The 49ers’ nightmare against the Midwest is over, and it was costly.
A third-straight loss in as many weeks has turned what looked to be the NFL’s cream of the crop into a shell of themselves. The 31-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday highlighted glaring defensive deficiencies and left myriad questions about whether Brock Purdy’s sterling start to his career was a mirage.
This week’s bye will be cause for plenty of soul searching.
Purdy returns, scrambles, bungles
The fact that Brock Purdy was able to clear concussion protocol in time for Sunday’s game, after suffering a concussion at the end of the Monday night loss to the Minnesota Vikings, was surprising.
He was, with the exception of three or so plays, impressive.
The offense struggled to run the ball with everyone not named Purdy, who, for the first time in his career, was the team’s leading rusher. He had six carries for 57 yards, and made a host of off-schedule plays, including a few on a touchdown drive in the early fourth quarter that cut the 49ers’ deficit to a touchdown.
But the 49ers found themselves in that hole in the first place because of Purdy’s two errors.
In the red zone, on 1st-and-goal from the 8-yard line, Purdy scrambled again, rolling to his right.
He looked like he had Elijah Mitchell open, and tried to lay it up to him. Instead, Germaine Pratt swatted it with one hand, then picked it off.
It was an impressive scramble, but a mistake from a quarterback whose lack of height loomed large.
A 3-and-out — which, at the time, seemed substantial — followed.
But Purdy channeled his inner Jimmy G, staring down Brandon Aiyuk over the middle and throwing an unforgivable interception right to Logan Wilson.
Joe Burrow hit Ja’Marr Chase for a dagger touchdown on the next play. Even with SF’s touchdown response, it was irrelevant. The Bengals went back down the field with a game-icing, clock-burning touchdown drive that looked easy against a leaky 49ers defense.
Burrow was pretty much perfect, going 28-of-32 for 283 yards and 3 TDs. Purdy was 20-of-29 with 296 yards, a TD, a strip-sack fumble and 2 INTs. That was the difference, and there are some serious concerns about Purdy’s turnovers going forward.
A first-half defensive disasterclass
You would think that having a head coach publicly criticize you for a woeful play call might inspire an improved performance. That was not the case for Steve Wilks.
It is tough to think of a worse defensive half with a fully healthy roster than what the 49ers put on display on Sunday.
Joe Burrow was 21-of-23 with 170 yards and two touchdowns in that half. The 49ers played the definition of soft zone coverage and the Bengals obliged by cutting them up with underneath throws, delayed runs and screens.
Wilks seemed un-inclined to change his approach, which featured a heavy dose of two-high safety looks. He dialed up one crucial blitz on the Bengals’ third possession that got the 49ers’ third stop of the game and Arik Armstead’s first full regular season sack since the final week of 2017.
Armstead had whiffed, embarrassingly, on a potential sack earlier. He secured his second of the day to start the second half, which is when the defense looked at least theoretically competent.
After an opening drive field goal in the second half, the defense improved. But when they needed a stop to give the offense one more viable chance at a score, they were diced up by Burrow and the Bengals.
It is glaring that this isn’t close to an elite unit right now, and the questions about its performance have to be directed at the new variable introduced: Wilks.
Time for introspection
Fire Steve Wilks? Trade for a corner? An edge rusher? An interior offensive lineman? Is Purdy a fraud? Can this offense function without Deebo Samuel?
These are the questions that this team and front office will have to earnestly seek the answers to in the next couple weeks before they travel to Jacksonville.
The defense’s inability to get stops for consecutive drives and Purdy’s turnovers are the clear top problems for this team. Put them in whatever order you want, but they are pressing, existential problems.
Behind those issues, there’s the inability to run the ball. Without Trent Williams, the offensive line looks like a bottom-10 unit in the league. Could this team make a move for an interior offensive lineman at the deadline? Or could they look at Samuel’s and Williams’ returns as the salve for those issues?
What is clear is that the 49ers are not even close to the league’s best team right now, and they might not even be the best in the NFC West. They’ll need more questions than answers against a 6-2 Jacksonville Jaguars team in two weeks.
