The San Francisco 49ers turned in a rough showing in Week 10, dropping a 42-26 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on November 9 at Levi’s Stadium. Moreover, the Niners’ offense struggled to keep pace for the entire contest and couldn’t match the opposition.
Despite the loss, one of the few bright spots from the 49ers was the performance of tight end George Kittle. The veteran pass catcher recorded nine receptions for 84 yards and one touchdown.
While the loss drops San Francisco to third place in the tight NFC West, Kittle didn’t hold back on saying that he still believes the 49ers can go on a deep playoff run because of the players that they are expecting to have back in this second half of the season.
“I think we’re incredibly talented and we still have we have guys on offense coming back,” Kittle said postgame (h/t 49ers Web Zone). “”Brock Purdy is an amazing quarterback and that’s why we paid him so much money,” Kittle said. “And then whenever we can get Ricky and hopefully at some point Brandon back, like, we have a lot of talent on this offense. And so I thoroughly believe that we can score a ton of points, and I really do also believe that our defense will just get a little better every single week.
“I truthfully do believe that. They’ve just been taking haymakers year-round with all the injuries. But I do. (Defensive coordinator Robert) Saleh is such a good coach that he’s going to bump those guys up. They’re going to get some stops and we just have to continue to score a lot of points and not turn the ball over.”
The 49ers Remain Hopeful in the NFC West Race
Even with a 6-4 record, the 49ers sit in third place behind the Seattle Seahawks and Rams, who are both 7-2. With the division race this close, every loss stings a little more. Still, Deommodore Lenoir isn’t backing down from the fight for the division.
“Tough game out there,” Lenoir told reporters postgame (h/t KNBR). “I feel like it was a lot of miscues with just us as players, not on the coaches, because they put us in the position. We just got to come down and make them plays. I feel like a lot of stuff going right for us today, but can’t dwell on it. We got to bounce back. We’re 3-1 in the division, ready to take it over still.”
Can the 49ers Offense Improve?
Lenoir and the defense went through a tough stretch, which isn’t surprising given the injuries to several key players. Because of that, Kittle feels the offense needs to take charge in the coming weeks.
He’s confident that if they perform to their potential, they can keep the team on track while the defense gets back on track. The offense showed promise in the win over the Rams, putting up 26 points as Mac Jones threw for more than 300 yards, but Kittle still sees plenty of room for improvement.
“I mean, we started the game off with a punt, a fumble, a fourth-down turnover, a touchdown, and a punt,” Kittle said. “And I’m pretty sure like I said, since I’ve been back, is that our team is going to have to rely on our really good veteran offense to score a lot of points and not turn the ball over. And we didn’t really do that today. And so I think that’s going to be the case moving forward. Our offense has to play at an incredibly high level, we have to score a lot of points, and we have to not turn the ball over.
“And I think our defense is going to get better and better throughout the week because we still have a lot of young guys, we have a lot of guys missing, but we have to help out our defense. That’s just that’s the way the season’s going to go. Our offense has to play at a high level, efficient, not turn the ball over, score points, score in the red zone, and then we’ll win a lot of games. But if we’re not doing that, that’s going to happen.”
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