© Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
If you’re like me, you don’t mind watching Nick Mullens and the 49ers enduring a cataclysmic collapse because you both knew it was inevitable and had already accepted this season was over. Sunday’s 41-33 loss to a bad Dallas Cowboys team points the focus on where it has already should have been: the draft.
A pleasant byproduct of one of these reliable Mullens interception routines is that you also get to enjoy the ravings of some of the internet’s finest minds screaming into their cameras, looking verifiably unwell, as they demand the backup quarterback’s head.
Those people are… well, let’s hope they get the help they need.
They also have something of a point, given what Kyle Shanahan said on Wednesday.
“Nick, first and foremost, if he wants to stay out there, he’s got to stop turning the ball over,” Shanahan had said.
Well, he stayed out there until his elbow started to bother him, giving C.J. Beathard, if nothing else, the chance for a successful Hail Mary. What a spectacular draft choice Beathard was; not even able to get a chance after the guy above him met all of the criteria for being benched.
Mullens fumbled early in the game, which became an immediate touchdown for Dallas, then recovered and played well for about 2-3 quarters. And then it was over.
A noodley-armed fluttery pass was picked off, though it went to, as Shanahan said, the right target. Then an openly bad decision ended it, setting Dallas up for a nail-in-the-coffin lead at 34-24.
Shanahan said he stuck with Mullens because it was a close game and Mullens, before his first interception, was having a solid game. He said the first interception was against Cover-2 man and was a result of an aggressive drive on the ball by the safety. The second was… not great.
“Why I stuck with Nick, threw a pick there in the fourth quarter, thought he’d been playing well,” Shanahan said. “We were in a tie game, and not just going to take a guy out in the fourth quarter in a tie game right after he throws his first interception. Especially when the ball was going to the right spot… The next [interception], it just hung in the air too long and the guy made a good play. The second one was a lot worse than the first one.”
Shanahan stuck with Mullens after that interception, too, though, which tells you all you need to know about Beathard. Hint: they’re both bad.
On Wednesday, he said that if the 49ers were to lose to the Cowboys, his thinking about George Kittle would change.
“I would think about it a lot differently,” Shanahan said. “I’m not saying for sure no. If I thought it would help him and I thought it would help our team, definitely… if he’s risking anything, then it’d be an easy decision. We wouldn’t even think about it, but if he could 100-percent come back and be normal, then that’s something I’ll talk to him about, talk to [general manager] John [Lynch] about it and we’ll figure out what’s best for him and the team.”
Whether it was simply frustration, or simply not wanting to make a decision which would be tough to back out of (that’s where my money is), Shanahan said that Sunday’s loss had no effect on whether he Kittle or Garoppolo would return this year.
“No,” Shanahan said. “It doesn’t.”
So, the door, for no real logical reason, is at least not shut. The 49ers’ playoff hopes, though, if Arizona beats Philadelphia, will be extinguished.