Tag: 49ers scores

49ers found new way to lose in Week 11 vs. Seahawks

Good news: Special teams didn’t lose the 49ers a game on Sunday. Bad news: They have a new thing that did lose them the game.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the San Francisco 49ers 2024 season is that all five of their losses seem to come down to something different.

There’s not one discernible thing they have to fix, but rather a smattering of issues that vary each week in how much damage they inflict on the club’s chances to get a victory.

In a damaging Week 11 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, it appeared the offense was a major problem. That unit turned the ball over once and averaged only 4.9 yards per play in their least efficient outing of the year. They were also unable to hold onto the football for 3:56 at the end of the game, giving Seattle a chance to win.

Despite the offensive struggles, head coach Kyle Shanahan wasn’t necessarily displeased with the play from that unit in their latest loss. Instead, he pointed to penalties as the reason for their season-low output.

“Yeah, that was a huge thing. I thought that was one of the biggest problems for the offense on the day,” Shanahan said of the penalties. “And I actually thought we played a better game offensively than we did on that Thursday night game. We didn’t get, you know, on that Thursday night game we got the busted coverage on [WR] Deebo’s [Samuel] 70-yarder and we got those two explosive runs which really helped. But we played better football this game. We just didn’t at all with the penalties and you know, we had one 14-play drive where, I don’t know how many 14-play drives that I’ve been a part of that don’t end with points or a missed field goal or turnover. To go 14 plays and then punt it, we had eight plays inside the 50 after that turnover for the field goal having to overcome it a couple times and get them again. So, that was our biggest problem on the day I felt offensively.”

The 49ers had one drive just before the first half where they had a second-and-3 turn into a second-and-8 because of a false start. Two plays later on a third-and-1 they had a five-yard carry called back because of a hold, putting San Francisco into a third-and-10.

They overcame those penalties to get a first-and-10 at Seattle’s 34 after the two-minute warning. Another false start pushed them to a first-and-15, and then quarterback Brock Purdy took a sack that knocked them out of field goal range. Two incompletions later they punted. Instead of going ahead 10-6 or 14-6 before halftime, the 49ers led 7-6.

In the second half the 49ers defense came up with an interception that set the offense up at Seattle’s 27. They eventually got to first-and-10 at the Seahawks 16. An eight-yard scramble by Brock Purdy on that down was called back for a hold, giving the 49ers a first-and-20 at Seattle’s 26. Running back Christian McCaffrey immediately got the 49ers back inside the 15 with a 14-yard run, but that was negated by an illegal formation flag.

San Francisco went from first-and-10 at the Seattle 16 to first-and-25 at the Seattle 31. They settled for a field goal on that series and instead of leading 14-6, led 10-6 and allowed the next Seattle touchdown to give them a lead.

The good news is it wasn’t special teams that killed the 49ers this time. The bad news is we have a new thing to add to the list of reasons a team that was supposed to contend for a Super Bowl is fighting for its playoff life after 10 games.

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49ers schedule: Week 11 game vs. Seahawks a virtual must-win

The 49ers need to beat the Seahawks for a bunch of reasons.

There’s a clear path to the postseason for the San Francisco 49ers that started in Week 10 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and continues in Week 11 against the Seattle Seahawks.

The game at Tampa Bay was a virtual must-win for the previously 4-4 49ers. A loss to fall to 4-5 could have been catastrophic. Alas, they pulled out a 23-20 victory on the road. While it was a significant win, it was only Step 1 for the 49ers. Perhaps more important is Sunday’s matchup against the Seattle Seahawks.

It doesn’t appear as though the 49ers’ road back to the playoffs will ever be easy this season. They could simply win the rest of their games and punch their ticket that way, but with games coming up in Green Bay, in Buffalo, at home against the Lions, Dolphins and Rams, and in Arizona, the likelihood they win out is slim. That puts a handful of other scenarios on the table.

There are too many different ways this can all play out to start listing them here, but there’s a real chance tiebreakers come into play for either the division or a wild card spot. The bottom line for Sunday’s game is that the 49ers can’t drop another game in the division after losing to the Cardinals and Rams earlier in the year.

