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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Nick Bosa called it “embarrassing.” Fred Warner said it felt like a “gut punch.” George Kittle said the San Francisco 49ers put themselves in an impossible situation.
“When you have a ton of turnovers and you don’t force any turnovers, it’s hard to win football games,” Kittle said. “It’s losing football.”
Kittle was speaking about Sunday’s 47-27 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, a game in which they gave the ball away three times – two interceptions and a fumble – and had no takeaways.
But that “losing football” formula has been San Francisco’s storyline for most of the season, especially down the stretch. They were 4-4 heading into their Week 9 bye. They’d just beaten the Dallas Cowboys, were poised to get Christian McCaffrey back into the lineup and felt like a second-half surge into the postseason was in the offing.
Instead, McCaffrey lasted just three games, the injury bug grew more severe and the 49ers defense ran into a distressing takeaway drought, forcing just two — one interception and one fumble recovery — over the last nine games.
Bosa had noted that in previous seasons, the 49ers would hit a rut and then bounce back. This year, they never found the footing they had in 2023 and seemed to grow a little worse as the season wore on.
“It’s hard to look the guys in their faces as a leader on the team,” Bosa said. “And that’s the product that we kept putting out game after game. It’s pretty embarrassing.”
The 49ers even fell short of the individual milestones they were looking for in the finale.
Bosa, for instance, wanted to reach double-digit sacks for the fourth straight year while his bookend at defensive end, Leonard Floyd, needed 1 1/2 sacks to trigger a $500,000 bonus. Both played well into the second half but neither they nor any of their fellow defenders mustered a sack, the fourth time in the last six games that’s happened.
It was a similar story on offense.
Jauan Jennings had perhaps the team’s most interesting storyline entering the game. He needed 77 receiving yards to become San Francisco’s first ever seventh-round draft pick to reach 1,000 yards, and the 49ers seemed focused on getting him there. Joshua Dobbs’ first pass went to Jennings, and he hit him six more times for 52 yards in the first half.
Jennings, however, did some hitting of his own in the second quarter. On two straight running plays, he drove his opponents backward, ending the play with a pancake block that drew a violent reaction from a Cardinals defensive back and offsetting foul calls from the officials.
The same thing had happened six days earlier against the Detroit Lions — a hard-blocking play from Jennings that drew offsetting penalties and also fines for Jennings and two Detroit defenders. This time, Jennings not only was penalized after the second hard block but he and cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting were ejected, ending his bid for 1,000 yards 25 yards shy of the mark.
The 49ers were outraged, arguing that the receiver — well known for getting under his opponent’s skin — never threw a punch.
“It was almost like they wanted me to be disappointed,” Jennings said. “There were no punches. All I did was pancake the guy. It’s football. I laid him on his back. (I) tried to get up. He wouldn’t let me up. And the next thing you know, they’re just looking at me like I’m the bad guy.”
Asked if he was wary of risking an ejection, especially after the first set of offsetting penalties, Jennings said he knew he was ”in the right” on the two plays.
“I put my hope into another human being making the right choice,” he said of the official. “He just made a mistake.”
Said Dobbs: “He was just playing football. So it was pretty frustrating, especially knowing how much it meant to Jauan to be out there.”
Because the two fouls by the Cardinals were offsetting, they didn’t become part of the final penalty tally, which was lopsided against the 49ers. They were flagged 13 other times for 85 yards. Arizona had one infraction for 5 yards when they had too many men on the field.
“I haven’t been part of too many games where it was (13) to zero,” Shanahan said. “I think they got one there when they had 12 guys on the field at the end.”
With Deebo Samuel Sr. (wrist, ribs) absent for the game, Jennings was Dobbs’ top option at wide receiver, and he may have been trying to force a pass to him when he was intercepted in the first quarter. Dobbs threw another interception in the fourth quarter on a ball that slipped through Ricky Pearsall’s hands.
Overall, however, it was a solid performance for Dobbs, who essentially was auditioning for free agency in March. He finished with a career-high 326 passing yards with touchdowns to Pearsall and Kyle Juszczyk. Pearsall, meanwhile, had a second straight strong game with six catches for 69 yards while fellow rookie Jacob Cowing had two catches for 30 in his most extensive outing of the season.
“I was proud of the guys and how they fought — guys stepping up as different guys went down throughout the game,” Dobbs said. “Wish we could have finished on a better note without a doubt.”
Give us some Juice! 🧃
📺: #SFvsAZ on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4nCVJ pic.twitter.com/0256baIlT8— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) January 5, 2025
The game also included two other season-long issues for the 49ers: injuries and special teams mistakes.
The 49ers’ blue, medical tent was up throughout the game with the ugliest-looking injury occurring to rookie tailback Isaac Guerendo on his second carry. Guerendo had to be carted off the field and he was on crutches in the locker room afterward.
Shanahan said the early indication was that it was an MCL sprain and that Guerendo had avoided an ACL tear that would have affected his 2025 season. Guerendo will get more tests on Monday.
Two other rookies, cornerback Renardo Green (groin) and safety Malik Mustapha (knee), also were injured as were safety Talanoa Hufanga (concussion) and tackle Colton McKivitz (ankle).
On special teams, the Cardinals fooled the 49ers with a direct snap to the upback on a fourth-down punt, the second time that’s happened to Brian Schneider’s unit this season (Los Angeles Rams, Week 3).
Schneider also watched as kicker Jake Moody missed a 47-yard field goal wide left and made a 51-yarder, which never got much elevation but still made it over the crossbar for the 49ers’ first points of the day. Moody finished the season 24 of 34 on field goals or 70.6 percent, one of the worst rates in the league. All but one of Moody’s misses occurred after the bye.
The 49ers also limped to the finish line on defense, a poor final argument for coordinator Nick Sorensen.
They didn’t allow a 100-yard rusher like they had in five of their last six games, but the Cardinals finished with 151 rushing yards. Not only was Kyler Murray not sacked, the 49ers managed just two quarterback hits and surrendered 40 or more points for the second straight game.
Shahanan began his post-game news conference by stating that he wouldn’t talk about the futures of players or assistant coaches. He hasn’t had time to fully assess that yet, he said.
Those questions — particularly about Moody, Schneider and Sorensen — are certain to come during Shanahan’s and general manager John Lynch’s end-of-season news conference this week.
A few weeks ago, Bosa was a strong advocate for bringing back Sorensen and most of the defensive line. The 49ers had just fallen 12-6 to the Rams and Bosa liked what he saw from the defense. In the next three games, however, that same unit allowed an average of 39 points a game.
“It definitely didn’t go how I thought it would after that,” he said at his locker Sunday. “I saw what it took to be a really good defense (after the Rams game). And it just didn’t pan out like that at the end. I thought we were going to finish a lot stronger.”
(Photo of Jake Moody: Matt Kartozian / Imagn Images)
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