The San Francisco 49ers produced a brilliant early touchdown drive against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football, and then gradually faded away in the miserable Bay Area weather which visited Levi's Stadium in Week 7.
The 49ers and Seattle Seahawks created one of the NFL's must-see rivalries several years ago. Now the two teams are fighting to avoid last place in the NFC West, buried several games behind the unbeaten Arizona Cardinals and one-loss Los Angeles Rams.
The 49ers continue to deal with injuries, a factor not to be ignored in all of this, but even when accounting for bad injury luck, it's clear that Kyle Shanahan is not finding solutions. That and other takeaways from San Francisco's loss are worth examining:
49ers Week 7 Takeaways
3. Kyle Shanahan keeps whiffing in the search for an effective offense
The buck stops with Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. There is no getting around this. Shanahan wanted his new quarterback as part of a succession plan for the 49ers if Jimmy Garoppolo wasn't fully healthy or effective. He chose Trey Lance instead of Justin Fields or Mac Jones.
While it is true that Lance was not expected to be the guy in 2021 and that a No. 3 draft pick's value emerges over a decade, not in one isolated season, it remains that Fields and Jones have shown more upside in the first half of this NFL season than Lance has. That isn't entirely a commentary on Lance himself, either. Shanahan has used Lance on a lot of running plays, subjecting him to the pounding which took the starch out of Cam Newton's NFL career much earlier than it could have or should have. There are significant questions, after another subpar offensive performance, about Shanahan's choices and overall philosophy with Jimmy G and Lance. This ship is not headed in the right direction for the 49ers.
2. DeForest Buckner meant far more than the 49ers ever realized at the time
DeForest Buckner wasn't just a high-quality defensive tackle for the 49ers before he came to the Indianapolis Colts and beat his former team on Sunday Night Football. Beyond his actual on-field skill, Buckner was a leader and anchor in the Niners' locker room.
The 49ers and their braintrust — Shanahan and general manager John Lynch — have clearly made bad evaluations of talent and value after the Super Bowl season in 2019. Seeing Buckner help the Colts shut down the Niners in prime time is certainly part of the reason Shanahan was so humbled and muted in his postgame press conference. He knows he doesn't have the answers right now, in part because some of the players who made his team more cohesive and focused aren't on the roster anymore.
1. Downfield pass defense is crushing San Francisco; this is priority number one
It happens at least twice in every 49ers game this season: An opposing offense throws a long downfield pass and gets a pass interference penalty against San Francisco.
The receiver doesn't catch the ball. The quarterback doesn't make a great throw. Yet, the 49ers give up 40 or 50 yards on one play.
The Colts got several huge gains from their “pass interference offense,” a sure indication that a defense has bad cornerback play and an Achilles heel opposing offensive coordinators will ruthlessly pick on until the weakness is finally addressed.
The 49ers have to give their younger, less proven cornerbacks more snaps or make a trade to freshen up their secondary. The one thing they can't do right now: Stand pat and hope the current batch of subpar corners will somehow figure it out.
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