GREEN BAY, Wisc. – Defensive tackle Maliek Collins sat at his locker, slipped on his high-top sneakers and quietly surmised the 49ers’ stature.
“We’re a 5-6 football team that has hope, for sure,” Collins said. “Guys in this locker room know what we have. “
They may have talent and faith, but they also have glaring issues, as reflected by Sunday’s 38-10 loss to the Packers, the most lopsided road loss since Kyle Shanahan took over a floundering franchise in 2017.
Shanahan’s message afterward to his crumbling, injury-laden, mistake-prone outfit? “Just stressing how this wasn’t a good loss,” rookie guard Dominick Puni said. “I don’t know if I can cuss, but it was bad. We all share a bad feeling right now.”
How is it going to feel next Sunday night, when the 49ers’ next road trip takes them to the Buffalo Bills, who are 9-2 and coming off their bye?
“My optimism is not broken by any means,” tight end George Kittle said. “We still have a lot of very talented players. We will get some guys back and I still have full trust in coaches have to put our guys in position to make plays, and I got no worry about that. But definitely an uphill grind, and I guess (we’ll see) what we’re made of, which I’m looking forward to.”
Catching my eye Sunday were these 10 things:
1. MISSING MEN
What’s a team to do without its quarterback (Brock Purdy; shoulder), All-Pro left tackle (Trent Williams; ankle) and star defensive end (Nick Bosa; obliques), not to overlook earlier exits this season by the best wide receiver (Brandon Aiyuk; knee), defensive tackle (Javon Hargrave; biceps) and safety (Talanoa Hufanga; wrist)?
Williams was the only surprise scratch from Sunday’s lineup, to which Puni said: “He’s a great voice on the team, a great leader. Anytime you miss one of your leaders, it sucks. Same with Brock, too. There’s a reason they’re captains, because they have a voice on the team. It’s a big impact.”
Purdy, Williams and Bosa are all captains. So are George Kittle, Christian McCaffrey, Kyle Juszczyk, Deebo Samuel and Fred Warner. Kittle is the only one who excelled Sunday.
“I’m really not concerned right now about how many guys were missing,” Shanahan said. “We didn’t play good enough, so that’s not a factor.”
Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon agreed that injuries are no excuse: “We didn’t have our quarterback (earlier this season). We won three games, so we don’t wanna hear that. We came to play. They should’ve came to play.”
2. PURDY’S STATUS
As the sun set on Lambeau Field at 4:16 pm Sunday, Purdy relocated his spot on the bench to sit next to his injury replacement, Brandon Allen. They looked up on the video boards to watch the Packers play ball hog on a touchdown drive that benefited from the 49ers’ 12-men-on-the-field penalties (more on that later).
Purdy was on the 49ers’ first bus to Lambeau. Will he be on the first-string offense in Buffalo? Claiming nothing major was spotted on Purdy’s MRI exams, the 49ers still aren’t declaring an imminent return. “He’s been rehabbing the whole time here,” Shanahan said of Purdy’s three-day stay with the 49ers in Wisconsin.
Allen said of Purdy: “He was great. Asked how I was seeing it. What he was seeing, some of the rotation stuff they had going on and how he was seeing it, and ideas where to get the ball. He was really helpful on the sideline for me.”
3. ENCORE FOR ALLEN?
Allen’s first start since 2021 saw him on the losing end, making him 2-8 as an NFL starter. Shanahan spoke as if Allen earned another start, if needed, rather than summon Josh Dobbs. “Brandon made some big throws and stuff, and gave us a chance,” Shanahan said.
Allen – and Shanahan — dismissed any speculation his performance was hindered by a broken middle finger on his left, non-throwing hand. “He’s fine. He hurt his finger like three weeks ago,” Shanahan said of a finger that remained in a split postgame.
4. McCAFFREY STEWS
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” promotion features Christian McCaffrey as the 49ers’ representative. The real picture on this Sunday night: McCaffrey sitting in front of his locker to stew in deep thought, as almost every other teammate exited.
Three games into his season, McCaffrey has not busted any of his 43 runs longer than 13 yards. Sunday’s longest went 9 yards. He had 11 carries for 31 yards, plus three catches for 37 yards. He fumbled on his final touch, on a 23-yard catch-and-run to midfield. It was his first lost fumble since the Super Bowl’s opening series.
