Originally posted by Wubbie:
I like how in a tightly contested, 3 point loss, people are pointing the finger at specific players or one side of the ball. When it's that close, we're talking about a difference of a few plays in pivotal moments.
There's a lot of blame to go around. But the three most notable things:
- Jimmy just wasn't good enough against a talented defense that was super hungry to win. He barely completed 50% of his passes that day. His yardage totals are buoyed by the fact that our receivers can run well after the catch. Yes, he was pretty banged up, but I thought the game was pretty emblematic of why we're moving on from him. He didn't play well, no excuses here.
- The offensive line got abused. The only guy I give an "excuse" to is Trent Williams, because the guy was playing on one ankle, but the offensive line didn't play well.
- The 49ers defense, as a whole, just didn't have an answer to the short passing game. Our cornerbacks couldn't cover Kupp & OBJ for our vaunted pass rush to get there in time. A couple people mentioned that our defense did its job, limiting the Rams to 20 points... That's true, but I also point out they allowed 11/18 on third down. The Rams were playing ball control offense. The game plan wasn't to try and score 40 points. They wanted to play methodical football: In the end, of their possessions, they only punted once and were intercepted once. Every other possession resulted in a score.
I agree with everything except this statement. They didn't want to, they had to. Our pass rush was dominating their O line for much of the game. Too bad our corners were getting eat up on the short passing game and made it all too easy for them.
