The San Francisco 49ers looked like a California team playing in the snow. They were sliding around. No catch was given. No ordinary football act came easily.
And it would be easy to write off if the 49ers look anything like their usual selves this season. Instead, the 49ers sink deeper in the standings, their playoff hopes likely buried in the Buffalo snow.
The Buffalo Bills are a Super Bowl contender and the 49ers are somehow probably not even a playoff team. That’s how Sunday night’s game ended, with the Bills taking an easy 35-14 victory in snowy conditions. Buffalo clinched the AFC East title with the win.
The 49ers fell to 5-7, and star running back Christian McCaffrey left the game with a non-contact knee injury.
The 49ers took last season’s Super Bowl to overtime and brought back virtually their entire roster. There are injuries, which did not help. But when this miserable season ends, and ends much sooner than anyone expected, San Francisco must examine exactly what went wrong. There are going to be a lot to choose from.
The 49ers get embarrassed again
Snow games provide a fun setting and are often very sloppy. The 49ers were a comedy Sunday night. Sure-handed players like George Kittle dropped easy passes. As dependable fullback Kyle Juszczyk punched the ball out just before crossing the goal line, he was distracted and lost a bump as he passed Brock Purdy and the ball fell out of his hands.
The 49ers’ defense looked sluggish as it tried to chase down Buffalo running back James Cook’s 65-yard touchdown. They looked foolish when Amari Cooper lateraled to Josh Allen for a 9-yard touchdown to put the Bills up 28-3. Officially, Allen had one touchdown pass and one touchdown reception on the play. According to NBC, Allen became the fourth player in NFL history to catch a receiving touchdown on a pass he threw.
The 49ers were embarrassed 38-10 in Green Bay last week and trailed 21-3 at halftime Sunday night. The 49ers lost some close games early this season that put them in an unexpected hole. With the balance of the season over the past two weeks, they haven’t even been competitive.
McCaffrey’s injury is another setback. McCaffrey missed the first eight games of the season with an Achilles injury. He returned and in his fourth game back he started limping as soon as he took the pitch and fell to the ground. He got up and ran awkwardly to the sideline and never came back. If he misses time, it makes life more difficult for a 49ers offense that has been stuck lately.
Brandon Ayuk suffered a season-ending ACL injury weeks ago. Stalwarts Nick Bosa and Trent Williams were among the players out for the 49ers on Sunday night. Fred Warner is playing through a fractured ankle and fellow linebacker Dre Greenlaw has not played this season.
Injuries were a problem, but many players on the field did not play at their usual level. In many ways, the 49ers look just like a 5-7 team.
Bill looks good again
Just because Bills players live in Buffalo doesn’t mean they’re used to playing football with inches of snow on the ground. They just handled the conditions better than the 49ers.
Allen made some key plays, including his touchdown pass that was officially his own and an 8-yard touchdown run that put Buffalo up 35–10. With Allen just over 12 minutes to go in the game, the outcome was decided.
With the division in hand and still five games to go, the Bills are still chasing the No. 1 seed in the AFC, hoping to finally lose a close game to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bills look like a complete team capable of winning it all and have a 10-2 record to show for it. It was what the 49ers expected to be.
The 49ers aren’t outright finished but need to win or be close for the playoffs. It’s December and San Francisco is in last place in the NFC West. Some of the 49ers’ core is 30 years old or already in their 30s.
The past two games could end the 49ers’ playoff hopes for the season and will likely be seen as San Francisco’s last gasp for a championship run. No one expected the 49ers to play meaningless football this December and into early January. But after two straight blowout losses, the 49ers look like they’ll be irrelevant the rest of the season.
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