49ers Studs and Duds: A blizzard of dangerous play because the Niners drop a 3rd straight recreation

The 49ers got here into Sunday’s recreation with an all-too-clear insistence:

We are able to go decrease.

Did you suppose final week’s loss to Inexperienced Bay was horrible? Effectively, test this out.

The Niners discovered a approach to make it even worse, dropping 35-10 to Buffalo.

What else may you name a recreation the place Brock Purdy performed and the Niners had glimmers of early hope, just for all of it to come back crashing down in relentless and near-comical style (in a blizzard, no much less)?

Par for the course, I suppose.

Listed here are the studs and duds from one other dud of a recreation.

STUDS 💪

Christian McCaffrey • RB

The tragedy of this 49ers’ season epitomized. For the primary time since returning to the lineup in Week 10, McCaffrey seemed just like the should-have-been MVP of the league final season. He was bursting by means of the road and gliding throughout the frozen area like an ice skater. He had 72 yards on his first eight touches of the sport.

Then got here his ninth contact, a pitch to the precise.

McCaffrey took 4 steps and got here up limp on a toss play to the precise, sliding for a five-yard loss as a substitute of working any additional. The Niners categorized it for granted PCL harm. It’s probably season-ending.

In a means, it already is.

The Niners have been performed — within the recreation and for the season — the second McCaffrey went into the locker room.

Jordan Mason • RB

The Niners dedicated to utilizing Mason extra earlier than he slid again into the No. 1 working again position. As both a change-of-pace choice or the No. 1, he confirmed the identical energy we noticed within the marketing campaign’s first half. The Niners’ run recreation ought to nonetheless be strong, even with out McCaffrey.

49ers’ offensive line

I can’t pin this loss on them. Regardless of having backups on the left aspect, the Niners’ entrance 5 supplied strong cross safety and large holes within the run recreation, regardless of poor footing all evening. In reality, this might need been the Niners’ greatest offensive line recreation of the season.

Malik Mustapha • S

He was the one defensive participant who can declare to have turned in a superb shift. Mustapha was in all places on Sunday. Was it good? Hardly. However he made performs, which is one thing to be enthusiastic about, even after a brutal recreation.

DUDS 📉

Ji’Ayir Brown • S

The Payments made him the central character of Sunday’s recreation, attacking him relentlessly within the run and cross recreation. He supplied little, if any, resistance. That is hardly the primary recreation this season the place that has been the case, and it raises severe questions on whether or not Brown — in his second season — must be a starter for this workforce subsequent 12 months.

Deebo Samuel • WR

He’s a superb kick returner (save for that fourth-quarter fumble) however doesn’t present a lot of something from scrimmage. There’s nothing new there. Kyle Shanahan’s now not making an attempt to run the ball with him. Subsequent to go? Screens.

Kyle Juszczyk • FB

He fumbled on the objective line, erasing a momentum-shifting opening drive to the second half, which — had it transformed right into a landing — might need given us an opportunity at an attention-grabbing recreation.

Jake Moody • Okay

Have been the situations brutal? Completely.

Have been Moody’s two missed kicks equally brutal? You guess.

Charvarious Ward • CB

I’m reluctant to “go in” on Ward, on condition that that is his first recreation again from an unimaginable tragedy, however the truth stays that he had one in all his worst video games in a Niners uniform Sunday. (A mark that has been set just a few instances this season.) His third-and-long penalty on the Payments’ opening collection of their second drive of the sport led to a landing — which was run proper at him.

Earlier than halftime, Buffalo put a 3rd landing on the board with Mack Hollins overpowering him for a 7-yard rating, capping a 97-yard drive.

Down 21-3, the second half didn’t matter after that.

Initially Printed: December 1, 2024 at 8:42 PM PST