Purdy: 49ers futility has reached new lows.
SANTA CLARA — “We possibly have one of the best teams in the NFL,” said Aaron Lynch, the 49ers linebacker. “Easily. Hands down.”
Yes, he said that. I heard Lynch say it, not long after the 49ers had left the field following their sixth straight loss, a 34-17 lump of compost here at Levi’s Stadium.
Naturally, as a probing reporter, I had to ask Lynch why he held such a high opinion of such a distressed team.
“We show it at the beginning of the games,” Lynch said. “We just need to come out and finish the games. We have one of the ... we have easily the best team in our conference, for sure. Hands down. I’m not going to even think twice about that. I go to sleep knowing we have the best team. We just all have to come together as one unit, and once we do that, we’ll be fine.”
Lynch may be a sincere guy who feels all of that in his heart. But I need to break some news to him.
The 49ers do not have one of the best teams in the NFL and may not ever come together. In fact, this team is now officially making a serious run at becoming the worst 49ers team ever.
You can go look at the record books for that, if you wish. The three worst 49ers teams —in 1978, 1979 and 2004 — all finished with 2-14 records. To beat that, the current 49ers must win at least two more games this season. Is there evidence they can do so? There was no such evidence Sunday.
It’s not the six-game losing streak, per se, that makes these 49ers rich candidates for all-time franchise horribleness. It’s that they have lost those six games by an average of 17 points.
All of this, in a season where new head coach Chip Kelly was supposed to bring excitement every weekend, win or lose. So far, the only excitement and suspense at Levi’s Stadium in 2016 is trying to guess whether even half the seats will fill up by the end of the first quarter. They did Sunday. Just barely.
But that’s what happens when you drain away any happy expectations from your fans. That describes the 49ers right now. When optimism reigns in your neighborhood, who you gonna call? Hope-busters!
And yet Lynch is not the only 49er who appears convinced that his team is on its way to someplace hella awesome. During Sunday’s game, linebacker Ahmad Brooks said he told some younger teammates on the bench that within two or three years, the 49ers held such promise that they might win the Super Bowl. And wide receiver Jeremy Kerley, while admitting that losing stinks, said that the team has shown itself worthy of triumph.
“I feel like we deserve to win,” Kerley said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to win. But we deserve to win. We put in the time and effort, and I see these guys bust their butts every week. We deserve to win. But it’s the NFL. Anything can happen. We’ve just got to turn it around.” Oh, man. I respect the way professional athletes find ways to keep showing up for work with good attitudes during rotten seasons. And I have seen struggling 49ers teams in the past. Under Mike Nolan from 2005 to 2008, they had three separate losing streaks of six games or more. But in those streaks, the average losing margin was less than in the current streak. And in none of those previous streaks do I recall seeing a Three-Stooges-like punt return fumble like the one I saw Sunday.
Kerley was part of the slapstick fun. Or should we call him Kerley Joe? After the 49ers had forced a Buccaneers punt on Tampa Bay’s first offensive series of the second half, Kerley stood under the kick and waved for a fair catch. Yet just as the ball settled into his arms, Moe banged into Larry. Well, actually it was 49ers rookie Aaron Burbridge colliding with Kerley.
What happened? Burbridge was peeling back upfield from the line of scrimmage to block a Tampa Bay player away from Kerley. But while doing so, Burbridge lost track of Kerley, and the two 49ers ran into each other. The ball popped out. Tampa Bay recovered and drove for a field goal. Any chance of second half momentum fizzled.
Even Kelly himself seemed resigned to defeat when he ordered up a field goal on fourth and goal halfway through the fourth quarter when the 49ers trailed by 13 points, rather than making the bold choice to go for a touchdown and really get back into the game. Kelly’s explanation afterward was that his team was “just trying to get anything at that point in time, points-wise.” Kelly said he also expected that the 49ers would get three more offensive possessions to score the two touchdowns they still needed. They only got two possessions. And scored on neither.
Now comes the bye week. There will surely be noise about shakeups and firings, speculation of radical roster moves. Forget about it. The jobs of Kelly and general manager Trent Baalke will be on the line, as they are every year. But any major moves won’t happen until the offseason. So my advice to 49ers fans is not to obsess about it until we get to December. Plus, you never know. Maybe Kelly will figure out a way to get a consistent four quarters out of his team before then. Maybe they can avoid being the worst 49ers team ever.
Meanwhile, let us return to Lynch as he addressed the media in front of his dressing cubicle Sunday.
“We’ve got to come together and don’t let this stuff get us down,” Lynch said. “Because once it starts getting us down, it’s like a ripple effect. We’ve just got to have high heads and go out there and keep playing ball ... Just because they run for 40 yards on one play doesn’t mean we go out there and are down on ourselves. Just go on to the next play. Know what I mean? It is what it is.”
And until further notice, the 49ers are what they are. Unfortunately.