Loss in Seattle offers a cold reality: 49ers are good, but injuries are killing them
The 49ers are learning more and more about their sobering reality of 2020 as they tread through a roller coaster season.
They’re good enough to win some games in the right circumstances — which have a lot to do with the health of Jimmy Garoppolo’s right ankle — and they’re going to get exposed against opponents who get better quarterback play than San Francisco.
The 49ers’ last four weeks paint the picture. They couldn’t slow down Ryan Fitzpatrick on Oct. 11 in a blowout loss to the Dolphins, much like they couldn’t stop Russell Wilson or D.K. Metcalf on Sunday in Seattle. Another common thread was Garoppolo’s inability to finish either of those games because of his balky ankle.
Those poor performances against Miami and Seattle sandwiched encouraging wins over the Rams and Patriots, who didn’t get good games from their quarterbacks, Jared Goff or Cam Newton.
Which all goes a long way towards encapsulating the team’s 4-4 record, the worst mark in the NFC West.
Sunday’s game in Seattle, in which the 49ers trailed 30-7 early in the fourth quarter before Nick Mullens led three straight touchdown drives against the Seahawks’ prevent defense, might have put the final nail in the idea the 49ers could make a run at winning the NFC West despite their constant bout with injuries.
“You have to play well to have a good game and I don’t think we played very well today,” head coach Kyle Shanahan said when asked about overcoming injuries. “It started with me. I made a few too many mistakes. We got it going there a little bit in the fourth quarter, but I don’t think we played well as a group.”
Trailing in the West with injuries aplenty
After Sunday, San Francisco is three games back in the loss column of first-place Seattle (6-1) with half the schedule left.
No, the 49ers could not go up to Seattle, without Nick Bosa, Richard Sherman, Deebo Samuel, Raheem Mostert, Dee Ford and others and beat the presumptive MVP frontrunner in Wilson. That’s the sobering reality that’s confronting Shanahan as his team prepares for a rematch of last season’s NFC title game on Thursday.
Shanahan’s team is as good as any in the NFL when all the pieces are in place and healthy. Without them, they can punch above their weight against the right teams, but the Seahawks are a legitimate contender to reach the Super Bowl, which requires a healthy squad replete with stars to beat on their home field.
The 49ers came out ready for a fight Sunday, forcing punts on the first two possessions and taking it to the home team early. But the scoreless game shifted when Garoppolo was intercepted by former 49ers defensive back D.J. Reed on a play that started at Seattle’s 20-yard line in the first quarter. Any momentum San Francisco had disappeared.
“I think the turnover inside the red zone, stuff like that is hard to overcome, especially when you’re going against a guy like Russell Wilson,” left tackle Trent Williams said. “Our defense did such a great job at the beginning of the game. I felt like they had their number by getting stops and flying around. As an offense, we just didn’t complete our side of the deal by making them pay for good field position. We let them overcome some of the mistakes that we should’ve made them pay for.”
The 49ers managed just 126 yards of offense during the first half, when they were trailing, 13-7. Wilson had 155 passing yards on his own, including two scores to Metcalf, who finished with 12 catches on 15 targets for 161 yards.
Seahawks make it ugly
It was the third quarter when things started to get ugly.
San Francisco opened with a three-and-out and the Seahawks marched down the field to score on rookie running back DeeJay Dallas’ pass in the right flat after linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair, playing instead of starter Kwon Alexander, decided to stop covering Dallas and instead make a play on Wilson. Instead he wound up in no man’s land as Seattle added six more points.
Then receiver Dante Pettis, active in a game for the first time since early October, fumbled on the following kickoff while injuring his shoulder. The Seahawks went 21 yards on six plays and made it a 27-7 game on David Moore’s six-yard touchdown catch.
The 49ers’ entire third quarter on offense consisted of two three-and-outs before Garoppolo exited after getting sacked for a third time.
“I was frustrated with the whole offense. Starting with myself, this wasn’t a very good day for us,” Shanahan said. “I thought the defense came out and played pretty inspired in those first couple of drives and gave us a chance to get up on them and we missed those opportunities.
“I was disappointed with the whole group (on offense). No one played great. That always starts with me, but I’m glad we have a game coming up soon so we can turn the page pretty quick and get ready for Green Bay.”
The strange thing coming out of the game was how San Francisco failed to do anything against Seattle’s historically bad defense. The Seahawks’ 2,875 yards were the most allowed by any team through six games in league history. And Seattle was missing star safety Jamal Adams and top cornerback Shaquill Griffin.
Even while the 49ers were dealing with their own spate of injuries, they should have been able to move the ball on Seattle’s downtrodden defense. But they could not.
Seattle’s plan was to hit the 49ers with heavy blitzes and put the pressure on Garoppolo and his bum ankle. Garoppolo couldn’t make them pay and San Francisco had no counter punch to keep the defense off balanced.
“Offensively, we missed out on some really easy opportunities,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said.
Kittle, Garoppolo in question for Packers
Specifically, all the blitzing the Seahawks did created open space, which often leads to big plays for San Francisco’s offense. Garoppolo came into the game with a 73 percent completion rate and 147.9 passer rating when blitzed this season, according to Pro Football Focus.
“We love when a team blitzes us, because that means we have a chance for a really big play,” Juszczyk said. “ I wish I had a good answer for why we weren’t capitalizing early on – it’s tough because I haven’t watched the film yet, but I just know that was a big this for us. They were heating us up with some blitzes and we just didn’t respond to it very well.”
According to ESPN, Garoppolo was pressured on nine of his 20 drop backs (45 percent), the highest pressure rate in his career as a starter.
So where do the 49ers go from here?
They have a short turnaround against the Packers on Thursday, and it’s unclear if they’ll have Garoppolo or star tight end George Kittle available. Kittle exited in the fourth quarter with a foot injury.
It’s possible Garoppolo fights through the injury and the 49ers channel their performance against the Rams from two weeks ago to get back over .500 yet again.
But it’s also possible that Sunday’s result in Seattle repeats itself and speaks to what this 49ers team is at the moment: a good team with too many problems to overcome.
This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 7:13 AM.
