'I think we're better than that'; 49ers fall short against the NFL's top flight Kansas City Chiefs
SANTA CLARA -- The San Francisco 49ers played one of those measuring stick games Sunday and fell far short of the Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs.
While the offense has scuffled along a bit with Jimmy Garoppolo slowly finding its stride and newly arrived Christian McCaffrey learning the full playbook, the 49ers defense, even depleted by injury, ranked among the best. That is until Mahomes walked onto the field.
After an interception led to an early 10-0 49ers lead, Mahomes was almost unstoppable. Even third-down-and-long situations were not enough to slow Mahomes down.
He finished the day with a stunning 132.4 quarterback rating, completing 25 of 34 passes for 423 yards and three touchdowns.
After the game in which they had 10 penalties and three turnovers, the 49ers were left with the stark realization that there was plenty of work and healing ahead before they are among the league's best.
"You know that's a good team," said head coach Kyle Shanahan. "You know they're going to make some big plays, but I thought the most frustrating thing was the spots we hurt ourselves. In that first half, some of the false starts that we had on offense, lining up in the neutral zone on defense. For us to have that false start on the field goal, I was obviously so excited because they muffed the punt the next time, but for us to have a turnover there was a real big mistake. Ended up being alright when they missed that field goal. We talked about some of that stuff at halftime."
"We come out, give up a huge kick return and then have a really stupid penalty to add 15 yards at the end of it. Those are the things that disappoint me the most."
But Shanahan still has plenty of faith in his defense.
"They had some pretty big plays where it seemed like there was a lot of space," he said. "I have to look at the film to see what happened, but yeah that was disappointing. I believe were better than that."
Defensive star Nick Bosa, who returned from a groin injury to play Sunday, felt the little mistakes simply became overwhelming. As an example, he was penalized for lining up offside in the neutral zone on two straight plays.
"I think we made some mistakes, including myself in the first half," he said. "That allowed them to stay on the field and when you don't force them to get into those passing situations, you kind of let them fall forward and get those four or five yard runs. You never really get in the position that you want to be in and we need to do a better job on the D-line for sure."
"We knew that it was going to be a game that the D-line had to be the major run stopping because our guys in the back end obviously have to deal with what they do in the air. So, we just didn't play good enough as a D-line."
Cornerback Charvarius Ward also was hampered by injury and played his worst game since joining the team as a free agent.
"I just feel like we came out with some good juice," he said. "We just didn't keep it up, we just didn't maintain it. They started to make some plays and we stopped making plays. That's what it was. They were making plays and we weren't making plays. Got to have better energy, better eyes, better techniques. We just played a sloppy game on defense. We can't do that."
Linebacker Fred Warner, who is the heart and soul of the defense, isn't about to panic. Even at 3-4, the 49ers are in the dogfight for the NFC West crown.
"At the end of the day, I look at it as one game at a time," he said. "Always. I never look ahead. I never see it for anything other than what it is. You have to look at the tape hard and correct the mistakes, come back and be better."