It's hard to find winners in a collapse like the 49ers suffered on Sunday.
Every single aspect of the team failed except for one, and that's where we begin.
Winners
Jauan Jennings
Simply put, Jauan Jennings was brilliant yesterday. He was everything you would want a WR1 to be.
He was also the only part of the 49ers that didn't have a major screw up.
In a game with no Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffrey, or George Kittle, it was Jennings that played like a $30 million a year player. He caught contested passes, he slipped behind the coverage outside the numbers, and he made tough catches over the middle.
It had been 23 years since a 49ers' wide receiver had three touchdowns in a game, and Jauan Jennings did it without the benefit of three additional all-pros on offense to draw away the coverage.
It's a shame that Jennings' hasn't been able to celebrate the two biggest games of his career (the other being last year's Super Bowl). Hopefully he'll have another big game that ends in a win for San Francisco.
Brock Purdy
Let's start with this: Purdy threw 8 incompletions yesterday, and six of them were drops.
He had beautiful touch on a touchdown to Jauan Jennings in the third quarter, made incredible plays with his legs to keep drives alive, and threw a perfect pass to Ronnie Bell that should have iced the game if Bell had done his job.
When everyone had questions about how Brock would perform without the Avengers around him, Prudy did all he could to answer them. Were it not for Jennings' incredible day, missing a wide open Brandon Aiyuk, and a costly fumble before halftime, Brock would have taken the top spot on this list.
Jacob Cowing
He's not Ronnie Bell, and now he might actually get a shot to play on offense.
Losers
Nick Sorensen
I know he's a first-time defensive coordinator and it's early in the season, but this defense has been a disaster so far in 2024. In two out of three games this year, opposing offenses have known exactly how to beat this unit.
On Sunday, Matthew Stafford checked to runs multiple times in the red zone for success because he knew precisely what the Niners' front was going to do on the play.
The Rams had passing plays (including penalties) of 48 yards, 32 yards, 50 yards, and 25 yards on consecutive possessions in the second half that allowed them to stay in the game. Even with a ground game that was largely ineffective, the big plays gave LA just enough cover to keep running because they gained so much yardage on chunk plays that they never became one-dimensional.
Sorensen's defense was given leads of 14 points and (in the fourth quarter) 10 points and couldn't hold either one of them against an opponent without two of their starting wide receivers. Fred Warner called it inexcusable after the game, and he's 100% right.
Brian Schneider
Special teams continue to be a problem under Schneider, and Kyle Shanahan.
On Sunday, Schneider's unit had a screw up on a punt for the second week in a row. With the 49ers controlling the game at 14-0, LA had a 4th and 6 at their own 43 yard line. They ran a fake punt to the left and easily gained the first down. Kyle Shanahan said after the game that they expected the fake, which only makes the situation worse.
In addition to that debacle, the 49ers also missed a 55 yard field goal that would have made it a two-score game with 2:47 to go, and they gave up a 38 yard punt return that put the Rams at midfield on their final possession of the game needing only a field goal to win.
For too long the special teams have been looked at as the unit that simply must avoid costing the team the game, and even with that incredibly low bar Schneider's guys have failed to reach it.
Which brings us to...
Kyle Shanahan
He is the head coach, and all of this team's failing have to come back to him. Especially when the team keeps having the same problems.
The special teams have never been good under Shanahan. He's has openly stated that all he wants them to do is not screw up. As the saying goes, aim for the moon so that even if you miss you're still among the stars. The 49ers have aimed far lower than that, and they've landed down in the dumps.
Even beyond the special teams, however, there were failings. Shanahan chose to have Ronnie Bell on the roster, and chose to put him on the field over Jacob Cowing in a game without Deebo Samuel.
Shanahan refused to hire a defensive coordinator that would evolve a stale defensive system.
Shanahan has completely whiffed on a nickel corner for two straight seasons in Isaiah Oliver and Isaac Yiadom.
And finally, this.
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