SANTA CLARA — Levi’s Stadium was littered with Dallas Cowboys fans on Sunday, many of them proudly wearing Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliot jerseys.
It’s becoming hard to blame 49ers fans for selling their tickets.
Walk into the locker room after the team’s 24-17 loss to the Cowboys, and the 49ers (1-3) will swear to you they’re a better football team in 2016 than they were under Jim Tomsula a year ago.
But four weeks into the season, losing results are the same and mistakes are being repeated one Sunday after another.
A critical 4th-down play with the game on the line? Blaine Gabbert throws the football short of the sticks, violating Football 101 rules. The same mistake again.
Surely they’ll take advantage of a Dallas offensive line missing two starters? Elliot blisters San Francisco’s run defense for 138 yards on the ground — just like Christine Michael and Fozzy Whittaker did in Weeks 2 and 3.
Momentum and a 14-0 lead early in the game? One bad call from the officials on Jaquiski Tartt turns into a 21-0 Cowboys run. A snowball turned into an avalanche, and this was without Pro Bowlers Tony Romo, Dez Bryant and left tackle Tyron Smith on the field.
And how about those loud, pesky Cowboys fans?
“I couldn’t believe it,” veteran Ahmad Brooks said.
Believe it, Ahmad. Times are about to get real tough for the second straight year, especially on the heels of devastating injury news. The 49ers are fearful NaVorro Bowman ruptured his Achilles tendon, while promising rookie defensive end DeForest Buckner was seen in the locker room with a walking boot and crutches. This defense is about to hit new lows.
When you continually miss in the NFL Draft, refuse to select skill players and then don’t lean on free agency to bring in quality football players, you head into a season expecting to suck. That’s where the 49ers are currently stuck.
You just wish that sucking was with a young quarterback like Paxton Lynch instead of Gabbert. Let a young team grow with a young quarterback. The frustration was written all over Chip Kelly’s face after Sunday’s loss. It’s year one and he’s handcuffed to a sinking ship. Nobody thought this was going to be a quick fix in Santa Clara, but the extensive work ahead of Kelly might be more than the originally realized in January. This isn’t to say Kelly’s a quitter, but losing is taxing, and you can bet certain college football programs will be giving him a ring.
Kelly’s message to his locker room after Week 4 sounded like a coach who feels defeated, sifting through sand for positives.
“I thought they competed and I thought they did a great job on the goal line stand,” Kelly said. “Sometimes the ball doesn’t go our way.”
Let’s be clear about this 1-3 start: Not much of it is Kelly’s fault. This 49ers offense is scoring the football from time-to-time because of their 52-year-old head coach.
Starting the day 7-for-7 on third downs wasn’t an epiphany from Gabbert; this was Kelly scripting plays and poaching a mediocre Dallas defense. Kelly even dialed the right deep pass play in the fourth quarter that saw Torrey Smith streaking past Cowboys cornerback Morris Claiborne. But Gabbert threw a wounded duck and his pass was intercepted. That’s a talent problem, not a coaching issue.
“I think we’re a better team this year,” team leader Eric Reid said. “We’ve just been hurting ourselves. We should’ve won this game. It is what it is. We lost it. We’ll move forward and learn from it.”
Reid’s sentiment becomes the 49ers’ biggest conundrum for the rest of 2016: How will this team learn?
Because when you are shooting yourselves in the foot on a weekly basis, that screams talent issues, not coachable mistakes that can be corrected. It’s hard to teach a blind squirrel new tricks. The struggles all across the board make you wonder how much Kelly and the assistant coaches resent the roster they have to work with.
The more injuries that pile up, though, the more excuses GM Trent Baalke will be able to latch onto when defending his job to owner Jed York come January. There’s little doubting Kelly will win a finger-pointing battle against Baalke. But there will have to be a fall guy for how rapid this franchise has deteriorated.
Let’s quickly run through the 49ers issues and assign blame.
Quarterback — Mostly Baalke. But the fact that Kelly is staunchly sticking by Gabbert (he thought he made only one bad throw vs. Dallas) is troubling. Kaepernick is the only card Kelly has in his back pocket, but he seems hesitant to use him.
Wide receiver — Baalke. Jeremy Kerley walked onto this roster in late August and is without question the team’s top playmaker. The 49ers are a Kerley injury away from being a college offense.
Run defense — Both. Kelly hired Jim O’Neil — a great person and motivator, but a defensive coordinator with a shady track record in Cleveland. Baalke’s allocated draft picks and contract extensions to this defense, though, and at the moment, they’re closer to below average than above average.
There are a few bright spots. Fourth-round pick Rashard Robinson (picked two slots ahead of Prescott) looks like an NFL starter. Carlos Hyde has been fine, so has the pass protection for Gabbert. Reid is one of the best safeties in the NFL.
But the weather is cooling off and doomsday is approaching. This is where we’re at with the 2016 49ers in early October: How will a season-ending meeting with the owner turn out?