From injuries, to forgetting how to score touchdowns
The lessons for the 5-7 San Francisco 49ers have only gotten harder the later in the season we get.
The 49ers’ most recent lesson was easily the toughest, as the Buffalo Bills dismantled them by a score of 35-10 on Sunday night in Buffalo.
Mathematically, the 49ers are still alive – NFL.com’s playoff picture gives them a nine percent chance to make the postseason – but judging by Sunday night’s result, they are still way off even if San Francisco finds a way in. The Super Bowl-caliber Bills looked head-and-shoulders better than the former Super Bowl-hopeful 49ers.
With the things to be learned becoming fewer and fewer as the 49ers season comes to an end, here’s what we learned from the rout in Buffalo on Sunday night.
The 49ers have forgotten how to score touchdowns
The offense wasn’t perfect before the bye week, but scoring wasn’t necessarily an issue through the season’s first eight weeks. Before the bye, San Francisco averaged 26.25 points per game with an average of 2.4 touchdowns.
Since the bye week, the 49ers have averaged 15 points per game, with six touchdowns over the four games, a 1.5 average.
To put that in perspective, the Bills have scored five touchdowns since its bye week. Buffalo was coming off its bye week against the 49ers on Sunday night.
The red zone woes have slowly developed into a scoring problem for the San Francisco offense. On Sunday night, the 49ers didn’t have an issue moving the ball, as they moved it into Buffalo territory on each of their first five drives.
The 49ers walked away from those drives with a whopping three points, with the drives ending with a:
- Field goal
- Missed field goal
- Punt
- Missed field goal
- Fumble
There may be no more substantial evidence that the 49ers have forgotten how to get into the end zone than with the fumble. With some boosted field position from a significant Deebo Samuel kickoff return, the 49ers worked their way inside the Buffalo five-yard line with a chance to cut into the Bills’ 18-point lead.
Instead of handing the ball to Issac Guerendo or getting the ball to Deebo Samuel or George Kittle, Kyle Shanahan decided it was the right moment for Kyle Juszczyk to get his fourth rushing attempt of the season and 59th in his eight years with the 49ers. Juszczyk repaid that faith by getting the ball punched out by Bills safety Taylor Rapp at the goal line, to be picked up and returned to midfield by Buffalo.
It almost felt symbolic of the second half of the 49ers season, getting so close to the goal line before a barrier popped up to prevent a score. Guerendo broke the barrier a few drives later to score the 49ers only touchdown, but in a stretch of the season where San Francisco needed to play near-perfect football, they seemed to forget the purpose of being on offense.
The injuries have become too much to overcome
We are teetering on excuse territory, but Sunday night showed this team can’t even compete with the amount of injuries the 49ers have. To make it even worse, virtually every position group was affected by injury on Sunday night.
With Brock Purdy participating in a light week of practice after missing Week 12 with a shoulder injury, something felt off with the quarterback. There wasn’t that zip to his throws that we’ve seen in the past, and things felt off. Now, it’s logical to think the weather played a factor in that, but considering Purdy couldn’t even throw just a week ago, it’s not a stretch to consider the cold made the shoulder more challenging to function.
Looking around Purdy’s offense, the McCaffrey situation played out as it did (more on that in a second), and Brandon Aiyuk is still out with his knee injury. The offensive line was without Trent Williams and Aaron Banks, although Jaylon Moore and Ben Bartch handled the left side of the line well.
That covers every offensive position group (except for tight ends, but those could be lumped with receivers). The defense doesn’t get much better. Nick Bosa and Javon Hargrave are still missing from the line, Dre Greenlaw isn’t quite ready, and Fred Warner has played the last two months with a fractured ankle. The secondary is still without Talanoa Hufanga, and Deommodore Lenoir was out on Sunday.
Every position group on the defense is missing at least one key contributor.
Having to play the now 10-2 Bills is a challenging task within itself. The 49ers had to travel to northern New York in the snow to take on that challenge, making it tougher. All of that is even before the injuries are mentioned. Those circumstances created a nearly impossible environment for the 49ers to win.
The 49ers are cursed
Now, we have fully leaned into excuse territory. I understand I am among the last to realize this, but I have never believed in luck or curses. I have always thought that all events are separate and things just happen.
That entire perspective changed with McCaffrey’s game on Sunday.
McCaffrey had not been good in his first three games since returning from his Achilles injury – 149 yards on 43 attempts – but early on, he showed signs of a return to form. The running back had four carries for 29 yards, including a season-long 19-yard run, gaining more than half the yards on the 49ers opening drive that resulted in a Jake Moody field goal.
The momentum continued to the 49ers next drive, where McCaffrey opened the drive with a 12-yard reception and a 12-yard run to move the offense to midfield. His third touch of the carry was another explosive run, one that would have gone for a touchdown had Taylor Rapp not gotten the slightest touch on McCaffrey’s leg, stopping the run at 18 yards with McCaffrey’s knee banging on the Buffalo 30-yard line.
The tackle did more than just prevent a touchdown, but also ended McCaffrey’s game (and potentially season). A few plays later, McCaffrey would come up limp while receiving a pitch and slide to end the play for a loss of five. He would check himself out of the game, and that was that.
After years of many different indicators that this could be the case, it took a snowy night in Buffalo for me to finally come to terms with the fact that the 49ers are cursed.