49ers 20, Eagles 25: Grades
SANTA CLARA -- The 49ers lost a game they should have won Sunday Night. Lost 25-20 to the awful Philadelphia Eagles. Here are the 49ers grades:
MULLENS: D-MINUS.
Played with no confidence, which is understandable, considering he’s a backup quarterback who was making only his 10th career start, plus he had no protection, no run game and no wide receivers. He had George Kittle and that’s it. And Mullens was facing a fantastic pass rush. So I don’t fault Mullens for seeming freaked at times -- we’ve seen Jimmy Garoppolo come down with the yips, too. But I do fault Mullens for his inaccuracy. On the second play of the game, he missed a wide-open touchdown pass to Kyle Juszczyk -- overthrew him by a cool five yards. So un-Mullens. And even some of his completions were inaccurate. And when it was clear the 49ers offense was overmatched, Mullens tried to do too much. Held the ball too long. Threw the ball downfield while taking hits. Tried to make plays when he should have checked down or taken sacks. And by trying so hard to win, he committed three turnovers and was a huge reason the 49ers lost to a bad team. Not only that, he may have lost his job as the No. 2 quarterback. I imagine he’ll bounce back, but I wonder if/when we’ll see him again.
BEATHARD: A.
Led two drives in the fourth quarter and played with confidence for the first time since 2017. He finally seems to have gotten over the beating he took as a rookie -- good sign. He also threw lots of accurate passes with a shockingly-low release point. Call him a submarine relief quarterback.
RUNNING BACKS: B.
Jerick McKinnon worked extremely hard just to average 3.8 yards per carry. He didn’t have many holes to run through, so he created most of his yards on his own. He’s a solid running back, but a major step down from Rahem Mostert.
WIDE RECEIVERS: C.
Deebo Samuel led all receivers with 35 measly receiving yards. He was a decoy most of the night. And rookie Brandon Aiyuk had trouble beating cornerback Darius Slay. But both Aiyuk and Samuel had long runs during the first half and didn’t get a chance to run in the second half. More on that below.
TIGHT ENDS: A-MINUS.
George Kittle had 15 catches for 183 yards and one touchdown. He was the 49ers offense. But I downgrade him because he dropped a gimme two-point conversion in the fourth quarter that would have cut the Eagles lead to three points and would have given the 49ers a chance to tie the game with a field-goal. Instead, they had to throw a Hail Mary as time expired.
OFFENSIVE LINE: F.
They couldn’t block, which is a problem for an offensive line. Trent Williams was bad -- he had a holding penalty in the first half, a false start on the first play of the final drive of the game, plus he gave up a sack. He looks extremely rusty. And right tackle Mike McGlinchey was even worse. He gave up a quarterback hit that resulted in an interception for the second time this season. He’s playing so poorly, the 49ers might have to bench him.
DEFENSIVE LINE: C-MINUS.
They were disruptive and consistently flushed Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz out of the pocket, which is the exact wrong thing to do against the Eagles, because their receivers stink and can’t get open. Allowing Wentz to scramble only gives the receivers more time to get open. When will the 49ers defensive line learn about containing mobile quarterbacks? Oh, when will they ever learn?
LINEBACKERS: B.
Kwon Alexander had nine tackles but also gave up a touchdown run to Wentz because he misplayed a zone read yet again. The 49ers are shockingly undisciplined for a top-tier defense.
SECONDARY: B-MINUS.
The 49ers lost their top-three cornerbacks -- Richard Sherman, Emmanuel Moseley and K’Waun Williams. And the backups performed admirably until Dontae Johnson pulled a Dontae Johnson and gave up a 42-yard touchdown pass to someone named Travis Fulgham. Hard to win with Dontae Johnson on the field.
SPECIAL TEAMS: C-MINUS.
Robbie Gould kicked one of the worst onside-kick attempts of all time. He drop-kicked the ball and it rolled slowly to the Eagles. It looked like he was passing a soccer ball to a goalie so he could warm up before a game and get a feel for the ball rolling on the ground. The hell was that?
COACHES: D-MINUS.
It’s easy and convenient to put all the blame on the backup quarterback for the loss, but the coaches deserve just as much blame. Robert Saleh still can’t get his defense to contain mobile quarterbacks, and Kyle Shanahan’s running game has been a huge disappointment all season -- he can’t get it going. Which is weird, because his running game was unstoppable last season. The only run plays that worked consistently were end arounds, reverses and jet sweeps, and Shanahan called none of them in the second half. None. Which is exactly what he did in the Super Bowl. Someone should tell him there’s no rule against calling those plays after halftime. And then in the fourth quarter, he called an onside kick that lost the game for the 49ers. Because after their defense forced a punt, the offense took over at its 12-yard line. Had Shanahan called for a regular kickoff and put faith in his fantastic defense to force a three-and-out, the offense likely would have gotten the ball at midfield and the 49ers probably would have won despite Mullens’ bad game. The 49ers’ problems are bigger than Mullens. They’re still an excellent team, but now they’re 2-2 and everyone on it needs to take a long look in the mirror.
