Coaching staff to players, 49ers loss to Dolphins was a failure on every level
There’s no silver lining or positive spin from the 49ers’ loss to the Miami Dolphins.
It was an embarrassing performance from the NFC champions, who have dropped three straight games against sizable underdogs, at home, to fall to 2-3 on the season.
It was a failure at every level. Coaches and players. They all deserve blame for getting shellacked, 43-17, by a team many believe is still early in a rebuilding phase.
“That was embarrassing, what we just did out there,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said. “Everybody takes it personally, because we’ve set a standard here and that wasn’t even close to it.”
Low point for 49ers, Shanahan
An argument can be made that Sunday is a low point in Kyle Shanahan’s tenure as head coach. It was worse than starting out 0-9 in his first season and going 4-12 in his second year after losing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 3. It feels like a team bottoming out because of the championship-or-bust expectations that accompanied this season, which wasn’t the case in Shanahan’s first two years.
The 49ers, who lost all three of their games in 2019 by 13 points combined, lost by 26 points to a team led by journeyman quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, in a game they absolutely needed to win given the upcoming gauntlet on the schedule that includes hosting the 4-1 Rams next week on “Sunday Night Football.” The 49ers, after five games, are in sole possession of last place in the NFC West.
Shanahan on Sunday allowed Garoppolo to play following his two-week absence from a high-ankle sprain. Clearly that decision backfired. Garoppolo couldn’t last beyond a half because he couldn’t push off his injured right leg, leading to a pair of terrible interceptions just before halftime.
“You could tell he was affected by his ankle,” Shanahan said when asked about why he removed Garoppolo for C.J. Beathard. “I know he doesn’t normally throw the ball that way. I know he was struggling a little bit because of it. And the way the game was going, I wasn’t going to keep putting him in those positions knowing we were going to have to throw it a lot to come back.”
So was he surprised Garoppolo’s ankle acted up?
“I knew going into it, any time you have a high ankle sprain, it can seem 100 percent better and you can get out there and you do a couple things and it comes right back. That is something that’s going to linger,” he said.
Garoppolo, statistically, had the worst start of his career. He exited with a 15.7 passer rating, the lowest of his 28 regular season starts. He completed 8 of 19 for 77 yards with no touchdowns and two picks. He was one of many reasons the 49ers hit the locker room down 30-7 at halftime in a game that seemed impossible to come back from — even though the game marked the first time the 49ers had their full complement of offensive weapons, including Garoppolo.
49ers offense and injuries
It was the first time running back Raheem Mostert, receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk, and tight end George Kittle played together all season. On paper, Sunday’s game should have been an opportunity to get in a rhythm and finally look like the team that ranked second in the NFL in scoring last season and beat up on bad teams during its 8-0 start to the year. The Dolphins came into the weekend with the league’s 27th-ranked defense allowing 410 yards per game. San Francisco gained 259.
But with the pandemic wiping out a traditional offseason and training camp, and the injuries the team has dealt with, the 49ers aren’t close to finding a rhythm. Mostert played after missing two games with a knee injury. Aiyuk was playing in his fourth game as a pro. Samuel was playing in his second game of the season and has only gotten four practices since breaking his foot over the summer. He missed two sessions this week because of an illness.
With those issues in mind, Kittle shifted the blame to the veterans.
“We have four captains on offense, we do. Two tackles (Trent Williams and Mike McGlinchey), a tight end and a QB. We just got to play better. We have shoulder that load,” Kittle said. “I don’t want to make excuses for our guys. But our vets got to play better. It starts with me. Just our unit right now is not playing well together. And I know that we’ve got the guys to right the ship, no one’s trying to jump off. No one’s pointing fingers. We just to come in, figure out what we do best and get to it.”
Kittle pointing out the offensive captains is notable because of the team’s struggles along the offensive line, which certainly didn’t do Garoppolo any favors. The 49ers allowed five sacks for the second week in a row, which came after Shanahan said on Friday he was excited by the way the offensive line practiced leading into the game.
There appeared to be communication issues between left tackle Trent Williams and left guard Laken Tomlinson throughout the game. Those two were expected to be a strength of the offense. The right side, with Daniel Brunskill at guard and Mike McGlinchey at tackle, has continued to struggle.
Shanahan said last week the offense had to improve at running the ball in order to be better at everything else. The 49ers were better on Sunday, but it proved inconsequential because the game got out of hand so quickly. San Francisco averaged 7.9 yards but had just 19 carries. Shanahan had to pass more than they planned because they fell behind by two touchdowns after the Dolphins’ first two series.
Mostert was a bright spot, running for 90 yards on 11 attempts while adding three catches for 29 yards. Yet the 49ers were unable to control the tempo of the game even before it got out of hand because of the pass protection issues. San Francisco failed to get a first down after any of the first three sacks the offense allowed once the Dolphins gained their early lead.
“Last year, we weren’t down 14-0 to start the game,” Kittle said. “I think what we did well last year, we ran the ball well last year. We haven’t been running the ball well this year. I love running the football, but when we don’t run the football, that’s kind of a shot at me, because I feel like that me and the offensive tackles are the best at what we do when we can combo block, and we haven’t been very good at it.”
49ers defense struggles
Then there was the defense.
49ers were expected to regress statistically after entering Week 5 ranked No. 3 in the NFL in total defense. That was a function of playing a struggling group of quarterbacks the last three weeks — Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones and Carson Wentz — and ranking third wasn’t going to last once the scheduled stiffened while the injuries piled up.
On Sunday, San Francisco’s coaching staff made the odd decision to start Brian Allen at cornerback despite Ahkello Witherspoon’s balky hamstring being healthy enough to suit up. Allen was promoted from the practice squad Saturday and made his first career start. The Dolphins realized that and targeed Allen from the jump.
He allowed a 47-yard catch on Miami’s first snap and was flagged for a horse-collar tackle moments before their first touchdown. He was also in coverage on a touchdown allowed on a third-and-22, and he was flagged for a pass interference at the goal line.
Suffice to say, starting Allen was a disaster, mitigated only by the fact he was replaced by Witherspoon after four series, once the Dolphins had scored three touchdowns.
Allen was a particularly surprising choice given Ken Webster had been with the team since Sept. 13. Yet the team decided Allen was the better player to start. Shanahan after the game wasn’t asked why backup safety Tarvarius Moore, who was drafted to play cornerback in 2018, wasn’t a better option than a player fresh off the practice squad.
After all, the 49ers often talk about getting their best players on the field regardless of position, and San Francisco used a third-round pick on Moore thinking he would play cornerback before switching him to safety in 2019.
And why not start Witherspoon if he was healthy enough to suit up?
“Ahkello, he tried to go this week, but he was too tight to try to go this whole week,” Shanahan said. “Because of our low numbers, we still trust him for emergency. We were trying to hold out to see how long we could go through with that. And when Ahkello came up to us on the sideline and said he wanted to go, and wanted a shot, gave us a little more confidence with his hamstring, he went in, was able to pull it off and get out of the game without tearing it.”
Until Witherspoon is healthy, four of the five cornerbacks that made the opening day roster are banged up. Richard Sherman remains on injured reserve and seems iffy to return this week with a calf injury. Emmanuel Moseley missed a second straight game with a concussion, though Shanahan sounded optimistic he could come back soon. Dontae Johnson missed the game with a groin injury and K’Waun Williams went on short-term IR with a knee injury Saturday.
“There’s no magical thing that you can say when you play like that. I just try to hold us all accountable,” Shanahan said. “I know it starts with me.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 7:29 AM.
