49ers minutia minute: Examining problems at linebacker, cornerback in loss to Rams
The San Francisco 49ers' first two games ended in under three hours. Sunday's 27-24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams lasted 3:06 and included 15 penalties for 186 yards, 111 of those yards coming against the 49ers.
For the third straight week, they won the time-of-possession battle — 33:27 to 26:33 — and didn't play a lot of defensive snaps, 58 versus 71 for the offense. They also didn't have any takeaways for the first time this season, something Fred Warner lamented following the game.
Here's how the individual snaps were divided along with some of the prominent themes of the loss, which also left the 49ers dealing with a significant and likely season-ending injury to Javon Hargrave :
; Purdy day-to-dayQuarterback: Brock Purdy 71
As of Monday afternoon, Purdy's 842 passing yards rank second in the NFL behind Dak Prescott 's 851 yards. Purdy would be in first place if not for drops. Brandon Aiyuk had two he probably could have hauled in while Ronnie Bell also had two with a third drop being wiped away due to a penalty. Pro Football Focus calculated that the drops cost Purdy at least 42 passing yards.
' 'get right' foe, expose all their flawsA missed opportunity by the quarterback? A big one came with 3:11 remaining and the 49ers leading by a touchdown. Aiyuk broke open on the play with no safety over the top. Purdy seemed to be facing that way but held onto the ball — for 12.08 seconds — before eventually throwing a short pass to Jauan Jennings on the other side of the field.
Kyle Shanahan said Monday that the Rams had a busted coverage on the play. Aiyuk, who was supposed to run a curl, saw the mistake and correctly tried to exploit it. Purdy, however, didn't pick up on it as quickly because Aiyuk was his No. 2 option on the play.
"Brock thought about (throwing) it," Shanahan said. "He just wasn't sure where the safety was or anything because he wasn't anticipating that to happen. It would have worked, obviously, if he'd let it go, but that happens sometimes."
Purdy's time-to-throw stat on Sunday was 3.39 seconds, the longest of any quarterback so far in Week 3, according to Next Gen Stats.
Running back: Jordan Mason 53, Kyle Juszczyk (fullback) 44, Isaac Guerendo 10, Eric Saubert 2, Brayden Willis 1
The 49ers' third-down back on Sunday? It was their fullback, Juszczyk, who was in on nearly every third-and-long situation, often as the team's lone back. That probably should have been expected. Juszczyk took on that role in 2018, another year in which the 49ers were hit with multiple injuries in the backfield. His 44 snaps were his most since he had 46 in a win over the Miami Dolphins in 2022.
Mason, meanwhile, had 11 carries on the 49ers' first three drives but only eight the rest of the game. The 49ers gave Guerendo more opportunities — five carries for 19 yards — than they had in the first two games. A 5-yard Guerendo carry in the fourth quarter was called back due to a holding call on Juszczyk.
Wide receiver: Jauan Jennings 60, Aiyuk 57, Bell 30, Chris Conley 20
Jennings caught 11 of the 12 passes that went in his direction. The only one he didn't haul in was the first attempt, a short pass on which Rams linebacker Byron Young — a thorn in San Francisco's side throughout the game — had dropped into coverage.
Bell, meanwhile, caught just one of his three targets, the hook-and-lateral pass at game's end on which the Rams were in an ultra-soft defense. For the third straight game, rookie Jacob Cowing was limited to punt return duty and didn't play on offense.
"He's still working to get out there and just getting more comfortable with the offense to earn a role," Shanahan said. "He's getting closer and closer each week. Still got a bit to go though."
Tight end: Saubert 59, Jake Tonges 16, Willis 3
Saubert isn't the matchup nightmare that George Kittle is, but he's been efficient as a receiver so far. He caught both his targets Sunday for 41 yards. His 67 receiving yards ranks fifth on the team behind Jennings (276), Deebo Samuel (164), Aiyuk (119) and Kittle (116).
Saubert's 61 snaps and Tonges' 16 snaps were career highs.
Offensive line: Aaron Banks 71, Jake Brendel 71, Dominick Puni 71, Colton McKivitz 71, Trent Williams 69, Jaylon Moore 2
Williams missed two snaps at the end of the first half after he experienced cramping in his left calf and had to go into the locker room for an IV. Before the game, he told sideline reporter Kristina Pink that he's found it "extremely hard" to get through the first few games after missing all of training camp due to a contract dispute. Williams also needed an IV late in the Week 1 win over the New York Jets .
McKivitz, meanwhile, allowed a team-high five quarterback pressures. He's tied with the Tennessee Titans' Nicholas Petit-Frere for most pressures allowed by an offensive tackle through three games, 13.
