After falling 31-17 to the Cincinnati Bengals at Levi's Stadium on Sunday, the 49ers find themselves losers of three straight games with plenty of issues heading into their Week 9 bye.
Kyle Shanahan is in charge of righting the ship in San Francisco, and the seventh-year coach began by telling reporters what he said to his team after yet another frustrating outcome.
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“My message was, ‘We got to take that,’” Shanahan told reporters postgame. “We didn’t play well. [The Bengals] beat us, straight up. We talked about tackling better. Having less penalties. I think we only had five, but in comparison to them, they had one. We had some ones in crucial situations that gave first downs.”
The 49ers did have five penalties compared to the Bengals’ one and now are tied with the Buffalo Bills for the most penalties in the NFL this year with 55. Shanahan is rightfully frustrated.
San Francisco was also sloppy defensively, missing tackles and allowing ball carriers to gain extra yards after contact.
Overall, Shanahan wants to see more attention to detail from the 49ers throughout the rest of the season.
San Francisco 49ers
“My bottom line to them was we got to get better in every aspect,” Shanahan explained to reporters. "The things that disappointed me were some of the fundamentals of just throwing and catching, tackling. And some of those penalties that cost us.”
In addition to correcting the fundamentals and avoiding penalties, San Francisco has to take care of the football.
In Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati alone, Brock Purdy lost a fumble and threw two interceptions, avoiding a third because of a Bengals’ roughing-the-passer penalty.
Nonetheless, the 49ers have played like a completely different team throughout the last three games, which caught everyone off guard, considering San Francisco started the year 5-0.
As Shanahan said, the 49ers must “get better in every aspect.”
Right on cue, San Francisco has a free Sunday during Week 9 and can hit the reset button before facing the Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 12 at EverBank Stadium.