Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers’ undefeated streak against the NFC West came to a crashing halt on Sunday after a blowout 42-26 loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
San Francisco made the mistake of falling behind the Rams by 21 points before getting on the board, and while they came close to catching Los Angeles, the deficit proved too big to overcome.
With the form the Rams had been in entering Week 10, the result shouldn’t come as a surprise, but San Francisco didn’t do themselves any favors with how often they shot themselves in the foot. Let’s go over what we learned in the Week 10 loss:
Any mistake is a bad mistake for the state the 49ers are in
With the amount of injuries the 49ers are dealing with on both sides of the ball, any mistake is going to be tough to overcome. Whether it’s a turnover, a conservative playcall, or a bad matchup, San Francisco is going to have a hard time pushing through, and on Sunday, the 49ers made several mistakes that led to points for the Rams.
The first mistake – and biggest – came on the 49ers’ second drive of the game. After opening the game with a three-and-out, giving the Rams the ball back to allow them to go up 14 points, the 49ers’ offense got off to a better start than their first drive. While a false start put a damper on the beginning of the drive, Mac Jones would find George Kittle and Jauan Jennings on back-to-back 14-yard completions to get the 49ers offense near midfield.
Then, disaster struck. Jones would connect with Jennings for what would have been a 13-yard gain, but Jennings failed to protect the ball, allowing Nate Landman to knock the ball free to be recovered by Los Angeles. Instead of continuing a promising drive, nine plays later, the Rams would be up 21-0, taking advantage of Jennings’ turnover.
The 49ers offense would get back on the field and continue the trend of promising drives ending in negative results. This time, instead of a turnover, it was a conservative playcall from Kyle Shanahan that led to a turnover on downs. Facing a fourth-and-1 inside the Rams’ 15-yard line and down 21 points, Shanahan made the correct decision to go for it. But the playcall was lacking, as a run to the left by McCaffrey was stuffed after the left side of the 49ers’ line collapsed, giving McCaffrey no space to run.
It didn’t help that the following drive, the 49ers faced a fourth-and-2 in the red zone and opted to pass, getting the first down and later scoring a touchdown. The short-yardage struggles continue, especially with McCaffrey having issues running the ball and constantly getting stuffed, leaving him without a massive run this season like we’ve grown accustomed to from him.
Even some of the matchups got weird for the 49ers, with Devante Adams scoring a touchdown later at the goal line with Malik Mustapha playing straight-up...
