The 49ers kept the score close until early in the fourth quarter on Sunday, but it was a rough day all-around in the 28-18 loss to the Chiefs at Levi’s Stadium. In the rematch of the Super Bowl nine months ago, Brock Purdy was intercepted three times, Patrick Mahomes again came up big in key moments against the San Francisco defense, and special teams struggled as the Chiefs remained the only unbeaten team in the NFL. Adding injury to insult, the 49er finished the game without any of their starting wide receivers when Brandon Aiyuk (possible ACL tear) and Deebo Samuel (illness) were sidelined for all of the second half. Jauan Jennings didn’t even suit up because of a hip injury. Purdy finished the day with 212 passing yards, but was 17 of 31 to go with the three picks. Two of Purdy’s interceptions came on third down, which was a struggle for the 49ers all game. Mahomes and the Chiefs, by comparison, converted eight of their 13 third-down plays. Mahomes wasn’t great — he completed 16 of 27 attempts for 154 yards and no touchdowns and was intercepted twice, but also accounted for big runs at key times to keep the Chiefs offense on the field.
Jordan Mason rushed 14 times for 58 yards, but 26 came on one run. The 49ers did see the debut of rookie receiver Rockey Pearsall Jr., who caught three passes for 21 yards 50 days after being shot during a downtown robbery attempts and reliable George Kittle caught six passes for 92 yards. Here’s some of what the 49ers had to say after the game: Kyle Shanahan On what message he delivered to the team: “I want them to say less today. There’s no way to sugarcoat that. We got our ass kicked today. Lots of reasons for it, but those are things that they don’t need to sit and think about today. We’ll address all those tomorrow. We’ll get together, we’ll go through the truth of the whole tape, be hard on each other and find a way to put it to bed so we can come out here and make sure we put our best foot forward and find a way to get a win versus Dallas.”
On the defensive performance: “I thought the defense today, compared to everything else, gave us a chance. I thought they settled them down, but four-of-five in the red zone was the biggest thing. They scored pretty much every time they got down there. Mahomes just keeping plays alive with his legs. The 30-or-so scramble that he did, and then extended it by the sidelines, which we see over and over and everyone thinks they’re ready for it, but then he gets another team again with it. Hats off to him, he’s an unbelievable player. But we didn’t play good as a team today.” On Samuel and Aiyuk’s status: “[WR] Deebo [Samuel Sr.] had an illness today, tried to go, couldn’t do it, never returned. And [WR] Brandon Aiyuk had a knee, we’re worried it’s an ACL. Not confirmed yet, but we’ll find out for sure (Monday).” On Aiyuk possibly having a torn ACL? “That’s what it looks like, but we don’t know for sure, just doing the tests and everything with our hands and with the trainers and stuff, all that. So that’s what we fear. That’s what it looks like, but we’ve been wrong before. So, praying that we are.”
On Purdy’s performance: “Brock elevates himself a lot. Regardless of whether guys are down or up, Brock’s been doing that every game. He had a couple good plays today, but just overall, him, along with all of us on offense, we didn’t do well. When you do miss your best players or some of them and they go out with injuries, it makes it harder on everyone. You hope that you can overcome that with some stuff with some of other guys, like Brock who is very capable of doing that, but just wasn’t his best day.” On the continued struggles with special teams: “We’re going to keep coaching them, we’re going to keep putting pressure on us as coaches, pressure on the players. As you do get guys down, you can’t just try the next guy. So, some of these guys are getting their opportunities because of injuries and we have to make sure that we get better at this. There are certain things that we have gotten better at but that big punt return, mainly, the one that stuck out to me. They’re getting too much, and we just have to continue to work at it and not ignore it, which we’re not.” On the emotionally toll of injuries: “I know a lot of teams deal with it. Not every team, but we’re dealing with it hard right now and it got worse today.”
On how Purdy dealt with inexperienced receivers with Samuel and Aiyuk out: “We didn’t do anything really good on offense. I know he’d love to have all three of those picks back. Brock’s been playing unbelievable this year. Done some good things on offense this year, but today wasn’t that day.” On Rickey Pearsall returning to the field: “We kind of celebrated that almost all week with him, because it was great to have him back and he looked great in practice. He was going to get eased in a little today, it changed a little bit with Deebo going out, then it changed a bunch with Aiyuk going out. So he had to do more than we expected today and I was proud of him for handling it. Great to have him back.”
On Samuel’s illness: “Throat, stomach things, just real fatigued. Struggled to breathe, couldn’t catch his breath. And so, he kept trying to fight through it, but once he was struggling with the breathing and everything, we had to shut him down.” On the importance of the Super Bowl rematch: “It’s why I try not to make it about that stuff. Obviously, we all know how much last year hurt. When you’re studying that tape all week and stuff, it does bring up emotions and everything. And yeah, you would love to beat someone, but that has, if we beat them today, that wasn’t going to change anything with the Super Bowl either. We would love to do it. We haven’t been able to beat them, so that’s something that would feel really good, but I’m not going to make that more than it is. It’s why we try not to make it more than it is all week, whether we won or lost. We knew we were going to come in Monday and review it and know we were going to have a big game versus Dallas this week before the bye week. Our goal is to be leading our division after this bye week. I didn’t even watch what happened today. I think Seattle won, but we have to keep it close here and find a way to get a win next week.”
