The San Francisco 49ers’ undefeated streak against the NFC West came to a crashing halt on Sunday after a blowout 42-26 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
San Francisco made the mistake of falling behind the Rams by 21 points before getting on the board, and while they came close to catching Los Angeles, the deficit proved too big to overcome.
With the form the Rams had been in entering Week 10, the result shouldn’t come as a surprise, but San Francisco didn’t do themselves any favors with how often they shot themselves in the foot. Let’s go over what we learned in the Week 10 loss:
Any mistake is a bad mistake for the state the 49ers are in
With the amount of injuries the 49ers are dealing with on both sides of the ball, any mistake is going to be tough to overcome. Whether it’s a turnover, a conservative playcall, or a bad matchup, San Francisco is going to have a hard time pushing through, and on Sunday, the 49ers made several mistakes that led to points for the Rams.
The first mistake – and biggest – came on the 49ers’ second drive of the game. After opening the game with a three-and-out, giving the Rams the ball back to allow them to go up 14 points, the 49ers’ offense got off to a better start than their first drive. While a false start put a damper on the beginning of the drive, Mac Jones would find George Kittle and Jauan Jennings on back-to-back 14-yard completions to get the 49ers offense near midfield.
Then, disaster struck. Jones would connect with Jennings for what would have been a 13-yard gain, but Jennings failed to protect the ball, allowing Nate Landman to knock the ball free to be recovered by Los Angeles. Instead of continuing a promising drive, nine plays later, the Rams would be up 21-0, taking advantage of Jennings’ turnover.
The 49ers offense would get back on the field and continue the trend of promising drives ending in negative results. This time, instead of a turnover, it was a conservative playcall from Kyle Shanahan that led to a turnover on downs. Facing a fourth-and-1 inside the Rams’ 15-yard line and down 21 points, Shanahan made the correct decision to go for it. But the playcall was lacking, as a run to the left by McCaffrey was stuffed after the left side of the 49ers’ line collapsed, giving McCaffrey no space to run.
It didn’t help that the following drive, the 49ers faced a fourth-and-2 in the red zone and opted to pass, getting the first down and later scoring a touchdown. The short-yardage struggles continue, especially with McCaffrey having issues running the ball and constantly getting stuffed, leaving him without a massive run this season like we’ve grown accustomed to from him.
Even some of the matchups got weird for the 49ers, with Devante Adams scoring a touchdown later at the goal line with Malik Mustapha playing straight-up man-to-man coverage, an apparent mismatch for the 49ers’ defense. The 49ers are not in a position to be making these types of mistakes, and especially not against a team like the Rams, because, as we saw Sunday, they’ll need every opportunity to score they can get.
The defense is too injured to even compete with good offenses
There were signs of some cracks in the 49ers’ defense a few weeks back against Houston, but they were duct-taped over against the Giants. On Sunday, the Rams offense found those cracks and burst through with no resistance, leading to a 42-point onslaught.
Like in Week 9, the 49ers defense allowed the opposing offense to walk down the field on the opening drive, with the Rams capping off a 10-play, 64-yard drive with a Kyren Williams rushing touchdown. Unfortunately, the Rams offense isn’t the Giants’ offense, so unlike in Week 9, it wouldn’t stop. With little resistance, the Rams put together two more touchdown-scoring drives before the defense would finally get its first stop of the game.
The defense actually made back-to-back stops, and the offense finally got rolling, cutting what was once a 21-point deficit down to seven, but the halftime break didn’t help the 49ers’ defense. The Rams had three non-end-of-game drives in the second half, all ending in touchdowns, entirely too much for the 49ers’ offense to keep up with.
No level of the 49ers’ defense played exceptionally well on Sunday. The pass rush generated 16 pressures on Stafford’s 37 dropbacks, which is a solid number, but it only managed to sack the quarterback once. Williams and Blake Corum combined for 129 rushing yards on 27 attempts, averaging 4.8 yards per carry, keeping the offense on schedule. And maybe the worst part of the defense: it seemed anytime Stafford threw a pass, his intended receiver had plenty of space all game, resulting in 280 passing yards and four touchdowns, with Puka Nacua and Adams leading the way.
The result shouldn’t come as a surprise with how injured the 49ers’ defense is, but for the second time in three weeks, it was tough to see just how far the San Francisco defense has fallen. Maybe a silver lining: the 49ers face some poor offenses over the next four games, maybe giving a break to a defense that’s desperately in need of one.
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