NFL tiebreakers for the division start with head-to-head record. The 49ers would sweep the season series with the Seahawks with a win Sunday and climb further ahead of them in the standings. If the teams split their head-to-head matchups, which the 49ers would if they beat the Rams and Cardinals, then the next tiebreaker is record within the division.

San Francisco needs a trio of wins in the division down the stretch, and their second time through the NFC West begins Sunday.

There’s a wild card element to factor in as well.

The first tiebreaker for wild card teams is head-to-head matchup. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it next week when the 49ers visit the No. 7 seed Green Bay Packers. The next tiebreaker is conference record, and San Francisco’s three NFC losses early in the year put them behind the curve in that category.

Racking up NFC wins is going to be imperative to not only have a playoff-caliber record, but also for getting a potential tiebreaker edge.

San Francisco could still make the postseason if they lose Sunday. A win makes the path much easier though, and finding out what it looks like with a loss to Seattle is probably a version of the playoff picture they’ll want to avoid.

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Next 4 weeks of schedule will define 49ers 2024 season

The direction of the 49ers’ season will be determined by this four-week turning point.

The San Francisco 49ers’ 2024 season sits at a crossroads as they come out of their Bye week.

They hold a 4-4 record and sit on the outside looking in at the NFC playoff picture. They’re also a half game back of the Arizona Cardinals for the NFC West lead, and sitting in third place in the division because the Los Angeles Rams hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over them.

By most measures that ultimately matter, the 49ers have been a pretty middle-of-the-road club through eight games. That’s reflected in the USA TODAY NFL power rankings where they sit at No. 16 after their Bye week.

The next four weeks will define their entire year and give them an opportunity to tip toward the side that features Super Bowl contention.

San Francisco will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road in Week 10, then come home to host the Seattle Seahawks in Week 11. After that they’ll have back-to-back road contests at Green Bay and Buffalo.

Going 3-1 or 4-0 in this stretch will entrench the 49ers as a Super Bowl contender. That’d put them at either 7-5 or 8-4 with four quality wins in a row. It would also signal that the typical second-half push by San Francisco is in play.

If they split those four games or worse, they’re going to have a hard time making the postseason at all.

It’s an 18-week season, but if the 49ers are going to show they’re better than a middle-of-the-road team, it has to start with their first four games out of the Bye.

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49ers scores: How Kyle Shanahan teams do immediately after Bye week

Here’s how the 49ers do under Kyle Shanahan the week after their Bye:

The San Francisco 49ers will need to hit the ground running coming out of their Bye week.

A Week 8 win over the Dallas Cowboys put the 49ers in a spot to be competitive in the NFC West and playoff races the rest of the way, but they’ll need to get off on the right foot out of the gate when the visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Recently the first game out of the Bye week has been a bright spot on the 49ers’ schedule.

Under head coach Kyle Shanahan they’re 4-3 after the week off, but they’re 4-1 in their last five. The 2017 and 2018 seasons were outliers where they lost 24-13 at home to the Seattle Seahawks and 27-9 on the road vs. the Buccaneers.

Since then they’ve been pretty good out of the Bye.

In 2019 they blew out the Cleveland Browns 31-3 at Levi’s Stadium. The following year was a disaster, but they still squeaked out a 23-20 road win over the Los Angeles Rams after the Bye.

Quarterback injuries and inclement weather helped catalyze an ugly 30-18 loss at home against the Indianapolis Colts after the 2021 Bye week.

In 2022 they snuck past the Los Angeles Chargers 22-16 early in Christian McCaffrey’s tenure. Then last year they blew out the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-3 in Northeast Florida.

While the 49ers haven’t necessarily been dominant immediately after the Bye week, a 4-1 record in their last five provides optimism they’ll be able to find a win over a shorthanded Buccaneers club coming off a tough, overtime Monday Night Football game on the road vs. the Kansas City Chiefs.

Given Shanahan’s overall record after Bye weeks, getting started with a win would put the 49ers on a very good track to stay prominently in the NFC playoff picture.

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Has negative rest differential hurt 49ers this season?

How much has rest differential hurt the 49ers so far in 2024?

The San Francisco 49ers for the last two seasons have been up against the dreaded ‘rest differential‘ thanks to their schedule.

