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The San Francisco 49ers in Week 15 suffered a rare type of defeat against the Dallas Cowboys. Their 41-33 loss came despite racking up 36 carries and crossing the magic 30-carry threshold. That tends to result in a 49ers win and has over the last two seasons. Sunday was different.
The 49ers’ loss to the Cowboys was only their fifth under Kyle Shanahan when they go over the 30-carry mark. They have 19 wins and they hadn’t lost such a game since October 28, 2018. They’ve still not lost a game with 30-plus carries with Jimmy Garoppolo under center.
Brian Hoyer had the first loss in 2017 against the Rams at Levi’s Stadium, CJ Beathard started the next three, and Nick Mullens started Sunday in Dallas.
While the stat isn’t the end-all, be-all, it serves as an indicator of what went wrong for San Francisco. They did what they wanted to do on offense despite falling behind 14-0 on the strength of a couple turnovers. They might’ve gotten 45 carries in if they had a healthy backfield and weren’t digging out of a two-touchdown hole.
Alas, that’s the position they found themselves in. They gave the ball away too many times and even a strong game on the ground couldn’t save them. The formula to win was there, the quarterback and punt returner Richie James Jr. coughed the ball up four total times and the Cowboys capitalized.
In a year full of frustrating losses for San Francisco, Sundays might be the hardest to swallow.