49ers kick themselves for letting a win slip away against Chargers

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CARSON -- The 49ers had a steady stream of injuries throughout Sunday's game, surrendered 20 unanswered points and gave up two interceptions that easily could have been avoided.

There are no awards for grit in the NFL, so nobody in the losing locker room was bragging about keeping the score close and having an opportunity to pull off an upset victory.

“We should’ve won the game,” 49ers center Weston Richburg said following the 29-27 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. “We had the opportunity to win the game but didn’t. I guess you could say we’re resilient and we’re not going to give up, but we had a great shot to win the game, and we just didn’t do it.”

And, for that, the 49ers have only themselves to blame, with breakdowns coming in every phase of the game.

Quarterback C.J. Beathard, making his first start of the season in place of injured Jimmy Garoppolo, threw an interception that deflected off tight end Garrett Celek's hands in the third quarter. Trevor Williams returned it 82 yards to set up a Chargers field goal.

The 49ers’ final hope ended late in the game when rookie safety Derwin James was unblocked off the left side and hit Beathard as he threw. Defensive lineman Isaac Rochell gathered in the interception that enabled the Chargers to run out the clock.

San Francisco's defense looked good in the first half -- unlike a week earlier, when the Kansas City Chiefs blew the game open early -- but the team had more missed tackles late in the game. Chargers running back Melvin Gordon ran though a lot of would-be tacklers to rush for 104 yards on 15 carries.

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“I can’t put my finger on it,” 49ers linebacker Reuben Foster said. “But at the end of the day, last game it was a slow first half. This game, it was a slow second half. We got to finish.”

Coach Kyle Shanahan opted not to attempt to run out the clock at the end of the first half, and that strategy backfired. The 49ers took over at their own 25 after the Chargers pulled within 17-14 on a Philip Rivers touchdown pass to Austin Ekeler and a two-point conversion throw to Gordon.

Beathard threw an incomplete pass on first down. Running back Matt Breida ran out of bounds after catching an 8-yard pass on second down. Beathard again threw an incomplete pass on third down. When the 49ers took over, 47 seconds remained in the half, and they ran just 17 seconds off the clock before they called on Bradley Pinion to punt.

Desmond King fielded the punt and returned it 56 yards before Pinion tripped him up at the 49ers’ 32. The Chargers capped the first half with a field goal to tie the score.

Every mistake and every miscalculation played a vital role as the 49ers fell to 1-3 to open the season.

“That’s what we’re all here for, is to get wins,” Shanahan said. “We only have one of them right now, and we had an opportunity to win that game. There were lots of ups and downs throughout the game in all three phases, but we had a chance there at the end and we came up short. That’s disappointing.”

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