49ers’ wide receivers struggle to find their groove in loss to Arizona Cardinals
The San Francisco 49ers were depleted at wide receiver coming into the season opener Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals. Only four wide receivers were active, and because Richie James went down with a hamstring injury, the 49ers were forced to play with only three healthy receivers for the second half.
The receivers struggled to find a rhythm in the 49ers 24-20 loss to the Cardinals. The 49ers receiving core combined for four catches for 41 yards. Pettis played the second-most snaps at wide receiver behind Kendrick Bourne but was only targeted once. James wasn’t targeted at all.
“First, I want to get all of (the wide receivers) back and healthy,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said. “Second of all, I don’t think those guys did play bad today. There was a couple of opportunities that they did have. KB had a big catch on third down. ... I’m not blaming them at all in this game. We didn’t do good as a whole offense. The game plan wasn’t going to those guys much, knowing how light we were.”
The reason for the lack of active receivers was rookie first-round draft pick Brandon Aiyuk and second-year pro Deebo Samuel both being out. Aiyuk didn’t play because of a hamstring injury he suffered midway through training camp. Samuel was placed on injured reserve Saturday, meaning he won’t be able to play until Week 4 because of a Jones fracture suffered in June.
The 49ers’ leading receiver Sunday was running back Raheem Mostert. He caught four passes for 95 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown pass from Jimmy Garroppolo in the first quarter. George Kittle and Kyle Juszckyk were the second- and third-leading receivers for the 49ers. Kittle had all four of his catches in the first half for 44 yards. Juszczyk had all 41 yards on one catch in the fourth quarter.
“You just got to play football,” Kittle said. “It doesn’t matter who’s up and who’s down. I know four wide receivers isn’t normally what you want to do, but we have four good wide receivers that were out there today that have the ability to make plays. We had a lot of guys make plays today, but we just had a lot of mistakes. That was our biggest issue.”
On the other side, the Cardinals newly acquired star wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins caught 14 passes for 151 yards.
Despite the lack of production from the wide receivers, Bourne had a chance to be the hero but couldn’t haul in a catch in the back of the end zone late in the fourth quarter that would’ve been the go-ahead touchdown. On the next play, which was a fourth down with less than a minute remaining, Garoppolo targeted Taylor but couldn’t convert.
It’s unclear when the 49ers receiving core will be at full strength. Aiyuk and James’ status for next week’s game against the New York Jets is unclear. Pending the severity of Richie James’ hamstring injury and whether or not Aiyuk can play, it’s possible the 49ers bring up one of their wide receivers off the practice squad.
“It all depends how Richie checks out tomorrow and how Aiyuk is, whether he has the possibility to come back,” Shanahan said when asked about bringing a wide receiver up from the practice squad. “(Aiyuk) got pretty close to (playing) this week. We have some guys on the practice squad that if called upon, they will be ready to help out.”
This story was originally published September 14, 2020 at 12:00 AM.