What We Learned from 49er’s Win over the Cardinals

It’s starting to feel like I can copy and paste these, as the Cards once again fall short. As Seth put it in his post game coverage, “There is not a whole lot to say.”

One of the themes of this season is the team systematically shooting themselves in the foot, though at this point it seems like there’s not much foot left to shoot at.

Coaching Matters

Yes, I did previously mention the whole “Players, plays, formations” thing. And I stand by that, in that order. That being said, the two latter facets live and die by the coaching. And yesterday, the 49ers coaching staff showed just how big a difference that can make.

Kyle Shanahan has been getting the most out his teams since he got there, consistently outcoaching the talent available. While I hesitate to say the same of Robert Saleh, today at least, he did so with his side of the ball. That is what coaching on the high end of the spectrum can do.

Conversely, not only did the Cardinals find themselves with another opposing secondary ripe for the picking like last week, they also had a favorable matchup against a third string quarterback operating a banged up offense.

While I’m not here to make excuses for Vance Joseph, no defensive performance is likely to matter much when your offense can only muster a single touchdown on the day. I’ve been coming to Kingsbury’s defense, but yesterday, things left quite a bit to be desired.

It wasn’t all on the coaching though...

Personnel issues, it seems like we’ve been here before, huh?

When your operating on thin margins from a talent perspective, a bad day from the few stalwarts on your team can make everything look a whole lot worse.

While Deandre Hopkins again did heavy lifting, Kyler Murray struggled. 26/40 on pass attempts today, #1 was scattershot and turned the ball over in the redzone for the second week in a row.

The offensive line and other receivers did him little favors, as the Niners got the better of the pass protection and the pass catchers struggled to find separation against a suspect secondary and similarly struggled to bring the ball in.

The run game offered little respite, as all runners failed to even match the production from what Murray was able to do on the ground.

How much rebuilding does it take?

Abysmal day at the office aside, it’s getting to the point where we start to look ahead to the next season. (Though some of us have been doing that for awhile.)

We’ll be heading into what is technically year 3 of the rebuild, though I struggle to see the progress. You’ve got a few strong pieces at place, at some of the more important positions - thankfully. But there seems to be just as many holes in the roster as there’s ever been despite that - also at some of the more important positions.

At this point one would hope that you’d be putting the “finishing” touches in place to set expectations for a legitimate playoff contender. But it still feels like some of the foundation is missing, let alone the framework for a big run at it all.

But that’s enough from me. What did you learn?