“I don’t have an explanation for you right now.”
That was Nick Bosa’s response when asked about the 49ers’ defense being gashed by the Cardinals’ screen game on Sunday.
After yet another disconsolate loss and perhaps the most shameful of the Kyle Shanahan era, San Francisco did not have answers. The postgame press conference was typified by head-scratching and self-questioning, with the team expressing as much confusion as onlookers as to how, exactly, the 49ers lost 31-17 to an Arizona team led by Colt McCoy.
Heading into the bye week, there was a question looming over this team. Was their stifling trend of self-sabotage an anomaly? Or was that simply who the 49ers were?
Thanks to the borderline monsoon against the Colts and a theoretically optimism-inducing win over the Bears, we had to wait a few more weeks to get our answer.
But now we have it.
This is who the 2021 49ers are. They are an itinerant team, stumbling through this season without any true identity. They were supposed to be playoff competitors, and could still — in a weak NFC — compete for a Wild Card spot, though that seems exceedingly unlikely.
As stunning as it is for this team, who many thought could be Super Bowl contenders, to fall this far from grace, the signs were there, just simply not recognized.
Kyle Shanahan began this season by committing to Jimmy Garoppolo, the quarterback who he was openly not committed to. In fact, he was more committed to ending his time with Garoppolo than extending it any further.
He was a man who every person following the NFL knows will no longer be with the team after this season. It was a half in, half out approach on a roster full of veterans, many of whom are on one-year deals.
And maybe that would have been a viable approach if, after that string of three- or four-straight losses, there were leaders within the 49ers locker room who set the standard; who, as Joe Staley said on KNBR are “pricks.”
Staley said former running back Frank Gore was that way, sometimes getting emotional in practice with his earnestness and urgency towards his teammates to win. Staley could be that way, and he said Emmanuel Sanders — who was also, effectively the wide receivers coach when he came to San Francisco — certainly was.
“I don’t know who that guy is for the team right now,” Staley said. “Most successful teams that I’ve been on have guys that really keep people accountable and are kind of pricks, and they’re very vocal about doing that.”
DeForest Buckner was the pillar of San Francisco’s defense, who typified everything the team wanted their players to be. He was traded for a first-round pick that became Javon Kinlaw because the team decided Arik Armstead was a better, cheaper option, and Buckner would bring more back in return.
That leadership was never replaced. And when you ask the 49ers who their leaders are, they speak in platitudes about leading by example and a “great group of guys” and every other vague, meandering statement which amounts to the reality that they are largely devoid of vocal leaders, except, perhaps, for Fred Warner, who’s having a down year himself.
When asked who the 49ers’ vocal leaders are on offense, Jimmy Garoppolo pointed to the herd.
“I think it’s a group of us,” Garoppolo said. “I think you know, obviously I do what I can on the sideline… I think we got a good group of leaders on offense that handle that.”
Kyle Shanahan said on KNBR on October 29 that Garoppolo leads by what he does on the field and said later that day to media that the 49ers were missing leadership from their captains, who were injured. But the type of leadership he described, again, was in the lead-by-example vein.
“It’s not just George [Kittle], I think three out of our four captains on offense are out,” Shanahan said. “So, usually your captains do that, some of your better players. With Raheem, with Trent Williams, with George, yeah. Hell yeah, we’ve been missing a lot of that. Not just the vocal leadership of it, but most importantly, the guys on the field. And it both goes hand-in-hand, usually your best players do that stuff. It’s hard for them to do it a little bit from the sideline.”
This has been a common theme.
Arik Armstead said after the game that he leads, and you’re not going to believe this… by example.
“I think people lead in different ways. I think how I lead is by showing up to adversity. I think that’s contagious,” Armstead said. “As a leader, I try to lead by how I fix those situations and how I get better, get stronger moving forward. And so a tough loss like this, any loss, I’m going to lead by bouncing back and trying to bring energy to the other guys and showing resiliency, lead by example.”
Alex Mack said October 28 that the 49ers had a “system in place, a way we do things” and that the team need not reinvent the wheel in terms of leadership.
“I’m not the most outspoken guy, but I definitely try and lead by example and do the right thing,” Mack said. “I’ve never been a huge ra-ra, get you fired up kind of guy, but I do expect a high [standard] with my teammates.”
Emmanuel Moseley said that same day, when asked who the leaders were in the defensive back room that, “We’re just all there for each other.”
This is the same defensive back room which saw the 33-year-old, 10-year-veteran Josh Norman get benched for a taunting penalty which kept the Cardinals on the field and allowed them an easy field goal opportunity.
When you are asked a specific “who” question about leadership and everyone answers it with a “we,” you have your answer, and it’s no one.
And if you are a team with a bunch of players who lead by example, well, yeah, that checks out. The example is failure, and that lead is certainly being followed.
That void of real leadership and these losses which are largely self-caused tells you everything you need to know about the 49ers this season. They do not have the answers. They don’t understand why they keep failing.
Shanahan said after the game that he was stunned by the performance, after what he thought was a fantastic week of practice.
“That’s why I’m extremely disappointed,” Shanahan said. “I’m obviously wrong, but I was very surprised that we didn’t play well today. I thought that we had a great week of practice. I thought our guys were on it in the meetings all week and I felt their energy before the game. I was very caught off by how we played.”
When the 49ers were down by 17 points in the fourth quarter at the Cardinals’ 39-yard-line on a 3rd-and-13, Shanahan tried to get all of those yards, rather than making fourth down a manageable distance and either going for a field goal, or going for it. When that failed, the offense stood around on the field for about 20 seconds before the punt unit ran out.
There was no plan going into those two downs, and it’s emblematic of everything this 49ers team is: confused, devoid of leadership, and without answers to the most important questions.
On the bright side, only two of the 49ers’ eight rookies played on Sunday and they don’t have their first-round draft pick this or next year; so there’s that to look forward to.