49ERS STILL STRUGGLE WITH TURNOVERS
SANTA CLARA — The San Francisco 49ers suffered their most lopsided defeat of the season to the undefeated Los Angeles Rams. And head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t think his team can compete with the league’s best until it corrects its most glaring issue.
“Once we fix the turnovers, then we have a chance to start playing football,” he said afterward.
San Francisco (1-6), debuting their all-white throwback uniforms honoring their 1994 championship team, turned the ball over four times leading to 24 points for Los Angeles. The Rams entered the weekend with the NFL’s topranked offense, yet three of their four touchdown drives went 27 yards or shorter en route to the 39-10 win.
“It’s inexcusable,” Shanahan said. “It’s impossible to win in this league when you turn the ball over like we are and you when don’t get any.”
The 49ers didn’t force any turnovers and worsened their league’s worst takeaway differential to minus-15. They have given the ball away 14 times since forcing their last turnover Week 4 against the Chargers, when safety Antone Exum Jr. had a pick-six against Philip Rivers on the first series of the game. That was 21 days ago.
San Francisco has the fewest takeaways on the season (three) — and the most giveaways (18). Predictably, that formula helped them join the Cardinals as the only teams in the NFL with six losses through seven weeks.
Quarterback C.J. Beathard was tagged with three turnovers (two interceptions, one fumble) and running back Matt Breida had the ball ripped away by star defensive lineman Aaron Donald, who dominated the game up front.
The reigning defensive player of the year had four of the Rams’ seven sacks, the most of a 49ers’ opponent this season. Beathard threw for just 170 yards on 27 attempts. Three of the San Francisco’s turnovers came in the first half, when the Rams jumped out to a 22-0 lead and put Shanahan’s club in a stranglehold it couldn’t escape.
The game felt out of hand as soon as the Rams scored their first touchdown following Breida’s fumble early in the second quarter, which led to the first of running back Todd Gurley’s two touchdowns.
“We’re doing nothing but hurting ourselves. We feel like we’re the reason why we’re losing these games,” Breida said.
The game also included a blocked punt that went out of the end zone for a 36-yard punt return in the fourth quarter that led to Gurley’s second touchdown.
The 49ers, despite their record, had been competitive throughout the season, even after losing their franchise quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo Week 3. Their average margin of defeat in their previous three games since losing Garoppolo was just five points.
The 19-point loss to the Rams was the first time San Francisco has been blown out since.
“It’s always embarrassing when you lose like that,” Shanahan said. “We’ve got pride and we’re also confident in what we do. We’re not proud of our record right now. We’re definitely not proud of today. When we played better, we still feel the same way. We’re not into any moral victories here. We’re as far away from one as we could have today.”
George Kittle paced San Francisco with five catches for 98 yards and a third-quarter touchdown. Running back Raheem Mostert had his second-straight solid performance, rushing for 59 yards on just seven carries. But the 10 points generated by the offense were the fewest since Nov. 5, 2017.