49ers’ loss was bad, reactions are worse
It was bad. All sorts of bad. The 49ers’ 43-17 home loss is the kind of blowout defeat that will be a pivot point — for better or worse — for a season and perhaps a regime.
But, I gotta say, some of the takes that flew after this game were downright unhinged. There’s no reason to delay. Let’s get into it:
OVERREACTION >> It’s time to ‘Tank for Trevor’
The 49ers are a bad football team right now. Things might get worse before they get better, as their next seven games are against six opponents that, at the time of publishing, have combined to win 80 percent of their games so far (25- 6).
Much like when Jimmy Garoppolo tore his ACL in 2018, this team might be cooked and heading towards a high draft pick.
But deliberately losing? This team is beyond that.
Or at least they should be.
And to pull off such a stunt, they would have to be extremely deliberate, because as bad as things might seem for San Francisco right now — and I’m not here to tell you things are going well — they are still unquestionably better than a lot of bad teams in the league. Two teams, that, coincidentally, the 49ers have beaten this season, stand out — the Jets and Giants. There’s more where that came from too.
Tanking for Clemson quarterback and presumed No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft Trevor Lawrence is out of the question. Even ‘Failing for Fields’ in an effort to land a pick high enough to select Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields feels out of reach. After all, the Niners already have two wins. It’s hard to see stasis there, even after Sunday’s loss.
Don’t get me wrong, if Garoppolo doesn’t improve his play in weeks to come, the 49ers are going to be selecting high in the NFL Draft and they will be looking for a new quarterback this
offseason. That’s not a revelation or overreaction — this was always a make-or-break campaign for the Niners’ quarterback, who is effectively playing on team options the next three years.
But a top-five pick looks out of the question for a team like the 49ers. Even with all of their injuries, it seems impossible for them to stoop that low. OVERREACTION >> Kyle Shanahan is on the hot seat
Twitter was an interesting read Sunday, as folks with issues they needed to project let it all out for anyone and everyone to see. Some even pulled some likes out of it.
A take that made the rounds Sunday night and made me look levelheaded in comparison (and that’s saying something) was that Kyle Shanahan is not just on the hot seat, but that the seat had already immolated. It’s laughable.
Shanahan has not coached well this year. No sir. Half of my columns this season have been lambasting his decisions. And Sunday was his worst performance of a bad campaign — his management of Garoppolo’s and Ahkello Witherspoon’s injuries defied basic logic. I also don’t think he’s calling particularly good games as an offensive coordinator. Oh, and the Niners’ no- contact, brains- over-brawn preparation going into the season was questioned well before it proved to be inadequate. The 49ers are nowhere near physical and they don’t seem to be appreciably smarter or more clever than their opponents.
Add in critical injuries and bad quarterback play and it’s all a big pile right now.
But for some reason, it’s necessary to remind folks that this team played in the Super Bowl in February. They were one quarter away from being the champions. And he did that with quarterback play that was anything but transcendent.
I guess that was all luck.
If Shanahan isn’t good enough to coach the 49ers — if he doesn’t deserve the opportunity to ride out this season, no matter how bad it gets — I simply cannot help you. Your standards are far too high and perhaps you should talk to a professional. OVERREACTION >> The 49ers defense is terrible
I’m not going to tell you that the 49ers defense is an elite unit, but Sunday’s embarrassment should be a one- off. Really.
Let me double-down for clarification: I didn’t think the 49ers’ defense, on the whole, played poorly on Sunday. But Brian Allen did, and his 24 snaps were enough to torpedo the entire unit’s effort.
I’m not alleging that the Niners would have pitched a shutout had Witherspoon played for Allen — the Dolphins were going to get theirs — but Allen being overtly targeted at the start of the game, paired with Garoppolo’s two duck interceptions, put the Niners in a 30-7 halftime hole that was never going to be reversed (even though Miami wanted to give San Francisco chances in the second half).
Let’s be clear: this is not going to be a unit that will win you games, but remove Allen — who made it clear on the first series that he wasn’t ready for real NFL action — and they shouldn’t be a defense that will lose games.