The 49ers have failed the 2024 season exam
Remember back in Week 1 when we started this series, and I made the “regular season games are the homework assignments for the test that is the postseason” analogy? I made it because the playoffs were a mere certainty for the 2024 San Francisco 49ers.
At least, it should be for a team that’s been to the NFC Championship Game four times in the last five seasons.
To finish the analogy I started four months ago, the 49ers failed the course and will not be allowed into the building for the final exam.
The 49ers went out with as weak of a punch they’ve thrown all season, getting beat by four Joshua Karty field goals in a 12-6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. The Thursday night loss was the final domino to fall. It ended the 49ers’ slim playoff chances in the lowest-scoring output by Kyle Shanahan’s offense since they scored three points against the Carolina Panthers in Shanahan’s first game as San Francisco’s head coach.
With the 49ers failing out, what did we learn from the Week 15 loss?
We’ve reached rock bottom of the Kyle Shanahan era
Two quick caveats before diving in:
- This is not an endorsement of the fire Shanahan movement that has suddenly picked up steam. We are within the longest-sustained run of 49ers football since the turn of the millennium, and it started when Shanahan and John Lynch stepped in. If the NFL is a week-to-week league, then it’s most definitely a year-to-year league as well. Seasons like this can and will happen.
- 2020 sucked. But that was more injuries than what this season was. Yes, the 49ers have been without Christian McCaffrey and Dre Greenlaw for the majority of the season and lost Brandon Aiyuk, but they showed signs of struggle early on before the injuries got as bad as they did.
With that said, Thursday night’s loss was everything the 2024 season has been, but it played out through an excruciating 60 minutes of football.
The loss was the 49ers’ eighth of the season. Three losses – Kansas City, Buffalo, and Green Bay – were well deserved. The 49ers flat-out got beat. The five remaining loses; however, the Niners beat themselves. Each of those five losses brings up numerous memories of things going wrong and just how different 2024 would be if just a couple of things went differently. Things like Sam Darnold hitting Justin Jefferson for a 97-yard touchdown or blowing three fourth-quarter leads against division rivals.
Thursday night was just a slow burn of everything that’s gone wrong for the 2024 49ers. Mistakes, sloppy play, and the inability to make a play when needed cost the 49ers against the Rams in Week 15, as they have all season.
The first name that comes to mind when thinking about Thursday night’s mistakes is Deebo Samuel. The receiver has struggled mightily in recent weeks, but as Shanahan had done when the 49ers needed a win, he leaned on Samuel to play his way out of his bad form.
Suffice to say that the plan didn’t work.
While none of the 49ers pass-catchers had a particularly stellar night, Samuel’s game stands out for a few reasons. Samuel had more touches, including two rushes, than George Kittle and Jauan Jennings, but only 19 yards on those five touches. Kittle and Jennings combined for 92 yards on six combined touches, with Kittle outgaining Samuel’s entire night with his first touch, a 33-yard reception.
But Samuel’s most important touch of the night isn’t reflected in the box score. We’ve seen Samuel make several season-altering plays in previous seasons, and on Thursday, he had a chance to make another. Instead, he made the drop heard around Santa Clara, and the 49ers’ best chance of finding the endzone was killed quickly.
While Samuel’s performance and that specific play were the talking point, Brock Purdy’s poor performance shouldn’t be lost. He was wild all night with his throws, and his box score reflected that — Purdy’s 45.2 completion percentage on Thursday was by far the lowest of the season. There were a few drops mixed in, but Purdy was inaccurate the whole night, and his two worst misses happened in the second half, well after the rain from earlier in the game ended.
As it was all night, only a little offensive happened for either side after the Samuel drop. The Rams took a three-point lead with a pair of field goals, but still plenty manageable for the 49ers. With San Francisco in Rams territory needing at least a field goal, Purdy uncorked a deep shot to Jennings but overthrew him by several yards and was intercepted, ending a potential scoring drive in the fourth quarter.
The Rams took the turnover and milked the clock while extending its lead to six before returning the ball to San Francisco with less than 20 seconds left. Without any timeouts, the Niners had time for a quick play to the sideline before taking the shot to the endzone. Ricky Pearsall got open on the sideline attempt, but Purdy again missed the open receiver for what would have been a gain of 20. Instead of the game’s final play being a 30-yard shot to the end zone, the 49ers season would rely on a prayer. That prayer never had a chance, with Purdy swarmed by the Rams’ pass rush.
Purdy’s missed throws and Samuel’s drop were physical errors, but the defense made the biggest mistake of the night simply because it was a mental mistake. Between the 49ers final two drives, the Rams faced a third-and-4 at the two-minute warning. A stop would give the 49ers the ball with plenty of time and a chance to win the game, but a first down would allow the Rams to whittle down the clock.
Matthew Stafford sent Cooper Kupp in motion, exposing that San Francisco was in man-to-man coverage. What made that obvious was that Kupp’s man – Charvarius Ward – followed him across the field. The issue for the 49ers was that Colby Parkinson’s man – Talanoa Hufanga – also followed, leaving Parkinson wide open for the third down conversion that would kill the 49ers playoff hopes.
2024 won’t be the 49ers’ worst record of the Shanahan era, but considering the expectations for the 49ers, this is about as bad as it can be. This team is too talented to be 6-8, especially considering the losses the Niners have suffered this season. 2020 was a year of backup quarterbacks. 2024 was the year the 49ers were just an average football team, and that feels so much worse.