HOUSE RULES
Verdict still out on how good the 49ers really are
SANTA CLARA >> The 49ers wanted to give Sunday’s game against the Lions game away.
In an easy-to-imagine timeline where the referees missed a hold on George Kittle in crunch time, the 49ers did give the game away.
But despite a downright impressive fourth-quarter collapse, the 49ers beat the lowly Lions 30-27.
And in turn, Kyle Shanahan’s team — which held a 30-13 lead with 12 minutes to play in the fourth quarter — told us everything we need to know about them.
This Niners team is, at the moment, impressively balanced. And not in the classic football sense.
It’s a team that’s talented but incomplete.
It’s a team that has strong vet-
eran leadership but is undeniably inexperienced.
It’s a team that can play with anyone in the NFL, but is apparently keen to let anyone play alongside them, too.
It’s a team that is simultaneously rebuilding and contending.
Yes, there’s a lot to take into account with these Niners, and after the first two weeks of the season, it’s still incredibly difficult to predict which side of the scale will hold more weight when a game — or the season — is over.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not alleging that these 49ers have big, existential problems — lest we forget that last year it took 10 games for the Niners to earn their first win of the season. But the bar has unquestionably been raised since last year — by a significant margin — and after Sunday’s performance, there are certainly concerns afoot in Santa Clara.
The Niners’ first win of the season should have been of the blowout variety — a homeopener statement against one of the NFL’s worst teams. Instead, the 49ers nearly choked the game away as their offense became stagnant and their defense became porous in the fourth quarter.
(Oh, and Jimmy Garoppolo made a critical error by throwing an interception with a little more than two minutes to play, setting up the Lions to tie or take the lead in the game, only for the pick to be called back because of a defensive holding call on Kittle away from the play.)
“A win’s a win, but it feels like a loss,” 49ers team sage Richard Sherman said. “I think it’s a good lesson to learn for a young team that we needed. It’s a humbling lesson. Thank goodness that we got a win out of it.”
The 49ers’ biggest problem was that they collectively took their foot off the gas against the Lions.
“When you get the opportunity, you’ve got to take advantage of it. It’s a lot of little things coming together,” Garoppolo said after the game. “You can’t let human nature take over at that point.”
Such a lesson is a natural part of the maturation process for a young team. It’s also not something a serious playoff contender should grapple with.
Yes, the Niners were able to escape with a win, but Sunday’s collapse still stands as another self-contradiction this team will have to work out — like everything else — on the fly this year.
Is that time frame fair? Hardly. Given the
situation Shanahan and general manager John Lynch inherited when they took over before last season, some patience would be more than deserved.
But when you land a quarterback like Garoppolo for a pittance and he goes out and wins his first five games at the helm — a downright surreal and preposterously fortunate series of events — things change in a big way, and the Niners lose their right to complain about unjust expectations.
Fair or not, those playoff expectations are real, even if we don’t know if the Niners are yet.
At the moment, these paradoxical 49ers, led by their unseasoned but “proven winner” quarterback, look every bit like an 8-8 team — equal parts good and bad. At the same time, we all know that a team that appears destined for 8-8 can wind up 10-6 and in the playoffs or 6-10 and drafting inside the top 10 in April. Football is a fickle game like that: it only takes one play, one lucky bounce, or one decisive call from a referee to totally change the outcome of a 60-minute game and, in turn, a season. (Just ask Garoppolo.)
So how well this Niners team responds to such challenges like Sunday’s — how fast they can learn the important lessons that similarly-talented teams with lesser quarterbacks usually get some time to learn — will determine their final station in 2018.
Next week, some things will become easier for the Niners. For instance, they’ll welcome linebacker Rueben Foster back into the lineup, which should be a huge boost. While rookie Fred Warner was fantastic in Foster’s stead, the Niners’ poor open-field tackling was a glaring problem Sunday, particularly on third down, and the Lions got wise early and targeted the Niners’ linebackers in the pass game.
The Niners could also get wide receiver Marquise Goodwin back on the field, adding a sorely needed weapon — and someone who can take the top off a defense — to the Niners’ offense.
At the same time, some things will become tougher. The Niners will fly to Kansas City for Week 3, playing at arguably the loudest stadium in the NFL against a Chiefs offense, led by Patrick Mahomes, that looks every bit like a juggernaut through two weeks.
The Niners’ defense, especially the oft-targeted Ahkello Witherspoon, better start gearing up for the aerial barrage now.
After two weeks, it’s impossible to say exactly who these Niners are, but with a huge test on the horizon, we might — just might — start getting some real answers soon.