SANTA CLARA — The 49ers are facing an identity crisis.
They no longer have a dominant defensive line which used to be a staple of their team, nor do they have Christian McCaffrey who was their offensive MVP. Now they’re trying to learn how to win in new ways, and they’re failing.
Kyle Shanahan isn’t calling runs or playing action passes nearly as frequently as he did in the past. Instead, Brock Purdy is dropping back and running in circles multiple times per game.
“The standard here is excellence,” Brock Purdy said after the 49ers lost 24-23 to the Cardinals. “That’s what we’re trying to get to. But every year is different with just the team, the chemistry and getting guys together. You’ve got new keys, some guys leave. I think all throughout this, it’s early in the season and we’re still trying to find our true identity as a team and we’re getting there. It’s a couple plays away and a couple drives away from gelling and gluing together. But I’m confident that we’ll find it. We’ve just got to get into a rhythm and play complementary team football. We’ve got a Thursday Night game coming up, so we’ll have another chance at it.”
It sounds like the 49ers want to get back to running the football because that has been their identity since 2019, the first season they went to the Super Bowl under Kyle Shanahan. That season, they won the NFC Championship Game while passing just eight times.
This past Sunday, Kyle Shanahan called 41 passes and just 22 runs even though he led by multiple scores for most of the game.
Strange.
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