The San Francisco 49ers lost more than a football game in Tampa Bay on Sunday.
While the scoreboard reads a 30-19 win for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, dropping the 49ers to 4-2 on the season, the headlines will be all about the loss of Fred Warner, who went down with a season-ending ankle injury in the first quarter on Sunday.
The emotional blow proved to be too much for the 49ers to overcome, as they just couldn’t find a response to Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay offense. With that said, these are the three stars from Sunday’s emotional loss:
Third star: WR Kendrick Bourne
Like in Week 6, Bourne’s day started with a mistake but would later turn into a big game.
Against the Rams last week, Bourne had an early third-down drop, but finished his game with a career-high 142 receiving yards. The story was the same on Sunday, when Bourne appeared to run the wrong route on his first target of the game, leading to Kindle Vidor’s interception of Mac Jones.
Bourne wasted little time making amends for the mistake, getting a target on the 49ers’ next play from scrimmage with a 41-yard catch on a deep shot from Jones to move the 49ers into field goal range. San Francisco would get on the board with a field goal four plays later, thanks to Bourne’s field-flipping play.
The 41-yard catch wouldn’t end up being Bourne’s biggest play of the game either. After the first quarter ended with a near-disaster in which Jones was sacked and lost the ball, only to be recovered by Luke Farrell, Bourne would strike again. Bourne would make the reception in front of Jamel Dean before turning on the jets to outrun Lavante David and Jacob Parrish, before being caught by Parrish. When it was all said and done, the result was a 56-yard gain. Nine plays later, the 49ers would score their lone touchdown of the game.
Bourne finished the day with five receptions on nine targets, again matching his new career-high with 142 yards. On a day when the 49ers’ offense was rather hapless, Bourne’s game kept the offense afloat.
Second star: K Eddy Pineiro
When a player is responsible for 68 percent of the 49ers’ scoring, that’ll be enough to earn a star.
Pineiro extended his field goal streak to 15 makes in a row to start his career with the 49ers, with a spotless four-for-four game against Tampa Bay on Sunday.
The kicker started his day with a 52-yard make on the 49ers’ second drive of the game, shrinking Tampa’s early lead to four points. San Francisco wouldn’t call on him again until the second quarter for a 54-yard attempt. The ball had some English on it, looking like it was heading left, but suddenly knuckled back right, going right through the uprights for Pineiro’s longest kick of the game.
There was even some adversity to Pineiro’s game. With the 49ers trailing by seven before the half, Pineiro was called on for his third attempt of the game, this time from 42 yards. As he’s been so far with San Francisco, the kick was perfect. But after the play, Pineiro’s plant foot was stepped on by a teammate, and it’s obvious it bothered him. Pineiro was seen limping after the kick and even as the teams took to the locker room after the ensuing kickoff.
He would shake the pain off for one final field goal to open the third quarter, making a manageable 29-yard kick. When it was all said and done, Pineiro was responsible for 13 of the 49ers’ 19 points on Sunday.
Ideally, you want the 49ers to score more touchdowns than field goals, but a four-field-goal game is good enough to earn Pineiro Sunday’s second star.
First star: LB Fred Warner
I try not to hand out first stars on principle alone, but this situation is unique.
When Nick Bosa went down with a season-ending injury in Week 3, it was a tough blow, but one the 49ers defense could survive so long as No. 54 was on the field. Unfortunately, that changed on Sunday.
Warner’s season ended at the 7:18 mark of the first quarter in Tampa Bay when he got rolled up on, dislocating and breaking his ankle. Not only is Warner the best player and the emotional leader on the 49ers’ defense, he’s the leader of the team as a whole. When he went down, you could feel the air leave the 49ers’ sails, and the team deserves plenty of credit for keeping the game as close as they did after the emotional blow.
In true Warner fashion, he found a way to make an impact play even in his limited playing time. On Tampa Bay’s third play from scrimmage, Baker Mayfield would find Rachaad White on a screen pass. Warner had the play sniffed out from the get-go, pursuing the ball and knocking White back as he caught the ball, setting up Upton Stout to finish the play for a loss of a yard for the Buccaneers.
Several plays likely would have gone differently had Warner been on the field, like Mayfield’s third-and-14 scramble for a first down in the third quarter. But the 49ers’ defense will not be the same without Warner for the remaining 11 games this season.
Warner was on track to be the first star of the entire season, but for one last time in 2025, No. 54 is the first star on Sunday.
Throughout the season, I will track the three stars of the season, tallying up points for each star award using a complex scoring system: three points for being the first star, two for the second, and one for the third. Through Week 6, the standings are:
- LB Fred Warner – 11 points
- QB Mac Jones – 5 points
- WR Ricky Pearsall – 4 points
About the Author: Insidethe49
