The 49ers did it again, they faced the Kansas City Chiefs and suffered a crushing loss. After claiming to be the best team in the league for the past several seasons, they were unable to back it up and were defeated by the true best team in the league. Whether you look at offense or defense, there were issues everywhere. So what did we learn from this defeat?
The 49ers offensive line couldn’t stop the tandem of George Karlaftis and Chris Jones at all. Karlaftis was coming off of the edge with ease, and with Jones being doubled for a majority of the game, the Chiefs began to send more pass rushers at Purdy who wouldn’t be picked up. It was constant Purdy pressure all game. I don’t know if this blame goes on Purdy for not adjusting correctly and getting the ball to a checkdown, or the O-line for simply not doing their job. Either way, the Niners can’t win games if Purdy is getting pressured throughout the game. In this game alone, Purdy’s numbers dropped incredibly while pressured or blitzed. According to PFF, when the pocket was kept clean Purdy had an offensive grade of 72.8. Maybe it’s below Purdy’s 80 standard, but it’s still quality. Those numbers become the opposite of quality when a blitz or pressure comes. Purdy’s offensive grade drops to 24.7 while pressured and 58.8 while blitzed. You can’t win games if you can’t throw the ball well, and that all starts with the O-line keeping the pressure away. Think of it like Steph Curry’s early career ankle issues. The O-line is the ankles, if you continue to not get them better, you won’t be able to perform well. But once you get that ankle surgery and start to work them out, good things will happen. That’s what the Niners need to do and do it fast. Whether it’s going for a trade or testing out guys like Jon Feliciano, they need to improve.
If you thought the pressure Purdy got was bad, the receiver’s inability to create separation might be worse. According to Next Gen Stats, the League Average Receiver Separation is at 2.97 yards. The 49ers receivers have no one that was able to break past the league average mark. In this game only one player for the Niners got to 3.31 Yards, that person being George Kittle. This shouldn’t be shocking, Kittle was the only reliable pass-catching threat in this game for the Red and Gold. Some people might blame the receivers, I’d beg to differ. If it’s on the players, surely the Chiefs wouldn’t have good separation either. Their weapons are worse than the Niners, and while that’s true it’s more about playcalling. Noah Gray, the TE for the Chiefs, was able to tally 4.45 Yards of Separation. That is so much from a name I haven’t heard all year. Maybe the Niners need to call more crossing routes to confuse matchups, or more quick zig and out routes. But we all know Kyle Shanahan won’t do that.
To those of you who read this and say “Momentum doesn’t matter in football,” just know that I am not allowed to say what I want to say on this website. What I will direct you to is research done by Paul Roebber and to listen to current and former players speak on its reality. Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the momentum in this game. The Niners had none of it. They had a few moments where it shifted in their favor, the big pass to Cowing, the big Jordan Mason run, or the big George Kittle catch. But they constantly ended in heartbreak like the Interception in the red zone. That type of play kills team momentum, which then kills their belief in victory. In big games like this one, you’ll hear coaches talk about setting the tone early, that’s building their momentum, and the Niners couldn’t do it. They started the game off poorly and were behind for the rest of it. It got so bad that Trent Williams punched a Chiefs defensive back in the helmet. Which by the way, love that energy from Trent, but you don’t get to hit a player and get away with it. The real issue here is the Niners need to start strong to get in a rhythm so they can get the lead early and hold the momentum. Then again, this is the same team that loves to lose in the 4th quarter.
The Niners offense looked poor all game apart from the last drive. In this drive, the Niners got into 2 Minute drills with no-huddle. Purdy was hitting Pearsall on quick-out routes with perfect timing and accuracy. Where was that all game? Then he went to a wide-open Kittle up the middle for 15. A pass to Ronnie Bell got them to the 1-yard line to easily score on a QB Sneak. They scored in just 2 minutes on quick-timing passes. It was the Niners offense I’m used to, so why did it come out in the last drive? Because Purdy took charge. One thing that upsets me watching Purdy is the lack of audibles. The blame for that falls on Purdy but is on Kyle. My guess is Kyle doesn’t want audibles, he wants to call the plays and run the plays. My issue with this philosophy is it clearly doesn’t work, as proven on the last drive. When Kyle is dialing up plays and Pudy isn’t in his groove, bad things happen. But as seen in the last drive, if you give Purdy some wiggle room to get confident he can be an All-Pro Player. The Kyle Zealots are reading this and steaming with anger, ready to back him up as if he’s family. So I’ll give them this, Kyle built an amazing scheme that is used everywhere in the league today, but his inability to understand his players’ confidence levels is almost as bad as his inability to use the clock well.
So now we wait for the Cowboys in Week 8. This is a must win if the Niners want to be Contenders and not Pretenders.
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