The San Francisco 49ers defense allowed 20 points without their best pass rusher and cornerback, and one of those touchdowns drives were aided by the refs accepting a penalty when Kyle Shanahan didn’t want to, while another happened on one play.
On the flip side, the offense mustered 389 yards at 6.2 yards per clip, but had four turnovers. Unfortunately, the special teams found a way to hurt the 49ers in multiple ways. You’re not going to win in the NFL the way San Francisco played in Week 4, whether it’s against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams, or the Stanford Cardinal.
The fact that the 49ers were competitive despite the comedy of errors says more than the scoreboard does. Now is no time to overreact. They lost a game where they had no business winning. The margins are too thin to emerge victorious after playing that way.
Let’s talk about the winners and losers from Sunday.
Winners
Pass defense
Despite not having Nick Bosa and Renardo Green, the 49ers’ pass defense held Trevor Lawrence to a season-low 174 yards and a 5.6 yards per attempt. The one explosive passing play came on a down that should’ve never existed. It also happened to be a play where Kyle Shanahan believed there was enough evidence to overturn the catch on a challenge.
Travis Hunter had two catches for 14 yards on four other targets. Brian Thomas was held in check after he was a popular pick to break out this week. In theory, limiting a passing attack and its top two threats should be enough to win in the modern NFL.
Here’s how the Jaguars ‘ second-half drives went on offense:
3 plays, 4 yards, punt
6 plays, 29 yards, punt
4 plays, 3 yards, field goal
3 plays, 8 yards, punt
9 plays, 27 yards, missed field goal
6 plays, 8 yards, end of game
Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings
Ricky Pearsall tried to gut out a knee injury after falling directly on his knee, but he only lasted one play. Pearsall was well on his way to another productive outing, having caught four of his five targets for 46 yards, including a highlight one-handed catch for 31 yards. Where Pearsall continues to impress is in contest catch situations. Against Jacksonville, Pearsall hauled in two of those three targets. The 49ers need him on the field.
It was a gutsy performance by Jennings, who caught a pair of first-down targets, should have had a touchdown if the pass was accurate, and later caught a two-point conversion despite being sandwiched in between multiple defenders. You can see why the team holds Jennings in high regard.
The pass protection
Brock Purdy was under pressure on 32.5 percent of his dropbacks. That was right around league average in Week 4. Kyle Shanahan calls long-developing plays that require his linemen to hold up for 3+ seconds. That in turn asks Purdy to hold onto the ball. Inevitably, he’s going to be under pressure.
Watching the game, it never felt like the offensive line was holding back the passing game. In fact, Purdy’s 3.04 seconds on average of time to throw was the third highest among all quarterbacks in Week 4. That should trump the five pressures Connor Colby allowed and four pressures Trent Williams surrendered — mind you, most of these are due to Colby failing to pick up a stunt, so Williams is left chasing one guy, so it looks like he’s the one who is beaten.
The Niners may have been beaten a time or two schematically, but they won the battle in the passing game up front across Purdy’s 38 attempts.
Losers
Special teams
Eddy Pineiro made all three of his kicks. Thomas Morstead had a 51-yard punt. Skyy Moore had a 16-yard punt return and a 29-yard kickoff return. Yet, the Niners’ special teams, in my mind, were among the primary reasons they lost the game in Week 4.
After a Pineiro field goal, the kickoff team allowed a 54-yard return. That gave the Jaguars the ball at San Francisco’s 47-yard line with 32 seconds left in the half. There’s a free three points.
Morestead had a punt return for a touchdown. After the game, Kyle Shanahan thought the Jaguars got away with a block in the back. It wasn’t called, so there’s not much you can do about it. We’re up to 10 points gifted by the special teams.
Chase Lucas was flagged for an unnecessary roughness penalty after the Niners went on a 92-yard scoring drive. How does that happen? Jacksonville missed its field goal attempt, but that should have been 13 points surrendered by the special teams. That’s dreadful.
Brock Purdy
Brock Purdy had no issue moving the ball, despite not having a running game. He threw for 289 yards while having the fifth-highest average completed air yards of any quarterback this week. Purdy’s issues came when he held onto the ball:
When throwing the ball under 2.5 seconds: 10-for-13, 129 yards, 2 TDs
When throwing the ball after 2.5 seconds: 12-for-25, 180 yards, 2 INTs, and a fumble
From the time the ball was snapped to the point where Arik Armstead hit Purdy’s hand took roughly 3.6 seconds. Yes, Purdy was indeed under pressure. That doesn’t absolve him from not taking care of the football.
One of Purdy’s throws was tipped after a play-action fake, while the other was a high pass that ricocheted off Christian McCaffrey’s hands. The McCaffrey play is a first down nine out of ten times. The other interception is less forgivable.
It’s one thing to be a gunslinger; it’s another to be careless with the ball. While Purdy’s second interception was tipped, he failed to account for the weak-side linebacker. He was going to catch the ball, regardless of a defensive lineman getting a hand on it. The linebacker baited Purdy into a poor decision.
The first interception? Whatever. It happens. Those are part of the game, and Purdy was trying to make a play. He just missed. But the fumble and the second pick are plays that can’t happen.
