SANTA CLARA, Calif. — And in the long run, after one other postseason heartbreak, after an emotionally exhausting offseason, after the drama-filled holdouts and the gnarly wave of accidents and the private tragedies, after a star participant’s lash-out and, with a staff’s hopes hanging within the stability, an infuriating and surreal tap-out, the San Francisco 49ers’ 2024 season lastly collapsed underneath its personal weight.
Buried underneath the wreckage, barely capable of converse at an audible quantity, was Kyle Shanahan — the person who had probably the most to do with the 49ers’ failings, and the largest perpetrator behind a last-gasp try to increase an period that appeared doomed from its inception final February.
Shanahan, the Niners’ eighth-year coach, was standing at a lectern after the defeat that each one however mathematically eradicated the defending NFC champions from playoff rivalry, one which got here courtesy of his fiercest skilled rival. With a 12-6 victory at Levi’s Stadium on Thursday evening, Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams (8-6) boosted their playoff hopes whereas exposing the 49ers (6-8) as a staff that lacked the aim, precision and unity to play past the primary weekend in January.
Ultimately, with desperation within the rain-filled Northern California air, Shanahan’s offense couldn’t produce a single landing, San Francisco’s particular groups had been usually sloppy and an uncharacteristically robust defensive effort was marred by veteran linebacker De’Vondre Campbell Sr.’s beautiful refusal to enter the sport when summoned within the third quarter.
All of that falls on Shanahan — that’s why he sits within the massive chair — and he made no try to run from it.
“Not adequate,” Shanahan mentioned of the offensive effort he coordinated Thursday, although the phrases utilized to the whole lot about this defeat and to this difficult season.
These phrases additionally served as an epitaph to a six-season stretch during which the 49ers suffered two excruciating Tremendous Bowl defeats to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs, misplaced a pair of wrenching NFC Championship Video games (together with one to McVay’s Rams) and assembled a loaded roster stacked with a few of the league’s most gifted and resilient gamers.
Collectively, they constructed a formidable basis, gained a whole lot of massive video games and at instances felt indomitable.
What we witnessed Thursday evening was the NFL’s equal of rubble — and the group charged with cleansing it up, and rising from it, will look a lot, a lot totally different in 2025 and past.
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“There’s been a darkish cloud over us all season,” veteran cornerback Charvarius Ward advised me after the sport. “This can be an excellent offseason for this staff to regroup, refocus and attempt to rekindle the spark.”
Ward, a second-team All-Professional in 2023, is headed for unrestricted free company subsequent March and is among the many marquee 49ers who may not be on subsequent yr’s roster.
“I don’t know if I’m gonna be again,” Ward continued, “however I do know this staff continues to be gonna be nice, with or with out me.”
That continues to be to be seen, as a result of Thursday’s faceplant — and, actually, this whole season — has underscored how totally different this 49ers staff is from its fast predecessors.
As soon as once more: Not adequate. Realistically, not even shut.
The NFL is a manufacturing enterprise, and Shanahan — who together with basic supervisor John Lynch assembled this group, and was charged with teaching it up — should put on the stain of his staff’s persistently substandard performances. The Niners have simply two victories over opponents with profitable information (the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and suffered three brutal defeats to division foes after squandering late leads.
On Thursday, with an opportunity to remain within the NFC West race, they fell woefully brief, and produced a lowlight reel within the course of.
Huge receiver Deebo Samuel Sr., who complained on social media earlier within the week that he wasn’t getting the ball sufficient, had a brutal drop that possible price him an opportunity to succeed in the top zone for a game-changing rating. The 49ers had been penalized for 2 unlawful formation penalties on punts. Shanahan, after Brock Purdy related with tight finish George Kittle on a 33-yard move early within the sport — towards a protection that had given up 42 factors to the Buffalo Payments 4 days earlier — received weirdly conservative, calling three consecutive runs in Rams territory and settling for a 53-yard subject objective by Jake Moody. And Purdy, coming off his greatest sport of the season, struggled within the rain (a recurring theme) and later threw a brutal end-zone interception with 5:20 remaining and the 49ers in vary for a game-tying subject objective, basically killing their possibilities.
Deebo Samuel had an opportunity to make a game-changing play for the 49ers. As a substitute, he dropped the ball. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Photos)
And, amazingly, none of these gaffes got here near being the evening’s most ignominious second. That belonged to Campbell, a veteran linebacker signed in March as a placeholder for Dre Greenlaw — the passionate playmaker who tore his Achilles whereas operating onto the sphere after a punt through the second quarter of Tremendous Bowl LVIII, and who lastly labored his manner again Thursday evening to attempt to assist save San Francisco’s season.
He nearly did, earlier than his physique betrayed him. The 27-year-old enforcer, one of many sport’s most criminally underappreciated stars, picked up the place he left off in final February’s Tremendous Bowl, earlier than the farfetched damage that helped doom the Niners to defeat.
Had Greenlaw been rusty towards the Rams, it could have made loads of sense.
He wasn’t. Fairly, he was the perfect participant on the sphere.
