INGLEWOOD — Many a 49ers game has ended with coach Kyle Shanahan’s team unable to hold a lead. We’ve seen it in Super Bowls. We’ve certainly witnessed it here at SoFi Stadium, be it three seasons ago in the NFC Championship Game or Sunday in a 27-24 collapse.
This Week 3 faceplant against the Los Angeles Rams already has the 49ers aghast. Their inability to close out opponents — inferior or not — is a stigma they can’t shake.
“That was one of goals this year: finishing. We’re doing a pretty bad job at it,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said.
“We could have ended it on offense, defense or special teams,” Shanahan added.
Indeed, each phase messed up, and the 49ers’ habitually horrible special teams did the most damage. Shanahan repeatedly referenced how the Rams parlayed a successful fake punt into a touchdown drive that not only halved the 49ers’ lead to 14-7 but gave the Rams “hope.”
Jauan Jennings’ third touchdown on an 11-catch, 175-yard career day should have given the 49ers enough cushion, yet we know now that a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead is never safe. It wasn’t for the 2019 team in the Super Bowl, nor the 2021 team here against the Lombardi Trophy-bound Rams.
“We have a good enough team to finish out a game pretty early and put up points every drive offensively,” said Brock Purdy, who opened with touchdown passes to Jennings on the first two drives. “We’re all pretty frustrated.”
1. OVERCONFIDENCE
The 49ers had every reason to puff their chest with a 14-0 lead. They own the Rams in regular-season action. They never lose before their “Red Sea” Faithful at SoFi. They are the reigning NFC champions, the two-time reigning division winners and the dream team of highly compensated superstars.
Does all that bravado lead to this chronic condition of blowing fourth-quarter leads? “Honestly, no,” linebacker Fred Warner said. “I feel like we got the right guys in the building. It’s never a matter of like, ‘Man, we were feeling ourselves, thinking that we don’t have to continue to work hard and earn it every single Sunday.’ We have guys who understand the game.”
Lenoir understood how Sunday’s assignment was botched, saying: “This loss comes from being too complacent.” And too confident.
2. SPECIAL TEAMS BLUNDERS
The Rams’ successful fake punt allowed for their first touchdown drive, and Shanahan repeatedly cited it for giving the Rams hope. Anyone who has watched the 49ers’ special teams in recent years knows that it constantly provides hope to opponents waiting for a blunder.
Sunday’s troubles also included a 37-yard punt return to midfield (Malik Mustapha whiffed on the initial tackle) to set up the Rams’ winning field goal. A 55-yard field goal attempt is a long one, but Jake Moody easily had the distance, just not the accuracy. A week after a blocked punt and a muffed return, the 49ers’ special teams units got worse.
3. WILL THE BELL TOLL?
Purdy predictably and dutifully defended Ronnie Bell for his drop at the Rams’ 25-yard line, where the 49ers could have chewed up more clock and been the ones scoring the final points. Yes, they had Bell’s back. How much longer, though? Pro sports is a performance-based business, and Bell’s stock plummeted last season with his punt return woes. He has a history of drops, and he had one in the third quarter before that late-game one had Shanahan throwing his own hands up in dismay on the sideline. The 49ers paid Brandon Aiyuk to make that play, but it went to a roster-bubble bust.
4. SUPER BOWL JAUAN
Jennings positioned himself 10 months ago to win Super Bowl MVP honors if the 49ers didn’t choke against the Chiefs. He was Sunday’s MVP – for the 49ers. His three touchdowns were offset by Kyren Williams’ three for the Rams.
Jennings, a fourth-year pro, signed a two-year, $15 million deal in May that looks like a steal after Sunday’s career-high marks of 11 receptions, 175 yards, and three scores. It was all for naught as the 49ers lost, and he was at a loss for words afterward in exiting the locker room rather than speak to reporters at his locker.
“Jauan was unbelievable. I think the numbers show it, but more than the numbers, he was a warrior the whole game,” Shanahan said. “He’s always like that. Got a lot more opportunities today and was automatic on every single one.”
“His number was called within the week and he prepared for it,” Lenoir said of Jennings, who started in place of Samuel and should do so until teams can not stop him.
