49ers news: 3 things Kyle Shanahan must fix now after loss to Cardinals
By Peter Panacy
The 49ers offense has gone awfully flat, emphasized in the Week 5 loss to the Cardinals, meaning Kyle Shanahan has some much-needed work to do.
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan has a lot of explaining to do after his team dropped a third consecutive game, this time a 17-10 road loss to the still-undefeated Arizona Cardinals in Week 5.
The Niners, who entered the week with the NFL’s seventh-best scoring offense, nevertheless have scored just 14 points over the last three first halves of games, including being shut out over the first two quarters at Arizona. And in all three cases of San Francisco’s losing streak, Shanahan and Co. have been forced to play come-from-behind football.
What’s been even more frustrating is, for the most part, the offensive lapses and inconsistency have squandered at least two decent defensive performances, particularly with the 49ers holding the Cardinals, who entered Week 5 with the league’s No. 1 offense, to just 10 points and 304 all-purpose yards.
Shanahan’s play-calling hasn’t been good, and he’s also failing to utilize his best weapons when the moments call for them.
Needless to say, especially for someone who hasn’t received a ton of criticism over his four-plus years of head coaching, Shanahan is going to deserve a lot of that criticism heading into the Week 6 bye.
But that should also prompt some fixes for Shanahan, too, especially if he’s hoping to dig the Niners out of this early hole that’s led to a 2-3 start to the season.
If Shanahan wants to salvage the year and get back into the playoff picture, he’ll need to implement these three changes now.