No excuses for Niners; no defense either
By Art Spander
No excuses. That was the brief observation of 49ers linebacker Fred Warner. No excuses. And no answers.
No doubt either. The Niners, as constituted now, with all their injuries, all, their backups, aren’t as good as the Buffalo Bills.
Or, the way things went Monday night, probably not as good as most other teams in the NFL.
Buffalo is on the rise, on the way to the playoffs. The Bills swept over the Niners, 34-24, Monday night in the first San Francisco home game to be played in Arizona because of the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the Bay Area.
But it was the opposition that was responsible for the result, not the location. The Bills have the two basics of winning football, a brilliant young quarterback and fine excellent defenders.
The Niners seemed dumbfounded, as much by what they didn’t do as to what the Bills did. If we heard it once in the post-game rhetoric from the Niners, we heard it a dozen times.
They were not surprised. They were just, well, beaten. Not defeated, at least to their way of thinking. That would be a mental thing, an admittance, a concession. This was, well, confusion.
A lack of execution was the explanation, bringing us back to 1976 and the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers — coach John McKay being asked what he thought of the Bucs’ execution and answering, “I’m in favor of it.”
To a man, the Niners insisted they knew what was coming, other than Allen’s ability to avoid being sacked — extending the play is what it’s called — even more than perceived from films. Patrick Mahomes did it to the Niners in the Super Bowl, moving, scrambling, avoiding and, when required, running. Now, déjà vu, here came Allen, in the 2018 draft, one year after Mahomes.
Allen on Monday night passed for 375 yards and four touchdowns. That he gained only 11 yards rushing is a trifle misleading. It was the way he kept a play alive that was important.
The Bills had 449 yards in all, the most allowed this season by the Niners, who are 5-7. The Bills are 9-3.
Asked what he thought about the defense, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said, “Obviously it didn’t work out well.”
The offense also was lacking. And no, the Niners didn’t blame their difficulties on needing to move for several weeks to the Phoenix area when Santa Clara County banned contact sports.
“We just didn’t get it done,’ said linebacker Dre Greenlaw. “They ran similar things to what we expected. We just didn’t execute.”
They were outplayed, but few people — if any — tell you that. Nobody wants to admit they didn’t have a chance, which after the first quarter the 49ers didn’t. Sure, there were a few key plays, an interception by Warner negated by a penalty; a lost fumble by Brandon Aiyuk. But the Bills owned the game.
“They were calling the perfect plays to everything we were dialing up,” said Warner.
The Bills were in control, literally. They had the ball only two seconds fewer than 25 minutes. The 49ers couldn’t get much done on offense and virtually less done on defense.
“We knew Allen could run,” said Shanahan, “and he’s got a big-time arm.”
Watching the game from a box at State Farm Stadium was rehabbing Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, as once more the position belonged to Nick Mullens who, well, looked decent but didn’t look like Allen.
He threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns, but trying a sneak at the goal line in the fourth quarter he was called for illegal procedure.
“I anticipated the snap,” said Mullens, “and moved too early.”
That wasn’t an excuse, just an error in judgment.