Going into this season, I had no fear that we’d end up at 0-17. I can handle 1-16, but I don’t want that stigma of 0-17 hanging over us as a franchise. I figured that we have a few winnable games on our schedule, but I am quickly–very quickly–changing my tune.
We are a historically bad team.
I’ll start with a tiny positive, in that the game plan was better this week, solely because they fed Achane the ball more than in Week 1. That has to continue. He’s gonna start breaking through for long runs if we just keep trying.
Other than that, the team looked worse than in Week 1. The defense especially. A nonexistent pass rush, combined with gigantic gaps in our zones, handed Brock Purdy an easy day. I can barely remember an incompletion he threw. He was finding wide open guys all day long. It was really hideous.
Chop Robinson was a nonfactor in Week 1, so I don’t think he would have made a difference yesterday. Missing Chop was no excuse. We have zero pass rush, but we make up for it by having zero coverage also. Tell me again why we are paying the Bills to have Bradley Chubb on their team while we pay the Jets to have Minkah Fitzpatrick?
The offense gets an accolade for at least trying to use Achane more. Another positive was the one long TD pass against the 49er 4th-stringers. We’ll take it. We put up 13 points against them yesterday, which is more than the Rams could muster against them in Week 1. That’s a tiny moral victory.
“They” say Jacob Rodriguez is doing extremely well as the mic linebacker, but I don’t see it. Being in the right place and having good bursts of speed is not the same as making drive-ending big plays. He seems to be the best of a weak class of 2026 rookies, but so far that isn’t saying much.
Speaking of rookies, Malik Willis is playing like one. I know he was harried all day long, but still. Some of his passes were just awful. He doesn’t seem to have the knack for stepping straight ahead when the rush is on his right/left. On several occasions, he could have simply stepped up into the pocket to extend a play, but he took really bad angles and ran into linemen…either our own O linemen who couldn’t move anyone, or the 49ers’ linemen, who played this game so effortlessly like it was practice.
And last but not least, let’s not forget a missed field goal and a missed punt. Or a missed drop? A botch? Pinion’s gaffe was so horrendously bad that I don’t even know what to call it.
What do you guys think? Did anyone spot ANY improvement?