First, the 49ers paid tribute to their brilliant past on Alumni Weekend, unveiling the Dwight Clark and Joe Montana statues Sunday.
Then they were confronted by their troubling present, giving the ball away early and often in a 39-10 loss to the 7-0 Los Angeles Rams at Levi’s Stadium. The defeat dropped the 49ers to 1-6. A team without its starting quarterback (Jimmy Garoppolo), No. 1 running back (Jerick McKinnon), its top cornerback (Richard Sherman) and assorted problems across its defense and offense is just trying to survive 2018 at this point – and find a few bright spots – as it limps through the schedule to try to regroup for 2019.
On Sunday against the Rams, the 49ers needed to play a perfect game to stay close to the leaders in the NFC West, and it didn’t happen.
On their first possession, quarterback C.J. Beathard was sacked, lost the football and the Rams converted the turnover into a 3-0 lead.
In the second quarter, running back Matt Breida lost a fumble at the 49ers’ 21-yard line, which four plays later resulted in a 7-yard touchdown run by Todd Gurley, the NFL’s rushing leader, to put L.A. up 10-0.
Next, the Rams blocked a 49ers punt through the end zone for a safety, followed by a Beathard interception that led to Jared Goff’s 19-yard pass to Brandin Cooks for a touchdown to give the Rams a 22-7 halftime lead.
Beathard threw another intereception in the third quarter that led to another Gurley TD run and a Rams’ lead of 32-7.
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For the day, the 49ers committed four turnovers, while the Rams didn’t lose the ball once. It’s been a huge problem for the 49ers this season, who came into Sunday’s game as the worst team in the NFL in turnover margin at minus-11 (one interception and two fumbles lost by the opposition) vs. eight interceptions thrown and six fumbles lost by the offense.
According to Josh Dubow of the Associated Press, the 49ers at minus-15 turnover margin are historically bad. The only teams worse since 1990 through seven games are the Chiefs at minus-18 in 1990 and the Saints at minus-16 in 1997.
The 49ers defense had no answer for Goff, who had a quarterback rating of 127.4 vs. San Francisco Sunday, completing 18-of-24 throws for 202 yards, two TDs and no interceptions. Beathard completed 15-of-27 passes for 170 yards, one TD (to tight end George Kittle in the second quarter) and two interceptions. Beathard, too, again was under tremendous pressure all day and was sacked seven times, including four by All-Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald.
The 49ers’ next game is this Sunday in Arizona vs. the Cardinals.
