, however defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen was out-schemed, too.

Initially Revealed: November 24, 2024 at 4:56 PM PST