Quote
LMU93
Just venting... I would call this the worst loss under McVay. Maybe tied by the home loss to the Jets last year. Losing to the Titans at home was rough- especially in how it happened- but that's a good team. A top 6-8 team in the league right now. The 49ers...are not. And when you have the chance to (a) tie the division leader who dropped a game the day before and (b) put your biggest rival's season to bed you go and do it. And yeah, as others have said I think losses like the past two weeks are amplified somewhat by both being prime time national TV games.
Oh and it was not a hostile environment last night either. I have a good friend who was in a suite at the game last night and said the place was maybe 2/3 full- and a good number of Rams fans there to boot.
I said last night and will say again I think Stafford's (1st quarter) mistakes vs. TEN were way worse. Those were both blatant horrific passes and all on him while last night's were sort of circumstantial- letting it fly thinking the receiver is continuing and then the pick-6 off a bobbled pass. Still bad. And he had other poor throws last night including a couple that could have been picked. But just saying.
6 dropped passes.were part of the issue too. Was the endzone miss to Skowornek considered a drop? That's a situation where they really missed Woods. In fact, maybe the loss of Woods was understated. That combined with having a WR out there that had been through the equivalent of one OTA practice sure seemed to result in timing in general being off. Frankly I think OBJ deserves a bit of credit for contributing as much as he did last night. I think they also might miss Mundt as the blocking TE more than we realize.
The horrendous tackling that was happening the first month of the season had seemed to right itself- but then reared its ugly head again last night. And that bad, bad tackling to me was an attitude thing (on the part of the 49ers who wouldn't be denied and the Rams who weren't ready to do anything about it). And that was the biggest concern for me. By the way, I looked it up and the Rams are 3-11 under McVay when they are outrushed by a significant amount (I used 70+ yards as the metric). I don't know what the defensive game plan was, but that first drive should have told them some adjustments had to happen and fast. And I also don't ever want to see Leonard Floyd in coverage- especially against a Pro Bowl TE.
So where from here? I think the loss likely makes the division out of reach unless (a) they somehow beat both GB and ARZ the next three weeks. But I also think it's unlikely they finish any worse than the 5th seed. I think 13-4 or 11-6 was going to result in the same thing- 5th seed. So we'll just have to see who the 4th division winner is and go from there. Clearly the moves to get Miller and OBJ were about trying to peak in December and January. Who knows. Maybe they will. As much as it sucks to go into the Bye week off two bad losses, maybe it's also sort of what they need. I think they physically need a break. And maybe timing will be such that it also refocuses them and allows the coaches time to self scout.
Final thoughts. Whoever called that fake FG should get raked over the coals. That was far from a good time and place to do that. 4th and 2 with the game tied? Maybe... 4th and 8 down 14. No. Way. They needed that 3 points and all that failure did was add even more confidence to the 49ers (and sap the Rams' confidence more) going into halftime. 21-10 vs 21-7 was a big deal there.
And last, just like vs. TEN having Stafford, Kupp, Whitworth, an injured Brian Allen, etc. in the game at the end and exposing them all to needless injury risk was utterly irresponsible. All to go for a meaningless FG with 3 minutes left? Seriously?
Big picture? Still a top 8 team in the league in my opinion. Still 50-24 over the past 4.5 seasons. We shouldn't forget that. And IF they can correct some things during the bye week and use the Miller and OBJ additions to help peak come December and January then maybe we'll sing a different tune later. Maybe.
It was like McVay wanted to lose that game....I can't believe how many bone head play calls and no adjustments being made when he saw Stafford was throwing so inaccurately. Not to mention the defensive coordinator not dialing up a blitz and giving their receivers so much space to run after the catch.
