The 49ers blew a golden chance to all but cement a playoff spot after a tough 20-17 loss to the Titans despite having a 10-0 lead at halftime.
Some games are just so frustrating to the point that it’ll drive you insane, and the San Francisco 49ers game against the Tennessee Titans in Week 16 on Thursday Night Football certainly applies here.
The Niners were up 10-0 at halftime and looked to be in good nick to extend their winning streak and all but confirm their spot in the playoffs.
Read More: Jimmy Garoppolo brutally costs 49ers in Week 16 loss to Titans
Instead, it was a totally different game in the second half, and the Titans blew the 49ers out of the water to take a 17-10 lead late in the fourth.
San Francisco rallied to tie the game at 17-17 but was once again unable to stop Tennessee from driving down the field, and a lengthy quarterback Ryan Tannehill scramble saw the team get into field-goal range.
They made no mistake, making it 20-17, although the ball was certainly close enough to the post to give 49ers fans some false hope that maybe it would perhaps just slide out.
The loss isn’t a calamity for the Niners, but dropping winnable games is certainly not something to be making a habit of. The offense fell apart, and the defense was once again unable to cover elite receivers.
On the plus side, an easier game against the Houston Texans beckons, so hopefully this is just a blip on the radar more than anything.
Let’s get to the grades.
49ers Offensive Grades
Quarterback
Let’s not bandy words, Jimmy Garoppolo had an absolute horror show against the Titans (for the most part), and a lot of the blame is justifiably going to be put on his shoulders.
The final numbers don’t look too bad, Garoppolo went 26 of 35 passing for 322 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.
But the numbers were a bit misleading, Garoppolo played much worse than advertised.
Garoppolo threw brutal interceptions including one in the end zone where there was never a throw available to him (it left points on the board, which turned out absolutely vital) and overthrew a wide-open Kyle Juszczyk for what could have been a touchdown.
The 49ers were unable to get on the board in the second half until late, and Garoppolo deserves some credit for leading them down the field when they absolutely needed it late. But this has two caveats. The first being that the Niners shouldn’t have been in that situation in the first place, and the second being Deebo Samuel deserves the bulk of the credit for a long catch and run.
Had the game gone into overtime and Garoppolo had won it, maybe these transgressions could have been forgiven. But it’s a big reminder of the limitations that Garoppolo possesses as a quarterback.
Grade: C-
Running Backs
The team unfortunately struggled as a whole running the ball against a Tennessee front that’s very good at stopping the run, with Jeff Wilson only getting 45 yards and a touchdown on 14 carries.
Samuel ran the ball to slightly more success, but he couldn’t really impact the game as a runner like he did in recent weeks.
They weren’t done many favors by a passing game that couldn’t get going, and that allowed the Titans to clamp down and dare the 49ers to throw their way to victory.
Grade: D+
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Due to the heavy throwing game of the 49ers in this game, we saw some decent receiving stats across the board.
However the only receiver to truly make his mark on the game was Samuel, who did everything possible to will his team over the line. He had nine catches for 159 yards and a near touchdown where he almost took the ball to the house on a short catch in clutch time.
Brandon Aiyuk enjoyed a decent game with four catches for 40 yards and a touchdown, while Juszczyk had three catches for 45 yards and was agonizingly close to another catch for what could have been a touchdown on his own.
Tight end George Kittle was well held by the Titans defense with the People’s Tight End only having two catches for 21 yards, both catches early in the game.
Grade: C
Offensive Line
The pass blocking was perhaps the best aspect of the offense that wasn’t Samuel, as the offensive line held up reasonably well against a stout Tennessee defensive line.
The Niners gave up two sacks, but one was more on Garoppolo holding the ball too long. The only real mark was a false start on Trent Williams on a 4th-and-1 pushing them back 5 yards. San Francisco didn’t convert the subsequent try.
The run blocking, as noted above, didn’t open many running lanes at all. They did at least protect enough to give the passing game a fighting chance.
Grade: C+
49ers Defensive Grades
Defensive Line
Say what you want about the Titans and their injuries to the left side of their offensive line, but the 49ers defensive line did what it needed to do to give their team a chance to win.
The team had four sacks (the defensive line had a hand in all four and officially got credited with 3.5 sacks) and could have had more if situations like Tennessee committing a few blatant holding penalties (which was called for once), to stop Ryan Tannehill being killed by Nick Bosa, hadn’t occurred.
On the Titans running game, the 49ers shut down that front except for a long scramble by Tannehill at the end of the game. Unfortunate, but hard to blame them given it was a scramble and not a designed run.
At the end of the day, the defensive line did its job.
Grade: A
Linebackers
They tried, and for the first quarter succeeded, but the 49ers linebackers were not able to finish the job against the Titans in the second half.
Fred Warner had a very hot and cold performance, and missed a tackle on Tannehill’s scramble that could have saved the game.
Azeez Al-Shaair fought hard with an injury and even notched half a sack, but you could tell he wasn’t 100 percent and had to leave due to a knee injury.
Dre Greenlaw can’t get back quickly enough.
Grade: C-
Secondary:
If A.J. Brown were wiped from existence, this would be a bona fide A-plus.
Brown had 11 of the 22 receptions by Tennessee, a whopping 145 of the 209 receiving yards and its lone receiving touchdown.
The overwhelming weakness of the Niners is the cornerback situation, this is not a secret.
Ambry Thomas had a few good plays, but he and Josh Norman were totally overwhelmed by the talent of Brown. He was the literal difference in this game.
Everybody else was actually held successfully to low outputs, Julio Jones only receiving one short reception for the game for example.
But the secondary was the defensive reason San Francisco lost, getting fully exploited.
Grade: D
49ers Special Teams/Coaching Grades
Special Teams
Once again, the special teams have come up very short. While cornerback will be a big area of need coming into the offseason, one could argue special teams may be just as important to focus on.
Mitch Wishnowsky shanked a punt. Tennessee had strong kickoff returns. The 49ers didn’t even return a kickoff.
Robbie Gould did what he needed to do at least, his lone field goal and two extra-point attempts going through. Not leaving any points on the field from a kicking situation saves this from a D-range grade.
Grade: C-
Coaching
I liked the aggressiveness in going for it a few times, but I didn’t necessarily like Kyle Shanahan not utilizing more jet-sweep formations.
To be fair to Shanahan, it was a tough job to scheme running lanes open against a stout defensive line, and it was more on Jimmy Garoppolo than Shanahan that points were left on the board.
Defensively, DeMeco Ryans did a good job with what he had, he can’t truly be blamed for the personnel woes at cornerback.
If anything, he deserves credit for blanking everyone else, which gave the 49ers a fighting chance.
There were some downs. The Titans shadowed George Kittle with a second man for a long time, and Shanahan wasn’t able to either scheme him open or make them pay enough for devoting a man to Kittle alone. Ryans could also have taken a leaf from that particular book to put safety help on top of Brown as the Titans’ lone productive receiver.
It’s easy to apply these in hindsight, but it may have just made the difference. The coaching was awful, but nor was it perfect.
Grade: C