Defense seeks answers after latest loss
On the Bengals' third play from scrimmage Sunday afternoon, the 49ers' defense surrounded quarterback Joe Burrow with the kind of pressure it lacked six days earlier, failing to record a single sack in a Monday night loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
On third-and-10, Burrow backpedaled as the pocket collapsed around him and found no safe haven. Arik Armstead's 290-pound frame soon hung from his shoulder blades. But soon enough, the 49ers defensive lineman and another one of his cohorts, Nick Bosa, were on their backs in the backfield. Still upright, Burrow unleashed a completion to Tee Higgins, converting the first down, and five plays later was celebrating in Levi's Stadium's north end zone.
The tone was set. The 49ers' defense, which looked so daunting just a few weeks ago, was hardly able to slow down the Bengals' All-Pro quarterback, let alone take him down, in an eventual 3117 defeat, entering their bye week with a third straight loss.
“It was a huge play. I missed the sack on that play. That was my fault,” Armstead said afterward. “I've got to do a better job of being lower and getting him down to the ground. I felt that was a huge play, a momentum shift. We get them off the field on their first possession, it's a different game. But they go all the way down and score.”
Flushed to his right, Burrow somehow escaped and flung the ball to Higgins, who outstretched his arm across the line-to-gain marker. After two incompletions to start the game — including a near-interception dropped by Isaiah Oliver — the escape act started a streak of 19 straight completions for Burrow, who ended the game 28 of 32 for 283 yards passing and a trio of touchdowns.
“Dang,” Armstead said upon being informed of the final stats, “I didn't know he played that well.”
Credit to Burrow, who looked like himself for the first time this season with the Bengals coming off a bye week that allowed a calf injury to heal after it hobbled him for the first six weeks. His healthy legs helped him evade pressure all day — Armstead would eventually wrap him up twice, his first sacks since 2021 — and produced 43 yards on six carries, including a designed 10-yard scamper through the middle of the 49ers' defense, untouched until he was brought down by safety Talanoa Hufanga beyond the line to gain.
“There would just be times where he got out and got loose. That's what great quarterbacks do,” Hufanga said. “We've just got to eliminate those explosive plays that he made. But at the end of the day we've got to take it as a defense and come back and do our job next time.”
Cincinnati entered Sunday averaging 256.3 yards per game, the fewest in the NFL. The 49ers' first five opponents averaged 266 yards per game as San Francisco ran its record to 5-0. But, in losses the next two weeks, the unit regressed to 393 per game. And it continued the same concerning trend in Sunday's loss, surrendering 400 yards to the Bengals, who might possess the best trio of receivers in the sport but had been lacking the production to match.
Ja'Marr Chase caught 10 passes for 100 yards. Higgins added five for 69. And East Bay native Joe Mixon added a season-high 87 yards on the ground — 134 total for Cincinnati, which hadn't even been averaging half that many — ending his day by high-stepping into the end zone for the game-sealing score with 5 minutes to play.
By halftime, they had already strung together 20 first downs, more than they totaled in four quarters in their last game.
“Not the performances we wanted to have these last couple weeks,” Armstead said. “It's been different each game. I feel like getting off to better starts is always helpful. Then just stacking series. I feel there is a little bit of inconsistency with our defense right now. We have a good drive, then the next drive we don't play so well. So just getting that consistency back of being dominant for an entirety of a game is what I think we need to do.”
It was an ill-timed blitz call that drew fans' ire directed toward defensive coordinator Steve Wilks last week.
But in the aftermath of a third poor showing in a row, Wilks received only words of support in the locker room after Sunday's loss.
“Nothing's on coach, honestly,” Hufanga said. “He says a call, we've got to play it. We've got to bring the call to life.”
“That's the least of my worries, honestly,” defensive captain Fred Warner said. “I think players win games, not coaches.”
Whether it comes from Wilks or elsewhere, the 49ers enter their bye week in need of solutions.
The trade deadline is approaching, but the team already made a splash by acquiring pass rusher Randy Gregory from the Broncos. Joining the team three weeks ago, Gregory is still waiting to celebrate his first win. He was credited with one tackle against Cincinnati