Brock Purdy
On his performance: “I think I’ve just got to play better for sure just with my throws and some decisions. That’s pretty simple. I’ve obviously got to watch the film and stuff, but my instant reaction is I’ve got to play better.”
On the offense’s early struggles: “Obviously it’s tough to get the ball rolling when we’re not getting first downs and things like that. So, it starts with that. I think we’ve got to convert on third downs and find a way, especially when our defense is doing a great job getting stops and getting us the ball back. It’s on us, man, to move the chains and we just failed. Obviously, Kansas City is a great defense and everything, but we’re a great offense in our eyes and we know that we can play at a really high level. And so that’s on us to get the ball rolling. Not really sure. Still got to watch the film and see what happened.” On the impact of losing Brandon Aiyuk and then the impact of getting WR Ricky Pearsall? “Obviously just what B.A. does for our offense and who he is and as a teammate and a brother of ours, it’s sad. Wishing him nothing but the best and praying for him. That’s my guy. When he goes down like that, obviously we have other guys that can step up and do their job really well. Ricky having him back for his first game was awesome. Just seeing him back out there and making cuts and plays, he’s a baller too. So, we’re really excited for him and for his growth and to bring him with us. We’re excited about that and thinking about B.A. and wishing him nothing but the best too. We’ve all just got to come together as a group, collectively, as the receiver unit and all of us. Guys just got to step up and they have. That’s the nature of the sport, sadly.” I know quarterbacks are only supposed to do his job. Do you start naturally feel more responsibility when some of the bigger names, RB Christian McCaffrey, Brandon, and WR Deebo Samuel Sr. are out of the offense? “I don’t really think that. All I think about is what my job is, going through my reads, trusting in Kyle’s play call and hitting the open guy. I think there was many opportunities tonight or in this game where I could have been better. That’s just how I feel. Is there more pressure for me to put on a Superman cape and do more? No. I think who we have and the players that we have that step up in those positions, they’ve done a great job and we have a lot of talent in my eyes. That’s on me and we’ll just all continue to grow and fight on this journey together.”
Nick Bosa
On another loss to the Chiefs “Yes, we obviously want to beat a team that’s had our number since I’ve been here. We just did not play well enough.”
Jake Brendel
On possibly losing Aiyuk for the rest of the season “It sucks. I am still not sure what it is, but any injury like that to one of your weapons on offense and defense, it just sucks. I feel like as a roster, we just have to respond. Whoever’s next on the roster needs to step up and make sure that there isn’t a setback and productivity on offense.”
George Kittle
On Pearsall’s debut: “It’s awesome. To go through what he went through, then to be back seven weeks later and make an impact and really just get out there in front of the crowd. Probably had some jitters. I don’t know if he did, but I think I would in that situation. He came out and made the play when needed to make a play. For the crowd to kind of give him a standing ovation was a really special moment. I’m happy for him to be back on the football field after we drafted him in the first round. He’s an amazing athlete. He’s a hell of a wide receiver so the more reps he gets – the more practice reps he gets – he’s going to be a really good player for us.”
On the importance of next week’s Cowboys game before a bye “It’s huge. Every game is huge. I think it’s Sunday night football so all eyes on Levi Stadium which I’m excited about. It’s a great rivalry – it always has been. We need to get a win and especially because it’s an NFC opponent. We have to continue to stay in the hunt. We have to try and stay ahead in our division as best we possibly can and try to get a little bit better. I’ve said multiple times, ‘you want to be a better team in October than you were of September, and better in November than you were October.’ We did not get better today. We had some good plays, but it was not our best performance.”
Malik Mustapha
On how the team rebounds from the loss: “We need to just go back to the drawing board. At the end of the day, we can’t sit around moping about it. We’ve got to go back to work the next day. We’re going to critique ourselves hard. There is still a lot of time to show what we want to make out of this season – only lessons, never losses.”
Ricky Pearsall
On returning to the field: “It meant everything considering all the adversity I went through this past month. It was really good to go out there with my guys again. I think that’s a refresher for me. When the incident happened, the first thing I was thinking about was the guys and coaches in this locker room and the entire staff. They did a really good job of rallying around me and making sure I stayed up. It was a huge blessing for me today.” On at what point did he realize he’d be able to play football again? “They told me in the hospital when I was still asking that question over and over again. That was a common question coming out of my mouth when I was in the hospital bed. They ended up telling me after they saw the x-rays and the cat scans of the bullet path. There was also some nerve stuff that I had to make sure I was good on, so that’s why I had to stay overnight. After that, the next morning is when the doctor came in and told me I would be good to play football again. That was my first question.”
Fred Warner
On where the team goes from here: “My initial thought is we didn’t play good enough to win. I really want to move on. Look at the film hard and you can do one of two things. Like you can sulk in defeat or you can see what the reality is, fix it, move on, and get ready to win a game next week. There’s so many things that are going to be said, obviously about where we’re at and that team. At the end of the day, that’s not going to help us move forward. That’s not going to help us for next week. We have to just look at the reality of what it is, flush it and move on and win a game next week.”
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