Simple explanation for Niners loss: They were outplayed

The coach said it. The score confirmed it. The 49ers were outplayed

That’s no sin in the NFL, where the words “on any given Sunday” remain more than just a persistent slogan.  

No sin, if it doesn’t happen too frequently.

And for the San Francisco 49ers, it hadn’t happened in any game in the season of 2023 until on this given Sunday when they were defeated, 19-17, on the road by the Cleveland Browns.

That left the Niners with a 5-1 record and reminders that what happened a week earlier, a resounding win over the haughty Dallas Cowboys, becomes inconsequential within days. 

It also for the first time in his Cinderella career left questions about the kid quarterback, Brock Purdy, who admittedly while at a disadvantage, a botched-up running game, looked — awful is probably too violent a word.

He threw the first interception of his year-and-a-half career, was sacked three times and completed 12 of 27 passes for a mere 125 yards. Those numbers in part were attributable to the Niners’ lack of a ground game.  

Christian McCaffrey missed much of the second half because of an injury (he did score, however, to extend his team-record touchdown streak to 15 games) and Deebo Samuel, also injured, barely played at all.

Thus the Browns, with the league’s best defense, could concentrate on getting to Purdy, physically and mentally. And they got to him.

Purdy’s slip into imperfection was matched by the rookie place kicker Jake Moody, who missed two field goals, including one from 41 yards with a few seconds left to play. Yes, that could have been the game-winner. But we don’t deal here in could haves.

Somehow those football gods had decided on this afternoon the way the Browns performed and the 49ers couldn’t perform that no way Cleveland would lose.

It didn’t.

“It was a grinding game,” said Kyle Shanahan, the 49ers coach. “We made way too many mistakes.”

It was a weird day overall. Before kickoff, the two teams got involved in a pushing match that involved an occasional sort of event that has been known to take place at college games where the players are hyped up from bellicose coaching advice but rarely if ever in the pros where energy and anger are saved until the line of scrimmage.

It’s hard to call the Browns-49ers a rivalry because of the current divisional league setup, but they began playing in 1946—as noted by the patch on the Browns uniforms when they were part of the old All-America Football Conference. 

Cleveland had Otto Graham, Marion Motley and Lou Groza and invariably outplayed the Niners. Just as they did Sunday.