There wasn’t a whole lot of joy coming from the 49ers locker room after their 27-24 loss to the Rams on Sunday, understandably.
The loss was one of the ugliest in recent memory for the 49ers, who jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead over a shorthanded Rams team that was decimated by injuries and later led 21-7 before failing to finish them off. Along the way, the 49ers squandered a career performance from wide receiver Jauan Jennings, who finished with 11 catches for 175 yards and three touchdowns, as well as a standout showing from quarterback Brock Purdy, who did more than enough to overcome injuries to playmakers Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel and George Kittle by completing 22 of 30 passes for 292 yards and three touchdowns with zero interceptions.
“It was unacceptable,” linebacker Fred Warner said after the loss. “We can’t do that.”
Their failure to finish off the Rams was a common topic of conversation for the 49ers in postgame interviews on Sunday, as was the performance of Jennings and where the team goes from here after a 1-2 start. We’ll dive into that and more in this version of 49ers Notebook.
Learning to finish
What’s the biggest lesson the 49ers will take from Sunday’s game? Quite possibly it will be not to take their foot off the gas.
The 49ers missed multiple opportunities to put the Rams away, which obviously came back to haunt them in the end. Cornerback Deommodore Lenoir summed it up by saying, “I feel like that was one of our goals this year was finishing, and we’re doing a pretty bad job at finishing.”
“This loss comes from being too complacent,” Lenoir added. “We were up, what, 14-0? We should have put them away, gave them hope, and they were able to come back and win the game. So I think this has a lot to do with it — finishing.”
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said that he stressed to the team on Saturday night to not give a veteran quarterback like Matthew Stafford extra opportunities to beat them. While there were a number of crucial plays made by the Rams that didn’t involve Stafford (16-of-25, 221 yards, one touchdown), Shanahan’s point was proven when the Rams hung around long enough to come from behind in the final minutes and win on a field goal with five seconds left to play.
“I told them last night, you got to take their hope away,” Shanahan said. “You give Stafford too much hope and you put the ball in his hands at the end, that’s not a situation you want to be in. We had every chance to avoid that situation a number of times and we came up short.”
The next two games will be must-wins for the 49ers, who will host two losing teams in the New England Patriots and Arizona Cardinals before entering into a difficult seven-game stretch that includes games against the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers, and Buffalo Bills, as well as two games against the NFC West-leading Seattle Seahawks. The 49ers are far from being in a state of panic after Sunday’s loss, but they know they can’t make the same mistakes again in the games ahead.
“You got enough veteran leadership to understand situations and knowing when to put them away,” Warner said. “Obviously, I put a lot on the defense, especially in certain moments, to put them away, and we’re unable to do that. But you got to learn from a loss and make the changes. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for you. At the end of the day, you’ve got to get back to work and keep chopping.”
Shades of Jerry Rice for Jauan Jennings
The performance Jauan Jennings had against the Rams on Sunday was worthy enough to be mentioned in the same class as those from the greatest wide receiver of all-time, former 49er Jerry Rice.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Jennings became the first 49ers wide receiver to have 10 catches, 150 yards and three touchdowns in a game since Rice achieved the feat in 1995. Jennings’ performance was also incredibly clutch, considering the 49ers were without Samuel (calf) and first-round pick Ricky Pearsall (gunshot) due to injuries.
“Juwan was unbelievable,” Shanahan said. “I mean, I think the numbers show it, but more than the numbers, just he was a warrior the whole game. He’s always like that, got a lot more opportunities today, was automatic on every single one, on even some bad looks. When I didn’t know if the ball should go there, you quickly saw after it that they weren’t going to take that away from Juwan. And he was very inspiring today how he played.”
Jennings chose not to speak to reporters after the game, but his teammates had plenty to say about the performance.
“He’s a dog, man,” Purdy said. “Absolutely love Juwan. Just the way he comes in every day and then brings energy to our offense, man, with some huge plays and sparks energy and just his love for the game, man. You can see it and you feel it when you’re on the field with him, so absolutely love that guy. Will go to war with him any day of the week.”