5. AIYUK CONNECTION
Purdy offered a nuanced explanation why he and Aiyuk are not a hot tandem. Aiyuk caught only 5-of-10 targets for 48 yards, his seventh straight outing below 100 yards, including three in last year’s postseason.
“I just think it comes with opportunities that you get in games with looks. It’s not like you drop back and go, ‘Oh we’re not ready yet. I’m not giving him the ball.’ It has nothing to do with that. It’s, ‘What is my read? Is it the right look here with B.A.?’ Obviously we’re scheming stuff up to get him in a great position to win and get the ball. But defenses are doing a good job getting me off the reads to go to other guys. It’s part of the game. We’re going to get better … and both be on the same page. Absolutely love B.A. and he’s working really hard right now.”
6. DEFENSE’S HEALTH
Tired of hearing about offensive stars’ injuries? Well, then you won’t like to hear that Nick Bosa hurt his oblique against the Vikings (undisclosed on the postgame injury report) and aggravated it in Thursday’s practice (disclosed as a rib injury). Still, Bosa powered through it, with modest impact from the $36 million-per-year defensive end.
Warner did not come away unscathed Sunday. His right ankle got “sideswiped” on a fourth-quarter play that did not count, the one in which the Rams tried a quick snap before a replay review wiped out a halfback-option completion near the 49ers’ goal line.
The only injuries Shanahan reported – mind you, he is presented the list and not just going off the top of his head – were to linebacker Dee Winters (ankle) and defensive tackle Javon Hargrave, whose triceps injury involves what Shanahan hopes is only a bruise.
7. RESPECT TO RAMS’ RB
The 49ers toyed in the past with five down linemen, and that seemed like a smart approach Sunday against a Rams team that figured to rely on running back Williams while they missed wide receiver Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua.
Williams ran for two second-half touchdowns, and the first of his scoring hat trick came on a catch-and-run that finished with an in-your-face flip over the goal line.
Said Warner: “It didn’t feel like we really gave him much of a contest. I feel like a lot of them were walk-ins. We got to be better down there.”
Williams (24 carries, 89 yards) averaged less per carry than the 49ers’ Jordan Mason (19 carries, 77 yards). Mason did not score a touchdown for the first time in three starts, a cruel reminder of McCaffrey’s knack for breaching the goal line.
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8. PASS DEFENSE BLUNDERS
The pass rush should have obliterated Matthew Statue, er, Stafford. And the interior push delivered three sacks. The 49ers got no sacks out of Bosa or Leonard Floyd, and that simply can not be ignored when more criticism is directed at the secondary.
Charvarius Ward was questionable with hamstring and knee issues, so it shouldn’t be alarming that he was victimized on a few plays, most notably on a 50-yard bomb near the goal line where Talanoa Hufanga was late with safety help. But another concern is Isaac Yiadom, who has served as the No. 3 cornerback. Quarterbacks are going after Yiadom with success the way they did Ambry Thomas last season.
Yiadom has the temperament to battle through these attacks. But the 49ers may feel compelled to pull him and send in Green, a second-round draft pick who came on to spell Ward when he needed a breather in the red zone. Green committed a penalty to set up first-and-goal and Williams’ second touchdown, however.
9. PENALTY REFLECTIONS
Are the 49ers morphing into an undisciplined unit that can’t overcome penalties? They had only four penalties in each of their first two games. This game: Seven penalties were assessed for 111 yards. On the defense’s penultimate snap, three penalties were called, with DeVondre Campbell’s pass-interference enforced over the two by Lenoir for holding and illegal use of the hands.
Penalties on Jake Brendel and Kyle Juszczyk wiped out runs by Mason and Isaac Guerendo. Trent Williams and Dominick Puni had first-half penalties. Negative plays like that work against whatever Purdy and his depleted cast can do.
10. STATE OF 49ERS
You can always count on losing teams to cite the need to watch film to explain their latest breakdowns. And losing teams often are crippled by injuries. The 49ers are a losing team, so says their 1-2 record. “We in a hole. We’ve got to dig it out,” Bosa said.
The Rams and the Cardinals also are 1-2, so the Seattle Seahawks (3-0) are two games clear of their three division rivals. A bounce-back game awaits Sunday against the New England Patriots, then the 49ers resume divisional play by hosting the Cardinals on Oct. 6, with a prime-time stop in Seattle four days later.
