49ers Have Fallen From Super Bowl Team To An Inconsistent Cellar Dweller

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There are plenty of reasons the San Francisco 49ers lost again Sunday and are under .500 for the fourth time this NFL season:

Reason No. 1: The defending NFC champions were without a handful of their best players.

Brock Purdy Just Wants To Win, Isn't Getting Caught Up In Contract 'Nonsense'

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

49ers Got ‘Embarrassed’

No Brock Purdy because he is nursing a shoulder injury.

No Nick Bosa because he has a left hip and oblique injury.

No Trent Williams, who has an ankle injury

And no Charvarius Ward because he just returned from bereavement leave following the passing of his little girl.

But there were other things. The 49ers also dialed up nine penalties, including some really painful ones, and turned the football over three times. So that sort of explains Sunday.

“I’m really not concerned about the guys who missed today,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “We didn’t play good enough. So that’s not a factor. But when you are missing some guys, you do have to be better.

“And when you have penalties, we don’t stop the run like we did, and you have turnovers in the second half, that’s how you get embarrassed.”

Green Bay Packers defensive end Kingsley Enagbare (55) pressures San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brandon Allen (17) during their football game Sunday, November 24, 2024, at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Turnovers, Penalties And Other Mistakes

But Sunday’s embarrassment isn’t the only issue. Sunday is a symptom, not the root malady.

The 49ers, you see, are an inconsistent team that perhaps is suffering from a troubling bout of entitlement while playing a sport in a league that scoffs at both inconsistency and entitlement.

So they come out with little urgency and fall behind 17-0.

They make massive mistakes like a terrible holding penalty on the opening kickoff to the second half that mitigated an 87-yard return to the Green Bay 8-yard line.

“When you play a first half like that, we got to be on in the second half,” Shanahan said. “I loved how we came out on that kick return. I thought it was going to give us some huge momentum. It got called back with that penalty.”

And, of course, there were the turnovers. There was an interception thrown by backup quarterback Brandon Allen. There was a fumble by running back Christian McCaffrey, and there was a strip sack against Allen.

49ers Juggernaut Is Missing In Action

All of this combined with a defense that gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns, continuing a troubling trend this season that simply did not show itself last season while the 49ers were driving toward the Super Bowl.

So that juggernaut that has for years come out of its locker room led by a dude carrying a boom box, with players dancing behind him, sending the message they’re confident they’re about to open a can of whoop-ass stew, is no more.

The 49ers are in last place in the NFC West.

It’s not necessarily a permanent fall. There are still six games left to play. But a rally now would be as surprising the final two months of the season as the losses were the previous two months.

This is weird because the 49ers basically field the same personnel they did a season ago. Granted, they’ve had injuries such as McCaffrey’s absence early in the year and Brandon Aiyuk’s ACL injury in Week 7.

DENVER, COLORADO – JANUARY 08: Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid exits the field after defeating the Denver Broncos 28-24 at Empower Field At Mile High on January 08, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)

Niners Haven’t Overcome Injuries

But, breaking news, stuff like this happens. The Kansas City Chiefs beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl (again) last season. This year they lost Hollywood Brown in training camp. And Rashee Rice in Week 4. And Isiah Pacheco since Week 2.

And the Chiefs won their 10th game Sunday, which is twice as many as the Niners have won.

The 49ers, by the way, have tried to manage their business the right way, which makes this season’s unexpected fall so head-scratching. They found some extremely talented players throughout the draft or via trade and rewarded them with big contracts.

So George Kittle got paid.

McCaffrey got paid.

Bosa got paid.

Williams has been paid for a long time and got more money this year.

Aiyuk got paid this year. And Samuel got paid before him.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA – OCTOBER 16: Brandon Aiyuk #11 of the San Francisco 49ers reacts after scoring a touchdown during the second quarter against the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on October 16, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)