On Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers showcased their offensive potential with impressive bookend drives against the Cleveland Browns. The team scored on its opening drive and positioned themselves for a potential game-winning field goal, which rookie Jake Moody missed.
However, much of what transpired between those two drives was uninspiring. After looking like a well-oiled machine for much of the season, quarterback Brock Purdy and the offense struggled to gain momentum against the NFL's top-ranked defense.
Part of this struggle can be attributed to the absence of wide receiver Deebo Samuel and running back Christian McCaffrey. Samuel sustained a shoulder injury in the first quarter, while McCaffrey left the game with an oblique/rib injury in the third. Samuel is day-to-day, and the 49ers await McCaffrey's test results.
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Head coach Kyle Shanahan acknowledged the challenges of overcoming the loss of two star players but believes other things contributed to the team's struggles on Sunday.
"Any time you lose real good players like that, it's a challenge," Shanahan told reporters via a conference call on Monday afternoon. "But that's stuff you got to go through. That's part of football. I just thought we made too many mistakes, missed assignments and stuff once that happened, because when that does happen, you got to put some guys in some different positions, stuff that you don't always put them through, but they're responsible for studying."
Shanahan's frustrations on the sidelines were repeatedly evident throughout Sunday's television broadcast. The 49ers' miscues were underscored by their season-high 12 penalties, twice that of any single game since Week 1's 11-penalty performance.
Obviously, missing two of their biggest playmakers didn't help matters. Some of the fault may fall on the coaching staff, too.
"And that's on everybody," Shanahan continued. "But also, when it got to that situation, I thought we should have made it easier for those guys because I think it would have been all right if we don't lose those guys, but with the amount of mistakes we made in the game, obviously we had too much on them."
