49ers had new problems against the Packers, but failure to shake off same old ones likely doomed their season
The San Francisco 49ers needed to play near-perfect game to beat the Green Bay Packers without starting quarterback Brock Purdy, All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams and former Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa. They did anything but. A 38-10 score in favor of the Packers reads like emphatic revenge for Green Bay following the […]
The San Francisco 49ers needed to play near-perfect game to beat the Green Bay Packers without starting quarterback Brock Purdy, All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams and former Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bosa.
They did anything but.
A 38-10 score in favor of the Packers reads like emphatic revenge for Green Bay following the 49ers' win in the Divisional Round last season.
While the Packers did indeed control the game throughout, the 49ers had their chances to make it close.
But in a game in which the 49ers faced new problems with the absences of arguably their three most important players, it was the same old miscues that ultimately doomed them to a loss that serves as a huge blow to their playoff hopes.
With the Seattle Seahawks prevailing over the Arizona Cardinals, the 49ers are only a game back of the NFC West lead. However, at 5-6 and with no tiebreakers in the division in their favor, the Niners' path is narrowing rapidly.
And it is getting thinner because of execution failures that have hindered them throughout a desperately frustrating campaign.
San Francisco was flagged for nine penalties for 77 yards, with a lack of discipline haunting the 49ers at crucial moments.
The 49ers' penalties included:
- Back-to-back too many men on the field calls (one nullified by an offsetting penalty) — leading to a Josh Jacobs TD to put the Packers up 17-0.
- A holding penalty on 87-yard Deebo Samuel kick return that would have put the 49ers at the Green Bay 8 down 17-7 to start the second half.
- Two further holding penalties on punt returns of 13 and 20 yards.
- A defensive pass interference penalty in the endzone on Renardo Green following a Brandon Allen interception that allowed the Packers to go up 24-7.
The interception came on a play that saw a catchable ball go through Samuel's hands and into the grasp of Xavier McKinney, who returned the ball to the San Francisco 25-yard line. San Francisco had been on the Green Bay 45-yard line.
A fourth-quarter fumble from Allen that the Packers recovered allowed Green Bay to put the game beyond doubt with Josh Jacobs' third rushing touchdown, and a miserable game was summed up soon after when Christian McCaffrey fumbled at the end of a 23-yard gain on a screen pass.
Injury adversity is part of the game, the 49ers have faced it before and will face it again. The unfamiliar aspect of this week's game for the Niners was not having Purdy, who had previously not missed a game through injury.
But, as George Kittle articulated after the game, the Niners' miscues, save for the fumble that slipped out of his hands, had little to do with backup quarterback Allen.
"I thought Brandon played his tail off," said Kittle. "He did everything he could possibly do, gave guys chances, threw the ball deep, put the ball on us and, whether it was we couldn't convert on a couple third downs or fourth downs, it was just tough. I thought he played well and we just had to play better."
Added Kittle: "We had so many penalties all over the field, which is just really hard to win football games like that.
"We couldn't stay on the field, besides our one long drive at the end of the second. We were moving the ball, but we just didn't finish."
Moving the ball but failing to finish is the story of the season, for the 49ers, who averaged 5.1 yards per play to the Packers' 4.9.
Four times in the second half the 49ers had the ball with the chance to pull within one score of Green Bay. None of those drives ended in points, with penalties and turnovers at key points ensuring they could not climb back into the game despite the Packers affording them several opportunities to do so.
Missed opportunities have defined the 49ers' campaign, contributing to a trio of heartbreaking in-division losses that have helped leave them with a mountain to climb to make the playoffs.
Shorthanded and going against a Packers team that, unlike the Niners, has managed to stay among the NFC's elite, those wasted chances were even more magnified and led to a much more humbling scoreline. The 49ers' inability to shake off the errors when they most needed a clean game served as a depressing illustration of why a roster that has perennially contended for the Super Bowl in recent years will likely be watching the postseason from home this time around.
49ers can take some solace from an unusual source following deflating blowout loss to Packers
They’re still in the mix, just about.
