49ers' litany: Lose the ball, lose the game

By Art Spander

At least the 49ers didn’t lose to the Jets. Or the Rams, who did lose to the Jets. The Niners simply have lost to a great many others — including, on Sunday, the Dallas Cowboys.

Yes, the story is San Francisco losing more than Dallas winning, losing the football again and again, then the game, 41-33.

We've reached the point in this season that’s gone in too many directions — except the right one, other than those Rams games — that there’s little new, or good, to discuss. 

The mistakes are the same ones as virtually every week. Thus the observations are the same ones as virtually every week.

To wit, if you give the other team the ball on fumbles and interceptions, you’re doomed. The Niners did, four times, and they were.

How many times or ways need we hear a football team isn’t going to succeed if it keeps giving up the football? Answer: A great many, if it’s the 49ers.

They’ve had two turnovers or more in nine straight games. That can’t keep going on, only because for the 5-9 Niners the season can’t go on, literally, more than two more games. Thank heaven for small favors.

How this all came about the season after they were in the Super Bowl is one of the mysteries inherent in sport. Maybe because of the numerous injuries. Maybe because a few uninjured were not what we thought they’d be — or were supposed to be. Maybe because the opposition was better.

In what has become litany, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan summed up the game thusly: “We played good football. Offensively, special teams, the guys did a lot of good. But if they get our turnovers, it doesn’t matter what you do. You have little chance to win.”

Up until a couple weeks ago the Niners-Cowboys game at AT&T Stadium, between Dallas and Fort Worth was hot stuff: Sunday night, prime time, two teams with a history. Unfortunately, also two teams with losing records, so it was flexed out, replaced by Browns-Giants.

Al Michaels also was flexed out when, only days before kickoff, he tested positive for Covid-19. And although he insisted he felt fine, he had to step away for Mike Tirico. Yes, it’s a very strange year.

As Shanahan would reaffirm.

“We’ve put up with a lot of crap this year,” he said when asked if the injuries combined with the temporary relocation to the Phoenix area proved insurmountable.

“But too much to overcome? I think we would have overcome it if it weren’t for the turnovers. You play the game of football, you have a chance to win every week regardless of the circumstances. That doesn’t mean you can turn the ball over.”

Three minutes into the first quarter of a 0-0 game, the 49ers' Richie James fumbled away a punt return on the San Francisco 24. Seven plays later, Dallas led 7-0. Before you knew it, Nick Mullens was sacked, fumbled and, whoops, the Cowboys were up 14-0. The first quarter still had more than six minutes left.

In time, the Niners would move into a 14-14 tie, then a 24-24 tie. But Mullens would then throw two interceptions, one of which Shanahan said was a good pass. By deduction, you can guess the other was not.

“We ran the ball well in the first half,” said Mullens, “but we couldn’t run the ball every play. We needed to make some big-time plays. I didn’t capitalize enough on the opportunities.”

Mullens, who after all is a backup, has been pilloried for his errors. But the offensive line has not protected well, and if he doesn’t get the ball away in a hurry, then he gets pummeled — and often fumbles.

This season is as good as finished, although the Niners have two more games, including Saturday at Arizona — where the Cardinals are the home team, as opposed to the 49ers calling the Cardinals’ State Farm Stadium home because they were evicted from Santa Clara.

Along with everyone in a Niners uniform, Mullens was asked whether the move to a new facility in another state was the reason for the recent defeats.

“It’s been a challenge, yeah,” said the quarterback, “but as far as the turnovers, it’s not a valid excuse.”

There are no valid excuses.