In week 18 of the NFL season the San Francisco 49ers traveled to Arizona to take on the Cardinals in an NFC West showdown.  It was a fitting end to this season from hell for the Niners as they fell to their division rivals 47-24.  Let’s take a look at what went wrong and see if anything went right for the Bang Bang Niner Gang this week. 

Hopefully this will be the end to this tradition but as usual, we shall start with the injuries.  I won’t bother mentioning who sat this one out but in the game the 49ers lost Mustapha and Guerendo to knee injuries.  Guerendo’s is expected to be an MCL sprain, which is the best news possible after he was carted off the field.  No word yet on Mustapha.  McKivits also left the game with an apparent leg injury and Renardo Green left with a groin.  Obviously, everyone on the roster who is injured has until basically August to heal up, so as long as Mustapha didn’t tear his knee up, they should be good to go for next season. 

As for the game itself, both teams went up and down the field in the first half and it was a three-point game heading into intermission.  In the second half the 49ers turned the ball over and the Cardinals pulled away.  The defense made some plays but was really ineffective.  I would think it is very hard to play on that side of the ball in a meaningless final game of the season.  It’s not like Arizona was any better.  Nick Bosa needed 1 sack to get to double digits for the 4^th straight season.  He did not play the whole game and the team failed to record any sacks.   Leonard Floyd needed 1.5 sacks to hit a bonus clause in his contract.  He played most, if not the entire game but failed to earn the extra money. 

The offense looked pretty good, especially in the first half, but again, Arizona was just playing out the string as the Niners were.  The make shift offensive line looked good again.  Heck and Zakelj may have earned themselves an opportunity in the offseason with their play in the last two games.  Patrick Taylor ran well and ran hard gaining 109 yards on 6.4 yards per carry.  The best development on offense was that Ricky Pearsall had his second good game in a row.  He caught 6 of 8 targets for 69 yards and a TD.  It’s great to see him finish up the season strong.  Hopefully he can avoid injuries and, you know, bullets this offseason and set himself up for a break out sophomore campaign. 

The most interesting thing to happen for the 49ers on offense was Jauan Jennings day.  3^rd and Jauan needed 77 yards to reach the 1,000-yard plateau for the first time in his career. .  He failed to reach the milestone in spectacular fashion.  After catching 7 balls for 52 yards Jennings was, very wrongfully, ejected from the game.  With the 49ers deep in the Red Zone they decided to run the ball on back-to-back plays and Jennings did his thing.  That being be blocked his cover man very hard right through the whistle.  This is something Jennings has become known for.  And as usual, the, we will use the word dainty, corner backs did not appreciate Jauan’s good, clean, physical play and they attacked him.  This is something we have seen time and time again in Jauan’s relatively short career.  This time the refs not only threw a flag on the defensive player, which is what usually happens, but they also gave Jennings a penalty.  For doing what every coach wants his offensive line to do on every play.  With the second penalty, the refs threw Jennings and the corner out of the game.  There was no reason to throw Jennings out.  He was simply blocking his guy.  It’s not his fault the Cardinal corners decided to play football but don’t like physical contact.  If this was a meaningful game, I would have been very upset.  However, seeing it was just a glorified exhibition game, it made for a fun little story.   

The 49ers Special Teams had a very fitting end to their season.  That is to say they were not good yet again.  Moody missed another kick.  They gave up a big punt return.  And they fell for another fake punt.  Cowing had a nice kick return and a nice punt return so that was a good showing on the Special Teams part.  But the miscues overshadow any good they have done.  It’s been like this all season.  Clearly this is the area in which the Niners can make the biggest improvement next season.

Some Quick Hitters…

–The 49ers will have the 11^th pick in the draft.  I will get into my thoughts on the offseason and what they should do in a future article. 

–The Referee getting injured breaking up the fracas between Jennings and the Arizona cornerback was pre-Karma for them making the terrible decision to throw Jennings out of the game. 

–During the game it seemed to me that Kyle Shanahan was not calling the plays on offense as he usually does.  I was correct as he told reporters afterwards that he let Klay Kubiak call the plays.  This is a cool thing for Kyle to do in letting his assistants get experience calling plays.  It will help them get OC or Head Coaching jobs with other teams. 

–Only 6 guys started all 17 games for the 49ers this season.  Jake Brendel, Fred Warner, Leonard Floyd, Maliek Collins, Colton McKivitz, and rookie Dominick Puni.  That’s 6 out of a possible 22. Hell, even their punter and kicker missed games.  

–It’s always great to see Juszczyk score a TD. 

Well, that wraps it up for the 2024/25 San Francisco 49ers.  This will always be remembered as a season from Hell.   Here is hoping next year will make us all forget about this debacle of a season.