Niners Nation
You can probably guess what 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan felt cost his team against the Seahawks in Week 11
The San Francisco 49ers offense enters each game with high expectations. After what they accomplished in 2023, how could they not?
There would always be a drop-off in 2024, regardless if this team was fully healthy. But not having Christian McCaffrey for the first half of the season and losing Brand Aiyuk in Week 7 capped the ceiling of the offense.
Still, Kyle Shanahan has found ways to manufacture explosive plays on early downs and keep this unit in the upper echelon of the NFL despite what feels like rolling weekly injuries to one of their primary weapons.
It doesn’t feel like it, but the Niners have been among the best teams in the NFL on early downs at creating big plays:
That was the case in the 49ers Week 6 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. San Francisco had five plays of 20+ yards. They did not replicate that success the second time around, as the Niners could only muster one explosive play in Week 11.
Despite that, and gaining more than 206 yards and having a six percent higher success rate in Week 6, Kyle Shanahan said on a conference call Monday that he felt the Niners played better offensively on Sunday than they did the first time against Seattle:
“And I actually thought we played a better game offensively than we did on that Thursday night game. We didn’t get, you know, on that Thursday night game, we got the busted coverage on Deebo’s [Samuel] 70-yarder, and we got those two explosive runs, which really helped. But we played better football this game.
We just didn’t at all with the penalties, and you know, we had one 14-play drive where I don’t know how many 14-play drives that I’ve been a part of that don’t end with points or a missed field goal or turnover. To go 14 plays and then punt it, we had eight plays inside the 50 after that turnover for the field goal, having to overcome it a couple times and get them again. So, that was our biggest problem on the day I felt offensively.”
It’s fair to point out the busted coverage, and the stats are inflated by Isaac Guerendo’s 70+ yard run toward the end of the game, but the offense was nowhere near as choppy that Thursday night as it was this past Sunday.
To begin the quote, Shanahan said the biggest problem for the offense on the day was the seven offensive penalties. The offense overcame three penalties on one scoring drive, which is unsustainable.
One of the 11-play drives that took seven minutes off the clock only gained 26 yards. So there’s a bit of Fool’s Gold if you’re looking at time of possession or number of plays. Brock Purdy scrambled for 13 yards to pick up a first down on that drive. He’d later connect with Jauan...