He missed more throws than usual that would have kept the offense on the field and put them in positions to score. Purdy had a pair of scrambles, including one for 11 yards. He looked indecisive at times about whether to run. We know when Purdy’s at his best, he’s climbing the pocket, using a pump fake to deke a defender, and running for a first down. He had five rushing attempts in Week 1.
Purdy is dealing with soreness in his toe. The 49ers have a quick turnaround, but it’s against a team many picked to win the NFC West. If Brock does suit up, he needs to be far more decisive than he was on Sunday.
Kendrick Bourne
By necessity, the 49ers are playing players they never intended to. Kendrick Bourne was credited with three drops on four targets. I’m in the minority when I say drops are overrated. You should be able to overcome those. But three is egregious, and when it’s third down and you’re going to run uncontested into the end zone…That might be worthy of pulling the plug on the Bourne experiment.
He looks like a product of the scheme, as most do in this offense. Bourne has to play because after him, the option is Skyy Moore. If Ricky Pearsall misses Thursday, it likely means an uptick in snaps for Bourne. The Niners’ hands are tied because of their injuries at the position. This is supposed to be Jacob Cowing or Jordan Watkins running these routes.
The pass rush
Turns out, that Nick Bosa guy is vital to the success of the 49ers’ pass rush. Trevor Lawrence was pressured on 18.8 percent of his dropbacks in Week 4, which was the lowest of any quarterback. Robert Saleh did his best to manufacture pressure with different looks and games up front, but to no avail.
Bryce Huff was the only player to generate multiple pressures. That’s not going to cut it. You can’t expect to win in the NFL with a smoke-and-mirrors type of pass rush. The 49ers invested heavily in their defensive line this year in an effort to build around their best player. Now, that player is out for the season, and San Francisco is stuck with role players and rookies to rush the passer. It showed on Sunday.
The 49ers only generated five pressures on Lawrence, which was their lowest since playing in the snow in Buffalo last season — another game the defense played without Bosa.
If the 49ers are aggressive at the trade deadline, that’ll tell us how they feel about this team and how far it can go. If the Niners stand pat, it’s a sign that they don’t believe this is a year they can make a run — not without Bosa.
The running game
The pass protection is not an issue. I’d go as far as to say they are above average in that regard. That couldn’t be further from the truth for the 49ers’ running game. They’ve had the same issues in every game. Wide receivers are missing blocks. Linemen don’t know who to block. Multiple linemen miss a block on a play. McCaffrey has to dance his way to a four-yard gain because there’s so much traffic in the backfield.
A Kyle Shanahan offense does not have a rushing touchdown through four games. This week, the 49ers’ rushing attack was the fourth-worst in yards per rush, seventh-worst EPA per rush, and had only two rushes of 10+ yards (tied for third-worst), while sitting dead last in rushing yards over expectation.
That’s been true essentially every week. We are aware of the issues, as highlighted in the first paragraph. But nothing has changed. This team cannot run the ball without George Kittle.
The zebras
The referees weren’t the reason why the 49ers lost to the Jaguars, but they sure didn’t do the home team any favors.
Kyle Shanahan was not thrilled with the refs, judging by his postgame press conference. Shanahan said the refs told him they messed up when they accepted a second-quarter penalty on behalf of the 49ers that gave Jacksonville two chances to convert — which they did. It had to be a communication issue, as it makes zero sense to accept that penalty when the yardage was negligent and the down mattered more.
Shanahan calling a timeout to get an explanation actually ended up hurting the team, as you cannot reverse the call once a timeout has been called.
Shanahan thought he saw enough to overturn Travis Hunter’s third-down reception on the next play. He left no doubt about the potential block in the back that wasn’t called on the punt return touchdown, saying, “I wish we woulda got that call” and “It looked like one to me,” when asked about the block in the back.
The most egregious penalty was on Upton Stout. The rookie was flagged for defensive pass interference. Shanahan called it a “hell of a play” by Stout.
On the broadcast, Mark Sanchez said Stout used the wide receiver to slingshot himself and get in front of the ball. The replay showed Stout putting his hand on the receiver, but there was no visible force used. It’s a play that has to be called on every play if you call it there.
The score was 17-14 at the time. San Francisco would’ve taken over at Jacksonville’s 12-yard line with 8:18 remaining in the third quarter. While the defense ended up forcing a punt, the offense turned the ball over on the first play of the ensuing drive.
Again, you have to be good enough to overcome the refs. They will find a way to insert themselves into games. The 49ers made a plethora of mistakes elsewhere. But they didn’t get any help from the stripes.
Think about everything that went wrong in this game. Four turnovers, another almost turnover after McCaffrey fumbled. The defense having four drives beginning in their own territory. The special teams effectively giving up 10 points. An 11.1 percent drop rate, which was the fourth-worst by any team in any game this season. One defensive drive lasted one play because of a missed tackle. Zero signs of life in your running game after the first drive.
Sunday was Murphy’s Law for the 49ers. It would be difficult for them to play worse, which is why it should be easy for the team to flush Week 4 and move on.
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