The 49ers fell behind early and couldn’t close the gap against the Packers Sunday in Green Bay, losing 38-10.
Brandon Allen, starting in place of the injured Brock Purdy, was 17-of-29 for 199 yards, but he turned the ball over twice (one lost fumble, one interception). Christian McCaffrey also lost a fumble in the fourth quarter; he led the 49ers with 31 yards rushing on 11 carries while George Kittle paced the passing game with 82 yards and the 49ers’ lone touchdown.
The rush defense struggled to stop Josh Jacobs, who rushed for 106 yards on 26 carries. He scored three touchdowns, all from a yard out. Jordan Love only attempted 23 passes, completing 13 for 163 yards and two touchdowns.
Here’s what the 49ers said after the loss, which dropped them to 5-6 on the season:
On the game:
Just them being able to control the clock in the first half was one of the worst ones I’ve been a part of, just as far as a half. I thought we stepped it up there in the second half, did better especially in the run game, offense got an opportunity to get going. They gave us an opportunity to get back in the game and then to have those three turnovers and all three led to touchdowns, 21 points. You top that with the penalties and stuff, that’s how you get embarrassed like that.
On the back-to-back substitution penalties:
It was a strategic play by them, but one that I don’t feel should have been allowed. They didn’t give us time to sub on that and that’s why I was upset.
On Allen’s interception:
That seemed like a hell of a throw. They had some soft zone and he threaded it in there between their two backers and it looked like it went off Deebo’s hands.
On penalties:
I thought that killed us on the opening drives. I’ll see on those special teams ones. You know, a couple I looked up on the scoreboard and see on the plane how much we agree on them or not, but we got to be much better on the penalties obviously.
On missing players slimming their margin for error:
I’m not really concerned right now by how many guys we missed today. We didn’t play good enough, so that’s not a factor. But when you are missing some guys, you do have to be better. And when you have those penalties when we didn’t stop the run like we did, and then having those three turnovers in the second half, that’s how you get embarrassed.
On Allen’s play:
We all got embarrassed, so nobody really played great, but Brandon, I thought he did some good things. I thought he made some big throws, just plays I can think of. You know, he had a rough one in the beginning that he threw to them, then dropped two plays. He just slipped on that field.
On why he started Allen despite broken finger:
Because he’s not hurt. … He’s fine, just hurt his finger like three weeks ago.
On Trent Williams missing the game with an ankle injury:
It was close. We took it all the way up to today, but he was hurting yesterday a little worse than last week at this time, which made us nervous, and didn’t wake up good today.
On the tough first half:
I think it took me a minute to get back into it, so we started slow, just didn’t help, didn’t help our defense at all. Started to build some momentum there at the end of the half, going into the second half, had some drives go and I think. it was just penalties and turnovers really killed us all day.
On the interception off Deebo Samuel’s hands:
Obviously a tough catch. If he was going to catch it it’d be a real tough catch but I got a lot of trust in Deebo. I’d probably throw it again, but definitely a tough, contested catch, tough throw.
On how Purdy helped from the sideline:
He was great, you know. Asked how I was seeing it, what he was seeing, some of the the rotation stuff they had going on and how he was seeing it and ideas where to get the ball.
On whether the game is testing his optimism:
Why would it? I mean, we’re not where we want to be by any means. What we did we lose by, 28? Oh, horrible. We don’t want to do that by any means … What are your goals to victory? Hold onto the ball, run the ball a ton, don’t turn the ball over, and I don’t thin we did any of those three things tonight. … My optimism is not broken by any means. We still have a lot of very talented players. We will get some guys back and I still have full trust incoaches have to put our guys in position to make plays, and I got no worry about that. But definitely an uphill grind, and I guess (we’ll see) what we’re made of, which I’m looking forward to.
On whether he listens to Bob Dylan after games:
There’s times for Bob Dylan. Yes, definitely a time for Bob Dylan.
On how Brandon Allen plays:
He’s giving everybody opportunities. He’s going to force you the ball and he’s just going to give you a shot, like the seam ball, he threw me a back shoulder. That’s not something that we hardly ever practice, those back shoulder stuff like that. When he sees you with a one-on-one, he’s just going to give you an opportunity. I really respect that from him.
On missed tackles:
That’s just poor technique, poor execution across the board. We knew the challenge that their running backs gave us going into the game and we just didn’t execute.
On the dual substitution penalties:
That’s unacceptable, that’s across the board. There’s nobody to point a finger at on that particular situation. It’s all of us not being on the same page. We got to be better.
On the first half:
That’s about as bad as it can get, probably the worst I’ve been a part of and you know, even then it was still 17-7 after the first half. Ten-point game, still had everything in front of us. We just didn’t make the plays we needed to.
On the loss:
It’s probably one of the worst ones I’ve been a part of, you know. It is embarrassing. You got to take it on the chin, take it like a man and move on.