Jennings has come a long way in his time with the 49ers, going from a seventh-round pick who needed time to develop to earlier in his career becoming a clutch performer known for his success on third downs. But Sunday’s game showed Jennings has also arrived as a go-to option who can serve as a team’s number one target if need be.
“He had great game today,” Lenoir said. “I wish we could have pulled the dub out for him to make it even better. But that just shows you what he can do and how many special players we have around here.”
Moody revisits his missed kick
As he’s done in the past, 49ers kicker Jake Moody faced the media after missing a crucial kick down the stretch.
The kick in question came from 55 yards with just under three minutes to play and would have given the 49ers a 27-17 lead. Moody, who connected from 26 yards on the previous drive, said everything was in place on his 55-yard attempt but he just hit it a little off.
“I felt really good going out there,” Moody said. “I felt really confident. I felt like I hit it well — great snap, great hold. Just pulled it a touch.
“Situationally it sucks that it had to happen at that point, but I gave it my best kick. It’s not like I wasn’t prepared for the moment or anything. I felt really prepared and I felt really confident — just happened to miss a little left.”
Shanahan told reporters he had no regrets about not going for a first down on the play despite the distance of the attempt.
“I think it was 4th-and-5, maybe 4th-and-6, but it was about making a two-score game,” Shanahan said. “I felt great about him. I don’t feel much different from that distance to 48. He’s been real good with that stuff and just missed it and will have to learn from it.”
Moody’s first kick nearly wasn’t attempted
On the drive that ended in Moody’s 26-yard field goal, the 49ers might have gone a different direction if it weren’t for one-yard loss.
The 49ers went for a first down on a 4th-and-1 earlier in the drive and were successful on a short dive from Purdy at the Rams’ 18-yard line after falling short on a similar play on 3rd-and-1. They later faced a 3rd-and-1 from the 7-yard line but decided to kick the field goal after running back Jordan Mason was dropped for a one-yard loss on the play.
“I felt good finding a way to go up two scores,” Shanahan said. “Definitely wanted it to be 14. The 3rd-and-1 (with Purdy), we knew if we got any on it, we were going to go for it on fourth, and we did.
“And the next time we planned on going for it, but losing a yard and already being up seven, I thought the smart thing was to go get two scores. I felt their only chance to get back in the game was to make it a one-score game, give them the momentum by giving them a chance to stop us on fourth down. I felt pretty good once we got up two scores, but that quickly ended.”
The 49ers have been here before
If there’s any team in the NFL that is built to dig out of a hole after a slow start to the season it’s the 49ers, who have been in worse predicaments in recent years only to eventually move on to the playoffs. When they went through those situations, 49ers players were faced with the same types of questions they were given on Sunday and responded with the same types of answers — that they were confident in the group they had in place and that they had the experience to overcome their slow start.
“It’s definitely a rough start, but there’s a ton of football to be played,” defensive end Nick Bosa said. “We’ve been through some tough stretches before, but we just have to stay together. We have the guys to do it.”
Quarterback Brock Purdy said, “Obviously it’s early in the season, but still, every game matters and so, you know, we’re just going to take it one day at a time and not freak out about anything. We have guys that have been through this kind of stuff before. We have guys that have been through these experiences, and we’re professionals. We’ll regroup, and we’ve got a great culture, a great organization, and we’ll move forward.”
Still, the 49ers aren’t going to get too laid back about their current situation. There should be at least somewhat of a sense of urgency from the team in the days ahead, despite only being in Week 4.
“It’s tough because you do have to remember that it’s early, but at the same time, you can’t use that as an excuse to slack off and think, oh, we have all this time to get things right,” Warner said. “Like, I don’t feel like that was the mindset at all going into this week. We understood the situation, and we want to get back on track. It’s just, you know, we didn’t play good enough.”
Bosa suggested that the team should soak in the feeling of Sunday’s loss, then build from it while moving forward.
“I think we have to feel the loss for sure,” Bosa said. “We can’t just move on and act like it’s fine. You feel the loss and you start stacking week by week.