After their 38-10 loss to the Packers at Lambeau Field in Green Bay on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers felt like a team whose season was on the brink. They remained only one game back of the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks in the NFC West standings after the loss, but a banged-up roster combined with their poor overall performance against the Packers made it seem like the 49ers could be in legitimate danger of missing the postseason, especially with a rough road game on the schedule against the Buffalo Bills next week.
There was at least one 49er who was not hanging his head after the game, however. That was tight end George Kittle, who displayed relentless optimism when discussing the state of the team with reporters.
"No," Kittle responded when asked if this season has tested his optimism. "Why would it?"
If Sunday's game didn't test Kittle's optimism, it's hard to picture what would. Despite everything that went wrong against the Packers, Kittle maintained a glass-half-full outlook of where the 49ers stood.
"We're not where we want to be by any means," Kittle said. "Losing by -- what did we lose by, 28? Losing by 28, you know, that's horrible. We don't want to do that by any means... But my optimism is not broken by any means. We still have a lot of very talented players. We will get some guys back (from injury), and I still have full trust in the coaching staff to put our guys in position to make plays, and I've got no worry about that."
After the road game against the Bills, the 49ers have two winnable home games against the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Rams, assuming they have the healthy bodies back in the lineup they need to be more competitive. But things will once again get difficult towards the end with a road game against a suddenly hot Miami Dolphins team, a home game against perhaps the league's top team in the Detroit Lions, and the season finale on the road against Cardinals. Getting to the postseason in this situation isn't an impossible challenge, but it is at least starting to feel like an unlikely one.
Kittle, however, is eager to meet the challenge.
"Definitely an uphill grind and (we're) gonna see what we're made of, which I'm looking forward to," Kittle said.
Kittle was among a handful of players to speak to reporters following the loss, although none of them were as upbeat. We have a roundup of what some of them said in this edition of 49ers Notebook.
Not mincing words
Linebacker Fred Warner wasn't about to put any sort of spin on how the 49ers played on Sunday.
Warner has been a part of more good moments than bad ones during his seven seasons with the 49ers, but he's still been through his share of dismal games. Sunday's game, however, was hard to top in terms of horribleness.
"This is probably one of the worst ones I've been a part of," Warner said. "It is embarrassing."
The 49ers started the game off particularly poorly on defense, where they allowed over 200 total yards with 15 missed tackles in the first half, 10 coming in the first quarter. They managed to remain within striking distance despite that showing, as they were trailing 17-7 at halftime, but the lack of resistance the 49ers put up early against the Packers was undoubtedly a sore spot for Warner.
"That's about as bad as it can get," Warner said. "Probably the worst I've been a part of. And you know, even then it was still, what, 17-7 to end the first half, 10-point game, still had everything in front of us. We just didn't make the plays we needed to."
There were a reported 20 missed tackles overall in the game, which helped lead to Packers running back Josh Jacobs rushing for over 100 yards and three touchdowns.
"That's just poor technique, poor execution across the board," Warner said. "We knew the challenge that the running backs gave for us going into the game and we just didn't execute."
The defense began the find some footing late in the first half and into the third quarter before turnovers on offense helped the Packers pull away. Overall, however, this was a game to forget for the defense, who will have their work cut out for them once again against the Bills next Sunday.
"You gotta take it on the chin, take it like a man and move on," Warner said.
Another sketchy defensive moment
One of the most unfortunate moments of the first half for the 49ers came when they were flagged for having 12 men on the field on consecutive plays. Seeing that penalty on back-to-back plays is uncommon and embarrassing, but head coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters after the game that the defense was solely to blame for only one of them.
"The first one, they had 12 personnel, two tight ends in the huddle, which means we have base defense out," Shanahan said. "They sent another receiver on the field to sub, which when they sub, they're supposed to allow us to sub. So as soon as they did that, we started to change our personnel, and then they rushed up to the line and snapped it. It was a strategic play by them, but one that I don't feel should have been allowed. They didn't give us time to sub on that, and that's why I was upset on that."
The live television broadcast showed Shanahan visibly upset after the second penalty, but that was at least in part because of what happened on the first penalty.
"Because they got away with the first one, they tried to do it again the next play, and that's when I went out there arguing again," Shanahan said. "This time they did allow us to sub. I was out there screaming the whole time, so I'm not exactly aware of what happened with our 12 guys. But obviously we had 12 guys out there that gave us time to sub, and we didn't get one off. So the second one was on us."
Warner put the blame on the entire defense for the second penalty, which preceded a Packers touchdown.
"That's across the board," Warner said. "There's nobody to point a finger at on that particular situation. It's all of us not being on the same page. We've got to be better."
Taking responsibility
Sunday's game was a low point in an otherwise standout rookie season for guard Dominick Puni, who has proven to be a steal after the 49ers selected him in the third round of the 2024 NFL Draft.
Puni was flagged for two false start penalties and one holding penalty in the first half, accounting for three of the nine penalties the 49ers committed in the game. When talking with reporters afterwards, Puni called himself out for those penalties, unprompted.
"I've got to be better," Puni said. "I had three penalties in one half. That's not efficient football. It's hard to win a football game when one guy has three penalties. I've just got to be better, really."
Not blaming Deebo
Wide receiver Deebo Samuel drew some criticism from fans for dropped passes during the game, one of which came on a third quarter interception by Packers safety Xavier McKinney.
A pass from quarterback Brandon Allen went through Samuel's hands on the play and into the hands of McKinney, whose return into 49ers territory was a game-changing play that led to a touchdown and a 24-7 lead.
Xavier McKinney with his 7th pick of the year for the @Packers!
📺: #SFvsGB on FOX
— NFL (@NFL) November 24, 2024
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/lDcQ14FS7U
Allen, however, told reporters after the game that the catch would have been a tough one for Samuel and that he would have likely made the same decision to throw it his way again.
"Tight window," Allen said. "I haven't seen it yet, so I don't know, but obviously a tough catch. If he was going to catch it, it would be a really tough catch.
"But you know, I've got a lot of trust in Deebo. I'd probably throw it again, but definitely a tough contested catch. Tough throw, but didn't work out for us."
