The 49ers opened the second half of the 2024 NFL season with a crucial victory Sunday on the road over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
So all’s good in 49erland, right?
Well, not exactly.
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Yes, the 49ers came away with a 23-20 victory over the Buccaneers, but it was another of their patented cliffhangers.
The 49ers should have pulled away and left no doubt. Instead, they had to get out of their own way several times en route to the victory.
And that leaves the fan base with plenty of fodder for reactions and overreactions.
Such as ...
San Francisco 49ers
Kyle Shanahan is far too happy to settle for a field goal on 4th and short. As the rest of the league gets more aggressive, “conservative Kyle” is just as much to blame as Moody for taking long field goals over going for it. (briansedel)
Overreaction? Not entirely.
The chart says to go for it. That seems to be the consensus any time a team faces a fourth-and-manageable situation.
The 49ers rank near the bottom of the league when it comes to going for it on fourth down. Of course, that stat would mean a lot more if the top six teams in fourth-down aggressiveness weren’t Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas, the New York Giants, Carolina and Jacksonville.
Those are six awful teams.
The 49ers are 3-of-7 on fourth-down conversions on the season.
The five other teams that have run fourth-down plays seven or fewer times are Baltimore, Green Bay, Tampa Bay, Minnesota and the Los Angeles Chargers. That’s certainly better company than those other teams.
On Sunday, Shanahan made the correct choices to attempt field goals on fourth-down plays with yards to go of 9, 3, 15, 5 and 7 yards.
The fourth-and-3 situation was from the Tampa Bay 31-yard line with 29 seconds remaining in the first half. That one is debatable because of the time remaining in the first half. Even if they got the first down, they might have ended up settling for a field-goal attempt, anyway.
But, overall, with the team’s red-zone issues and an unreliable kicker, Shanahan should step out of his comfort zone and be more aggressive.
The 49ers could use another down to get into the end zone because, now, even settling for three points is not even close to being a sure thing.
49ers have the worst special teams in the modern era (nc49ersfan)
Overreaction? No.
We don’t have those rankings in front of us, but that seems like a reasonable statement.
Problems in punt and kick protection; giving up a fake punt; breakdowns in punt and kickoff coverage; muffed punts, fumbled kickoffs; missed field goals and extra points ... it goes on and on and on.
The 49ers deserve credit for finding new ways every week to mess up on special teams.
If Moody wasn't drafted he'd be on the streets. (hcr3333)
Overreaction? Yes.
That’s certainly debatable, but I think most teams would exercise patience with someone returning from injury who has shown a lot of good things.
Let’s not act as if he’s never made a kick in his life.
After all, Jake Moody missed only two field-goal attempts (23 of 25) in his last 15 regular-season games.
Moody has a field-goal success rate of 82.2 percent in his career.
And if the 49ers released him, another team likely would pick him up rather quickly.
On the other hand, if the 49ers did not place a third-round value on him, yes, his leash would be much shorter.
The 49ers believed he was a talented kicker and the best available in the 2023 NFL Draft, so on talent alone he is still atop their list when stacking him up against all the other available kickers.
The one area where he gives them an obvious upgrade over the free-agent kickers they signed this season is on kickoffs. Moody has the leg strength to regularly put the ball deep into the end zone.
However, it was anybody’s guess where the ball was going on his field-goal attempts Sunday against Tampa Bay.
The 49ers probably will give him more time to find his groove because he is coming off a high right ankle sprain.
But if he has another day like that, the 49ers have to seriously consider a change.
49ers made a mistake giving Bosa a big contract. They should have traded him. (katiemcr)
Overreaction? Yes.
Nick Bosa registered 18.5 sacks and was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 2022. Did the 49ers expect that kind of output every season? Probably not.
But pass-rushers win games, and pass-rushers get paid.
The 49ers had no other choice but to pay him at the top of the market. After all, the organization has struggled to find elite outside pass-rushers since Fred Dean and Charles Haley.
Aldon Smith was that guy for several seasons before his career got derailed with off-field issues.
If you find a guy who can affect the game in that way, you hold onto him. It’s such an impactful position.
Since signing his big-money deal, Bosa has 18 sacks in 28 games, including the postseason. It's not as if he has disappeared. He is still one of the best edge rushers in the NFL.
And there is no question he is far-and-away the best the 49ers have when it comes to getting after the quarterback. They would be in sorry shape without him.
The 49ers are an elite-level roster that's grossly underperforming and are thus a middle of the road team on the field in all phases. (mikey775)
Overreaction? No.
Just a reminder that the 49ers are 5-4 with eight games remaining. They still have time to figure it out.
But this is a truthful statement: The 49ers are an extraordinarily average team that has yet to beat a good team all season.
Linebacker Fred Warner was asked about the team lacking a signature win at this late stage of the season. He brought up the 49ers’ Week 1 victory over the New York Jets — a dysfunctional team that is 3-7 on the season. That's not exactly proof the 49ers are destined for greatness.
The 49ers’ offense is one of the best in the league, but it has not been able to score touchdowns with regularity. The 49ers’ defense is average. And special teams have been truly dreadful.
All that combined has the 49ers sitting just outside of the NFL playoff picture with two months left in the season.
The pressure of a Super Bowl over the last 5 seasons has the team on the verge of coming apart. (dmcnamara55)
Overreaction? No.
It’s difficult to say, for sure, what is going on with the 2024 49ers. But your reaction seems reasonable.
Five years ago, the 49ers breezed through the NFC and had a 10-point lead in the Super Bowl.
Losing that game was their first big heartbreak. The next season was marred by injuries, so they were never in contention.
But the 49ers were among the four best teams in the NFL in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Again, they had a Super Bowl title in their grasp last season and let it slip away to Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
Those three extra games per season, along with the heartbreak of getting so far as losing, has to take a lot out of a team emotionally and physically. Doesn’t it?
Deebo Samuel’s altercation with Moody and Taybor Pepper was the first outward sign of the pressure hitting a boiling point.
If the uneven play and losses continue, it would not be a shock if more of that frustration becomes visible.
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