49ers 20 - Bears 28: OPPORTUNITY SQUANDERED, PUSSYFOOTIN' TO BLAME

“I’d bet almost anything this is a pass to Crabs in the endzone.”

These were the final words I messaged to a friend during the timeout preceding our the 4^th and 9 play which ultimately ended the game.

It was, and like too (two) many others before it, the pass hit the ground and the other team cheered and smacked helmets while the 49er offense walked back to the sideline quietly, wondering what went wrong.

And while this incompletion didn’t signal the end to our season, just an early season game (albeit one with extra implications; the christening of our new stadium, and a chance to take an early leg up on the Seahawks), in many ways the failure remained the same.

The headline of Matt Maiocco’s post-game recap pretty much sums this one up: "Penalties, Turnovers, Lack of Killer Instinct Haunt 49ers inLoss."

Give Maiocco credit for word choice, because I can’t think up anything better than “haunt.” The same ghosts awake to haunt this team year in and year out. With the exception of those against the Seahawks, it is hard to remember a single loss in the last three years when the 49ers were decidedly outplayed by an opponent.

This isn’t to take anything away from the Bears necessarily, because they made big plays when they needed to make them. Just last week I went on for the entire opening of this column about how a football game is the summation of the plays each team makes.

So forgive me when I twist this maxim a little to say that this game was equally about the plays the 49ers didn’t make (or the mistakes they did) as it was about the plays the Bears did make.

Before I get into what I see as the largest failure of the 49ers, I want to touch on the officiating, which was horrendous.

Both teams had horrible calls go against them, that’s not the issue really. It was the management of the game by the referees. They brought the game to a grinding halt, not allowing for any rhythm to be established. And they did not do this to call egregious fouls, but to micromanage seemingly every single play.

The pace of the game was disastrous, and that falls squarely on the referees and the ineptitude with which they called the game. It really caused momentum swings for both sides, and more than anything made the game difficult to watch. I can only imagine it made it more difficult to play as well.

"You know what this game could use some more of? Penalties."
SAID NO ONE EVER.

To state the obvious issues with the game and my take on the lasting impact of what we all saw; the pass rush was largely nonexistent and wholly ineffective, Colin Kaepernick turned the ball over four times and the Bears cashed in for four touchdowns in the redzone.

I stated my case for Kaepernick last week and I have my sights on a longer, non-game-specific piece about him and my faith in him. I’ll use his own word to describe his performance, “Terrible,” but I don’t think he made a lot of mistakes with his reads. The delay of game penalty taken on the final drive was vomit inducing. The first interception showed a lack of detail to not at least look off the single high safety. The second interception was a poor choice in ball placement—he should have thrown to Crabtree’s inside shoulder—and a bit of luck on the part of Kyle Fuller. The third was almost a product of the first two, as he was trying to make a play while down in the game and forced a ball I think he normally wouldn’t have let fly under other circumstances. It was also a great defensive play by Fuller yet again. I’m not overly concerned with Kaep to be honest.

The defense letting in touchdowns I am not super worried about either. Three of the four were to Brandon Marshall against the man-to-man coverage of rookie Jimmie Ward who is a full five inches shorter and 30-40 pounds lighter. It was poor game-planning on Fangio’s part, which is rare indeed, and I think it will serve as a learning experience not just for Ward, but for everyone involved with the defensive side of the ball.

The pass rush is the major concern of the three. It was nice to see Aaron Lynch get increased snaps, but I think it was a poor choice to have them come at the expense of Ahmad Brooks. I know Corey Lemonier was the expected pass-rushing replacement to Aldon Smith, but after two games of completely ineffectual play (I don’t even think he has a quarterback hurry yet), it is time to look elsewhere for pass rushing proficiency. This is an issue that will likely last until Aldon comes back, but Fangio needs to continue to experiment with different personnel groupings to find something better than what we had tonight. Because this just isn’t going to cut it.

Two down, Seven to go.

As damning as all three of those things were on this specific night, an even more concerning problem reared its ugly head (yet again).

Of all the things which haunt the 49ers in these bang-your-head-against-the-wall losses we’ve suffered through two to three times a season during the Harbaugh erea it is the aforementioned “Killer Instinct” which seems to me the most culpable.

Why the hell, on a 3^rd and goal from the 6, up by 10 with a full 20 minutes to play, are we running an inside handoff out of the shotgun? And why is this so common (and ineffective) that it ceases to surprise a typical fan and just cause an immediate and depressingly familiar upwelling of sadness (“oh my god not again”) and rage (“come the fuck on!”).

First down, fine. Second down, fine. You need to run the ball down there, I get it. Everyone knows that. I’m not advocating for a pass only goalline offense. But unless you are a yard or less away, or intend to go for it on fourth down, there’s no reason for running the ball on third down anymore. It’s an acceptance of defeat, and it’s gutless.

"Come on Greg, you know you want to. Just for ol' times sake."

With the new rules in place to compel referees to throw a flag against a pass defender at even the slightest provocation, paired with the creativity of “pick” plays and timing routes (that we’ve seen from many other well-coordinated offenses…) finding success in the redzone in the passing game is easier than ever.

So why do we repeat the same tired mistakes?

Jim Harbaugh vaguely referenced something about a “run/pass option.”

So, the reporter asks, Kaepernick audibled to a run?

“No.”

Were there two plays called in the huddle, a different reporter asks?

“No.”

Trying to read into anything Jim Harbaugh says to the media is already a dangerous proposition, but when it is regarding to play-calling, you’ve pretty much entered the “nothing can be believed zone.”

BUT, with this ultimate caveat mentioned above, what little he says seems to suggest that even in the redzone, even on third down, even in a game that everyone can feel is on the verge of slipping away, a play-call immediately reverts to a run simply by the look given by the defense.

If this is the case—excuse me while I go scream into a pillow for a second—if this is the case, we need a change of philosophy yesterday. It’s disgusting.

This sort of limp-dick idiocy down in the redzone is the reason we had TWO 13-play drives stall within 9 yards of the Bears’ endzone.

The 49ers redzone/goalline offense has been the source of numerous stomach churning moments since Harbaugh took over, even during our best stretches of football.

While the 49ers tend to lean on the “lack of execution” excuse, it is clearly more an issue of creativity and—for lack of a better term—balls.

When we have the ball 10 yards away from a touchdown with three plays to get it in, we need to score. There is no reason, no reason at all, with the weapons we have that we should be consistently among the league’s worst offenses at redzone conversion rate. It’s inexcusable. Absolutely inexcusable.

"Well my general theory is that it's failed so many times, it can't possibly fail again can it? Odds are in our favor."

Give me Colin Kaepernick, Frank Gore, Carlos Hyde, Bruce Miller, Vernon Davis, Vance McDonald, Michael Crabtree, Anquan Boldin and Stevie Johnson and the playbook from Tecmo Bowl and I’ll score you touchdowns. Hell, give me a stick and a sandbox. Or a menu from Chili’s.

Whatever it is Greg Roman is doing, it sure as hell isn’t working (consistently) and it’s been costing us winnable games for far too long. Something, at a philosophical level, needs to change.

I’m tired of hearing about “adjustments,” when referencing our failures to punch it in. We don’t need “better execution” or “a play here or there,” we need a difference in thought process. We need to attack and we need to score points.

When you have a snake under your foot you don’t push down lightly until it suffocates, because it’s going to thrash until it sinks it’s fangs into your ankle. You smash its head in and grind your heel into the bits of blood-covered brain and skull fragments.