Six losses in a row: How low can 49ers go?
SANTA CLARA — Colin Kaepernick’s first home start in a year didn’t magically keep the 49ers from losing a sixth straight game Sunday.
For its part, the 49ers’ everappalling defense didn’t keep the Buccaneers from rushing for 249 yards or Jameis Winston from throwing three touchdown passes.
Add in a special-teams turnover and the 49ers’ all-around buffoonery paid off with a 34-17 defeat to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a half-filled Levi’s Stadium.
“We’re a 1-6 team,” first-year coach Chip Kelly said. “You are what you’re record says you are.”
Outside linebacker Ah- mad Brooks claimed the moribund franchise is actually Super Bowl-bound. No, not this season, mind you. But …
“I told one guy on the bench that two, three, four years from now, they might win the Super Bowl,” Brooks said. “That’s just how it is.”
Brooks, an 11th-year vet- eran, is the only starter on defense left from the 2012 Super Bowl team, aside from injured linebacker NaVorro Bowman. Brooks prefaced his bold prediction by noting the defense has many firstyear starters, such as recent first-round draft picks Arik Armstead, DeForest Buckner and Jimmie Ward.
Fellow outside linebacker Aaron Lynch also took a wildly optimistic view, claiming that the 49ers are among the NFC’s best teams — even though they’re entrenched in last place.
“We possibly have one of the best teams in the NFL, hands down,” Lynch added. “We need to know how to finish games. Once we get that down, nobody is going to mess with us.”
As was the case in all but one of their six straight losses, the 49ers blew a first-half lead. This time it was a 14-0 cushion Kaepernick and the offense built on first-quarter touchdowns.
The 49ers woeful defense predictably wilted and allowed 513 total yards to the Buccaneers (3-3), as Winston’s three touchdown passes nicely complemented Jacquizz Rodgers’ career-high 154 yards.
The 49ers have allowed more rushing yards in backto-back games (562 yards) than at any point in their 70-year history, combining the Bucs’ output with the Bills’ 313 yards rushing in a 45-16 rout last Sunday. The Niners’ previous high was 552 yards in 1956, according to Fox Sports’ telecast.
Kelly said he will not spend the bye week reorganizing his defensive staff, which is headed by first-year coordinator Jim O’Neil. The defensive scheme was regaled as “great” by several players, including Brooks, Buckner and safety Eric Reid.
“It’s not like I don’t know what’s going on the defensive side of the ball,” Kelly said.
It was the sixth straight game in which the 49ers allowed a 100-yard rusher. Rodgers eclipsed that mark before halftime, doing so with a 45-yard run on the Bucs’ first snap after intercepting Kaepernick.
Kaepernick completed 16 of 34 passes for 143 yards with one interception, one touchdown and a 56.4 passer rating.
“We threw for about 100 yards. That’s not going to win in the NFL,” said Kaepernick, who’s lost 12 of his last 15 starts. “We have to be able to do better on that and ultimately, we have to string this together as a team and play well as a team for 60 minutes to get wins.”
Kaepernick’s legs were the 49ers’ best asset offensively, as he ran nine times for a team-high 84 yards to compensate for the absence of starting running back Carlos Hyde (inactive; shoulder).
“He missed a couple of throws and things like that, but that’s just him getting back into the flow of things,” Buccaneers defensive tackle Akeem Spence said. “He definitely still has the foot speed and the playmaking ability as you saw out there. He made some great plays just running the ball.”
That included an 8-yard run on fourth-and-4 in the fourth quarter to set up a Phil Dawson field goal to trim the deficit to 27-17.
Why a field goal instead of going for it on fourth-andgoal from the 10?
“We just didn’t feel like throwing the ball in from there, that we were going to score anything, so we had to come away with something else at that standpoint,” Kelly said.
The 49ers took their 140 lead with first-quarter touchdowns by Mike Davis (4-yard run) and Shaun Draughn (17-yard reception). A halftime lead hasn’t been in the 49ers’ possession since Week 1, and Sunday’s cushion proved as secure as those against Carolina (107), Dallas (14-0), Arizona (70) and Buffalo (10-7).
“We just got out of sync,” Kaepernick said. “Once again, it was a situation where early in the game we got into a rhythm and we lost that.”
The game’s turning point, Kelly volunteered, came right after halftime with back-to-back turnovers by the 49ers, which the Bucs parlayed into 10 points and a 27-14 lead.
Momentum figured to go the 49ers’ way when Lynch forced a third-down sack. But Jeremy Kerley muffed a fair-catch punt return when he collided with rookie teammate Aaron Burbridge, giving the Bucs the ball at the 49ers 36-yard line. That led to a Roberto Aguyao field goal and 20-14 Niners deficit.
Kaepernick fumbled away the ensuing series, only after he got sacked on a blindside blitz by Jude Adjei-Barimah. Gerald McCoy, who Kelly said gave them matchup woes, recovered for the Bucs at the 27-yard line, and that led to Mike Evans’ second touchdown catch.
“Those two critical turnovers to start the third quarter are the huge things that put ourselves in a big hole — too big a hole for us to get out of,” Kelly said.
At 1-6, the 49ers are in their worst hole since 2010, when they went 6-10 and saw Mike Singletary fired as coach before their finale.
Before they return after they bye to host the New Orleans Saints (2-4) in two weeks, the 49ers have more to do than dwell on their losing streak.
“We can get some corrections, get some people health, come back and try to make a homestretch run,” Kaepernick said.