SANTA CLARA – The 49ers flirted Sunday with what would have been the largest comeback in coach Kyle Shanahan’s nine seasons.
Alas, the offense didn’t score nearly enough to offset the six touchdowns allowed by their thinned-out defense.
The Los Angeles Rams, after jumping out to a 21-0 lead, scored more than any 49ers opponent this season in claiming a 42-26 victory at Levi’s Stadium.
Instead of sweeping the season series against the Rams (7-2), the 49ers (6-4) will have to take the hard way back to the NFC West perch. They’ll press on next Sunday to face the Arizona Cardinals, who fell to 3-6 upon getting blown out 44-22 by the division’s other leader, Seattle (7-2).
The 49ers pulled within 28-20 with 12 ½ minutes remaining Sunday, but their defense couldn’t help from there, which doesn’t instill confidence it will survive this season’s second half without All-Pro linebacker Fred Warner and starting defensive ends Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams.
“Our team is going to have to rely on our veteran offense to score a lot of points and not turn the ball over, and we didn’t do that today,” tight end George Kittle said. “Our defense will get better and better. … We have to help out our defense. That’s the way our season is going to go.”
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh’s unit yielded three touchdowns on the Rams’ first three series and fell prey as expected to Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford, who threw four touchdown passes and was not intercepted for a sixth straight game.
Stafford’s counterpart was Mac Jones, who threw three touchdown passes against one interception in his sixth straight start. It remains to be seen how much longer Brock Purdy and his wounded toe will remain out of uniform.
Coach Kyle Shanahan said of Purdy: “I do believe he’s further along than was (in Week 4) so hopefully he’ll have a chance this week.”
Another stat that won’t be ignored by the 49ers: The Rams were not penalized once, despite what appeared to be at least two pass-interference penalties.
As inevitable as the outcome seemed from the 49ers’ early 21-0 deficit, Jones kept the comeback afloat when he spotted tight end Luke Farrell for a 9-yard touchdown pass for a 28-20 ballgame with 12:29 remaining. Then came a harbinger of the 49ers’ ultimate doom: The Rams blocked Eddy Pineiro’s point-after kick, his first miss of any kind since his initial PAT attempt in Week 2 in New Orleans.
Jones threw three touchdown passes on the day, capped with a 13-yarder that George Kittle acrobatically scored along the left sideline with three minutes remaining. An ensuing two-point conversion pass got intercepted, keeping the 49ers at a 16-point difference.
The 49ers were within 21-14 after their opening drive after halftime, capped by Brian Robinson’s second effort on a 1-yard touchdown run. Robinson had five carries on that drive, including a 13-yarder to the 15-yard line, but Christian McCaffrey chipped in as well with a 19-yard catch early in the drive and a 13-yard catch at the 3-yard line.
Davante Adams, in a Bay Area homecoming as a Palo Alto High graduate, made a 2-yard touchdown catch against Malik Mustapha to push the Rams ahead 28-14 with 2:39 until the fourth quarter. On the previous play, linebacker Dee Winters made a tackle for a 1-yard loss, and the 49ers’ defense celebrated as if they made a fourth-down stop, which is how they won last month’s overtime meeting at SoFi Stadium.
The 49ers had staked the Rams to a 21-0 lead through three possessions when more trouble arose: McCaffrey was stopped for no gain on fourth-and-1 from the Rams’ 11-yard line.
The 49ers’ defense promptly forced the Rams’ first punt, however, and that triggered the first touchdown drive from the 49ers, made possible by Kittle’s fourth-down conversion catch at the 6-yard line and followed by Jones’ scoring strike to Jauan Jennings 3:15 before halftime for a 21-7 deficit.
The Rams breezed to touchdowns on their first three drives, none of which lasted as much as five minutes. Kyren Williams capped the 10-play, opening-drive cakewalks with a 2-yard touchdown run. Shortly after linebacker Tatum Bethune exited in the second drive with a right-knee injury (he would return the next series), Puka Nacua took a Stafford’s pass 22 yards through the 49ers’ defense for a 14-0 lead. Touchdown No. 3 came on a 4-yard pass from Stafford to Davis Allen only 1:19 into the second quarter.
The 49ers’ offense opened in three-and-out fashion before Jennings fumbled away their second possession. Jennings had a reception punched loose at the Rams’ 26-yard line by linebacker Nate Landman, a Monte Vista High-Danville product.