The San Francisco 49ers started Sunday sluggish and spotted the Houston Texans 16 points before getting on the board, but by then, it was too little too late.
The 49ers would cut the lead to eight, but the slow start proved too much to overcome, as Houston extended it to 11 and San Francisco couldn’t get on the board again, leading to Houston’s 26-15 win.
It was the first game of the season that felt like the 49ers were truly lacking because of injuries, especially on both sides of the trenches.
With
a loss, there’s always more to learn than from a win, so what did we learn from the Week 8 loss?
The 49ers need to address the pass rush before Week 9
There was a good idea that the 49ers’ pass rush would have some struggles on Sunday without Nick Bosa or Bryce Huff. There may have been some production, given how poor the Texans’ offensive line has been this season.
Then the game happened, and the 49ers’ pass rush was shut down, sacking CJ Stroud zero times, the first time the Texans haven’t allowed a sack in a game this season. Even worse, the last time Stroud wasn’t sacked was Week 18 last season against the Titans, but with the Texans already in the playoffs, Stroud played only 11 snaps. To find the previous time Stroud wasn’t sacked, where he played the entire game, you would have to go back to Week 5 of the 2023 season, Stroud’s rookie year.
Not only did the 49ers not sack Stroud, but they barely touched him. Stroud dropped back 42 times in Houston’s win on Sunday, and San Francisco only generated ten pressures, hurried him on eight of those pressures, and only hit Stroud twice. To make matters worse, only five of those ten pressures were created by 49ers defensive linemen:
- Mykel Williams: two pressures, two hurries
- Trevis Gipson: one pressure, one QB hurry
- Alfred Collins: one pressure, one QB hit
- Sam Okuayinonu: one pressure, one QB hit
That’s simply not good enough. And while Huff should return within the next few weeks, his presence alone will not be enough with how much the pass rush has struggled since Bosa’s injury.
This isn’t to say get a Maxx Crosby or a Trey Hendrickson – mainly because neither will be traded – but there are plenty of quality pass rushers that are available that can help the 49ers as soon as Sunday in New York. Arden Key, Bradley Chubb, and Jermaine Johnson, among others, are available.
While the 49ers’ defense is heavily injured, it can’t survive without some semblance of a pass rush, as shown by the performance of the otherwise pedestrian Texans offense on Sunday.
The offensive line cannot handle good defensive lines
The offensive line put together its best performance of the season in Week 7 against the Falcons, opening holes for Christian McCaffrey to run for a season-high while only allowing Mac Jones to be pressured six times.
Unfortunately, the Texans’ defensive front is much better than the Falcons.
The 49ers front didn’t stand a chance against the fearsome pass rush of the Houston Texans. It felt as if Jones was running for his life any time he dropped back. Houston’s pass rush combined for 19 pressures on 37 Jones’ dropbacks, hitting the quarterback four times with 12 hurries while sacking him twice.
The pressure clearly affected Jones, who, on the 13 dropbacks he was pressured, completed only three of ten passes for 56 yards and threw his lone interception when he was under pressure. When Jones was kept clean, he completed 16 of 22 passes for 137 yards and threw both of his touchdowns without pressure.
Even worse for the 49ers’ offense, the run game was nonexistent because of the offensive line’s struggles. Christian McCaffrey only ran the ball eight times for 25 yards. Four of those eight carries went for one yard or fewer, with no room to run for the 49ers’ running back.
No single rep was more embarrassing for the 49ers than when Texans’ defensive tackle Tommy Togiai pressured Jones at the start of the second quarter. When the ball was snapped, Dominick Puni and Matt Hennessey separated like the Red Sea, allowing Togiai right through the gap. The gap was so open, Togiai stopped in the middle of his pass rush, assuming it was a screen play. Togiai was able to recover in time to hit Jones as he threw, forcing the pass intended for Kyle Juszczyk to fall incomplete.
Sunday was a disheartening performance from the 49ers’ front, and things likely won’t get any better next week against a tough New York Giants defensive line.
Jauan Jennings’ mistakes are too frequent
Things have been rough for Jauan Jennings since his spat with Kyle Shanahan a few weeks back in Tampa Bay. In the two and a half games since, Jennings has just nine receptions despite being the main target in a depleted receiving room.
The biggest issue with Jennings, however, is that his mistakes have been almost as frequent as his receptions since the argument with Shanahan. In the second half in Tampa Bay, Jennings was called for two penalties coming out of the half. Last week against Atlanta, Jennings had a drop that resulted in Mac Jones’ only interception of the game.
On Sunday in Houston, both the penalties and the drops were the issues.
While the first half as a whole was miserable, it started promising enough. After the 49ers and Houston swapped penalties, Jones took a bootleg and scrambled for a 12-yard gain. That is, until Jennings, at the end of the play, inexplicably grabbed the facemask of M.J. Stewart at the end of his block, wiping out the run and pushing the offense back 15 yards. Three plays later, the offense was forced to punt.
Everything would have been fine had that been Jennings’ only mistake, but his drop issues continued on Sunday. With the 49ers trailing by 16 points halfway through the second, Shanahan finally decided to call for a deep shot. Jones dropped back and unleashed a pass that travelled about 50 yards downfield to Jennings. Jennings had a step on Stewart in coverage, but the ball bounced off his and fell helplessly to the turf, resulting in an incomplete pass.
Hilariously, the 49ers would go on and score a touchdown on the drive, but it would take six more minutes off the clock, and when a team is down two possessions, every minute matters. Houston would kick a field goal on its next drive to extend the lead back to two scores, and the 49ers would fail to put any more points on the board.
Jennings has caused his fair share of issues this season, starting with his holdout and then ruffling some feathers with his injury comments after the loss to Tampa Bay. If he were performing better, then all of it could be forgotten. However, his mistakes have become too frequent; you have to wonder if he’ll find himself in the famed Kyle Shanahan doghouse sooner rather than later.
