Why 49ers’ Week 3 loss to Rams is actually good for San Francisco
By Peter Panacy
The San Francisco 49ers lost a hard-fought bout with the Los Angeles Rams in Week 3, falling 41-39 on Thursday Night Football. While it stinks, here’s why the loss is actually good for the Niners.
Losing stinks.
It especially stinks when your team falls to a division rival by the narrowest of margins during a prime-time, nationally televised game.
That was the case for the San Francisco 49ers in Week 3 against the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday Night Football, falling to 0-3 after the 41-39 finish.
San Francisco 49ers
And it’s a good thing that happened.
Yes, the Niners losing this contest actually carries a lot of benefits.
First, there’s the obvious. Any expert or pundit knows San Francisco isn’t sniffing a playoff berth for a long time, let alone this season. The team is at the very base stages of a complete rebuild — one which began last offseason under newly minted general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan.
The good news here, though, is the Niners have already cleaned house from 2016, leaving only a handful of carryovers from the previous regime.
In short, the deconstruction has finished. The rebuilding is underway, brick by brick, or so they say.
But it’s going to take time. Meanwhile, the 49ers need all the investment help they can get moving forward.
Better NFL Draft Positioning
If the 49ers aren’t going to be destined for the postseason, there’s little reason for San Francisco to play the victor role as much as it can.
Wins for a rebuilding franchise are fool’s gold, especially when considering positioning in the NFL Draft.
Despite the numerous efforts put forth by Lynch in last year’s draft, the Niners probably need another two or three successful drafts to put them back in serious contention. The better the draft picks, the better the chances of that happening. It’s not hard to figure out.
Keep in mind, there are number of other teams out there at, or around, where the 49ers are, rebuilding-wise. The New York Jets are terrible and could easily finish with no more than one win in 2017. While slightly better, the Buffalo Bills are retooling. Same goes with the Indianapolis Colts.
Oh, the Cleveland Browns too.
All these teams are going to be vying for top picks in the 2018 draft. And as we saw with Lynch trading down from No. 2 to No. 3 this year, one simple move can net a lot more capital.
So even if this loss to L.A. was tough, the added bonus should be felt by better positioning in the draft.
Not the Same Kind of 49ers Losses from 2015, 2016
Week 3 was fun to watch. It’s been a while since most Niners fans have been able to say that.
Let’s play a bit of a comparison here. San Francisco was trailing 24-13 at halftime, and 34-20 after three quarters.
If this game was played back in 2015 under former head coach Jim Tomsula, the 49ers would have punted on fourth downs in the fourth quarter. Even if they were within modest striking distance. Had the game taken place in 2016 under former head coach Chip Kelly, there would have been zero offense left in the second half.
Remember, the Niners had one of the worst second-half offenses in the NFL last season.
Instead, Shanahan’s 49ers came back hard in the fourth quarter. That’s something fans haven’t seen in a long, long time. It’s good to see the fight carried out by this team again — something largely absent the previous two years.
Wildly Inconsistent Cornerstones
Through three games, we’ve seen some vast inconsistency on both sides of the ball. In Weeks 1 and 2, San Francisco’s defense kept the team in the game. But the offense was stagnant.
Week 3, it was the opposite.
On one hand, inconsistency is a bad thing. But we’ve seen flashes on both sides of the ball — an explosive offense this week, preceded by shutdown defenses the previous two.
Now, if the Niners can put the two together, Shanahan’s group might actually be pretty good.
It’s different from last year too. In 2016, the 49ers defense was consistently bad. So was the passing game, especially considering the lack of offensive playmakers.
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That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, which brings us to the next point here.
2017 isn’t about wins or losses. If anything, it’s about finding those cornerstone pieces around which Lynch, Shanahan and Co. can build in coming seasons. We’ve seen a few of them, even some units are coming together.
These players and units are slowly learning what it takes to win. Close games, like this one, help to indicate the Niners are close, whereas last year would have revealed a 49ers team completely removed from such a possibility.
It’s a focal point one would have wished was discovered the previous two seasons. But it’s finally happening now.
Next: The good, bad and ugly from 49ers' loss to Rams
And so while the loss stinks, it’s certainly worth its weight in the grand picture.