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SANTA CLARA, Calif. — A San Francisco 49ers team that routinely rolled to big victories in 2023 can’t seem to pull away from anyone this season.
They have no knockout punch.
In Week 8, they had a 27-10 lead entering the fourth quarter, then had to hang on for dear life as the Dallas Cowboys mounted a furious comeback. Last week, they had control in the third quarter until a botched punt return let the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back into the contest, requiring a last-minute 49ers drive for the win.
And on Sunday, the 49ers again seemed to be cruising to victory after the defense stonewalled the Seattle Seahawks on fourth-and-1 with 3:56 remaining. Fred Warner, Dee Winters, Ji’Ayir Brown and the rest of the players ran off the field beating their chests and pumping their fists. After all, the 49ers were ahead by four points and just needed two or three first downs to salt away a valuable division win.
Defense said NOPE.
📺 #SEAvsSF on FOX
NFL+ // https://t.co/KTh0i4nCVJ pic.twitter.com/IQd1AhOpwR— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) November 17, 2024
Instead, the 49ers punted from Seattle’s 42-yard line — a touchback — then watched Geno Smith and company drive 80 yards in 2:26 to give Seattle a 20-17 win. The loss drops the 49ers to 5-5 and puts them in a three-way tie behind the Arizona Cardinals (6-4) in the NFC West. As it stands now, they trail the Washington Commanders, Los Angeles Rams and Seahawks in the race for the NFC’s final wild-card spot.
GO DEEPER
Last-minute Geno Smith TD seals Seahawks’ 20-17 win over 49ers: Takeaways
Though Smith converted two third downs and scrambled for 29 yards on the game-winning drive, Kyle Shanahan seemed more disappointed that his offense couldn’t put the game away when it had a chance.
Christian McCaffrey gained 11 yards on the play that followed San Francisco’s fourth-down stop. But he lost a yard the next time he got the ball, Brock Purdy sailed a pass incomplete to Deebo Samuel Sr. on second down, then threw to Jauan Jennings well short of the sticks on third down.
“I thought we had a chance to put them away a number of times,” said Shanahan, something he’s repeated throughout the season. “We let them hang around. You let people hang around, that’s what happens.”
GENO!!!! TD @SEAHAWKS!!
📺: #SEAvsSF on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/ATSZeKJaOe— NFL (@NFL) November 18, 2024
The loss came with several Pro Bowlers either watching from the sideline or playing with injuries.
George Kittle, the team’s leader in touchdowns and receiving yards, missed the game with a hamstring injury and his replacement, Eric Saubert, was added to the injury report with an illness shortly before kickoff. The 49ers responded by inserting offensive tackle Jaylon Moore as an extra tight end at times. And while the team gained a respectable 131 rushing yards — 40 of them by Purdy — both the running and passing games lacked pop.
Left tackle Trent Williams said he nearly sat out the contest with a bone bruise in his left ankle area. He got a pain-killing injection before kickoff that helped, but he said he didn’t have his usual power on running plays or on defending the bull rush.
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On defense, meanwhile, the 49ers played the last quarter and a half without Nick Bosa, who came off the field one play after sacking Smith in the third quarter. Bosa, who was dealing with a hip/oblique injury on one side of his body last week in Tampa, said he overcompensated and ended up having the same issue on the other side. He said he was concerned he might miss his first full game since the 2022 season — a loss to the Atlanta Falcons — and noted how frustrating it was to watch Seattle’s final drive from the sideline.
“Brutal. Brutal,” Bosa said. “It’s the most important time of the game for me to be out there and I wasn’t able to be there.”
Finally, though McCaffrey got his usual allotment of snaps for the second straight week, he suggested he hasn’t fully returned to form after his multi-month bout with Achilles tendonitis.
“It’s not an excuse,” said McCaffrey, who had 106 combined yards but no touchdowns. “I know I can be a lot better. I can feel it.”
The 49ers won their earlier matchup with Seattle despite a costly special teams miscue, a 97-yard kickoff return by the Seahawks that got them back into the game. The 49ers didn’t have any of their usual special teams bungles Sunday, but they also didn’t have any explosive plays on offense.
In Week 6, they had a pair of 76-yard gains and two others greater than 25 yards. On Sunday, their longest play was a 22-yard pass to Jennings, who caught 10 of 11 targets for 91 yards.
“It had to be Jennings to finish this drive!” 🤩 @49ers take the lead!
📺: #SEAvsSF on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/FVLQTw8PK7— NFL (@NFL) November 17, 2024
After 10 games, it’s now clear the 49ers are lacking something, something that goes beyond the personnel that has been missing from various contests.
Last year they went through a midseason slide during which, especially in a Week 8 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, it looked as if they were running in knee-deep sand.
But they snapped out of their brief funk during the back stretch of the season. This year’s team has yet to fully come alive, at least to the level of last year’s club. The only game in which the 49ers looked like the most dominant team in the NFC was their win over the Cowboys, and that only lasted a quarter.
Last year’s team lost just one division game, the meaningless season finale to the Rams, and wrapped up the NFC West by mid-December. This year’s squad already has lost to each of its division foes and has done so in a frustratingly similar fashion — by blowing a fourth-quarter lead.
“It’s infuriating, honestly,” Warner said. “It’s not like us. But that’s just what we’ve shown this year. So I guess until we stop doing that, that’s who we are.”
(Photo of Geno Smith: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
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