The 49ers dropped a third consecutive game Sunday when they were shellacked by the Bengals 31-17 at Levi’s Stadium.
San Francisco now mercifully heads to its bye week in search of answers on both sides of the ball. They’ve been unable to score or get key stops for the last three weeks.
Here are a handful of our takeaways from Sunday’s game:
Three losses in a row
The 49ers have now lost three in a row for the first time since Weeks 3-5 of the 2021 season. It’s a pretty significant problem because they don’t appear to have any solutions to their issues. Perhaps the injuries to Trent Williams and Deebo Samuel have just derailed them entirely, but it’s hard to believe that’s the reason they’ve been mostly inept on both sides of the ball.
Back to Brock
Brock Purdy was really bad again and the 49ers appear as though they won’t be able to win games from behind with him under center. Playing from ahead, they’re great. When he has to make plays for them though it’s been an adventure three weeks in a row. His two interceptions Sunday were among the worst decisions he’s made since becoming the team’s starting QB. The box score shows an excellent game where Purdy went 22-of-31 for 365 yards and a touchdown, but the two picks were backbreakers.
Third down issues
A big problem for the 49ers in Week 7 was their inability to get off the field on third down. Minnesota went 8-for-13. San Francisco backed that up by allowing the Bengals to go 3-for-4 in the first half Sunday. Perhaps the bigger problem was that Cincinnati in the first half posted 20 (TWENTY!) first downs and only faced third down four times. For the game they went 3-for-7 on third down, but still had a whopping 29 first downs.
Missing Trent Williams
The 49ers run game for the third week in a row was dreadful. Remove Purdy’s scrambles and San Francisco posted 57 yards on 17 carries. They’re really struggling to run the ball left without Trent Williams in the lineup and it’s impacting everything they’re doing offensively. Cincinnati had San Francisco behind the sticks a lot and it’s really difficult for Brock Purdy and the 49ers to operate in that space.
Christian McCaffrey is ridiculous
#49ers Christian McCaffrey now has 14 games with at least one rushing and one receiving touchdown.
That is one less than the NFL record of 15 held by Marshall Faulk.
— Jennifer Lee Chan – threads @jenniferleechan (@jenniferleechan) October 29, 2023
One silver lining from the game is that McCaffrey posted a pair of touchdowns and is nearing the most games in NFL history with a rushing and receiving touchdown.
Defensive adjustment needed
San Francisco has some adjusting to do on defense. Their pass rush was once again not extremely effective in part because Bengals QB Joe Burrow was getting the ball out quickly on shorter throws. The 49ers for the second straight week haven’t adjusted with tighter coverage and it’s been killing them. This is something defensive coordinator Steve Wilks needs to figure out over the bye week.
Where have all the pass catchers gone?
George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk and Christian McCaffrey combined for 27 of the 49ers’ 30 targets. They caught 20 of those for 322 yards and one touchdown. Ray-Ray McCloud and Elijah Mitchell had three targets combined, and one of those was to McCloud on the final play of the game. The target to Mitchell was an interception. San Francisco has to try and turn some other players into receiving threats or they’ll be way too easy to defend.
