Trailing by 14 points in the fourth quarter on Sunday, the 49ers seemed to take their time. They were able to get off their own goal line and move the ball down field, but by the end of the drive, on a failed 4th-and-1, San Francisco had burned eight minutes and eight seconds.
They managed to move the ball 100 yards and were knocked back by a couple of penalties from Jake Brendel, but the pace of each play left some scratching their heads.
Why were the 49ers huddling at times and not getting the ball off quicker? That was asked of Kyle Shanahan after the game.
“I just knew we had two more times with the ball,” Shanahan said. “We did do a number of no-huddle plays. We also mixed it up by not doing it, too. So, we did both.”
The problem, he said, was failing to convert.
Garoppolo missed Kittle in the end zone on a 2nd-and-1 that would have been a touchdown if Kittle could have reached it. Three minutes and 16 seconds would have been left on the clock at that point with the 49ers still having three timeouts.
But the next play, Tevin Coleman got stuffed and Garoppolo couldn’t find anyone on fourth down. They got the ball back with 1:04 on the clock on their own 19-yard line with no timeouts and no chance to win.
“The key is that you can’t come up short on that and expect the ball and get the ball twice,” Shanahan said. “We’re not going to panic when we feel like we have two more possessions, especially with three timeouts. But when you don’t score on that drive, that definitely backfires when you don’t score.”
San Francisco scored zero points in the second half and the offense accounted for a net of seven points; scoring 14, but costing seven on the Jeff Wilson Jr. fumble-turned-touchdown.
Against a high-powered Chiefs offense this weekend, more urgency will likely be required.