5. JACOBS’ HAT TRICK
Josh Jacobs is a massive reason the Packers have won eight of 11, his first season away from the Raiders’ doldrums. Jacobs entered this game with four touchdowns, and he scored three more this game on 1-yard runs.
“I played with Josh before and I know the type of player he is,” said Collins, a 2020 Raiders teammate. “That’s what happens if you don’t get 11 hats on him. That’s nothing new. He’s always done that.”
Maybe 12 hats would have worked. (More on that later.) Jacobs was credited with making the 49ers miss 15 tackles, most by anyone in the NFL this season, per NFL NextGen Stats.
Linebacker Fred Warner, who scorned himself after a missed tackle in the backfield one play, offered damning insight on how the Packers racked up 169 yards, with 106 by Jacobs.
“They came out with different run looks than we had prepared for in the first half, which we adjusted to as the game went on,” Warner said. “But we have to be better from the jump.”
6. TWELVE ANGRY MEN
It’s on coaches to prepare those players, and to send out 11 on the field per play. First-year defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen earned an earful from Shanahan on the sideline after the 49ers drew back-to-back penalties for too many men on the field, from their 10-yard line.
Shanahan blamed officiating for the first penalty, saying the Packers got away with a quick substitution that the 49ers weren’t allowed ehough time to match; Shanahan said the second penalty was the 49ers’ fault.
“That’s unacceptable. That’s across the board,” Warner said. “There’s nobody to point a finger at on that particular situation. It’s all of us not being on the same page.”
The 49ers defense were penalized twice earlier this season for having too many men on the field: in their Week 4 win over New England, and a Week 7 loss to Kansas City (one snap before the Chiefs’ first touchdown). In Shanahan’s previous seven seasons, they totaled four such penalties, and never more than one a year.
7. KITTLE MOVES TO THIRD
George Kittle supplied the 49ers with their lone touchdown, his team-leading eighth this season. That 3-yard scoring grab was among his six catches on six targets for a game-high 82 yards.
Kittle’s career has tallied 509 receptions, vaulting him to No. 3 in 49ers history past Dwight Clark (506) and Roger Craig (508). He’s 83 behind Terrell Owens for the No. 2 spot behind the unreachable Jerry Rice (1,281).
Kittle complimented Allen before stepping off the postgame podium: “When he sees you with a one-on-one, he’s just going to give you an opportunity. I really respect that from him.”
8. PENALTY PROBLEMS
For the third time in four games, the 49ers got penalized nine times. Another penalty – the first too-many-men-on-the-field call — was offset by a Packers’ illegal shift penalty.
Puni drew three penalties, including a false start and holding call the first four times the 49ers lined up offensively.
Said Puni: “I mean we all know how to play football. We have to be better, flat out. I have to be better. I can’t have three penalties in one half. It’s not efficient football. It’s hard to win a game when one guy has three penalties. I just have to be better.
Three penalties on special teams ruined (or helped) quality returns by Samuel and Ricky Pearsall.
9. DEEBO’S DROPS
The biggest play of the game? This game didn’t turn on one play. But a devastating play came when Allen got intercepted on a high pass that swished through Samuel’s hands and into Xavier McKinney’s, leading to a 48-yard return and then another Packers touchdown drive for a 24-7 deficit.
“If he was going to catch it, it’d be a really tough catch. I have a lot of trust in Deebo,” said Allen, whose only completion on four targets to Samuel was on a trick play that Samuel started with a reverse.
Added Shanahan: “It seemed like a hell of a throw. We had some soft zone and he threaded it in there between the two backers. It looked like it went off Deebo’s hands. That was huge because we were trying to get back in the game, but also, because we got a big return and got seven points off.”
10. WARNER’S LINE
Warner is in his seventh season. He is their hype man in pregame huddles, and essentially their public spokesman. Talking about the defense’s “poor technique, poor execution” is one thing. His parting words Sunday night carried heavy weight: “This is probably one of the worst ones I’ve been a part of. It is embarrassing. You have to take it on the chin, take it like a man and move on.”
Move on to what, though? To next season.