Bethard throws for 349 yards, but previously winless Arizona comes to Levi’s and knocks off 49ers.
SANTA CLARA >> The 49ers’ 28-18 loss to the Cardinals was a lot of things.
It was a calamity.
It was an embarrassment.
It was a downright waste of time.
But more than anything else, it was a reminder — a stark, oh-so-painful reminder — that successful NFL teams are more than a star quarterback and a few solid defenders.
No sir, good NFL teams go 53 men deep, and it takes time, skill, and a bit of luck, to put together a playoffworthy roster.
And these 49ers — with or without Jimmy Garoppolo — are not even close to that level.
Of course, there was a time when we thought that they were. Garoppolo’s late-season play made it easy to forget that the 49ers lost their first nine games last year — the first season of a multiyear rebuilding plan.
And because Garoppolo won all five of his starts at the end of last year — covering up a lot of holes in the process — there was a lot of excitement about this 49ers team coming into 2018. Remember the all the talk about them making the playoffs?
(Oh, to be young and naive again.)
That gilding was starting to show cracks before Garoppolo tore his ACL in Kansas City last month, but it’s completely gone after Sunday’s loss to previously winless Cardinals at home, despite running 43 more offensive plays and earning 23 more first downs in the contest.
Losing to arguably the worst team in the NFL, in the manner the 49ers did Sunday, is an indictment: this team doesn’t have enough talent, across the board, to be respectable this season.
Add in the fact that this team can’t seem to get out of its own way, and you’ve set the table for up to 11 more servings of pain and misery.
Sunday’s game made me question if I had time traveled: Was it 2017 again?
Because the loss to the Cardinals had more than a few characteristics of last season: C.J. Beathard was throwing behind receivers, holding onto the ball too long and then giving it away far too often. Around Beathard, receivers couldn’t separate and when they did get the ball, far too often it bounced off their hands (or chests, or helmets). The defense was solid in some areas, but it couldn’t create a pass rush and gave up contestdefining big plays in the pass game.
The only clear areas of year-to-year appreciation for these Niners is the offensive line (which went from horrific to meh), Matt Breida going from good to really good, and having cornerback Richard Sherman out on the field. Maybe the linebackers are better, too. That’s it. Injuries, of course, play a big role in all of this. That obviously starts with Garoppolo, but goes far deeper than that.
The Niners entered this season with a top-heavy roster, and a disporportinate number of those toplevel players are banged up: Breida, Sherman, four of the five starting offensive linemen, and tight end George Kittle look as if they’ll play the whole season with some sort of injury; Marquise Goodwin, the team’s best receiver and one proven big-play threat has been a non-factor this season, thanks to two different lower-body injuries; rookie receiver Dante Pettis, who had a chance to have a big role for this team, is battling a knee injury that’s likely to keep him out for another game or two; and, of course, the season-changing ACL tears of Garoppolo and running back Jerick McKinnon.
The margin for error in the NFL is already minuscule, but with 49ers’ copious and inopportune injuries, that margin disappears.
And when you turn the ball over five times in conjunction with that, as Beathard and the Niners
did Sunday, you get soundly beaten by a winless and embarassingly bad Arizona team at home.
The 49ers needed injury luck to be on their side this season. Fate seems to be punishing this team, though — perhaps as a repayment for the fortune the 49ers found in getting, and then succeeding, with Garoppolo last year.
“Guys are frustrated. Our guys are working. They’re putting in a lot of work in and when you go through some of that stuff, it’s tough,” Shanahan said Sunday. “We’re all competitive people and we want things to change, and we know it will.”
And perhaps it will… next year, when Garoppolo returns.
In the meantime, this lost season — and make no mistake, that’s what this is — can be useful. You’ll just have to find value in things well beyond wins and losses. Yes, the rest of this 2018 season is about establishing viable depth for 2019.
The Niners will likely have some high draft picks and some serious money to throw around to free agents in this upcoming offseason (which cannot come soon enough), but half of this current roster — maybe more — needs to prove that they’re worthy of keeping around for 2019 and beyond.
The final 11 games of the season can serve as an extended audition for players like Richie James and Kendrick Bourne — can they prove themselves to be viable NFL receivers in the coming months?
Can Solomon Thomas finally live up to the potential that — right or wrong — comes along with being the No. 3 overall pick?
Can Reuben Foster and Fred Warner form a formidable linebacker core that will anchor the Niners defense for the next half decade?
Can cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon bounce back from a miserable start to the year and reestablish the hype that surrounded him during the preseason?
Is Beathard a reliable NFL quarterback, even as a backup?
Shanahan and Lynch deserve judgment for this year as well — not just in conjunction with the performances with the aforementioned players, but for how Shanahan adapts his plans week-to-week and how Lynch manages the trade deadline and a bottom-end of a roster that will likely be constantly in flux over the next few months.
All of this stuff might sound familiar. It should — this is part of the rebuilding process.
And if a good deal of it goes right — if young guys step up and the Niners can find a few more depth pieces to go with the top-end pieces they already have — this team should be in a much better position to actually contend for the playoffs next year. It’s not fun — it’s not what many (including myself) expected for 2018 — but it’s a silver lining.
Hold on to it — the rest of this Niners’ season looks like it will be miserable without it.