The San Francisco 49ers had a disappointing 42-26 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, dropping to 6-4 and falling 1.5 games back in the NFC West.
It was an ugly game from the start, as Los Angeles quickly
got out to a 21-0 run, doing whatever they wanted offensively and forcing a key Jauan Jennings fumble defensively.
San Francisco’s defense had no answers for the Rams offense all afternoon long, showing the holes that injuries have created up front.
With the loss, there are certainly questions about the 49ers’ ceiling in a competitive NFC with the current state of the defense. Are they still true contenders after the embarrassing defeat? Tight end George Kittle thinks so.
“Yes, I do [think we can still make a playoff run],” Kittle said after the loss. “I think we’re incredibly talented, and we still have guys on offense coming back. Brock Purdy is an amazing quarterback, and that’s why we paid him so much money. And then whenever we can get Ricky [Pearsall] and hopefully, at some point, Brandon [Aiyuk] back.
“We have a lot of talent on this offense. And so, I thoroughly believe that we can score a ton of points, and I really do also believe that our defense will just get a little better every single week. I truthfully do believe that. They’ve just been taking haymakers year-round with all the injuries. But I do. [Robert] Saleh is such a good coach that he’s going to bump those guys up. They’re going to get some stops, and we just have to continue to score a lot of points and not turn the ball over.”
Kittle has been a vocal advocate that the 49ers need to have the offense elevate the team, which the team didn’t do to start the game on Sunday.
“I mean, we started the game off with a punt, a fumble, a fourth-down turnover, a touchdown, and a punt,” Kittle said. “And I’m pretty sure, like I said, since I’ve been back, is that our team is going to have to rely on our really good veteran offense to score a lot of points and not turn the ball over. And we didn’t really do that today. And so I think that’s going to be the case moving forward. Our offense has to play at an incredibly high level, we have to score a lot of points, and we have to not turn the ball over.
“And I think our defense is going to get better and better throughout the week because we still have a lot of young guys, we have a lot of guys missing, but we have to help out our defense. That’s just that’s the way the season’s going to go. Our offense has to play at a high level, efficient, not turn the ball over, score points, score in the red zone, and then we’ll win a lot of games. But if we’re not doing that, that’s going to happen.”
Now, the 49ers offense was still pretty solid, but the early Jennings fumble was a killer, allowing the Rams to get out to that 21-0 lead instead of potentially a 14-7 ball game.
Still, the defense is a clear issue for the team, and one that the 49ers elected not to upgrade at the trade deadline last week. Now, we’ll see how far they can go with the current iteration of their team.
