SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The way Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams picked apart the injury-riddled defense for San Francisco, it raised questions about why the 49ers weren’t more aggressive before last week’s trade deadline.
But the problems might have been big enough that even adding another pass rusher might not be enough for a unit that has already lost Fred Warner, Nick Bosa and Mykel Williams to season-ending injuries.
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The Niners allowed six touchdowns on Los Angeles’ first eight drives of the game and fell further behind in the NFC West race with a 42-26 loss to the Rams on Sunday.
“We all know that it’s a challenge with how many guys that are missing on D, so we truly understand that,” coach Kyle Shanahan said. “I know we can do better than what we did today though and I believe the offense can do better than what they did today.”
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has done a good job most of the season piecing together a defense that lost Bosa to a season-ending knee injury in Week 3 and Warner to a season-ending ankle injury in Week 6.
San Francisco made one small trade two weeks ago to acquire defensive lineman Keion White from New England and he combined on the only sack of the game for the 49ers. But San Francisco didn’t make another move after losing Williams to a torn ACL last week.
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“We believe everybody, even backups here, is a starter,” cornerback Deommodore Lenoir said. “So next man up is always the mentality.”
The Niners have been competitive most of the season despite lacking a consistent pass rush and struggling to create turnovers. They rank last in the NFL in sacks per game and have the fifth-fewest takeaways per game.
But the Rams proved too difficult to slow down with Stafford playing the best football of his career, taking advantage of a pass-catching group with Davante Adams, Puka Nacua and a deep stable of tight ends.
“It was a tough game out there,” Lenoir said. “I feel there was a lot of miscues with just us as players. The coaches put us in a position, we just have to come down and make them plays. A lot of stuff wasn’t going right for us today.”
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San Francisco allowed the Rams to drive for touchdowns on the first three drives of the game — the first time a team had done that against the 49ers since 2019 — and couldn’t manage a stop for the entire second half.
“We just aren’t executing,” linebacker Tatum Bethune said. “There’s no real explanation. We just have to play harder and get the job done. We just have to play harder, just be able to execute.”
Mac Jones and the offense twice cut what had been a 21-point deficit in the first half to a one-possession game with TD drives on the 49ers’ first two possessions of the second half. But the defense couldn’t get a stop against Stafford and the Rams went on to the lopsided win.
“He’s really impressive,” defensive tackle Kalia Davis said. “I remember I was watching him in high school, and he’s still out there doing it at his age. It’s incredible. I feel like we were doing a lot of stuff to make it easy on him, so we just got to execute better.”
This marked just the fifth time in the past 48 seasons that San Francisco allowed six touchdown drives to an opposing offense in a home game.
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