The San Francisco 49ers were facing challenges leading up to their bye week at this same time last year.
They were been defeated handily at Levi’s Stadium by the Kansas City Chiefs, who now have a 3-4 record. But the facility itself held the key to solving that team’s greatest difficulty. A few days before, the Niners made a blockbuster deal to acquire running back Christian McCaffrey, hoping he would ignite a second-half comeback. When he did, the Niners ended the season with ten consecutive victories and a trip to the NFC Championship Game.
A little over a year later, the Niners have a much better record going into their bye week and the NFL trade deadline on Tuesday, but they also feel much more pressure to turn things around after their 31-17 defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. San Francisco lost to the Bengals for the third time straight after starting the season 5-0; as a result, they are now 5-3 and out of first place in the NFC West division.
While the Niners will probably actively seek outside assistance, head coach Kyle Shanahan made it apparent on Sunday afternoon that another McCaffrey would not be entering via that door. Therefore, the majority of change must come from inside. This process will start with a lot of introspection during the week off before the Niners’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on November 12.
“No, none of this changes anything with the trade deadline,” stated Shanahan. “I think we have the solutions in our facility based on how we played tonight and how we played the previous three weeks. We have excellent players, in my opinion. We have excellent coaches, in my opinion. My job is to motivate them to do better.
“I thought we started out pretty good, but there’s some things that we haven’t been able to hide here these last few weeks and that’s why we’ve got to continue to push them in every aspect because some people do go on these losing streaks and they don’t have those answers and you’re just living in hope.”
After winning 15 consecutive regular-season games (tied for a team record) and defeating their first five opponents of the season by an average of 19.8 points per game, the Niners suffered their first three-game losing run since the 2021 campaign.
Shanahan had made repeated references to his team’s blunders early in the season, which they were able to get away with since they had gone out to enormous leads. The Niners’ struggles in the red zone and penalties had been an issue, but they were more than made up for by their offensive prowess (21 plays of 20 yards or more were sixth most in the NFL) and defensive efficiency (10 20-plus yard plays allowed were fewest in the NFL). In the fight of turnovers, they had also been unmatched, going plus-7 with a league-low two turnovers.
For the majority of those categories, the last three weeks have brought about a significant change in the opposite direction. The Niners have allowed 15 plays of 20 yards or more (the second most in the NFL during that time), have been outgained by an average of 62 yards per game, and have been outscored by 7 points per game. In addition, the Niners are tied for fourth worst in turnover margin (minus 3) and have turned the ball over seven times, which is tied for the fourth worst.
Niners quarterback Brock Purdy has thrown five interceptions in the last three games, including four in opposition territory, one of which occurred inside Cincinnati’s 10 on Sunday, after not throwing one in the first five weeks. The Niners’ inability to run the ball frequently or efficiently has also been hampered by their compounding errors.
“All I know is that it’s hard to win football games when you lose the turnover battle which we’ve done two weeks in a row,” George Kittle, the tight end, said. “And we obviously just have to play better and we have to put ourselves in situations where we can run the football more and we don’t have to throw the ball so many times.”
The defensive issues have been the most unexpected, even though many of those have been concerning. Even after DeMeco Ryans (who went on to become the head coach of the Houston Texans) was replaced as coordinator by Steve Wilks, the Niners have consistently fielded one of the best defenses in the league, so they were expected to be difficult to score on this season.
Although it wasn’t the case recently, it was during the first five weeks. The Niners have allowed nearly 70 extra passing yards per game through the air as the schedule and quarterbacks they face have gotten harder, and over the last three weeks, the QBR of opposing quarterbacks has increased by nearly 16 points.
Wilks has been under intense scrutiny as a result of these problems, his pass rush’s inability to get to the end zone, and the contentious blitz call that occurred just before halftime of the team’s defeat to the Minnesota Vikings last week. Shanahan, however, asserted on Sunday that everyone is equally responsible.
“This isn’t on any one coach or any one side of the ball,” said Shanahan. “We haven’t scored over 20 points here in three weeks, too. So, I believe our defense has to perform better. I believe our offensive has to perform better. I believe our team has to perform better. When I say our squad, I mean every single player in there and I think every single coach.”
The 49ers will now have a lengthy hiatus to enable Deebo Samuel’s damaged shoulder and left tackle Trent Williams’ sprained right ankle to recover. That should help but it’s going to take much more to make a run as the Niners face a period in which they’ll play Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, Seattle, Philadelphia and Seattle again in the five weeks coming out of the bye.
“We’ve got to sit here and wait about 14 days to deal with this feeling that we have, which nobody wants, but I think we need to,” Shanahan said. “I believe our players need to be ticked off a little bit. I believe we need to come back with a bit greater concentration because it hasn’t been enough and we haven’t been getting it done.”
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