Shorthanded roster can offer few answers
Sunday, the 49ers in New Orleans were like a skydiver who forgot his parachute. They were flying high, life was easy, the view was incredible.
Then: 49ers, meet Earth.
The 49ers wasted a 100 lead and lost 2713 to the Saints in the Superdome.
Is that it for 2020 for the 49ers? End of the playoff hopes? Start building for next season?
Au contraire. The fun is just beginning. Even after three straight losses — ugly ones — the 49ers are still in the playoff picture. As a
bonus, they are giving us much to debate and argue about. And, lordy, if there’s anything we all need these days, it’s something to argue and fight over.
The 49ers have a bye, so we’ve got two weeks to put them under the microscope and dissect them, although the last thing they need is anyone else going under the knife.
We all get to kick around Kyle Shanahan’s game planning and Nick Mullens’ quarterbacking. When it comes to critiquing the 49ers’ quarterbacks and their head coach, the debates do not swing wildly and dramatically from game to game — they swing wildly and dramatically from play to play.
By the end of Sunday’s game, the consensus was that Shanahan is not a genius and Mullens is not The Future, and Jimmy Garoppolo is welcome to return to action ASAP. But all that could change in the first five minutes of the next game.
Right now, the 49ers are the NFL’s No. 1 mystery team. One national power ranking gave grades for 31 NFL teams last week, and gave the 49ers an I for “incomplete.” Too many injury questions to evaluate who they really are.
We know Shanahan is a genius, until he’s not. On Sunday, he was a genius before you popped your second beer, but was downgraded to clueless by halftime. Mullens’ status likewise yoyoed wildly, ending on a lower note than a Louis Armstrong riff.
The 49ers opened the game in what is their 2020 identity, Kyle and the Klockeaters. With their defense missing key players and facing dynamic quarterbacks every week, the 49ers’ offensive strategy is to nickelanddime you down the field, hold on to the ball, ice the opposing offense.
That’s what the 49ers did on their gameopening cattle drive, eating 7: 17 of clock, 13 plays, for a touchdown and a 70 lead.
Then Shanahan’s IQ sunk like a gator who ate a hippo. He kept feeding running back Jerick McKinnon for 1yard runs, then punted on 4thand1 at midfield with a 103 lead, just as Drew Brees and the Saints’ offense were coming to life.
Shanahan said later that he was trying to balance the offense, establish a running game, but the Saints knew that and threw a blanket on McKinnon, gave him zero holes.
Shanahan was stubborn. He made a nice gamble on 4thand1 in the second quarter, but he gave the rock to McKinnon on a play the Saints blew up and popped like a cheap balloon as they took over the game.
McKinnon finished with 33 yards on 18 carries. Raheem Mostert will be welcomed back when he’s ready.
Meanwhile, Mullens was sharp. For a while. He was threading needles, dinking and dunking, even lofting a perfect 17yard bomblet to Ross Dwelley to set up a field goal.
Then in the third quarter, Mullens did what he should never do, which is throw a mediumdeep ball over the middle. That style of interception is a 49ers trademark. Garoppolo, on throws 15 yards or more downfield, is 5for19 with no touchdowns and four interceptions.
Mullens was under pressure the entire afternoon, blitzed and battered, and couldn’t sustain the early sharpness. In the fourth quarter, he overthrew open tight end Jordan Reed on what would have been a first down. On the same series, Mullens threw a couple of 5050 balls that he got away with.
He had to leave the game for one play in the fourth, the wind knocked out of him, but it seemed to be good timing. It was 3rdand21, and C. J. Beathard has a bigger arm than Mullens. Beathard underthrew Richie James by a mile — give or take — on what would have been a 75yard touchdown.
So what do we know now that we didn’t know Sunday morning? Not much. Too many mysteries.
Late in the week, Shanahan said, “I know no one is giving us a shot” to beat the Saints.
That’s not true. Many people were giving the 49ers a shot, but those people were taking the 10 points. For those folks, at least, it was an exciting afternoon.