Too many turnovers lead to third straight loss
SANTA CLARA >> Five turnovers aren’t all that doomed the 49ers to a 28-18 loss Sunday to the previously winless Arizona Cardinals.
Coach Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers (1-4) are increasingly devoid of playmakers. That’s glaringly true on an injury-riddled offense. It also is apparent on a 49ers defense that couldn’t force rookie quarterback Josh Rosen into mistakes.
“It was one of those days the defense needed to make a play and create a turnover,” cornerback Richard Sherman said. “They had a young quarterback so they played it conservatively. They didn’t take very many risks to give us opportunities to make plays.”
Thus, a three-game losing streak will accompany the demoralized 49ers into
Lambeau Field when they visit the Green Bay Packers next Monday night.
The 49ers used an astounding 92 plays to dominate the Cardinals (1-4) in every statistical facet, such as first downs (33-10), yards (447-220) and time of possession (40:12 vs. 19:48). Alas, that also included a 5-0 turnover ratio, and that served as the Niners’ crutch to explain away this loss.
“Just got to take better care of the ball,” said quarterback C.J. Beathard, who accounted for four of the turnovers via two interceptions and two lost fumbles on strip sacks.
“A lot of responsibility is on the quarterback to protect the ball,” Shanahan said. “There’s 10 other
guys out there who can make it easier on him, too. Fumbles are hard to pin on the quarterback. … The bottom line is you can’t lose the ball.”
The 49ers last committed five turnovers in a 2013 loss at Seattle, when then-quarterback Colin Kaepernick also accounted for four turnovers.
What began Sunday so promisingly with a picture-perfect touchdown drive evolved into a dull, dreary and error-prone defeat, pockmarked by numerous dropped passes, offensive penalties and, of course, more injuries to a snakebit team, including the loss of leading rusher Matt Breida to a firstquarter ankle injury.
The 49ers flirted with a fourth-quarter comeback, and Beathard’s fourthand-goal touchdown pass to Trent Taylor pulled them within 14-12. But Beathard got stripped of the ball on the 49ers’ next series, and Josh Bynes returned the fumble 23 yards for a game-clinching touchdown with 4:33 remaining.
The Cardinals (1-4) looked like easy prey at the outset. Breida’s 5-yard touchdown catch on a Beathard shovel pass capped a game-opening drive, in which Beathard was 5 of 5 for 59 yards.
Then the point-after attempt got botched.
Then Rosen took the Cardinals’ first snap and uncorked a 75-yard touchdown pass to Christian Kirk, who initially raced past Ahkello Witherspoon before free safety Adrian Colbert took a horrible angle at the play.
Then came the injuries.
Breida, after impressively rushing for 59 yards in the first quarter, exited with an ankle injury on that quarter’s final play and did not return. Wide receiver Pierre Garçon returned from a first-quarter shoulder injury but the offense stayed out of rhythm, and that can be attributed to the loss of Breida (or Jimmy Garoppolo two games before this, or Jerick McKinnon two weeks before that).
• No turnover was more costly than the strip sack of Beathard that resulted in Bynes’ fumble recovery and return for a touchdown to make it a 21-12 ballgame with 4:33 left. That fumble was forced by Haasan Reddick, who first beat Alfred Morris’ attempted blitz pickup.
Beathard said of the play: “I was trying to get the ball to Trent (Taylor) and he was getting held. I decided to wait a little bit. The guy hit the ball out of my hand and that was it. Just got to get it out quicker.”
The 49ers’ second series ended with an interception, with Beathard’s on-target pass clanking off Pierre Garçon’s hands
and into those of Cardinals safety Tre Boston near midfield.
Four snaps after Breida exited, his replacement, Raheem Mostert, fumbled when stripped by Rodney Gunter, setting up the Cardinals’ second touchdown drive. More misery ensued after halftime, as Chandler Jones raced past Joe Staley to strip-sack Beathard for a forced fumble. That spoiled a first-and-10 situation from the Cardinals’ 39.
• The 49ers defense was exceptional on third down, such as K’Waun Williams’ blitzes forcing incompletions or a thirdand-1 stop by Cassius Marsh and DeForest Buckner to open the second half. Arizona converted only 2 of 11 third-down situations before punting the ball back to the 49ers with just over five minutes remaining.
“Our defense played its tail off,” Shanahan said.
Williams drew a roughing-the-passer penalty on a third-down incompletion early in the fourth quarter, when he jumped in the air and harmlessly landed on Rosen’s shoulder. But Williams atoned for that later by again blitzing and forcing Rosen to throw away a third-down pass.
• Rosen, making his first road start, threw a 75-yard touchdown pass to Kirk on their first snap. Kirk raced past Witherspoon and Colbert. Witherspoon, who’s been benched in recent weeks for poor play, chucked his helmet into the bench upon reaching the 49ers’ sideline after the TD.
Colbert said he got caught spying Larry Fitzgerald and accepted the blame for the TD, saying: “It was just an undisciplined play by me.”