The San Francisco 49ers shouldn't have lost in Week 6 to the Cleveland Browns. The Niners were undefeated entering Sunday. They were playing at home. They also faced a team that was missing its starting quarterback due to an injury and started another signal-caller who had just been called up from the practice squad a day before the game. The Niners were expected to dominate and crush Cleveland. Except they did not, as the Browns flipped the table on San Francisco for an upset 19-17 victory.

For San Francisco star defensive end Nick Bosa, the loss was a lesson for his team.

“Just got to take it as a learning experience,” Bosa said following the game (h/t Kirk Larrabee of 49ers WebZone). “I don't think we deserved to win today.”

That was echoed by 49ers left tackle Trent Williams.

“We bombed out,” Williams reflected. “We didn't get it at the end. Honestly, we probably didn't deserve to win that game. But it's a good learning experience. We played a really good defense. It was a dog fight, and obviously we didn't come out on the side that we wanted to. But I think this team can draw a lot from this game today. We had a rough start of the offense, but when we needed the plays, we made them down at the end during the (game-ending) two-minute drive, and we just came up a little bit short.”

San Francisco struggled to make a hole in the Browns' defense. Making the task harder for the 49ers were the injuries that forced both running back Christian McCaffrey and wide receiver Deebo Samuel out of the contest. Williams also played through with a hurting ankle.

Quarterback Brock Purdy had an uncharacteristic performance under center versus the Browns' stout stop unit, completing just 12 of his 27 throws for 125 passing yards and a touchdown with an interception. He was also sacked thrice for a loss of 18 yards.

In any case, the 49ers are still in great shape. They remain seated atop the NFC West division with a 5-1 record with a chance to rebound right away in Week 7 when they travel to the Twin Cities to face Kirk Cousins and the Minnesota Vikings.