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Last season, the San Francisco 49ers were the league's 3rd-highest scoring team, in large part because over two-thirds of the time they reached the red zone, it would result in six points. In 2024 it's been an entirely different story, and San Francisco's red zone struggles reached a new low on Sunday afternoon in a 24-23 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Against the 1-3 Cardinals, who came into this matchup as one of the league's bottom-ten red zone defenses, San Francisco scored just one touchdown on six red zone trips, and to make matters even worse, their last two trips of the game inside of Arizona's 20-yard-line resulted in a pair of turnovers, one of which propelled the Cardinals to their come from behind win.
After the game, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan didn't mince words when discussing his team's troubling inefficiency in the red zone.
“We were middle of the pack before the day started, and we got a lot worse today,” Shanahan said bluntly after the loss, per David Lombardi of the San Francisco Standard.
Kyle Shanahan is correct. Going into Week 4, the 49ers were ranked 20th in the league in red zone scoring, a steep drop from where they were in 2023. But as of Monday morning, the 49ers had fallen to 30th in the category, converting on just over 40 percent of their red zone opportunities. Only the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins have been worse through five weeks.
Scoreless 2nd half drops 49ers to 2-3 on season
All of the raw numbers suggest that the 49ers offense played a solid game on Sunday afternoon. They converted 22 first downs to Arizona's 19, and went 6-for-11 on third downs. The 49ers outgained Arizona and were penalized only four times for 21 yards throughout the contest. And through the 1st half, it looked like the defending NFC Champions were in complete control against their division rival.
But despite taking a 23-10 lead into the halftime locker room, the 49ers failed to score a single point in the 2nd half. It's the second time this season San Francisco has blown a halftime lead to a division foe.
Not having a closer like reigning Offensive Player of the Year Christian McCaffrey hurts. But it's not as if San Francisco is lacking offensive firepower. Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle are just a year removed from earning All-Pro honors. Deebo Samuel earned that distinction in 2021.
Still, the 49ers have proven that putting opponents away in 2024 isn't necessarily going to come as easy as it did last season.
“When you have a lead on people you need to finish them,” Shanahan said after the game, according to Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. “The way you finish people is you continue to score. And if you aren't doing that, you can't turn it over and you’ve got to stop people at the end.”
The 49ers didn't do any of those things on Sunday, and until Christian McCaffrey returns, these struggles may continue.
