Rock bottom: Winless at home, are there signs of hope for the 49ers or are they done?
The 49ers on Sunday were undone, in part, by a cornerback freshly plucked from the practice squad to help stop the defensive bleeding.
They’re still bleeding, badly, hemorrhaging away their season in a slow drip of dread and despair, the latest mess spilled out on the Levi’s Stadium turf, a 43-17 drubbing by the Miami Dolphins.
San Francisco was especially taken to task by a 37-year-old quarterback who refuses to go away. Ryan Fitzpatrick continues to show he is more than just a hearty thick beard, the chin growth impressively spilling over his chin strap as a ZZ Top cover-band fill-in candidate.
Fitzpatrick is 37. He is on his eighth NFL team since entering the fray out of Harvard in 2005, and he very well may have saved the season for the Dolphins. He at least kept it alive, which is more than what the 49ers have going.
Fitzpatrick passed for 350 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions to throttle the defending NFC champions. Miami was supposed to slump to 1-4 after this one. It is instead 2-3 with new life under an old quarterback and its 39-year-old second-year coach, Brian Flores.
The 49ers?
They sit at a befuddled 0-3 at home and 2-3 overall. The victories happened long ago, at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, over the Giants and Jets.
Those clubs are a combined 0-10. If those are the sad-sack clubs in the NFL, the bottom feeders, where do the 49ers rank? Right there with the lot of losers with plenty of season left to clean up the carnage.
”If we don’t get better,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said in a media zoom conference after the game, “it’s going to be a long season.”
Added San Francisco tight end George Kittle, who went from 15 catches a week earlier to four Sunday, “If we play like that, it’s not going to be a very fun month for us. We’ve got to get it turned around quick.”
Schedule gauntlet awaits the 49ers
Teams expecting to return to the Super Bowl don’t start seasons this way. Never mind the rash of injuries. Teams hoping to reach the playoffs cannot afford to start this way. The 49ers now have to wonder where their next victory will come. They’re not even sure who starts at quarterback next week. And anyone who wants to try out for cornerback is urged to stretch and fire off a resume and game film to 49ers headquarters in quick order.
This is what looms on the schedule: Rams, Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, Saints, Rams, Bills. There isn’t a slug outfit in the lot.
It was so bad on a sun-drenched day in Santa Clara that the cardboard cutouts in the stands were caught groaning and grousing. They deserve refunds.
It started poorly with Brian Allen getting burned repeatedly at cornerback. He was called up from the practice squad, the 49ers resorting to scraping the barrel for healthy cover guys. Allen was devoured by Fitzpatrick, who wasn’t even supposed to be the team savior this season.
That was supposed to be first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa. Just a week earlier, Miami fans pleaded for coaches to get Tua in the lineup.
Allen, in a surprise start, surrendered catches of 47, 15, 8, 28, 19 and 22 yards (a touchdown), and he had two penalties that set up first-and-goal situations. All of the damage played out with 7:30 to go in the half. Miami led 30-7 after two quarters.
No excuses. The 49ers were fully healthy on offense for the first time since the opener. How could this not be a day to squeeze out the club’s first home victory?
It boiled down to basic football fundamentals. The 49ers could not pass protect (again). They could not get to Fitzpatrick, another magnified moment of the season-long loss of rush-end specialist Nick Bosa. They could not keep pace.
And Jimmy Garoppolo’s return from a high ankle sprain was a flop. He’s still hurting, still not sharp, and the 49ers haven’t looked this bad since the Chip Kelly coaching disaster days.
San Francisco yielded the most points for a home game since 2009, exactly 11 years ago, when the Falcons scored 45 in a 35-point blowout.
Against one of the poorest defenses in the league coming in, Garoppolo completed 7 of 17 passes for 77 yards with two interceptions. The passing rating was a look-away, horrific 15.7. Fitzpatrick had a 154.5 rating, and he was deemed the lesser of the two passers coming in.
Garoppolo struggles, Dolphins roll
The Dolphins haven’t been this efficient and prolific on offense since Dan Marino was at the helm, or so it seems. Fittingly, Marino was on hand Sunday, on the Miami sideline before the game and after.
Garoppolo was pulled at the half for C.J. Beathard. There is no quarterback controversy brewing here. Garoppolo is the guy. Shanahan didn’t bench Garopollo because he thought or expected Bethard to suddenly become Joe Montana or Steve Young. He wanted to protect his still-gimpy quarterback.
Said Bethard, “Jimmy is not one to make excuses, so he never said anything to me, but there were obviously some throws that Jimmy makes there if he’s healthy.”
Garoppolo’s best effort Sunday was coming clean. He never defers. He takes the heat like a leader. This is the same man who led the 49ers Super Bowl march, but that’s when he had a dominant offensive line and a dominant defense. Neither of those things are there now.
Garoppolo said of his sore ankle, “I felt it. I wouldn’t say it affected everything. It’s one of those things you have to deal with. Tough one today. I wanted to be out there with the guys and wanted to get the win today. A lot of things didn’t go well for us.”
The quarterback insisted that team confidence is not shaken. Their bodies may be, and no doubt there are bruises on team pride.
“My confidence is fine,” Garoppolo said. “That doesn’t change anything. Everyone is in a tough situation in the NFL. It starts with me. I’ve just got to play better.”
They all do, or this ship sinks by midseason.