49ers taught tough lesson in loss to Buffalo
Allen is an elite QB, something the 49ers don't seem to have
While the 49ers were beaten, across the board, it was the quarterback disparity that loomed largest.
When the 49ers have won this season, more often than not, it has been because they were the more physical team.
Monday night, they were not that team.
They were not the more talented, best coached, or more inspired team, either. And the quarterback comparison? Well, that also wasn’t fair.
The 49ers have been a one- trick pony on offense for most of this season, and they weren’t even able to perform that trick Monday.
The Buffalo Bills simply whooped them. The 49ers playoff hopes — resuscitated by a win over the Rams and, more importantly, Arizona’s threegame losing streak — are now hanging by a single thread.
While the 49ers were beaten, across the board, on Monday, it was the quarterback disparity that loomed largest.
Buffalo’s Josh Allen was absolutely fantastic. The Niners’ quarterback, Nick Mullens, was… not.
Mullens put up some fantasy points once Buffalo went ahead by three scores late in the third quarter, but after roughly 15 minutes of game- time, Mullens was simply not a threat to win the game. Buffalo sold out to stop the 49ers’ run game, daring Mullens to beat them.
He didn’t come close. Meanwhile, Allen turned in a performance that would have beaten any team in the NFL.
The Bills’ third- year quarterback completed 32 of 40 passes for 375 yards, throwing four touchdowns and zero interceptions. He was expert at changing plays at the line of scrimmage, and his scrambling —
particularly to his right — extended plays that he then made with his elite arm strength.
Allen was challenged plenty by the Niners, but he rose to the occasion. He made plays.
Mullens, when asked to do anything but manage the game ( while the game was still in the balance) made mistakes.
Of course, while Allen has his detractors, no one would have reasonably expected the 49ers’ undrafted quarterback to outduel him Monday night. That’s why it was so surprising to see the 49ers favored going into the game.
Still, Buffalo is not a well- rounded team. The Bills have talent on the offensive end, no doubt, but their defense has been a disappointment all season. And yet, because they have Allen and his prodigious abilities — albeit ones that don’t always show on game day — they are going to go to the playoffs and have as good a shot as anyone to win the Super Bowl.
The NFL has changed the rules to make quarterbacks’ lives easier. They can stand in the pocket with minimal fear, given the number of penalties a defense can commit for even breathing on a quarterback. Teams can run passing routes over the middle without a second thought because enforcing that area with a hard- hitting safety is no longer legal. That’s the easiest throw for a quarterback to
make. And if a quarterback can run, he might never get touched, so long as he can slide.
The NFL wants to be the NBA — it wants the big names ( and that’s really just quarterbacks) to make big plays and decide the big games.
They’re getting exactly that.
The Niners still have important games to play, but they’ve seen, firsthand, this
truth play out too many times now.
To be an elite team in the NFL, you cannot have a quarterback who simply takes plays — a game manager. You have to have a quarterback who makes plays.
Allen did that Monday with both his mind and his athletic ability.
Mul lens obv iously doesn’t stack up in that regard.
But does Jimmy Garoppolo?
The 49ers were an exceptional team last year — a generational team, perhaps.
And the talent dropoff from 2019 to 2020 — before all the injuries — was already prodigious. There will be another dropoff this upcoming offseason with the salary- cap crunch the Niners are facing.
Meanwhile, 90 percent of the NFL is running their own version of Kyle Shanahan’s offense these days — wide zone runs with plenty of crossing routes over the middle. The Niners’ scheme advantage is dissipating by the week.
The Niners, so dominant just a year ago, are coming back to the pack.
If they wait another year on making a quarterback change, will they still have an advantage by the time a new guy takes the helm?
Great teams don’t last. But great quarterbacks do.
And great quarterbacks win the big games. Games such as last year’s Super Bowl. Games such as those in Weeks 1, 8, and 9 this season, and once again on Monday night with Allen.
So let’s see if, come this offseason — which after Monday night is likely coming after Week 17 — the 49ers heed that lesson.