Reigning NFC champs again blow it in fourth quarter
SANTA CLARA – If the 49ers were bound to vanish from playoff contention by mid-December, it only made sense for them to blow another NFC West game in the fourth quarter.
This time the 49ers had only a 6-3 lead to protect, and, in the end, they walked off their soggy field Thursday night with a 12-6 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams.
Along the way, one 49ers stunningly opted out of the game: Ninth-year veteran De’Vondre Campbell refused to replace injured linebacker Dre Greenlaw in the third quarter, at which point the Rams were seizing momentum.
That unexplained betrayal left teammates seething, even more so than any chatter about their playoff hopes essentially expiring. Officially, the reigning NFC champs are not eliminated. But, with a 6-8 record overall and a 1-4 mark in division games, the 49ers’ playoff chances are less than 1 percent, according to the New York Times’ simulator.
Thursday night’s turning point wasn’t Joshua Karty’s third field goal of the night that gave the Rams (8-6) their first lead with 9:29 remaining.
Rather, take your pick of the 49ers’ turn for the worse: Brock Purdy’s fourth-quarter pass that got intercepted at the goal line, or Dre Greenlaw’s third-quarter exit with a left-knee issue that ended his sensational season debut 10 months after an Achilles tear in the Super Bowl.
Afterward, the Greenlaw exit took on a bigger light when coach Kyle Shanahan revealed Campbell refused to enter in the third quarter, when Greenlaw’s left knee felt awkward amid his comeback from an Achilles tear 10 months ago in the Super Bowl . Shanahan obviously expressed dismay over Campbell “quitting,” and several players also were in dismay, not to mention how they were shorthanded with Dee Winters (groin) also hurt earlier in the game.
Tight end George Kittle said he wasn’t aware of Campbell’s status until afterward, adding: “I wish I heard about it on the field. I didn’t. Now is that the reason we lost? Absolutely not. It’s hard to win football games when someone does not want to suit up.”
Disgruntled 49ers’ fans are sure to point to Deebo Samuel, who drew boos upon a third-quarter drop that could have resulted in the game’s only touchdown. “I catch that ball, there’s nothing there but the end zone,” Samuel said. “At the end of the day, I just have to catch the rock.”
That drop came midway through the third quarter, forcing the 49ers to settle for Jake Moody’s 47-yard field goal and a 6-3 lead. Samuel, upon that drop, grabbed his head in disgust, fans booed, and he kept running his crossing route all the way to the sideline, where he stripped off his helmet and took a seat on the bench.
Samuel’s best move of the night came on the Rams’ final kickoff, which he returned 41 yards and drew a penalty on the Rams’ horse-collar tackle. With 11 seconds remaining, the 49ers were at midfield, needing a miraculous touchdown. Instead, Purdy uncorked a final incompletion (14-of-31, 142 yards) and then got sacked as time expired.
Purdy’s 30th pass of the night was the interception, forced toward Jennings while Ricky Pearsall broke open. The Rams responded with a 5-minute march before Karty’s fourth and final field goal with 18 seconds remaining.
“I had a lot of plays left I could have made for our team,” Purdy said. “The defense and special teams played so good. I feel I failed the team. I could have been better and put up more points.”
Kittle said of Purdy’s take: “He’s a selfless person. Does not have an ego. He’s a fantastic leader and playmaker. I don’t want him to wear that on his shoulder. But when you’re the quarterback of the 49ers, there’s always a spotlight on you, it’s automatic. I love him for doing that and taking the blame, but it’s not on him.
Once Karty’s 27-yarder put the 49ers behind 9-6, they responded with gritty work to reach Moody’s range for a potential third field goal from him, too. Then came the 49ers’ biggest slip up on what began as a very rainy night. On second-and-10 from the Rams’ 33-yard line, Purdy got intercepted at the goal line on a second-and-10 floater to a double-covered Jauan Jennings down the right sideline, with Darius Williams making the interception for the game’s first turnover with 5:14 remaining.
Purdy said rather than be aggressive, he should have checked down to a shorter pass, and “just got to learn from it.”
