Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers defense allowed 20 points without their best pass rusher and cornerback, and one of those touchdowns drives were aided by the refs accepting a penalty when Kyle Shanahan didn’t want to, while another happened on one play.
On the flip side, the offense mustered 389 yards at 6.2 yards per clip, but had four turnovers. Unfortunately, the special teams found a way to hurt the 49ers in multiple ways. You’re not going to win in the NFL the way San Francisco played in Week 4, whether it’s against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams, or the Stanford Cardinal.
The fact that the 49ers were competitive despite the comedy of errors says more than the scoreboard does. Now is no time to overreact. They lost a game where they had no business winning. The margins are too thin to emerge victorious after playing that way.
Let’s talk about the winners and losers from Sunday.
Despite not having Nick Bosa and Renardo Green, the 49ers’ pass defense held Trevor Lawrence to a season-low 174 yards and a 5.6 yards per attempt. The one explosive passing play came on a down that should’ve never existed. It also happened to be a play where Kyle Shanahan believed there was enough evidence to overturn the catch on a challenge.
Travis Hunter had two catches for 14 yards on four other targets. Brian Thomas was held in check after he was a popular pick to break out this week. In theory, limiting a passing attack and its top two threats should be enough to win in the modern NFL.
Here’s how the Jaguars ‘ second-half drives went on offense:
3 plays, 4 yards, punt
6 plays, 29 yards, punt
4 plays, 3 yards, field goal
3 plays, 8 yards, punt
9 plays, 27 yards, missed field goal
6 plays, 8 yards, end of game
Ricky Pearsall tried to gut out a knee injury after falling directly on his knee, but he only lasted one play. Pearsall was well on his way to another productive outing, having caught four of his five targets for 46 yards, including a highlight one-handed catch for 31 yards. Where Pearsall continues to impress is in contest catch situations. Against Jacksonville, Pearsall hauled in two of those three targets. The 49ers need him on the field.
It was a gutsy performance by Jennings, who caught a pair of first-down targets, should have had a touchdown if the pass was accurate, and later caught a two-point conversion despite being sandwiched in between multiple defenders. You can see why the team holds Jennings in high regard.
Brock Purdy was under pressure on 32.5 percent of his dropbacks. That was right around league average in Week 4. Kyle Shanahan calls long-developing plays that require his linemen to hold up for 3+ seconds. That in turn asks Purdy to hold onto the ball. Inevitably, he’s going to...