A key talking point when the NFL releases its full schedule is the number of days a team has off between games compared to its opponent. If Teams A and B face off after having played the previous Sunday, the rest differential is zero for both teams. If Team A played Monday night, and Team B played Sunday, Team B would have a plus-one rest differential when facing Team A the following Sunday.

The 49ers have been on the wrong side of the rest differential by historical proportions in each of their last two schedules. In 2023 they had the sixth-worst rest differential of all-time. This year they have the third-worst.

In 2023 it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of the season as the 49ers finished 12-5 and snagged the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

So far in 2024 it hasn’t mattered much either.

San Francisco through six weeks has yet to play a game with a positive rest differential, and there’s no clear evidence that being at a rest disadvantage has actually hurt the 49ers.

They had neutral rest differentials in Week 1, Week 3, Week 5 and Week 6.

In Week 1 they beat the Jets. They lost in Weeks 3 and 5 to the Rams and Cardinals, respectively. Then they beat the Seahawks on Thursday Night Football in Week 6.

In Week 2, thanks to a Week 1 Monday Night Football game, the 49ers were a minus-1 rest differential in a loss to the Minnesota Vikings.

On the other hand, the Patriots had a plus-three rest differential in Week 4 when they visited Levi’s Stadium, and San Francisco handled them with relative ease.

Now it’s up to the 49ers to continue shrugging off rest disadvantages because they’re going to have two big ones entering their next two games.

The Chiefs, who were on a bye in Week 6, will have a plus-three rest differential at Levi’s Stadium in Week 7.

Then the 49ers host the Cowboys in Week 8 after Dallas has its bye in Week 7. That means they’ll have a plus-seven differential when they visit San Francisco.

While the rest advantage is a preseason talking point, the 49ers don’t have the margin for error to use it as an excuse. They overcame a season full of tough schedule spots last year, and they did it once already this year. That trend needs to continue heading into their Week 9 bye if they want to put themselves in position to potentially push for the No. 1 seed again.

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Kyle Shanahan: Past slow starts won’t help 49ers in 2024

Can the 49ers past experience with slow starts help them climb out of this year’s early-season rut? Head coach Kyle Shanahan says no.

The San Francisco 49ers through five weeks find themselves in unfavorable, familiar territory.

Slow starts were a hallmark of Kyle Shanahan’s 49ers for a few seasons following an 8-0 start in the 2019 campaign. In 2020 they were 4-4 through eight games. The next year they fell to 3-5 before putting together a late-season run and finishing 10-7. It was more of the same in 2022 when they started 3-4 before ripping off 10 in a row to finish the year.

In 2023 things changed, but they still dropped three in a row after a 5-0 start before finishing 12-5.

This season is another slow start with the 49ers sitting at 2-3 through five weeks. Logic says this group, many of which have been part of the teams that struggled to start 2021 and 2022, would be calloused to the adversity this year’s team is facing. Head coach Kyle Shanahan doesn’t believe previous experience will play a role in whether the 49ers can climb out of the rut they dug for themselves in 2024.

“No, I don’t think it pertains to anything,” Shanahan said on a conference call. “I think everybody goes off their life experiences and we have some people who have been here can always resort to that and just know how things work. I’ve been through a number of them in my whole coaching career, not just here.

“So, you always know going through this that you can never count yourself out until you’re actually eliminated from something. I’ve seen teams start 0-4 and get there before. So, there’s lots of things that go into it. But I think every year’s different and we’ve got to write our own story this year and it has nothing to do with other years.”

For this year’s 49ers there are a handful of significant changes from past years that will require perhaps a different formula for San Francisco.

Their defense hasn’t been as good as in year’s past, but they have better quarterback play which gives some optimism that there’s a better version of the 49ers on the horizon.

The real issue, which supports what Shanahan said, is that the 49ers will need to rely on a slew of young players to help buoy the club after a rocky start to this year. Those players haven’t been in this spot before. The experience of some of the team’s leaders will help the 49ers, but they won’t automatically make the playoffs just because they’ve been here before.

San Francisco needs to be better, and if they don’t get better, no amount of experience is going to save them from the mediocrity they’re careening toward at the end of Week 5.

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