Quarterback pressures:
Defensive line: Nick Bosa 58, Maliek Collins 42, Hargrave 39, Leonard Floyd 29, Jordan Elliott 22, Yetur Gross-Matos 20, Kevin Givens 17, Sam Okuayinonu 6, Robert Beal Jr. 3
When Okuayinonu was elevated from the practice squad Saturday, it seemed to signal that Bosa would have a diminished role due to the rib injury he was dealing with during the week. Nope. Bosa played every snap for just the second time in his career and finished with three hurries and a quarterback hit.
After the game, Bosa said he originally suffered the injury against the Minnesota Vikings and exacerbated it during Thursday's practice.
Okuayinonu recorded the first full sack of his career when he tripped Matthew Stafford in the fourth quarter (he had a half-sack for the Titans in 2022). He also out-snapped Beal, whose main role is on special teams.
The 49ers opened the game defensively with a five-lineman front with their best run stuffer, Elliott, as the fifth lineman. They used it sporadically the rest of the way but it wasn't really effective.
Rams running back Kyren Williams , for example, gained 5 yards against the five-man front on his initial carry, gained another 5 yards on a third-and-2 play before halftime and also scored a touchdown against the five-man front.
Linebacker: Warner 57, De'Vondre Campbell Sr. 48, Demetrius Flannigan-Fowles 11, Dee Winters 6
The 49ers started working Winters, their fastest linebacker, into the game early in the second quarter as a third-down replacement for Campbell. That plan, however, ended quickly when Winters aggravated an ankle injury just one series later.
That meant Campbell was covering Williams on the running back's 15-yard catch-and-run touchdown just before halftime, the Rams' first score of the game. Campbell also was flagged for pass interference at the end of the game, a penalty that set up Joshua Karty 's game-winning field goal. To be fair, the 49ers incurred two other defensive penalties on the play, but Campbell's was a 25-yard doozy.
Another linebacker, Flannigan-Fowles, seemed to get tripped up by the turf during a first-down throw to Williams in the 4th quarter. He's PFF's lowest rated 49er through three games with a grade of 37. Meanwhile, linebacker Curtis Robinson , who looked strong in the preseason, has yet to play a defensive snap this season.
Cornerback: Deommodore Lenoir 57, Charvarius Ward 54, Isaac Yiadom 48, Renardo Green 5
It was a rough game for Ward, who was battling knee and hamstring injuries in the run-up to the contest and who gave way to Green on five snaps Sunday. Ward gave up three catches on six targets for 76 yards, including the 50-yard backbreaker to Tutu Atwell that set up the game-tying touchdown.
Third cornerback Yiadom, meanwhile, continues to get picked on. The Rams were 5-of-5 for 52 yards when targeting Yiadom on Sunday. Opposing quarterbacks have a 131.3 passer rating when targeting him so far this season.
Safety: Ji'Ayir Brown 58, Talanoa Hufanga 53, Malik Mustapha 5
The 49ers didn't give Hufanga quite a full slate of snaps in his first game back following ACL surgery with Mustapha filling in every now and then. But it was hard to tell that Hufanga was coming back from a major injury.
He had a missed tackle following a Demarcus Robinson catch over the middle but otherwise looked like himself, including when he blasted Williams out of bounds at the end of a 13-yard run up the sideline in the first quarter. Hufanga finished second on the team with seven tackles. Ward had nine.
Special teams: Robinson 21, George Odum 21, Beal 18, Flannigan-Fowles 16, Mustapha 16, Willis 16, Conley 14, Tonges 13, Guerendo 11, Rock Ya-Sin 11, Moody 10, Green 10, Yiadom 9, Mitch Wishnowsky 7, Taybor Pepper 7, Winters 7, Saubert 6, Lenoir 6, Warner 6, Campbell 6, Patrick Taylor Jr. 6, McKivitz 5, Puni 5, Moore 5, Nick Zakelj 5, Spencer Burford 5, Banks 5, Collins 5, Cowing 4, Gross-Matos 4, Brown 3, Hufanga 3, Bosa 1, Hargrave 1, Givens 1, Floyd 1, Okuayinonu 1, Ward 1
What went wrong on the fake punt in the second quarter? The player on the right edge of the 49ers' line was Conley, a 205-pound wide receiver. The Rams simply overloaded that side and the 49ers couldn't stop the surge. It was Los Angeles' first momentum-changing play of the game and extended a drive that ended with Williams' touchdown catch.
The other costly special teams blunder was the Rams' 37-yard punt return that helped set up the game-winning field goal. Mustapha whiffed on his tackle attempt as the ball landed while Tonges, who appeared to be blocked from behind, was unable to seal the outside. He and the other player on that side, Odum, also seemed to bump into one another.
"There was a clip in the back, which would have negated (the returner) from getting to the sideline," Shanahan said. "But once they did end up clipping us and got to the edge, then our contain player who was supposed to be there was not there. He was sucked up in the middle."
(Top photo of De'Vondre Campbell attempting to defend a pass to Tyler Higbee: Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