Greenlaw had eight tackles, lots of them prolific and sudden and violent, earlier than leaving the sport halfway by way of the third quarter with knee tightness. At that time, Campbell was the subsequent man up.
Campbell, nevertheless, didn’t precisely man up.
Apparently upset over shedding his job to Greenlaw — hardly a surprising improvement to anybody within the 49ers’ locker room, or exterior of it — Campbell, in accordance with Shanahan and quite a few gamers, declined to enter the sport.
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“He mentioned he didn’t wish to play in the present day,” Shanahan mentioned. Campbell, who ultimately was despatched off the sphere and into the locker room — nearly definitely by no means to return — was described as “egocentric” by Ward and Kittle throughout postgame interviews.
“That was his plan,” Ward advised me. “He had his thoughts made up. I imply, it’s loopy. He’s not a greater participant than Dre. You noticed that in the present day — (Greenlaw)’s the engine of our protection, the man who begins the whole lot for us. However you could possibly see (Campbell’s determination to not play) coming for some time.”
The juxtaposition of Campbell quitting on his teammates with the resilience of gamers like Ward and rookie extensive receiver Ricky Pearsall was staggering.
Pearsall, shot by way of the chest throughout a theft try shortly earlier than the beginning of the season, missed six video games earlier than returning and making his NFL debut. Ward missed three video games after his daughter, Amani Pleasure, died in October, shortly earlier than her second birthday. (Amani Pleasure was born with Down syndrome and a coronary heart defect that required surgical procedure.)
After Thursday’s sport, Ward opened as much as me in regards to the trauma he and his household have endured, doing his greatest to affirm his dedication to his teammates whereas acknowledging that soccer isn’t the preeminent pressure in his life proper now.
“It’s been arduous for me personally to go to work on daily basis, each sport — even to observe or go to conferences,” he admitted. “I nearly left a few instances. S—, I do know followers most likely hate me (for saying that), however f— it, it’s actual life. It’s greater than soccer. That is the toughest time of my life for positive.”
In that context, a soccer staff’s misplaced season pales compared. But falling brief nonetheless hurts. Gamers and coaches channel an excessive quantity of power, depth and devotion for the trigger, and once they don’t attain their objectives, they grieve. And that’s very true for the top coach.
Within the coming weeks and months, Shanahan should be actual with himself as he reckons with the way it all went mistaken, and the way he and Lynch can attempt to make it proper in 2025, and within the years that comply with.
Within the meantime, there are three video games to play, none of which can possible matter. Whereas noting that the 49ers are technically nonetheless in playoff rivalry, reaching the postseason would require a collection of massively unbelievable outcomes, and Shanahan acknowledged that the dream of lastly profitable a championship with this incarnation of his staff is principally over. “They are saying mathematically we nonetheless have an opportunity,” he mentioned. “I’m not too involved with that proper now. … I wish to come again and play higher soccer and problem the character of our staff.”
Clearly shaken, Shanahan nearly regarded as if he had seen a ghost — which, metaphorically, was sort of true. Throughout the sideline Thursday evening was the coach’s former franchise quarterback, Jimmy Garoppolo, now a backup to the Rams’ Matthew Stafford. And, in fact, there was McVay, a former Shanahan assistant who has since challenged him for teaching supremacy, capturing the Lombardi Trophy that has eluded Shanahan and, after bottoming out in 2022, deftly reshaping the Rams on the fly in every of the previous two seasons.
Final Sunday, McVay schemed up an offensive outburst that fueled a 44-42 upset victory over the Payments and saved the Rams in scorching pursuit of the Seahawks (8-5) within the division race. On Thursday, after L.A. cornerback Darious Williams picked off Purdy’s overthrown deep ball for Jauan Jennings in the long run zone with 5:20 remaining, McVay and his gamers turned the closers that Shanahan and his 49ers have struggled all season to be.
When the Rams took over at their very own 20-yard line up 9-6 with 5:20 remaining, McVay had no intention of giving the ball again.
“That’s the duty I felt,” he mentioned as he walked from the guests’ locker room to the staff bus late Thursday evening. “Now, (the 49ers) have a say in that, too.”
Quickly, the Rams silenced them. 13 performs, 69 yards and solely two third downs later, Joshua Karty kicked his fourth subject objective to make it a six-point sport. Solely 20 seconds remained, and the 49ers’ final, determined gasp ended when Purdy was sacked by Christian Rozeboom at his personal 44-yard line with no time remaining — within the sport or, for all intents and functions, the season. Or the period.
“This wasn’t a simple win,” McVay mentioned. “Their protection was actually, actually good; they had been flying round all evening. And the weather made it actually powerful, particularly within the first half. However this can be a mentally powerful staff. I like our resilience. I like that we are able to win in numerous methods. I like what we’re made from.”
These was sentiments that Shanahan, in all sincerity, might categorical about his staff. In 2024, if he’s being sincere, they now not apply. Shanahan’s gamers and assistant coaches bear loads of duty, however most of all, it’s on him.
In 2024, the 49ers weren’t adequate, and neither was he.
(High photograph: Kelley L Cox / Imagn Photos)
