Niners Nation
Plus, a baffling decision before the end of the first half by Kyle Shanahan
A win is a win, but for a San Francisco 49ers team coming off a bye week, Sunday’s win left us with more questions than answers.
The 49ers were able to squeak out a 23-20 win in Tampa Bay against the Buccaneers, but it shouldn’t have been as close as it was. San Francisco jumped out to an early 10-0 lead, but like plenty of games earlier in the season, they couldn’t pull away, and the Bucs hung around, keeping it within one score for the entire game.
The return of Christian McCaffrey wasn’t all it was hyped to be, rushing for 39 yards on 13 attempts, and the offense still struggled, especially in the red zone. But the 49ers managed to escape with a 5-4 record. The win, in review:
A quietly solid defense
There were a million and a half talking points from this game alone, so I wanted to ensure the 49ers defense got its shine.
No player in particular stood out, but the unit stymied the Tampa Bay offense. The Buccaneers did have some success on the ground, with Bucky Irvining leading the way with 13 carries for 73 yards and a touchdown, but Tampa only managed 215 total yards on 58 plays, good for a measly 3.7 yards per play.
Maybe the game doesn’t feel as significant for the defense since there were no turnovers, ending a three-game streak with at least two turnovers forced. Instead of relying on a big momentum swing, the San Francisco defense slowly smothered the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay’s offense had ten drives on Sunday, with six ending in punts, two ending in field goals, and two ending in touchdowns.
One of the touchdowns shouldn’t even be counted against the defense, forcing a three-and-out to open the second half, but a Jacob Cowing muffed punt gave Tampa Bay the ball back, leading to a short-field touchdown.
The defense even handled some (self-inflicted) adversity, allowing Tampa Bay inside the San Francisco 10-yard-line with multiple penalties on the Bucs’ final possession but still holding them to a game-tying field goal instead of a go-ahead touchdown.
Fred Warner led the way with nine tackles. Tampa Bay went 5-for-14 on third down. The 49ers only sacked Mayfield twice. Nothing pops off the box score, but a solid performance from Nick Sorensen’s defense.
A baffling decision before the half
We’ve talked about it in the past, but conservative Kyle Shanahan struck again a few times on Sunday. Two of Jake Moody’s misses were preventable by Shanahan attempting a fourth down-and-medium.
Shanahan’s decision to attempt the 49-yard field goal at the half was mind-boggling.
Facing a third-and-10 inside Buccaneers territory with under a minute left in the half, Brock Purdy hit Ricky Pearsall, who got out of bounds to set up a fourth-and-3 with 29 seconds left. With the 49ers holding a seven-point lead with all three timeouts, Shanahan sent Moody for a...
