Flummoxed and furious: 49ers are 0-2 at home, with questions, concerns and injuries
The last game of a wild NFL Sunday in the fourth week of a curiously odd season stuck to the script in Santa Clara.
It started with the San Francisco 49ers charging onto the field through a cascade of smoke and the roar of piped-in crowd noise in the “no fans allowed” norm of this COVID-19 2020 campaign.
It ended with the Philadelphia Eagles holding on to a 25-20 win when a desperation heave into the Levi’s Stadium end zone by a third-string quarterback C.J. Beathard found no one. The harmless toss allowed a one-win club to jump onto first place in the NFC East.
The loss leaves San Francisco flummoxed and furious. This was a winnable game, a must-have, given the venue, the opponent and the circumstances. But the depleted 49ers are winless at home, last prevailing at Levi’s in the NFC Championship nearly nine months ago against Green Bay. That was also the last time the 49ers played a great game, start to finish.
San Francisco squandered a chance to beat Arizona in an opener at Levi’s, falling 24-20, and it squandered a second opportunity by the almost same score. The 49ers cannot afford this troubling trend as a team built on defense and geared to move the chains under an offensive-minded coach. Both home games included the 49ers ahead by three entering the fourth quarter.
Never mind the rash of injuries. The 49ers showed in Week 3 what they can do shorthanded, routing the woeful Giants 36-9 at MetLife in New Jersey, where the 49ers are 2-0. A month in, and we still don’t know exactly what the 49ers have. We know what they do not have: a full lineup amid an insane spate of injuries and a suddenly angry group of guys.
“Pissed off,” groused 49ers linebacker Fred Warner to media after the game via Zoom. “We’re upset for sure. The fact we’re 0-2 at home, there’s got to be a sense of urgency, and guys have to execute better.”
Added team energizer tight end George Kittle, “The mood in the locker room, it sucks. Losing sucks. We have high goals, and we want to go back to the Super Bowl. When you go out there and play like that, there’s not really any chance.”
Against the beleaguered Eagles, the 49ers could not pass protect for Nick Mullens, starting again in place of the hobbled Jimmy Garoppolo, and the trenches are where games are still won and lost.
Mullens relied heavily on Kittle, who had 15 catches, 183 yards and a touchdown in his return to action. Rookie receiver Brandon Aiyuk scored on a 38-yard touchdown run, but the 49ers managed just 60 yards rushing with running backs Jerick McKinnon and Jeff Wilson, Jr., an indicator of how thin the backfield is.
It was dire enough offensively late in the game that coach Kyle Shanahan turned to Beathard, so far down the depth chart when the season started that you could barely find him. Mullens was pulled after he gifted an interception to one-time Canadian Football League plugger Alex Singleton, who raced in 30 yards to put the Eagles ahead 25-14 lead with 5:42 to play.
Singleton’s first defensive snap since the season opener was punctuated by the linebacker running the final yards right over the facemask of Mullens.
Goodbye, Mullens, hello Beathard.
Garoppolo, Beathard or Mullens?
Beathard led a touchdown drive to close the gap, and he was solid in completing 14 of 19 passes for 138 yards. So, who starts Sunday at Levi’s against 1-3 Miami?
Shanahan said after the game Garoppolo could be that guy. It will depend on if he can engage in a full practice as high ankle sprains are never a quick heal.
“Hopefully,” the coach said, “he’ll be good to go for Wednesday.”
The 49ers need Garoppolo. The Eagles game should cease any discussion that Mullens is the man for the job. In Garopollo’s starts for Shanahan, the 49ers have gone 22-6. Without Garoppolo, San Francisco is 5-20. This is every bit a results business.
The 49ers also expect to get other injured players back into the mix, leading McKinnon to say, “they’re coming back just in time.”
The attitude is right otherwise, it appears. Mullens said it was on him, the bad throws, the interception return that doomed him. Defenders said they have to make more stops. Everyone owned it.
San Francisco is tied with Arizona for last in the NFC West at 2-2. Seattle is 4-0 and the Rams are 3-1. The 49ers’ next night game in front of a national television audience is against the Rams on Oct. 18, kicking off the meat of the schedule: at New England, at Seattle, home against Green Bay on a Thursday night, at New Orleans, at the Rams and home Dec. 7 against the Bills on a Monday night.
The final prime time game of the regular season schedule is Dec. 20 at Dallas. That’s a perk or curse of coming off a Super Bowl season. You earn the chance to be prime time. Playing the role of a stud team is the question now.
Sunday’s dreadful showing will be forgotten news once the 49ers pick up steam again, and not just the sort that they run through before a game.
This story was originally published October 5, 2020 at 6:23 AM.