How the San Francisco 49ers muffed away a chance to upset the Saints in the Big Easy
The first quarter in New Orleans didn’t last long enough.
The San Francisco 49ers were outgaining the Saints, 84-8, had nine first downs as the home team was still looking for its first, and the 10-point underdogs had a 10-point lead after kicking a field goal on the first play of the second quarter.
“If we could have sustained the type of play we started out with, we had this game easily,” left tackle Trent Williams said.
But the 49ers could not sustain their first quarter dominance Sunday.
Instead, the Saints scored 27 straight points and cruised to a 27-13 victory on the back of a slew of mistakes from the undermanned road team, which wasted a first quarter that made it appear an upset was possible.
There were a pair of 49ers muffed punts that led to New Orleans touchdown drives and a questionable fourth-down play call by coach Kyle Shanahan late in the first half that led to the Saints taking the lead before the break. And backup quarterback Nick Mullens (24 of 38, 247 yards, one touchdown, 68.6 passer rating) threw a pair of interceptions in Saints territory, including one in the end zone after the game had been decided in the fourth quarter.
San Francisco for the game had the advantage in time of possession (32:54 to 27:06), yardage (281 to 237) and third down conversions (seven to two). The Saints were even forced to play their backup quarterback, Jameis Winston, in the second half after Drew Brees exited with a rib injury, but San Francisco still couldn’t get overcome their miscues.
“(I) thought we had an opportunity today, big time,” Shanahan said.
The loss pushes the 49ers to 4-6 and extends their losing streak to three, their worst since dropping six straight in 2018 when they lost Jimmy Garoppolo to his torn ACL. And in their last three contests, all against teams currently in the NFC playoff picture, San Francisco has been outscored 98-57, with 21 points for the 49ers coming in garbage time against the Seahawks and 14 more late in the blowout loss to Green Bay.
Turnovers doom 49ers’ upset hopes
Shanahan’s team had to play a near a perfect game at the Superdome to beat a strong Saints team that was coming off a 38-3 road throttling of Tom Brady and the Buccaneers a week earlier. But the 49ers were sloppy and any dim playoff hopes they had took another substantial hit.
“I think we all knew we had to play some real good football coming into today,” Shanahan said. “I was real impressed with our guys just how hard they were going for it. But if you don’t get the turnovers fixed, it doesn’t matter what our situation is.”
The first turnover came in the second quarter when return man Trent Taylor, who missed practice during the week with back stiffness, decided to let a punt bounce rather than field it after calling a fair catch. The ball bounced off the shoulder pad of Ken Webster, allowing the Saints to take over at San Francisco’s 21-yard line, leading to the first of running back Alvin Kamara’s three touchdowns.
“I think he should have caught it,” Shanahan on Taylor’s decision to let the ball bounce.
The Saints scored 17 of their 27 points on drives that started at San Francisco’s 25, 21 and 22 yard lines. They scored just 10 points on drives that started in their own territory.
New Orleans opened its scoring with a field goal to cap a possession that went minus-6 yards, which was possible by way of a 75-yard kickoff return from Deonte Harris. Richie James Jr., replacing Taylor, also muffed a punt in the fourth quarter that led to Kamara’s third score.
The injuries to George Kittle, Nick Bosa and Garoppolo have made the 49ers’ margin of error nearly zero when it comes to game-changing mistakes. It’s no surprise in the team’s losses this season, its turned the ball over 12 times while getting just four takeaways. The 49ers have turned it over just three times in their four victories while notching eight takeaways.
“I know we’re missing some people, but I think if we took care of the ball better today, we’d have a very good chance to be in that game,” Shanahan said. “But we didn’t and blew an opportunity there.”
Part of the opportunity came because the Brees was unable to play in the second half. He took a hit from defensive lineman Kentavius Street in the second quarter that proved to be one of the biggest plays in the game for multiple reasons.
Street nailed Brees with a head of steam and appeared to tackle him to the side, giving Street his first career sack missing most of the last two seasons with knee issues. But officials said Street drove Brees into the ground and flagged him for a personal foul. Instead of a third-and-18 at the 49ers’ 29, the Saints were given a first down at the 11. They tied the game three plays later on Kamara’s 2-yard run around left end.
“I think they got to let us play ball,” defensive end Kerry Hyder said. “Street did a great job of, I think, falling on the side, and I think that’s just one of those calls. I don’t think that call has to be made. But it’s one of those things that you just got to play through it.”
Added linebacker Fred Warner: “It’s a tough deal for sure, with the league trying to protect quarterbacks. That’s one of the ways that they’re trying to protect is landing on them.”
Winston struggles replacing Brees
Brees stayed in the game for the remainder of the half but the broadcast showed him motioning to his rib area when talking to head coach Sean Payton in the third quarter. Payton elected to go with Winston after Brees had a lackluster performance, throwing for 76 yards on 8-of-13 completions. New Orleans had just 90 yards in the first half, even though the Saints took a 17-10 lead into the locker room.
Winston didn’t fare much better, completing just 6 of 10 passes for 63 yards, signaling the 49ers the defense held up its end of the bargain.
The offense was a different story. Shanahan’s running game never got going. The 49ers had just 49 yards on 25 carries, their lowest output of the season. They’re averaging 2.4 yard per carry over their last three weeks, coinciding with the loss of halfbacks Raheem Mostert, Jeff Wilson Jr. and Tevin Coleman. The team is hoping Mostert and Coleman could be back following the 49ers’ bye week.
The Saints defended the run well by loading the box and blitzing from the outside, which meant a slew of standout plays for slot cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who had eight combined tackles, a sack, three quarterback hits, two tackles for loss and a pass breakup.
“They started to blitz the (wide side of the) field to try to keep our outside run game to try to not let that get out the gate,” Williams said. “So they had a good game plan. They haven’t showed that on film much. That was something that we had to make some adjustments to. But by the time we made our adjustments, it was kind of a passing game at that point, coming from behind.”
Jerick McKinnon had a team high 18 carries just managed just 33 yards. It’s becoming more clear as time goes on the 49ers will need other running backs for the running game to remain the effective bedrock of the offense Shanahan needs it to be while he’s operating with a backup quarterback.
But similar things can be said about the entire roster where injuries have run rampant. Until things change drastically, San Francisco won’t have a chance at getting back to the playoffs to defend its NFC crown.
This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 7:08 AM.
