3 Takeaways from the 49ers Week 7 Loss to the Chiefs

The San Francisco 49ers may have just suffered their worst loss of the 2022 regular season, and that’s saying a lot. Losing to the Bears, Broncos, and Falcons before Week 7, the 49ers are now 3-4 after their latest loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, 44-23.

Let’s be honest with ourselves: San Francisco got embarrassed in their own stadium Sunday afternoon. To the point that The Faithful were leaving at the start of the fourth quarter, the backups were coming in and the locker room was as desolate as Week 2 when Trey Lance broke his ankle.

“I just feel like we have too many…too many..players that can change the game to only score 23 points,” wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk stated postgame Sunday. “We gotta cut down the penalties, mistakes, every individual person has got to look at themselves and worry about what they got to do on each individual play. If we do that, I think we’ll be just fine, until then, I don’t see the room changing.”

A bleak outlook indeed for the Red & Gold, now set to travel to Southern California to take on the Los Angeles Rams before the team’s Week 9 bye.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at a few things that could linger over into the next game.

Back to the Drawing Board for DeMeco Ryans

Remember when the league was singing the praises of Ryans and his elite defense through the first four weeks of the season? Yeah, those days are no more.

In the last two games combined, the 49ers’ defense has surrendered 72 points. In the first five matchups: 61 points. Week 7 was the most points (44) that the Red & Gold had given up at home since 2009, when they lost to the Falcons, 45-10, at Candlestick Park. Now some of it can be blamed on injuries, the 49ers have been hit with the injury bug pretty severe this season, but with defensive end Nick Bosa and safety Jimmie Ward back in action, that amount of points is inexcusable.

But it wasn’t just the way the 49ers lost, it was how they lost, committing dumb penalties that bailed out quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the offense. San Francisco actually committed less yards per penalty than their opponents Sunday (84 to 80) but each error seemed more costly for the home team than the visitors.

Penalties another issue for #49ers so far this year.

— 57 penalties called, T-5th most in NFL
— 48 penalties accepted, T-6th most
— 27 offensive penalties, 9th most
— 23 defensive penalties, T-9th most
— 7 ST penalties, T-7th most
— 350 penalty yards, 12th most

— Nick Wagoner (@nwagoner) October 24, 2022

On top of that, the defense didn’t look like themselves at any point in the game, seemingly always a step or two behind the Chiefs Sunday to allow 529 total net yards in 60 minutes of football. Jimmie Ward looked rough in his first game back from hand surgery, Charvarius Ward got burnt a few times in the secondary Sunday and LB Dre Greenlaw didn’t finish the game with a calf injury.

“The game was there. Through three to four quarters we were still in it, still could have made plays, still could of found a way to make it our game. We just didn’t,” linebacker Fred Warner said.

Once tied for first in points allowed, the 49ers have dropped to 13th in the league with 133 points given up. They also allowed 9.1 yards per play to the Chiefs, the most allowed for a 49ers team since 1965, according to ESPN.

The bye week couldn’t come sooner for Ryans and his defense, hoping his team will step up to the challenge this week in practice to head into it on a win.

The Battle in the Trenches Has Been Bad

This kind of goes hand-in-hand with the last point but the offensive and defensive lines of the 49ers were down right bad against the Chiefs Sunday.

First defensively, how can you only register three quarterback hits on Mahomes in 60 minutes of football?!? Well it happened Sunday as San Francisco was unable to get in KC’s backfield all day, giving Mahomes time to sling it from the pocket. He finished with 423 yards passing, three touchdowns and one interception.

Thankfully, the 49ers didn’t put up a blank in the sack column Sunday, Bosa did get Mahomes once for a loss of six yards but all in all, they have to do better as a unit moving forward.

“I think we made some mistakes, including myself in the first half,” Bosa said Sunday. “That allowed them to stay on the field and when you don’t force them to get into those passing situations, you kind of let them fall forward and get those four or five yard runs. You never really get in the position that you want to be in and we need to do a better job on the D-line for sure. We knew that it was going to be a game that the D-line had to be the major run stopping because our guys in the back end obviously have to deal with what they do in the air. So, we just didn’t play good enough as a D-line.”

Since defensive tackle Arik Armstead has been sidelined with foot issues, the 49ers have allowed 4.09 yards per carry and 111 yards per game, compared to 2.8 YPC and 64 YPG when he’s out there on the field. Obviously, other factors play a role in that but Armstead’s absence has been more glaring than most fans realize.

Offensively they weren’t much better, with Trent Williams and Mike McGlinchey getting bulldozed all day by the Chief’s pass rushers. The unit as a whole allowed five sacks and seven QB hits on quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.

According to Pro Football Focus, Williams allowed two pressures, one sack; while his tackle counterpart allowed four pressures for two sacks on the day. The rest of the unit combined for only one pressure, while guards Aaron Banks and Spencer Burford held up their end of the bargain all day.

Aaron Banks hasn’t allowed a sack or a QB hit in 237 pass blocking opportunities this season. 👀 #49ers pic.twitter.com/k3gxQEy6i6

— Coach Yac 🗣 (@Coach_Yac) October 24, 2022

Williams, in his return from a high-ankle sprain suffered in Week 3, looked rusty, to say the least, getting beat numerous times that put Garoppolo in panic situations. He may need some time before he’s back to his usual All-Pro self.

McGlinchey was the worst lineman on the field Sunday, with KC putting DT Chris Jones on the edge just so he could rush past the 49ers’ right tackle. Also dealing with a lower leg injury, the 49ers may need to look for alternatives on the line if they want to protect Garoppolo this season.

“It’s frustrating. I think we really haven’t played together as a team, offense and defense yet and special teams. So, we need to get clicking on all cylinders if we’re going to make a run this year,” Bosa added.

CMC Looks Really Good in Limited Action

A glimmer of hope for 49ers’ fans was the debut of former All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey.

Acquiring late Thursday night from the Carolina Panthers, news broke Saturday night that “CMC” would be active for his first game with his new team, less than 48 hours removed from arriving on the west coast.

Head coach Kyle Shanahan said Friday that it was possible for their new offensive weapon to play in Week 7, the question was more so how many snaps could he play without learning the playbook. The answer: 22 snaps, looking as explosive as ever in limited action Sunday.

“I thought he did a good job and it was just impressive that he understood everything we were asking him to do. I don’t think he made any mistakes in the game and was able to make some pretty good plays too,” Shanahan said postgame.

McCaffrey finished the day with 64 yards from scrimmage, on eight carries for 38 yards and four catches for 24 yards. He also gained a few first downs, his biggest play coming on a screen pass for 13 yards.

First carry, first down.@CMC_22

📺 #KCvsSF on FOX pic.twitter.com/qndWei3Dp0

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) October 23, 2022

Despite his solid debut, that’s not what CMC is worried about, more so focused on winning football games and being as prepared as possible for the Rams next week.

“No one cares if I got here two days ago or if I’ve been here since April. If I’m out there with a uniform on, I expect to be prepared and I’m sure my teammates and coaches expect me to be prepared too,” McCaffrey said Sunday. “So you can’t sit there and make excuses and say that, ‘you know I haven’t had a lot of time’, I gotta be ready to go and that was the mindset that I had and just try to keep learning.”

Follow @AmilianoFragoso

Newsletter