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    • 49ers’ lack of knockout performance haunts them again against Seahawks: ‘It’s not like us’
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    49ers’ lack of knockout performance haunts them again against Seahawks: ‘It’s not like us’

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    SANTA CLARA, Calif. – A San Francisco 49ers team that routinely posted big wins in 2023 can’t seem to pull away from anyone this season.

    They don’t have a knockout punch.

    In Week 8, they had a 27-10 lead entering the fourth quarter, but were left to hang on for dear life as the Dallas Cowboys staged a furious comeback. Last week, they were in control in the third quarter until a botched punt return brought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers back into the game, requiring a last-minute 49ers drive for the win.

    And on Sunday, the 49ers once again appeared to be on their way to victory after the defense stopped the Seattle Seahawks on fourth-and-1 with 3:56 remaining. Fred Warner, Dee Winters, Ji’Ayir Brown and the rest of the players ran off the field, beating their chests and pumping their fists. After all, the 49ers were up by four points and needed only two or three first downs to salt away a valuable division victory.

    Instead, the 49ers punted from Seattle’s 42-yard line — a touchback — and then watched Geno Smith and company drive 80 yards in 2:26 to give Seattle a 20-17 win. The loss drops the 49ers to 5-5 and puts them in a three-way tie for the Arizona Cardinals (6-4) in the NFC West. As it stands, they trail the Washington Commanders, Los Angeles Rams and Seahawks in the race for the NFC’s final wild card spot.

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    Although Smith converted two third downs and scrambled 29 yards on the game-winning drive, Kyle Shanahan seemed more disappointed that his offense couldn’t put the game away when there was a chance.

    Christian McCaffrey gained 11 yards on the play following San Francisco’s fourth down stop. But the next time he got the ball, he lost a yard. Brock Purdy sailed an incomplete pass to Deebo Samuel Sr. on second and then threw to Jauan Jennings, well behind the sticks on third.

    “I thought we had a chance to put them away,” Shanahan said, something he repeated all season. “We let them hang out. You let people hang around, that’s what happens.”

    The loss came as several Pro Bowlers watched from the sidelines or played with injuries.

    George Kittle, the team’s leader in touchdowns and receiving yards, missed the game with a hamstring injury and his replacement, Eric Saubert, was added to the injury report due to illness shortly before kickoff. The 49ers responded by sometimes using offensive tackle Jaylon Moore as an extra tight end. And while the team gained a whopping 131 rushing yards – 40 of which came from Purdy – it lacked pop in both the running and passing games.

    Left tackle Trent Williams said he nearly sat out the game with a bone bruise in his left ankle area. He was given a painkilling injection before kickoff that helped, but he said he didn’t have the usual skills to execute plays or defend the bull rush.

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    On defense, meanwhile, the 49ers played the final quarter and a half without Nick Bosa, who came off the field one play-off after sacking Smith in the third quarter. Bosa, who was dealing with a hip/oblique injury on one side of his body last week in Tampa, said he overcompensated and ended up having the same problem on the other side. He said he was worried about missing his first full game since the 2022 season — a loss to the Atlanta Falcons — and noted how frustrating it was to watch Seattle’s final drive from the sidelines.

    “Cheeky. Brutal,” Bosa said. “It’s the most important time of the game for me to be there, but I couldn’t be there.”

    Although McCaffrey got his usual number of shots for the second week in a row, he suggested he is not yet back to full form after his months-long battle with Achilles tendonitis.

    “It’s not an excuse,” said McCaffrey, who had 106 combined yards but no touchdowns. “I know I can be much better. I can feel it.”

    The 49ers won their earlier game with Seattle despite a costly special teams mistake, a 97-yard kickoff by the Seahawks that put them back in the game. The 49ers didn’t have any of their usual special teams problems on Sunday, but they also didn’t have any explosive plays on offense.

    In Week 6, they had a pair of gains of 76 yards and two others of more than 25 yards. On Sunday, their longest play was a 22-yard pass to Jennings, who caught 10 of 11 targets for 91 yards.

    After ten games, it is now clear that the 49ers are missing something, something beyond the personnel missing from several games.

    Last year they went through a midseason slump where, especially in the Week 8 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, it felt like they were running in knee-deep sand.

    But they broke out of their brief funk during the latter part of the season. This year’s team has yet to fully come to life, at least to the level of last year’s club. The only game where the 49ers looked like the most dominant team in the NFC was their win over the Cowboys, and it only lasted a quarter.

    Last year’s team lost just one division game, the meaningless season finale to the Rams, and wrapped up the NFC West in mid-December. This year’s team has already lost to each of its division foes and has done so in a frustratingly similar way: by blowing a fourth-quarter lead.

    “It’s infuriating, honestly,” Warner said. “It’s not like us. But that’s exactly what we showed this year. So I guess until we stop doing that, that’s who we are.

    (Photo by Geno Smith: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)

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