In week 11 of the NFL season the San Francisco 49ers took on their arch rivals, the Seattle Seahawks. Sadly, the Niners 6 game winning streak against the Seahawks came to an end. Seattle managed a last-minute drive and knocked off the Niners 20-17. Let’s take a look at what went wrong and if anything went right for the Bang Bang Niner Gang.
You will never guess where we are going to start. That’s right, the tradition continues as we start with the injuries. The Niners came into the game without Moony Ward, Kevin Givins, and Punter Mitch Wishnowski, who went on IR and will be out a while. Most importantly though, they would not have George Kittle for this one. Not having Kittle is always huge. His absents affects the passing game and the running game. Plus he is their best Red Zone target. During the game things just got worst as the Niners would lose both Nick Bosa and Jacob Cowing. There was some good news though as Yetur Gross-Matos returned to action after being out since the Patriots game. He had an immediate impact with a sack and a stuff.
This week there actually isn’t anything to complain about the special teams. They had no bad plays this week. I know, it’s hard to believe. The new Punter, Pat O’Donnell, wasn’t great but there were no big returns or anything. They did muff a kick off but the ball was batted out of bounds and it actually resulted in a nice return for the Niners. Moody made all of his kicks, though he only had 3 of them. The Special Teams didn’t make any big plays but not screwing up is a huge accomplishment for this group. Hopefully it becomes the norm and not the outlier.
The defense played great in this one, right up until Nick Bosa went out of the game. While Bosa was playing the Seahawks managed just one field goal. The second filed goal came when Seattle got an INT, lost 9 yards and kicked a 57-yard field goal. That’s not on the defense. Once Bosa’s hip got to the point where he could no longer participate, Seattle went on two long scoring drives resulting in their two touchdowns. You hate to blame everything on injuries but at some point, facts are facts. If you want to blame someone else, I thought the team failed to adjust after they lost Bosa. All game the Niners only rushed their front 4 guys and didn’t blitz at all. It worked with the best pass rusher in the league on the field. Once he was ruled out, the Niners might have wanted to start dialing up the pressure. Geno Smith has thrown the most INTs in the league. He threw one to begin the second half when he was forced out of the pocket. Instead of just sitting back and letting them march down field, why not put pressure on Smith and see if he won’t make another big mistake? Once Bosa came out, they couldn’t rely on the Defensive Line to get pressure. Plus, changing things up may have been enough to screw up the Seattle offense. But instead, they just hung back and let Smith pick apart their zones.
The offense sputtered in this one, yet again. It’s a common theme that when the 49ers lose it’s because the offense didn’t perform. In their 5 losses the Niners are averaging 19.8 points, not breaking 20 in 3 of the losses. In the wins they are putting up 30.2 points. The problem with the offense is that it’s not one thing. If it was one thing, that would be fixable. When every drive that doesn’t end in a score ends for a different reason, you can’t pin point a problem. The first drive ended because Jauan Jennings, who was great in this game, ran his third down pattern too shallow and was tackled before the sticks. The second drive was a touchdown. The third drive ended when Purdy tried to force a ball to a very covered CMC resulting in a tipped ball and an INT. The 4th drive was derailed when McKivits committed a false start and then gave up a sack on consecutive plays. The 5th drive ended at the half. The next two drives were a field goal and a TD. Then the 8th drive was a run that lost a yard, an incompletion and a short pass on 3rd and 11. Of the 4 drives that ended in non-scores (not counting the ones that ended each half), they were all up ended for different reasons. There is nothing you can say is the problem. Well, I would say McKivits is a problem but I have been saying that for two years now (at least). There just isn’t one thing they do poorly. It’s always something stupid that kills their drives. I don’t know how you fix that.
Another problem the 49ers offense has is the same problem that they had back in the ‘90s. It’s that everyone else is running their offense. Well, most teams are, not all of them. It’s no longer unique. Defenses are preparing and game planning for the offense every week. They are going against them every week in practice. Seeing all the motion and formations no longer confuse defenses. Now it’s all about execution and talent. They have plenty of talent to beat anyone. But as I pointed out, the execution can be lacking at times.
As far as individual offensive performances go, Purdy had a solid game outside of the one forced pass. He didn’t have his usual accuracy issues to start the game this week. What ever he did to warm up better become his routine. He also continues to make plays with his legs. He has to be a top 3 if not the best scrambling QB in the league. I said scrambling, not running mind you. He now leads the team with 4 rushing TDs.
As I said, 3rd and Jauan was great in this one. Made big catch after big catch and led the team with 10 catches on 11 targets for 91 yards and a TD. The play of the game for the Niners offense has to have been the play where Jennings caught the ball 4 yards short of the marker on 3rd down and proceeded to carry 3 Seahawks for the extra five yards he needed for the first down.
No one else really did anything in the passing game. The rest of the team combined for 68 yards receiving. Seattle plays a very soft defense based on letting guys catch short passes and then making the tackle. It kept the 49ers without a singe big play all game. One 22-yard pass to Jennings was their only real chunk play. This would have been a good game for Kittle to catch passes underneath and then make plays after the catch.
The run game was pretty ordinary at best as well. Again there was a complete lack of big plays on the ground for the 49ers. CMC still hasn’t really gotten going since his return. He averaged 4.2 yards per carry but his long was only 11 yards and there were a lot of carries that barely passed the line of scrimmage if they even made it that far. Of course, as I mentioned, not having Kittle in this one made running the ball harder than it would have been if he was in there. I don’t know if the defense just took them away but there were not any plays designed to get him the ball down field in the passing game. It might be harder to do against zones rather than man to man coverage.
Some quick hitters…
–The 49ers committed way too many penalties in this one. The were flagged for 9 penalties for 54 yards.
–My favorite play in football is when the snap goes over the QB’s head as it did with Geno Smith. It was better when it would happen to the punter because they would just panic but with the onset of long snappers, that hardly ever happens anymore.
–Ricky Pearsall was only targeted twice in this one and did not have a reception. I don’t watch the All 22 so I don’t know if it was his, Purdy’s or the Seattle defense’s fault. The Niners need to find ways to get him involved every game.
–The Seahawks were coning off their bye in this one. The Niners had to play in Florida last week. Which team seemed to have more energy in the 4th quarter? Probably just a coincidence.
–One of the Seahawks receivers made me laugh when he went in motion behind Smith, who was under center, and faked getting the hand off as he passed him even though the ball wasn’t even snapped yet. I don’t know why, I just thought it was amusing.
–Kittle is such a big factor in the run game that in short yardage the 49ers used a tackle eligible to replace him. It’s not something they do a lot of.
The 5-5 Niners are technically in last place (due to tie breakers) but still only a game out of first in the NFC West. But then so are the Rams and Seahawks. The schedule gets harder for the Red and Gold as next week they head to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field before shuffling off to Buffalo to take on the Bills. My guess is they will stay somewhere in the mid-west or east coast between games rather than returning all the way back to the Bay Area. Maybe a little bonding road trip ids just what this team needs. Besides getting healthy, that it. They really need to get and stay healthy.
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