49ers waste Jauan Jennings’ career day, fall to depleted Rams: Rapid reactions

No Christian McCaffrey. No Deebo Samuel. No George Kittle. No problem for the San Francisco 49ers offense. At least, for the most part. There were a couple of wide receivers who dropped multiple passes. Six passes were dropped in this game. That's unacceptable.

One guy on offense who did show up was Jauan Jennings. He was incredible and caught everything. Jennings finished with 11 catches for 175 yards and three touchdowns. And some of the catches he made were highlight-film-worthy.

But not everyone was good. In fact, most of the team was bad. Here are my rapid reactions to the 49ers frustrating 27-24 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, a team missing even more players than the 49ers.

• Two plays in and the Rams are already playing dirty.
• Jauan Jennings. Rams killer. He was even better than he was in that epic 2021 game to clinch a playoff spot.

• That opening touchdown drive was a Jordan Mason-heavy drive. It looked like it would be that way the entire game, but it wasn't.
• Welcome back, Talanoa Hufanga.
• Jennings is acting like he believes he's WR1.
• Why does Jake Brendel just stand there when he misses a block?
• The 49ers' second drive was not nearly as clean as their first. And yet they still scored.
• Nothing good happens when you throw it to Ronnie Bell. More on him below.
• Eric Saubert already has more catches through week three than last season's backup tight end, Charlie Woerner, had all season.
• Jennings is fun to watch. Two touchdowns in the first quarter.

• The 49ers run defense still isn't great. And that's a problem.
• Javon Hargrave with a big sack. That's good to see.

• Brandon Aiyuk is dropping passes he normally catches. He's struggling.
• San Francisco's special teams unit always finds a way to screw up. How do you give up a first down on a fake punt? Especially when, as Kyle Shanahan said, they knew it was coming. That's completely unacceptable. Something needs to change because this special teams unit is costing the 49ers games.

• Dee Winters finally returns from injury and gets on the field with the defense, and then he immediately gets hurt.
• De'Vondre Campbell is not good in pass coverage. I'd like to see less of him.
• Colton McKivitz still sucks.
• Jekyll and Hyde 49ers: Great first quarter. Bad second quarter.
• Isaac Yaidom needs to be better and Ji'Ayir Brown needs to stop letting receivers get deep behind him. Brown played well for the most part. Yaidom did not.
• I'd like to see Jacob Cowing on offense instead of Bell. Even Chris Conley would be better than Bell.
• Aiyuk and Brock Purdy are still not entirely in sync. I blame Aiyuk. Purdy was incredible against the Rams, despite not having his top three weapons.
• Isaac Guerendo had his first positive gain as a pro, picking up five yards. He followed that with a second carry for four yards.
• Purdy and Jennings sure are in sync, though.

• Matthew Stafford is picking apart the 49ers defense. And he only has one wide receiver.
• Purdy is a playmaker. Sometimes with his arm, sometimes with his feet. This was one of his more impressive games.
• Jake Moody picked a terrible time to miss his first field goal of the season. He had been perfect up to this point.
• I would love it if Ronnie Bell never played for this team again. He's so horrible. His multiple dropped passes cost the 49ers this game.

• And if anyone was more responsible for the loss than Bell, it was the defense. They've been terrible the past two games. Nick Sorensen has not been impressive so far. That said, I remember fans weren't happy with DeMeco Ryans' first handful of games in 2021 when he was a new defensive coordinator.
• Did I mention the special teams? Maybe Brian Schneider, the special teams coordinator, should just stay in Inglewood.
• How do you blow a 14-point lead to a team with only one wide receiver? This should have been a blowout win for the 49ers.

Up next for the 49ers is the New England Patriots. But before you jump to the assumption that this will be an easy win, remember that the Rams game was supposed to be the same. And it looked like it would be—until it wasn't.

• Marc Adams
• Written by:
  Marc Adams
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