That spoiled a drive highlighted by completions to Pearsall (16 yards) and George Kittle (9 yards), as well as a 10-yard run by Isaac Guerendo to that 33-yard line. Three snaps before the interception, Purdy underthrew an open Pearsall on a 40-yard shot.
“We had opportunities in the pass game that could have led to 14 points. We didn’t make those,” Shanahan said, alluding to that shot to Pearsall, and Samuel’s third-quarter drop.
The 49ers’ defense certainly lost some luster when Greenlaw exited to the bench; Shanahan said Greenlaw did not re-tear his left Achilles but had trouble loosening it up after halftime. He finished with eight tackles, six before halftime.
Said Greenlaw: “The knee felt real weird so i just wanted to protect myself. It got a little tight. I had to use precaution. The Achilles is good.”
Greenlaw isn’t ruling himself out of an encore in the 49ers’ next game. Unable to successfully build off Sunday’s 38-13 home win over Chicago, the 49ers (6-8) now trudge back to the East Coast for the third time in seven weeks, with the Miami Dolphins hosting them on Dec. 22 (4:25 p.m. ET). The Dolphins (6-7) first play Sunday at the Houston Texans (8-5).
“If I was healthy, I’d play another game tomorrow. I’m sore, played a lot of plays. It’s expected,” Greenlaw said. “Knee is sore. Same side of surgery so everything is probably tighter. We have 10 days to next game to get range of motion and confidence back in it.”
Muddled in a 6-6 tie, the Rams broke through for the game’s longest play: a 51-yard connection from Matthew Stafford to Puka Nuakua (past Charvarius Ward) at the 49ers’ 16-yard line. Back-to-back run stops by safety Tashaun Gipson set the stage for Fred Warner’s best play in months, that being his stop of a Kyren Williams catch for no gain on 3rd-and-2 catch at the 8-yard line.
The 49ers took a 6-3 lead into the fourth quarter, but was far from the bigger advantages they blew in notorious losses to the Rams: they led 24-14 in a Week 3 defeat (27-24) at SoFi Stadium, and they owned a 17-7 lead in the 2021 season’s NFC Championship Game (20-17).
Said Fred Warner: “It was the story of the year: not doing enough to win games, not playing complementary, just coming up too short.”
The 49ers scored on their first possession of each half, doing so on Moody field goals of 53 and 47 yards.
Samuel produced just 19 yards on the night: 16 yards by catching 3-of-7 targets, and the other three yards coming on two carries. He had just 15 yards on five touches before halftime, after griping on social media Monday about his self-perceived lack of opportunities. He also had a false-start penalty, and he unofficially made a tackle when he collided with Isaac Guerendo in the backfield.
Kittle consoled Samuel postgame, later telling the media he’s never seen Samuel drop a pass like that before, it being an open-field disaster. Samuel entered with a team-high five drops this season, plus two this game.
The 49ers grabbed a 3-0 lead via Moody’s 53-yard field goal on their second series, which opened with a 33-yard reception by Kittle. The drive stalled when Samuel was stopped for a 2-yard gain on third-and-6, after earlier colliding on a backfield-motion play with Guerendo to halt his 1-yard run.
The Rams tied it at 3 with 1:05 until the halftime show (corgi races). Karty made a 48-yard field goal to bail out the Rams’ first-half offense in which Stafford completed just 4-of-12 passes for 23 yards, with running back Williams totaling 44 yards on 14 carries.
Guerendo, making an encore start and playing through Sunday’s foot sprain, had just 17 yards on eight carries in the first half. He finished with 57 yards on 16 carries, plus 18 yards on four catches.
The 49ers’ starting defense welcomed back not only Greenlaw but also defensive end Nick Bosa, who missed the previous three games with an oblique injury. Safety Talanoa Hufanga, two games into his return from a two-month break, made an early impact against the run. By the fourth quarter, Ji’Ayir Brown (groin) was out and Tashaun Gipson returned to pair with Hufanga like the previous two seasons.
“It was the story of the year, not doing enough to win games, not playing complementary, just coming up too short,” Warner said.
Warner shared that Hufanga addressed the team postgame and insisted they follow his lead of playing all-out to the very end, since he’s battled back from injuries to play in four games this season.
“That’s what the message is now and we’ll find out who wants to be a Niner,” Bosa said.
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