As has been the case all season, the 49ers shot themselves in the foot repeatedly.
The San Francisco 49ers allowed 12 points. Los Angeles Rams receiver Cooper Kupp was held to zero yards on zero receptions. The defense looked revitalized and like the ferocious San Francisco defense we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years. Dre Greenlaw was the emotional leader, and the rest of the defense took that energy and put together its best performance for 2024.
If I had told you all that would happen before kickoff on Thursday, you would be asking how many points the 49ers won by.
But in a game the 49ers needed to keep its already slim playoff hopes alive, the offense responded to the defense’s 12 points allowed with six measly points.
The 2024 season of the 49ers ended in a game in which field goals were the only scoring on both sides. The Rams offense found itself in plus territory more than San Francisco’s, resulting in Los Angeles’s 12-6 win.
Thursday was just an example of the issues all season long for the 49ers, and that’ll be the main point of this week’s game review. Like they have all season, the 49ers shot themselves in the foot too many times against the Rams, and Thursday proved to be the breaking point:
Entirely too many mistakes to overcome
The mistakes started early. You don’t recognize how big mistakes in the first quarter can be, but when the game develops and turns into a 12-6 struggle, the early errors only become magnified.
While it was a good game for the defense, that side of the ball started with the seemingly innocuous mistakes. Matthew Stafford tried to gift the 49ers defense a few turnovers early on, but the Niners couldn’t capitalize. Facing the Rams’ first third down of the night, Stafford targeted Cooper Kupp on a slant route Deommodore Lenoir had perfectly telegraphed. Lenoir got himself in position for the interception, but the ball cut through the cornerbacks’ hands for an incomplete pass.
After a questionable sequence from the 49ers offense – more on that in a second – Stafford and the Rams offense faced another third down. Stafford again would try to use his arm to extend the drive, this time looking for Tutu Atwell. The Rams quarterback would miss Atwell, putting the ball right into the bread basket of Talanoa Hufanga. Unfortunately for the 49ers, Hufanga was playing with a club over his injured hand and couldn’t haul in the gift from Stafford, again forcing the Rams to punt.
The defense might have gotten those stops, but Lenoir’s would-be interception would have put the 49ers deep in Rams territory, and Hufanga’s would have put the offense near midfield. Instead, two punts would push San Francisco deep into 49ers territory and only get one field goal from the punts. That field goal in itself was a mistake.
Let’s go back to that questionable sequence I mentioned. San Francisco put three points on the board between the Rams’ first two drives, and Kyle Shanahan seemed completely content with it. The 49ers opened its second drive with its biggest play of the game, a 33-yard catch and run from George Kittle to get into plus-territory. Instead of pushing the ball downfield with more passes, Shanahan called straight runs, managing six yards, and called on Jake Moody for a 53-yard field goal attempt, which he would convert.
The third-down run would have made sense if it had been followed by an attempt to convert the fourth-and-4, but Shanahan wasted no time bringing Moody out instead. In a game where only 15 more points would be scored between the two teams, the conservative play-calling after the 49ers’ biggest gain of the night needs to be questioned.
Discussing the 49ers’ mistakes without mentioning the special teams would be impossible. While it wasn’t the worst night for the unit, they included themselves in the mistakes. Twice, the 49ers punt team was called for illegal formation, and twice, the Rams took those five extra yards and turned them into points.
The Los Angeles offense had 11 drives, with four resulting in points. The special teams penalties aided two of those drives that got points.
And while five yards might not seem like a lot, consider Joshua Karty’s first field of the night just how vital five yards can be. With the five yards, Carty’s first attempt was from 48 yards, which is a kick the rookie kicker would make. On a replay, you could see the ball barely knick the fingertip of Jordan Elliott at the line of scrimmage. The tip didn’t affect the ball enough, but the kick was still good.
Join me on a quick bit of speculation. Maybe if the punt team isn’t in an illegal formation, Karty’s attempt is from 53 yards instead of 48. With the slight further distance, maybe Karty needs to have the ball come off his foot at a lower trajectory to cover the extra five yards. Perhaps that slightly lower angle is enough to get the ball to hit Elliott’s palm instead of his fingertips, and the field goal is blocked, and the game changes from there.
There are a lot of maybes and a lot of speculation, but not an entirely big leap in judgment.
Those mistakes happened in the first half, and they were small enough that San Francisco could easily overcome them, especially with a tie game going into the half. Unfortunately, the 49ers waited for the second half to make their biggest mistakes in the game.
The first mistake compounded an error that was happening all night. Shanahan relied too much on Deebo Samuel. Samuel finished with five touches – three receptions and two carries – for 19 yards—a whopping 3.8 yards per touch. But Shanahan kept insisting on getting Samuel going.
And that insistence was the first big mistake of the second half. Facing a third-and-10 nearing the red zone, Purdy tried to hit an open Samuel on a quick slant. Everything went perfectly: the throw was there on time, Samuel had a step on the defender, and even more, there was a potential path to the end zone.
We would never see that path develop as Samuel would drop the pass, ruining a potential score and killing the drive. Instead of seven, the 49ers had to settle for a field goal to take a 6-3 lead. Those would be San Francisco’s last points of the game.
The Rams would match the 49ers’ second field goal on the ensuing drive, tying the game back up. San Francisco would be forced into a three-and-out, setting up the 49ers’ defense for its first – and only—big mistake of the game.
Stafford would take that punt and instantly try to push the ball downfield. On the drive’s first play, the quarterback uncorked one of the few deep shots the Rams would take all game, and Nacua would get a step on Charvarius Ward, hauling in the pass for a 51-yard gain, the longest play of the game. It was an excellent night from the secondary, but there was one flaw, and this play proved to be a deciding factor. The explosive play would instantly move the Rams into field goal position, and Karty would hit what proved to be the game-winner to put Los Angeles up 9-6.
But down three points and nine minutes left in the game isn’t impossible, and the 49ers offense would get to work. It would take seven plays from the 49ers to go from their 30-yard-line to get to the Rams 33. The offense had some momentum, and the game was winding near the five-minute mark. A touchdown at the time would have put San Francisco up four, and the Los Angeles offense hadn’t been close to finding the end zone all game.
With a chance to take the late lead, San Francisco took a chance. Now, the 49ers had a few drops that didn’t help Purdy, but Purdy was missing throws all game. He was wild most of the night and had a few passes that could have and should have been intercepted but was clean up until this point.
But Purdy took his chance. He went deep to Jauan Jennings to at least get San Francisco inside the 10, if not into the end zone for the go-ahead score. Unfortunately, Purdy overshot his target by about five yards, and Darious Williams made a play on the ball to intercept it and end the 49ers’ drive.
San Francisco wouldn’t see the ball again until 11 seconds left in the game. Purdy would miss one more pass to Ricky Pearsall along the sideline, which could have set up a more manageable chance for the end zone. Instead, Purdy would get sacked on the final play, effectively ending the 49ers season.
Thursday night was like many of San Francisco’s other losses this season: a perfectly winnable game, but too many mistakes in key spots turning a win into a loss.